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In the morning, I thought Seb was still asleep when I picked my phone up off the floor and sent him a text.

STFUATTDLAGG

His phone buzzed on the table. He rolled toward it, read my message with one eye open and smiled. A moment later, my phone lit up.

Noted.

Chapter 23

❧

— Glitch —

Moff asked me to help sort out the boathouse’s comms cabinet. I had the afternoon free, so I went. Nobody asked me to leave when Robin put the offer on the screen. I was on the floor with the cabinet open, close enough to read it.

Three waterfront sites. Camera coverage, mobile response and escorts for visiting staff, starting in spring. The money was good. Robin had read the figure twice before he called the others over.

“They want a weekly meeting too,” Nick said, scrolling down. “And a named contact for every site.”

“That’s me,” Robin said. “But if I spend my week taking calls, who’s going out with you?”

“Don’t look at me,” Dion said. “I can charm them through the first lunch. By the third they’ll want a report about a report, and I’ll tell them where to stick it.”

Simon studied the proposed hours. “Two people on mobile response. Every night.”

“And live monitoring,” Moff said. He turned the screen toward Robin. “If I’m out setting up their cameras, who’s watching the feeds here?”

Nobody answered.

“Wednesday nights already take three of us,” Moff went on. “Simon drives Wren, Dion’s at The Hot House and I watch the cameras. We have other clients to cover. This would stretch us too thin.”

“I’m not pulling anyone off Wren,” Robin said.

“It’s not only Wren,” Moff said. “Take her out of the schedule and I still can’t cover three new sites with just us.”

Nick looked at the figure on the screen. “We could hire.”

“Good people don’t appear because we sign a contract,” Moff said. “I’d have to train them while I’m running the work.”

I tightened the last connection in the cabinet and stayed where I was. Moff was right. They could take the contract, or they could keep giving the work they already did the attention it needed. With five men, they couldn’t do both.

“We can turn it down,” Dion said. “We’ve got enough work.”

Robin leaned against the bench. I could tell he wasn’t ready to give up the offer, but he didn’t tell anyone to find a way to make it fit. “I’ll tell them we’re thinking about it. If the numbers still don’t work, we say no.”

They moved on and I finished the cabinet without saying anything.

I went back to the house I was buying and ran cable through the garage. I still slept at the cottage, but I was getting a good start on the ops room. As I worked, I kept coming back to the same problem: five men, too many shifts and cameras that couldn’t go unwatched.

By the time I clipped the last cable into place, I was thinking about a different approach. Venom Riders MC, Kettlewell Cold Bay chapter. Venom could help staff the new contract and take on the client calls Robin didn’t want. Dutch would get the northern presence he’d been after. I’d keep my cut.

That evening at the cottage, Wren sat on the end of the bed while I told her about the offer and the proposal I had in mind.

She didn’t say anything for a while. “Whose idea will they think it is?”

“Mine. I’ll hold my hand up to it.”

“Good.” She pulled her knees up. “Say the selfish part first. Robin will be annoyed if you bury it.”