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“Okay, then Ryker tells me he is a good attorney.” She paused to smile at him as he acted as though he was wounded by her wording of his prowess. “He might be able to help fix this.”
“Possibly,” said Ryker. “If something illegal happens in the business, we can stop it legally.”
“But I have to be with my parents. I don’t even care about the rest of this.”
Jac sat next to Becky. “Rebecca, listen to this action plan and see if it won’t work. Right now, we get notifications if anyone is coming onto or leaving the property at your parents’ house.”
“Your dad gave us permission, I promise,” added Sharlee. Becky nodded.
Jac continued. “And then, we have Nick Sharp tagged into the feed, so if we need assistance or miss something, they will see it and respond. Until we get our ducks in a row, we’ll do what we need to. But it will likely involve you.”
“No problem.”
Carter ran his hand through his hair. “With lots of back-up.”
“Of course. I’m not putting my best personal assistant in jeopardy.”
“I’m the only one you’ve ever had.”
“There is that. See, the best.” He smiled, and Becky groaned.
“Okay, keeping Becky and Carter here for now. The rest, go home. Bring me your ideas on going forward tomorrow at nine a.m.”
THE FOLLOWING DAY THEREwas energy around the conference table. Jac and Sharlee had yet to arrive, but Garrett wanted to get things going.
“Listen up. I know we are fewer today, but Levi will be back tomorrow, and Mark can join us because Jessie is officially off of complete bedrest and is on modified bedrest for another week.” Garrett turned to Mark and slapped him on the back. “Great news, man. Give her our best. Won’t be long now.” Mark smiled, then groaned.
“Now, Becky has agreed to go in with escort and protection, and while he is doing it under protest, Carter isn’t going to put up a fuss. Now, we can’t go in there, guns blazing, so I think if Callie goes in with those two, we will get a better outcome.Callie can go anywhere Becky can. She can also seem like just a girlfriend and therefore not a threat.”
“My superpower.” Callie laughed.
Jac walked in. “It helps when we have a female operative in the field. It isn’t anything we have ever had before. We have Charlotte, but she is not allowed in the field.” He gave his wife a telling look.
“But she’s kickass on the web,” said Kaden.
“That she is.” He paused. “We were late because we went to Ramirez and got his video. We watched it once with him, and he didn’t know who the server was, so he gave us a list of the people yesterday, highlighting the temps for the day.”
Sharlee nodded. “It’s not him, but it might be someone that he has done some business with or something. They could have accessed the party through an invitation. It’s a perfect blend-in. We’ve done it a few times ourselves. He won’t give his sources or clients, but he will look at our key list of suspects to see if any of them are his people.”
“Well, if that’s the best we can do, then we’ll take it. Once I know if anyone is on there, I’ll know how to get the ground plan lined out. Carter, you’ll give me a hand. We can do it over the secure IP.”
“Sounds good,” agreed Carter.
“Wait, what am I going to do?” Becky seemed out of sorts. She usually had plenty to do, but since it was her problem, she was out of the loop.
Callie spoke up. “You need to sound your parents out about having a couple of guests.”
“Okay, I can do that, but do we have an idea when?”
“This week,” said Callie. “As soon as tomorrow.”
ARRIVING IN THE EVENINGin Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was fascinating. It was a town of about 30,000 people, about a tenth of Lexington, and seemed so rural next to home. The lights gave off a small-town glow in a central area and then there were neighborhoods out around the center. Most people remember her town from the Manhattan Project. Becky had loved growing up there, but she loved her home in Kentucky, too.
Her mom had always hoped to do more than live in a small town like Oak Ridge. She’d tried to live vicariously through Becky in Chicago until Becky decided she didn’t want fame and fortune or even a high-paying, stiffly professional job. She loved what she did and the people she did it with. And the pay was better than she had a hope of making in Chicago. Isn’t that what life was all about? Trish didn’t let her family into her life very often so Candace did the best she could in Tennessee.
Becky’s mother fussed over the girls and left Carter to her husband. She still hadn’t bought the whole security job being a viable career to support a wife and children on. She was convinced, despite Becky telling her otherwise, that her daughter was supporting the couple. James thought something wasn’t quite right, but he was beginning to stay fuzzy longer during the day and didn’t dwell on any one subject long.
The following day, after breakfast, Becky was encouraged to go down memory lane with her parents, discussing the early days of the animal supply business. They moved on to the warehouse, her Uncle Karl, and more. Callie played Becky’s friend really well because, well, they were friends.
