Page 9 of In Her Own Way
“He is to stay in his cubicle here and isnotto wander around,” Erin said to Kimo.
“I’m just grateful for the chance to work out,” Kimo said to Erin. “You like working out, Vic?”
Instead of answering, she asked a question of her own. “You’re not sleeping in here, are you?” While they’d been talking, she took recon of the space and noticed something odd about the way the boxes were stacked. Five single boxes were pressedagainst the back end of the unit and could have doubled as a sleeping platform. She bet there was a sleeping bag or something like it inside one of the boxes.
“Nah,” Kimo said. “Too cold. I got my buddy’s couch for a while. And then another buddy once I wear out my welcome there.”
“I can relate,” Victoria said, letting go of her concern. For now.
“All right,” Erin said and smacked Victoria in the chest. “Come meet Robby.”
“Whoa, I finally get to meet the S.O. in real life?” Victoria smacked Erin in the chest. A smack for a smack, right?
“What does S.O. mean?” Kimo called after them as they were walking away.
“Significant other,” Victoria and Erin said at the same time and then burst out laughing.
“Damn,” Kimo muttered. He raised his voice, “I was going to ask you out, Erin.”
Erin didn’t turn. She simply raised one arm over her head and waved. “He’s harmless,” Erin said.
You hope, Victoria thought. She’d seen enough red flags in her lifetime to spot one when she saw it. And she’d seen a couple already. She would be keeping an eye on this Kimo. A close eye.
They turned the corner to the side exit, and a guy stood on the other side of the gate. He was pale white, over six feet tall, and bald. Tattoos were visible above his button-down shirt, beneath his bomber jacket. She wasn’t into racial profiling, but he checked several skinhead boxes, and she wasn’t playing. Instinctively, Victoria reached for her taser, the only weapon besides pepper spray that she had.
“Stand down, soldier,” Erin said with a laugh. “That’s Robby.”
“Oh, shit,” Victoria muttered and let her security jacket fall back over the taser. “Tall,” was the only thing she could think of to say.
“Is this the infamous cousin you’ve been going on about, Erin?” Robby said. His smile lit up and softened his expression. Victoria relaxed her shoulders a notch.
“Yes,” Erin said and unlocked the gate. She walked out and gave Robby a kiss. “This is Vic, my only first cousin.”
“How you doin’, man?” Robby gave her a backhanded smack to the chest. And it wasn’t soft.
“Hanging in there,” Victoria said. She’d keep her jury out on what she thought of him for now, but she would be keeping her eye on this guy, too. For Erin’s sake.
“Nice to finally meet a sane member of Erin’s family,” Robby said. “Good to know she got a good ‘un in her corner.”
Victoria smiled. He had clearly been referring to Donny and Eddie as the not-so-sane members of Erin’s family. Yeah, she kind of had them in that category, too. They were the idiots who got her sent to the Army, but she still hadn’t snitched on them. Ever. Not even to Erin. And since the charges against her had been dropped, all was good.
“Take care of her,” Victoria said.
“Possessive,” Robby said and smacked her in the chest again. Erin simply hung on his arm, beaming at their interaction. “I like it.” To Erin, he said, “Keep this one.”
“We pretty much sealed that deal growing up in our crazy Addison families, didn’t we, Vic?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Victoria said. “I should check on our stowaway.”
“Yeah, we gotta go,” Erin said. “Someone’s taking me out to Ronaldo’s tonight and then home for some bonding time.”
“Have fun.” Victoria locked the gate after them. “I’ll try not to wake you when I get home later.”
Erin didn’t turn around but simply raised one arm over her head and waved.
Victoria stopped by the security office to check the cameras again. None of them showed any open doors, which was good, but she also didn’t see Kimo’s unit on any of the cameras. She took a minute to study the paper map of camera placements. There it was. Camera twelve was out. What the hell?
“Another flag on the play,” Victoria said out loud. She hustled out of the office to check on Kimo and the camera. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that camera twelve’s wire wasn’t connected. She didn’t fix it while Kimo was there or even let him know that she’d noticed it, preferring not to tip her hand. She would continue to investigate all the red flags that Erin hadn’t seemed to notice.
