Page 67 of Finding Elodie
“I appreciate that. You’re gonna like her. I have no doubt,” Mustang said confidently. “She’s damn likable. But just remember that I found her first.”
Everyone laughed.
“So…look into the Columbus family, see if I can find anything we can use against them if they do decide to show their faces here in paradise. Check. I can do that,” Pid said.
“You gonna lock her down?” Midas asked.
Mustang shook his head. “No. I trust her instincts. They’ve kept her safe this far. She’s agreed to let me take her to work and pick her up and not to use public transportation. She doesn’t have email, a phone, a bank account or a car, so there’s no worry they’ll run her off the road or anything.”
“But will they run you off the road if she’s with you?” Slate asked.
“I guess maybe we’ll find out,” Mustang said, almost wishing they’d try. If he had the chance to have a one-on-one encounter with someone from the Columbus family who might be sent to kill Elodie, he’d make sure they knew she wasn’t alone anymore and was well protected. He’d make it clear she was off limits, and it would be in their best interest to forget they knew her.
“So she’s staying with you, then?” Aleck asked.
Mustang didn’t hear any censure in his tone, and he answered honestly. “That’s unclear as of yet. But hopefully, yes.”
“The great and mighty Mustang hasn’t gotten her to agree to move in with him after,” Jag exaggeratingly checked his watch, “forty-eight hours of meeting up with her again?”
“Shut up,” Mustang said, throwing his pen across the table at his friend.
“It would make things easier,” Slate said—and everyone turned to stare at him incredulously.
“Weren’t you the one who was questioning his immediate attraction to the woman?” Pid asked.
“Yeah. And he explained it. So now I’m onboard,” Slate said matter-of-factly.
Mustang couldn’t help but grin. These guys could be a pain in the ass, but they were loyal as hell, just as he was to them. They’d been through too much to be petty or assholes toward each other. They might disagree or play devil’s advocate, as they were trained to do, but when push came to shove, they’d always have each other’s backs.
“So we’re playing this low-key and waiting to see if anything comes up?” Midas asked. “Should we be more proactive?”
“If we clue in the family that we’re looking into them, it might tip them off about where she is,” Pid said.
“But if we don’t find enough information, they could sneak up on our six and ambush her,” Slate said.
“So the question is, do we dig far enough that it might tip them off, or lay low, stay on our guard, and react if and when we need to?” Aleck added.
The room was silent for a moment as the men mulled over the decisions that had to be made.
“I think we see what Pid can come up with discreetly, and go from there. The last thing we want is to bring the wrath of the mob down on our heads,” Mustang said. “Besides, our hands are somewhat tied in this anyway. Paul Columbus isn’t going to be dumb enough to come here himself, and even if he did, we can’t get away with murder.”
“Exactly,” Midas said, then lowered his voice. “But we know people who know people. We might not be able to act, but we know others who can. Including someone who lives here on the island.”
Mustang nodded. He didn’t want to call in favors, but he would for Elodie. She deserved to live a life free of fear. To be who she wanted to be and do what she wanted to do. If that was being a deckhand, fine, but if that meant opening up her own restaurant, with her name splashed across the front and all over the Internet, he’d do whatever it took to give that to her.
“I’ll start seeing what I can find tonight,” Pid said. “In the meantime…when do we get to hang out with you guys?”
Mustang smiled, grateful that the team wanted to get to know Elodie. But at the same time, he was feeling a little selfish. He wanted her to himself for a while.
“Maybe she can come work out with us one morning,” Aleck suggested.
Mustang burst out laughing and shook his head. “Nope, she already informed me that she wasn’t the working-out kind of woman.”
“She could watch us?” Aleck tried again.
“She already gets up early for her job, and when she has the chance to sleep in, she takes it,” Mustang told him.
“She’s a cook, right? Maybe we can have a cookout and she could make the food,” Pid suggested.
