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I tell Cheryl to inform me as soon as Manny arrives, but over half an hour passes and he doesn’t show up. I call Manny but he doesn’t pick up. Amy and Bridget arrive later and still no Manny. Cheryl calls Ishikawa West to let them we’re running late, but I don’t want to be too late because the Michelin-star restaurant books out a month in advance.
“You look good,” I say to Bridget, who’s dressed in a black cold-shoulder top, belt, and long suede skirt that hangs past fairly stylish boots with low heels.
She smiles back at me. “Told you I can dress myself.”
“What are we celebrating again?” Amy asks.
“Remember that grant application I was working on in Phuket? It was for two refrigerated vans so we can start our food recycling program. The foundation gave us a grant of a hundred thousand dollars. Now we’re only twenty thousand dollars short.”
“That’s awesome! Congrats!”
Cheryl comes over then to let me know that Manny just arrived.
“Shit, I can’t meet with him now,” I tell her. “We’re late enough as it is.” Seeing Manny, I walk over to him. “I thought you were going to be here an hour ago.”
“Sorry, I got tied up,” he replies. Spotting JD behind me, his face darkens.
“We can try tomorrow,” I say.
Manny steps aside so the four of us can head out to where JD’s driver is waiting with the car. A breeze picks up as we step outside. Bridget shivers.
“Want my jacket?” I ask, taking it off before she even answers.
“I keep forgetting that San Francisco can be much colder than Berkeley,” Amy says.
JD wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her close. “I’ll keep you warm, baby.”
She giggles.
As I put my jacket around Bridget, I notice a car drive up slowly. One of the tinted windows in the backseat rolls down.
I see the barrel of what looks like a semiautomatic handgun.
Shots are fired. Grabbing Bridget, I throw her to the ground and land on top of her. More shots are fired, but these are directed at the car and likely coming from my security guards. The car peals away with screeching tires.
It takes a few seconds for the searing heat in my body to register, but all I can think of is whether or not Bridget has been hit.
