Come on. I can find a slice of pizza to eat. It can’t be that hard.
Peyton munched down and let out a sharp laugh. “Tastes like food!” He waved to the teenager who looked up, rolling his eyes. An actual flavor... He swallowed, biting off another large bite. As he got to the last bite, his stomach rumbled, and he felt a gurgle in his throat.
“Truth in advertising. Respect.” He pressed on his belly with his hand and grabbed the key, getting up to head to the bathroom. The waitress looked up and smiled at him.
“Finding good pizza is more of a secret skill than I realized.”
“Tell me about it. I bring my dinner with me. Hot Pocket.” She leaned against the counter and tilted her head, watching Peyton make a beeline past the vending machine.
Chapter Seventeen
Shay pushed the glass door, stepping into A.J.’s Kitchen. Greg Abbot had sent a text requesting a meeting, and this place was far enough away from any critical locations and still served decent food. That mattered to Shay.
She spotted Greg in a corner booth and walked over to him, taking quick looks from left to right looking for immediate threats. It was L.A., so of course there were a few people who looked shady, but no one who looked like professional trouble.
Shay slid into a seat across from Greg. “Hey, did I keep you waiting.”
“Good afternoon, Shay. No, I got here early. Gives me the lay of the land. Nervous habit. Appreciate you coming so quickly at the last minute.”
Shay grinned, placing her hands on the table. “The promise of money can get me moving pretty damned quickly.”
“There’s a potential client for you. He’s big money. A million is on the table for delivery.”
“That sounds very good to me.”
“You’ll have to really want this one.”
Shay drummed her pale pink fingernails on the white Formica top. “As opposed to what? I’m a tomb raider. I take jobs. Why would I have to want it? I take jobs to find shit. I find the shit. I get paid. Pretty simple. I like simple.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not an LA actor. I’m not finding lost objects, so I can write a book about it.”
“You don’t understand.” Greg leaned across the table. “There are some complications that make this a lot more difficult than the Dutchman gold.”
“Complications? Worse than gold being stuck in the middle of cartel country?”
The older man nodded. “Those criminals didn’t know about the gold. There are some rough characters interested in the same job. They’re working for a rival client and they are closing in. If you take the job, you’re going to have to deal with them. It’s not a question of if...”
Shay tapped her foot under the table, doing her best to contain the sliver of anger. “It’s nice that you care but I can take care of myself. You’re not going to bring me jobs with caveats all the time, are you? That’ll get old. No, wait… got old.”
Greg glanced up at the waitress as she put down two glasses of water. He took a sip and chewed on a piece of ice.
Shay did a short count. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. People skills when you wanted someone to live still weren’t her strong suit. She took a deep breath and let it out, narrowing her eyes. “I’ll start again. No one becomes a tomb raider if danger bothers them. I’ve already almost died a few different ways.”
She smiled and waited for him to say something. He doesn’t know your resume. Let it go.
“You’re sure?” Greg said, uncertainty lingering on his face.
The waitress stopped at the table to take their orders. Shay ordered jalapeno cheese grits, and Greg ordered a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich. “Hold the tomato, and can you put mayo on one side?”
“You have to be from the South.”
“Hard to hide sometimes,” said Greg, smiling more easily. “What about you? Cheese grits…”
“Picked it up on a trip. I’ve lived all over, never for very long.”
“Holler if you need anything else.” The waitress stepped back, her pad resting on her hip as she turned and went to the next table clearing dishes.
“I want the job. More importantly I want the million dollars,” Shay said in a low voice. “The job’s kind of a requirement for that.”
Greg took a deep breath and reached into his pants pocket. He pulled out a small piece of paper and slid it across the table to Shay.
“That’s the client’s contact info. Since you’re going to take the job, I’ll try and do what I can on my end to encourage him to hire you.”
“Thanks, Greg. This one’s on me. After all, I’m about to get a lot richer.”
“That’s not a lot of details so far,” Peyton said over the phone.
Shay glanced in her side and rearview mirrors to make sure she wasn’t being followed before purposefully taking a wrong turn. Going back to the warehouse from a meeting required extra security protocols.
“The million dollars is the detail I care about.”
“Even though Abbot is trying to warn you off?”
“He led me to it. I’ll go in prepared. That tends to make things less dangerous. I’m not worried about that kind of danger.”
Shay narrowed her eyes as she passed a pizza place she didn’t recognize.
How the hell did I miss that? Or are they just new?
“Okay, what’s the play now?” Peyton asked.
“I’ve got the client’s contact information, but I want you to set up a way to contact him online and exchange information that can’t be traced back to me.”
Peyton whistled. “A guy’s going to throw a million dollars around, but doesn’t care about meeting you? I don’t think even my dad’s that kind of rich.”
“Greg’s got enough clout that he can vouch for me, but run it through an online alias. Make sure there’s a secure distance from me and tie it to my new tomb raider rep.”
“How about Pizza Girl?”
“As an alias?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you shitting
