Vince could only hope that the largely taciturn guy didn’t rub good ol’ Midge the wrong way.
“Now, I’m going to scrub up and head to the hospital,” Vince let them know. “I hope the kids accept me without my clown-face,” he added a little worriedly.
“Spoiler alert, Vince,” Statler snickered. “With or without the make-up, you’ll always be a clown.”
“Hah, hah. Thanks, asshole.”
Still, he found himself whistling on the way to the bathroom.
Half an hour later, Vince was pulling into the hospital lot, excitement stirring in his veins.
He was going to see one of his two new favorite people.
Yup.
Inez had already burrowed so deeply beneath his skin, he felt the warmth of it all the way to the cockles of his heart…whatever those were.
Still, he knew better than to become attached because all kinds of things could happen to keep Inez in her present situation. But screw it. To Vince, any take-a-step-back approach at this juncture was untenable.
Inez belonged in a home where she’d be more than just a number; more than just a paycheck.
She belonged with him and Lace.
And Vince was going to do everything possible—even kissing Midge’s ass—to make that happen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Friday. Lace was sad to be missing Inez, but happy it was no longer infusion day.
Lace was relaxing into paperwork, when?—
“Change of plan,” the captain barked. “We’re heading to Tillie’s Bank.”
Lace huffed. Their destinationhadbeen Jeffrey’s Ledge. What was the man thinking? The last time they’d gone to Tillie’s, it had been a huge bust.
What made Captain Asswipe believe that today would be any different?
The Bankwasa tuna feeding ground, for sure, but nearly all the fish they’d hooked there a few days earlier— at least nine-tenths of their catch—had been undersized and had to be thrown back. To further cement the futility,noother fleets had been fishing in the vicinity.
“Why is he taking us back there?” Lace questioned Zach and Ryan, standing with them as they baited the thousands of hooks that made up the lay-line they’d be sending out.
Neither young man would look at her, but Lace wasn’t having any of that bullshit.
“Hey. What’s going on?” she asked.
Ryan looked around like he was making sure no one was listening.
“You need to keep your head down and your mouth shut,” he warned in an undertone. “Just work on your computer today, Lace. Please. Don’t pay attention to anything else.”
“What the fuck?” Lace wasn’t above cursing when the need arose. Hell, everyone else onboard did it. “Don’t pay attention to what?” she demanded.
“Lace. Please.” Zach added his muted voice to Ryan’s. “Just don’t…”
He sighed roughly. “Be chill. Fridays aredifferent,” he told her. “If you can just look the other way, everything will be fine.”
“Look the other way…”
Lace was beginning to draw a picture in her head, and it wasn’t pretty.