Page 42 of Too Old for Love

A bell sounded. Thomas rose slowly.

“Call Everest from a public place, a public phone if you can find one. Tell her you found a flaw in the software she once warned you about or that you need her help with something. No names. No patient data.”

Outside, rain swept across the parking lot in silver sheets. Alice reached her car and stopped wanting to turn around and go back in, begging for more guidance, more information. She’d known what kind of family she was marrying into, she just didn’t know that within a few short years she would be the only one outside of bars.

At seven, Alice called Everest from a grocery-store pay phone in a neighborhood where nobody knew her. No one answered, probably because it was coming up ‘unknown caller’. Instead, she began the long drive back home.

Thirty minutes later, her phone rang and it was Everest.

“Hello?” said the voice.

“Alice. It’s Everest.”

“Everest! I’ve been wanting to call you. So much has happened here you’re not going to believe it.”

“Oh, really?” said Everest. “I mean, I’d love to catch up but we both know it doesn’t matter for me any longer.”

“Are you okay? Do you need anything?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” she said calmly. “I’ve got enough to be okay for a while.”

“Well, maybe you’d be interested in doing some off-the-books work for us.”

“Off-the-books? I don’t know. What about Samantha and Abigail?”

“They don’t matter anymore. I’ll explain later but for now, no one is really in charge.”

“Wow. No one in charge? That’s crazy,” said Everest. “You guys must be frantic over there.”

“Oh, we are, we are. It’s why I need you to do some work off the books. There’s no one like you.”

“I’m happy to talk to you more. When can we meet?” she asked.

“I’m, uh, I’m out of town right now. Visiting family. I’ll be back in a few days and I’ll call you.”

“Sounds great. I’ll talk to you then.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“You’re really going to marry me, right?” smirked Mike.

“Definitely,” smiled Everest. “Your friends are wonderful and their wives are very convincing women. Beautiful, talented, intelligent, and amazingly influential.” She laughed, shaking her head.

“I’ll have to send them all flowers at some point,” smirked Mike as they entered the cafeteria.

Dinner was always a full-scale event at Belle Fleur. Hell, any meal was a full-scale event. It seemed flowers were always placed around the massive space, fresh and in season. Table cloths were clean and crisp. And the food was on a rotation of fabulousness that no one could replicate.

Tonight, the menu contained all the fan favorites. Oysters Rockefeller, shrimp po’boys, gumbo, whiskey bread pudding, four different salad varieties and the most amazing bread ever created.

“How are we eating oysters when they’re not in season?” frowned Everest.

“They’re always in season at Belle Fleur,” smiled Luke sitting across from the couple with his wife, Ajei. “Mike, I know we’ve been doing a lot the last few days but I wanted to talk to you further about what we offered.”

“Okay,” he nodded. “I’m listening.”

“Mike, we’re as big as most small towns in America. With the rerouted, covert road entry, the end of the road is blocked for most people but there are locals that live there. If there were a real fire, no one would know how to get to them.

“They know to come to us for medical emergencies but that’s not enough. We need to offer full service first responders. Fire, police, and EMS services. We’ve got the police situation covered.”