“He quit, boss,” Ian says, “probably because you kept calling him Drake.”

“Shit. Is that not his name?”

Ian laughs. “His name is Charlie.”

“Well that sucks,” I chuckle.

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it. I think the guy was just trying to stay on long enough to pay for his next weed shipment.”

“His what?” I ask.

“Yeah, the dude deals the reefer,” Ian says. “I would have gotten some off of him, but he’s been clean out ever since he started working with us.”

“Not on the job,” I warn.

“I’m not stupid, boss,” Ian says.

“That’s debatable.”

“She’s coming in,” Linda says, approaching us, “but it’s going to be another half hour. I guess she got into traffic on the way back from her mom’s.”

“Do you know what happened?” Ian asks.

“That’s really none of our business,” I tell him.

“Yeah, I think this is something she’s going to want to keep to herself,” Linda says. I’m avoiding Ian’s gaze as the young woman smiles seductively at me.

“You fucking dog,” Ian says, laughing.

“Aren’t you supposed to be calling Alec?” I ask. “And while you’re at it, see if you can find José. I appreciate the dedication, but we’re not breaking into the store.”

“Uh, boss?”

“What?” I ask.

Ian taps my shoulder then points through the store window. José’s inside and he’s unlocking the door.

“You know we have an alarm system, right?” Linda asks.

“Shit.” The alarm, for whatever reason, hasn’t gone off yet, so I knock on the window, shouting, “Get out of there!”

José either can’t hear me or assumes that I mean he should get out of there through the front door, so he unlocks it. And that’s when the alarm starts blaring.

Chapter Five

Blind

Jessica

“How’s Mom doing?” Kristin, my sister, asks me as I sit smack in the middle of traffic on my way back to the city.

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “We talked for a while, but you know Mom. The most emotional she ever gets is the use of the word ‘sweetheart.’ If she’s scared, she’s not showing it. Me, on the other hand…”

“I’m with you,” Kristin says. “Do they know anything yet?”

“They’re doing some more tests,” I answer. “It looks like it’s going to be another day or two before they have the hard facts on exactly what’s going on with it.”

“That’s awful,” she says. “I would have been there last night, but I got caught up over at Jed’s house.”

Jed, my sister’s loser boyfriend, is her excuse for everything, but after spending the night crying while my cancer-patient mother had to calm me down, I really don’t have the patience for it. Fortunately for Kristin, my call waiting beeps at me.

“Hey, can I call you right back? I’m getting another call,” I tell Kristin.

“Sure thing,” she says. “Oh, when are you going to call that guy I told you about?”

“I’m getting another call, Kris, bye.”

I answer the other line.

“Hello?”

“Yes, Miss Davis?” a man’s voice speaks.

“Yes?”

“You’re the Miss Davis who owns the store, uh…”

This is part of the reason for the name. It makes so many men so uncomfortable.

“Lady Bits,” I say, “yes, I’m the owner.”

“This is Jacob from Panic Room Security. It looks like there’s an alarm going off in your store. The police are on their way, but I wanted to call and inform you of the situation. Are you in or near the store?” he asks.

“No,” I tell him. “I’m stuck in traffic. Do you know what’s going on?”

“It looks like someone opened the front door without shutting off the alarm and there’s been no attempt to enter your security code,” he says.

“Okay,” I breathe, “okay. What should I do?”

“Right now, I’d just encourage you to stay calm. The police are already on their way, and they’re going to get to the bottom of this, all right? Please call and let us know if you have any further questions.”

“All right,” I say. “Thank—”

The man’s already hung up the phone.

I’m stuck in traffic.

I call Linda.

“Jessica, there’s something I have to tell you, but I promise it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

“What?” I ask. “Did you break into the store?”

“What? No,” she says. “Well, I didn’t.”

“Who did?” I ask.

“One of the workers,” Linda says, “but he wasn’t trying to steal anything, he was just trying to let us in so we could open up and they could get to work.”

“And he thought that breaking in was going to be the smart way of going about that?” I ask. “I told you that I’m on my way. The store doesn’t open unless I’m in it. Who was it?”

“Jessica, just take a breath. Nothing’s broken, everything’s all right. The guy just—”

“You’re right,” I tell her. “It doesn’t really matter who it was. I’m going to have to have a little talk with Eric when I get there.”

“He had nothing to do with it,” Linda says. “In fact, when he found out what was going on, he tried to stop—”

“Are the police there yet?” I interrupt.

“No,” she says.

I pull onto the shoulder and put the gas pedal to the floor. Yeah, I’m breaking the law, but some construction guy breaking into my store, the place I’ve sunk so much time and money into, is about the last thing I need right now, and I want to make sure to tell whoever it is that he’s fired before the cops have a chance to arrest him.

If Eric won’t get rid of the culprit voluntarily, I’ll just fire all of them and go with the slob from IRP.

I don’t fucking like people in my store when I’m not there. It’s bad enough when I leave my own staff in there when I’m going out to lunch.

I take the first exit which means I have to go through a bit more of the city, but at least the traffic’s not as bad here. Still, it takes me almost half an hour to get from the exit to the lot around the block from the store.

When I come around that corner, the police are already gone. Meanwhile, Eric and a couple of guys from his crew, as well as Linda, Ivanna, and Cheryl from my staff are just standing around talking in front of the store.

It’s not clear who the culprit was, but I know who’s responsible for him, so I walk through everyone else and stick my finger in Eric’s face.

“I don’t know what stupid shit you and your guys are trying to pull, but if you don’t fire whoever broke in, I’m going to fire all of you and tell everyone I know in the business community what happened. Hell, I’ll put out an ad, hold a press conference. Do you understand me? Now, who was it?” I yell.

“Jessica—”

“Miss Davis,” I correct.

“Miss Davis,” Eric says. “It was really just a stupid mistake. Nobody was trying to hurt anything. My guy just got a little ahead of himself and thought he was doing everyone a favor by letting us in so your people could open up and my guys could get to work.”

“He broke into my store,” I fume. “I don’t think that classifies as just a ‘stupid mistake.’ I’d say that classifies as a misdemeanor, maybe a felony.”

“Jessica,” Linda says, trying to butt into my bitch-out session, “it really was totally innocent.”

“You’ve got three seconds to fire whoever it was or you’re out on your ass,” I hiss at Eric.

“Just let me explain,” he says.

“Three,” I start.

“I’m not firing my man for just trying to get to work!”

“Two.”

“It was me,” the stupid-looking one with the goatee says. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any harm, but I did it. When they found out what was going on, they tried to stop me. They told me to get out of there. You can’t fire them, and I don’t think you should put Eric through firing me. We’ve been working together for years. That said, I know I screwed up and I don’t want to cause any more trouble here than I already have, so boss,” he says, “I quit.”

“Alec, what are you doing?” Eric asks.

“I don’t know how you didn’t get arrested, but if you’re not out of my sight in the next ten seconds, I’m pressing charges.”