She takes it away from me gently and puts it back on the shelf. “Easy, Bo Peep, I was just kidding. Kind of.” She shuts the door and makes sure the lock is engaged. “I’ll let you play in there later. Now we have to go before all the bad guys wake up.”

She leaves me standing at the locker. “Bad guys?”

She’s climbing up into Thibault’s SUV, expecting me to go around to the passenger side. The motor is already running.

“Shouldn’t we bring a camera or something?”

“Nope.” She answers me through her open window. “This is just eyes-on recon, nothing more.”

I hold onto the handle above the door to get inside. The SUV is higher off the ground than it looks. “Eyes-on recon. Eyes-on recon.” I’m repeating the expression so I can use it later in conversation. I’m starting to hate the fact that I stick out like a stupid Bo Peep in this group. Seeing all that camera and video equipment makes me want to give this thing a serious whirl.

“Buckle up,” she says, adjusting the rearview mirror.

I just get the belt clicked into place when she throws the car into reverse and tears out of the warehouse. Grabbing the handle is the only thing that keeps me from falling into her lap.

“Holy crap, where’s the fire?”

The tires screech a little as she swings the car around to go forward. “No fire. I just don’t see the need to drive like a grandma.”

I frown as I sink down into my seat. Great. I’m a grandma Bo Peep. How much farther out of my element can I get?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Turns out, pretty far. I can get really, really far out of my element, hanging out with Toni for half a day.

We started out in a seriously scary part of town I never want to go back to and ended up in something worse. What do you call a place where you see people actually dealing drugs in broad daylight? Hell?

This is the place, believe it or not, where I’m supposed to set up some surveillance—with Toni’s help—so we can try to gather some information from the scumbags who live here. Or deal their crack here or whatever it is they’re doing. Ha! Crazy town! All I know is I’ve seen way too many pants hanging down past way too many butts today. Don’t any of these guys own belts?

“So, what do you think?” Toni asks as we head back to the BSB lair, making her way through the Port, through the maze of commercial buildings and warehouses. “Doable?”

I shrug. “I suppose. I didn’t really see what you have for equipment, but in theory, sure.” Anyplace can be photographed, watched, spied on. Whether you can do it without getting killed is the question. I have my doubts about the locations we scouted today, but Ozzie guaranteed my safety, so I’m going to focus on that and not the handguns I saw in people’s waistbands.

“Wait ’til you see our van.” She’s grinning and squeezing the steering wheel. Two seconds later she jerks it to the right, and we take a corner way too fast. The tires complain. Again. She must go through a new set every couple months, the way she leaves rubber behind wherever she goes.

“What van?” I ask.

“Eyeballs on wheels. It’s where we monitor everything when we don’t have feet on the ground.”

“Feet on the ground?”

She pulls up to the warehouse door and grabs a small black remote that she taps a number into. “When we’re on foot and not in the van.” She sighs, like she’s tired of dealing with the lady on the short bus.

It’s very disheartening to know I’m such a disappointment. I’m pretty sure I failed my trial today with her. It should be telling that I gain a point electrocuting her friend and lose a point not being a crazy driver with a death wish. I should probably not hang out with her too much.

“Who does that work?” I ask, trying to keep the conversation going. “The being-on-foot stuff?” I don’t see anyone in the warehouse, and I’m afraid we’re going to be stuck with each other for another two hours. Gotta keep things flowing.

“Sometimes Thibault, sometimes me. Maybe you one day.”

“Me?” I can’t keep the panic from my voice.

“Not now. Not until you get some serious training.” She drives into the warehouse, shifts into park, and shuts the engine off. “Maybe after about six months you’ll be ready.” She opens her door and gets out.

“Six months?” I get out too, a little offended. “I’m not that out of shape.” I pinch my side just to be sure. There can’t be more than an extra inch there. Inch and a half maybe, if I’ve recently been on a Ben & Jerry’s splurge.

She’s walking up the stairs. “You won’t know how out of shape you are until you start working with Dev. Trust me. None of us did.”

I flex my bicep and smile with pride at the little lump that comes up to say hello. Toni has no idea what she’s talking about. I lift cameras all day long without complaining. I stand on my feet for hours at a time. Three months. That’s all it’ll take me to become a badass. Ka-chow, baby—look out!

A badass? Where did that idea come from? I don’t want to be a badass, do I? I let my arm fall back down to my side as I picture that man coming after me in his car and shooting at me again, and I nod. Yes. I want to be a badass. I want to be someone who won’t be afraid when she walks out the front door of her house, when she sees someone just drive by her house slowly, for God’s sake. I want to be the kind of badass that Ozzie finds attractive.

“Oh my god,” I say out loud to myself. “Seriously, May, you need to get laid.”

“What’s that?” says a voice off to my right.

I look to the left instead. Nope. I’m not even going to acknowledge this person who might have just heard me. This isn’t happening.

“Were you talking to me?” Ozzie comes out of the dark shadows and walks in my direction.

I jerk my head over to see him. “Who me? No, I didn’t say anything. Just reminding myself of some chores I have to do later.” Namely, talk to a therapist because I’m crazy.

“I thought I heard you say you need to get paid.”

I point at him in a hurry. “I did! I did say that. Wow, you have great hearing.” Thank you, God!

“I just need you to fill out a form with all your details, and then Lucky can get you on the payroll. Remember to keep all your receipts. He’ll show you the format for turning them in at the end of the month.”

I nod, using my very serious expression. Keeping this all business will erase all those sexy thoughts that continue to try to pop into my head when he’s around. My inner poet takes over:

Muscles, muscles, hard butts and pecs,

Why must I keep my libido in check?

Ack! Go away, sexy thoughts!

“How’d your first day go?” he asks.

This is good. Focus on work. “Good, I guess. Am I done?” I’ve only been here a total of three hours. I can’t imagine he considers that full-time.

“You just have one more thing to do, and then you can go.”

I hitch my purse up on my shoulder. “Great. What is it?”

“A workout.”

“A workout as in . . . like at the gym?”

Ozzie nods over at the equipment on the other side of the room. “Our gym, yeah.”

“Okay.” I rub my hands together and look around. “Where’s Dev? He’s my trainer, right?”

“Normally he would be, but today he’s recuperating from a Taser strike.”

“Oh.” Aaaand the guilt is back.

“So you get me as your trainer instead.”

Aaaaand the sexy is back.

He pulls off his sweatshirt to reveal a very tight sleeveless T-shirt underneath. It goes way too perfectly with his very revealing gym shorts.