Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7)

by Kaylie Hunter

  I looked back at Bridget, thinking it over. “They might not realize they’re drugged and do something dangerous.”

  “I thought of that. We could make an anonymous call and warn them after ten minutes or so.”

  “Still too risky,” I said, shaking my head. “Someone could get hurt. Does the pharmaceutical company sell anything other than sleep aids?”

  She shook her head. “It’s a small company. They have a lot of drug trials in progress, waiting for approvals, but the sleep aid is the only one on the market at this point.”

  “Lie,” Wild Card said.

  “Explain,” I said, following his one-word language.

  “Don’t bother switching the catering order. Do the anonymous-call thing and say the drug was in the food. People will still panic. Hell, some of them will probably get diarrhea worrying about it, but you don’t actually need to drug anyone.”

  “We still can’t control the narrative. What if the receptionist who takes the message runs out the door before sharing the information?”

  “Email alert,” Bones said, walking over with a cup of coffee for Bridget and himself. “Email the employees warning them that the baked goods were exposed to the sleeping aid.”

  “Ooh,” Bridget said. “That’s good. Everyone who works there with a computer will be talking about it. It will spread through the rumor mill to the textile mill in no time.”

  I nodded, liking the idea. “And mass employee panic will cause at least half the employees to go home sick.”

  “See? Teamwork!” Tweedle said, clapping.

  I shook my head at her. “You are way too perky in the morning.”

  “Eat your fruit and play nice,” Wild Card said as he set a plate of fruit between Bridget and me.

  “Ignore her, Tweedle,” Bones said. “She’s a bitch when she hasn’t gotten enough sleep.”

  “Only then?” Tech mumbled.

  “Cut her some slack guys,” Wild Card said. “Nicholas had a rough night. It wasn’t pretty.”

  “He okay?” Tech asked.

  “He will be,” I said, repeating Wild Card’s line from earlier.

  Maggie appeared at the top of the basement stairs. “Someone needs to find me coffee. Donovan’s couch is horrible. I woke with the worst kink in my neck.”

  Maggie’s hair was standing in every direction possible. Yesterday’s makeup was smeared an inch under her eyes. And her once nicely pressed blouse and skirt were wrinkled beyond recognition.

  “So much for that beauty sleep, aye, Maggie?” I said.

  “Bite me,” she said as Wild Card handed her a cup of coffee.

  I smiled back at Maggie. “Now that’s the attitude I can appreciate in the morning.”

  Maggie started to walk into the dining room but stopped, turned, and openly inspected Wild Card from head to toe. “Did you become gay overnight or were you always gay?” she asked him.

  Wild Card smirked but didn’t say anything as he flipped pancakes.

  I laughed into my coffee cup. “He looks like a ballet dancer, right? Those sweats are practically eating his ass.”

  “It’s a nice ass, no matter which way he’s swinging this morning,” Maggie said as she walked in and sat down.

  Tyler walked into the kitchen through the garage door and dropped a duffle bag. Without saying anything, he turned and left out the same door.

  Wild Card walked over and opened the door. “Thank you, Tyler.”

  “No sweat, man. Keep the clothes you borrowed, though. I know you’re riding commando.”

  Wild Card closed the door and grabbed the duffle. “Tweedle, watch the pancakes, will you?”

  “You betcha,” she said as he ducked into the guest bathroom.

  “Why was he wearing Tyler’s clothes?” Bones asked.

  I couldn’t help my cheeks heating as I tried to focus on starting my laptop. “Because it covered more of him than the towel he was wearing before that.”

  Maggie leaned back and closed her eyes. “I have this amazing image in my head.”

  “Me too,” Tweedle said, giggling as she set a plate of pancakes beside Tech.

  “Shipping records are printing.” Tech nodded to the printer, moving the plate of pancakes out of range from Bones and cutting a huge chunk which he folded and stuffed into his mouth.

  Whiskey walked halfway down the stairs before stopping and looking around. He turned to me and sighed.

  “I know.” I nodded back at him. “This is supposed to be our quiet time.”

  “It’s the only time of the day that isn’t crazy,” he said, pouting.

  Tweedle met him at the bottom of the stairs like a housewife from a fifty’s sitcom, wearing an apron and handing him a cup of coffee, a bright smile plastered on her face. “Good morning, Whiskey.”

  Whiskey glanced at me again.

  “Just go with it,” I said, holding my cup up as Tweedle made the rounds with the coffee pot.

  “What are we doing this morning?” Maggie asked, looking at the papers scattered about.

  “We’re finalizing a plan of attack. We’ve narrowed it down to sabotaging a semi filled with textiles and emailing the employees at the mill that their morning bakery treats were exposed to the pharmaceutical company’s sleep aid. We’re hoping it will cause a mass panic.”

  Maggie took a drink of her coffee before looking over at me. “Can I be honest?”

  I looked toward the ceiling and thought about it. On one hand, I appreciated Maggie’s candor. On the other, I wasn’t sure I was fueled with enough caffeine for her honesty. Either way, she was going to tell me, so I might as well get it over with.

  “Hit me with it.”

  “I’ve always respected you, Harrison, but you’ve finally let me down. That’s the most juvenile plan I’ve ever heard. Sabotaging a truck? Planting a fake rumor? You are hoping people panic?” Maggie rolled her eyes. “You can do better.”

  “But I’m tired!” I whined, dropping my head to the table.

  “She’s right, though,” Tech said. “It’s kind of a cobbled plan. You started off saying we were disabling a semi full of fabric and somehow landed on emailing employees that they may or may not be sick. You’re all over the place.”

  “It’s her fault,” I said, pointing to Tweedle. “All this teamwork crap before I’ve even had a full cup of coffee.”

  “Don’t blame, Tweedle,” Wild Card said, throwing a blueberry across the room at me.

  I caught the blueberry and passed it to Bridget to eat. I wasn’t a fan.

  “You’ve got too much shit in your head which is why you can’t think straight,” Wild Card continued. “Now start over. What’s your objective?”

  I sat up straight and answered as if I was a student talking to a professor. “To financially impact Miguel in a way that results in no physical injuries and no long-term financial damage.”

  “You also said the plan has to be savvy and intelligent, though,” Maggie said. “You need Miguel to view you as a threat to his legacy, remember?”

  She had a point. Causing a semi to break down or a few employees to worry about being drugged wouldn’t earn Miguel’s respect as a rival.

  Bridget shoved me, almost making me fall.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You need to get up.” She shoved me again.

  “Why?”

  “You think better when you pace.”

  I glared at her, but got up, taking my coffee with me. I wandered into the living room and started to pace. What could I do to get Miguel’s attention? If I could somehow shut down production for a day, without anyone getting hurt, that would be ideal. But how? I could take out the electrical system but they’d have emergency generators. Starting a fire would be a bad idea. The email notice had merit, but it would cause more confusion than anything. I’m sure Tech, Carl, or Sara could send a virus to their computer network and really screw some shit up, but I wasn’t sure if they could control the virus before it caused long term damage. Migue
l wouldn’t negotiate a peace deal if we accidentally disabled his IT networks.

  Think, Kelsey. What can we do to shut down business for only a day? Hell, even a half of a day would be enough. Email. Fire. Sick. Poisoned. Electrical. Email… Great, now I’m repeating myself. “Wait…” I said aloud, turning to face everyone. “Not email!”

  “She’s got something,” Bridget said. “I just have no idea what the hell she’s saying.”

  “What if instead of emailing, we texted the employees? We can tell them not to report to work until Monday. We can exclude management who might question why they didn’t already know.”

  “Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Tyler said.

  “It could still work,” Maggie said. “The retail mall, bakery, and the trucking company will definitely have employees working over the weekend.”

  “The textile mill has a weekend shift from seven to three,” I said. “I remember seeing the shift schedules on one of the hundreds of documents I read last night.”

  Bridget nodded. “The pharmaceutical company has so many drug trials going, I’m sure they have employees working this weekend. They do animal testing though, so we’ll want the message to be worded so the animal caregivers still go in.”

  “That leaves the health food company,” I said, looking at Tech.

  He nodded as he typed. “Looks like they run two shifts on Saturdays.”

  “Maggie?” I said, bracing myself for her honesty. “Is the plan savvy enough to get Miguel’s attention?”

  “It’s perfect, actually. Having his employees not show up to work at all six of his companies will cause his head to spin. I like it.”

  “Tech, is it doable? I don’t know anything about texting mass alerts.”

  “I can create a dummy account no problem. I’ll need help to enter the employees’ phone numbers into the app and separating the companies, but yeah, it’s perfectly doable.”

  I set my coffee cup on the end table and did a little dance, excited to have a plan.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Katie said.

  I turned to see her standing in the doorway of the back slider.

  “I was just stretching,” I said, grabbing my coffee cup and returning to the table.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Hours later, we were nearing the end. The bakery’s message said there was an issue with contaminated flour. The pharmaceutical company’s message was that overtime was being discontinued until further notice and that only the animal caregivers were to report in as needed. Both the trucking company and the health food company’s messages stated there was a change in management and that all employees would receive more information on Monday. The textile mill’s message said that there was a gas leak that would require repair before anyone was allowed into the buildings.

  My favorite message was for the retail mall, though: Due to deteriorating sales caused by the increase of shoppers looking for quality second-hand apparel, the mall will be closed on weekends, effective immediately.

  I knew most employees would predict it was a hoax, but it was too funny to pass up. I was also banking on many of those same employees using the text as an excuse to play hooky.

  Tech completed uploading all non-management staff for each company to a different dummy alert account about the same time I narrowed down the delivery times for each message. We both leaned back in our chairs, sighing when we were done.

  Sara giggled. Everyone else sitting around the table eating breakfast looked at us with grins.

  “How are you going to let Miguel know it was you?” Maggie asked.

  “I’m not sure. Which country is he in this week?”

  Maggie picked up her phone and made a call. “Hey, Genie. I’m with Kelsey and we need to know what country Miguel Remirez is currently in. This is off the record, by the way.” Maggie bopped her head up and down, listening. “Yes, that means don’t tell Kierson.” A few minutes lapsed before she said, “Perfect. Thanks.” She smiled at something Genie was saying. “Hang on.” She hit a button on her phone and turned the phone toward the table. “You’re on speaker, Genie. Gang’s all here.”

  “Hello, my wonderful Michigan friends!” Genie sing-sang over the speaker.

  “Hi, Genie!” everyone shouted back.

  “Oh, it’s lovely to hear everyone!”

  I leaned closer to the phone. “If you’re not doing anything this weekend, you’re welcome to come visit.”

  “Maybe next time. You know, after the cartel thing.”

  “Understand completely. Enjoy your weekend.”

  “You too. Bye, everybody!”

  “Bye, Genie!” everyone shouted back.

  Maggie disconnected the phone as Tweedle filled our coffee cups again. “Why aren’t you cranky about her being happy in the morning?”

  “Because Genie doesn’t poke the bear,” Wild Card said, taking the coffee pot and nudging Tweedle back to the kitchen. “Genie runs the other way when Kelsey’s having her mood swings.”

  “I don’t have mood swings.”

  The room became quiet, and everyone conveniently found somewhere else to look than my direction.

  Maggie was the first to speak. “Genie said Miguel is in Mexico and isn’t expected in the States over the next few days.”

  “He’s likely to cross the border once the text alerts go out,” I said. “I’ll have to think about our introduction.”

  “What’s the agenda for the rest of the day?” Wild Card asked as he walked around the table, filling coffee cups.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “A little after eight.”

  “Damn,” I said, realizing Hattie and Pops should have been down by now.

  I went into the kitchen and filled two coffee cups before climbing the stairs. After knocking twice on Hattie’s door, Pops called out to enter. Hattie was curled up on the bed, half asleep. Pops had moved the rocking chair over next to the bed and was reading to her.

  I handed Pops a cup of coffee and set Hattie’s on her nightstand before sitting on the edge of the bed. “I was hoping you’d be feeling better today.”

  “I don’t feel sick, just tired.” She shuffled back, trying to sit up.

  “Stop. No reason for you to sit. What sounds good for breakfast?”

  “Something light will do,” she said. “I’m not very hungry.”

  “I’ll bring you up a few things and you can eat what you want. Pops? What would you like?”

  “Anything will do,” he said, watching Hattie as her eyes drifted closed again.

  I leaned over, kissing Hattie’s cheek, before I left.

  At the bottom of the stairs, everyone stood waiting for me. “Hattie wants a light breakfast. Maybe some fruit, scrambled eggs, and toast?”

  “Sure thing,” Wild Card said. “Pops?”

  “He said anything is fine.”

  “How is she?” Lisa asked.

  “Worse,” I answered, walking into the other room and picking up my phone. I called Doc, wandering into the living room as the phone rang.

  “Sorry, Kelsey,” Doc said when he answered. “I meant to call the lab first thing. How’s Hattie doing?”

  “Doc, she’s bad. It’s a struggle for her to even sit up.”

  “Give me five minutes. I’ll call you right back.” Doc disconnected.

  I looked up to find Sara and Nicholas staring at me with worried faces.

  “Come, here,” I said, calling them over as I sat in the chair in the living room.

  “Hattie doesn’t have a virus, does she?” Sara asked as she climbed onto my lap.

  “We don’t know. Doc came over yesterday and took a blood sample. We’re waiting to see what the results say.”

  “Is she going to die?” Nicholas asked.

  “No,” Wild Card said, scooping up Nicholas and sitting on the arm of the chair. “Hattie’s going to get better as soon as we figure out what’s making her tired. If she needs a doctor in Switzerland, we’ll take her to Switzerl
and. If she needs a week on the beach, we’ll fly her to Jamaica. Until we know what will make her feel better, we have to be patient.”

  Nicholas looked back at me, waiting for me to say something. He knew I wouldn’t lie to him about something so important.

  “Right now, Hattie’s tired, and we don’t know why. If we find out it’s something bad, I’ll tell you.”

  “Promise?” Sara asked.

  “Promise. For now, though, there’s nothing for you guys to worry about. Scout’s honor.”

  “Mom!” Nicholas said, rolling his eyes. “You can’t be a scout. You’re a girl.”

  “There are girl scouts,” Sara said, gearing up to argue.

  “Go get dressed and brush your teeth,” I said, interrupting their anticipated argument. “After Hattie’s had a chance to eat some breakfast, I’ll take you up to see her. Vamoose!”

  The kids were barely out of the room when my cell phone rang.

  “It’s Kelsey,” I answered.

  “I’m on my way over. I got the results, and I’ll explain when I get there.”

  “Explain now.”

  “I can’t. Doctor patient confidentiality.”

  “Hattie won’t care.”

  “Doesn’t make it legal. I’m on my way.” Doc hung up.

  “He says he’s on his way over.”

  “I’ll stay at home today,” Katie said. “I can work on the books from here.”

  I shook my head. “One of us has to be at the store while we’re on red alert. And if I go, I’ll have to take Nicholas.”

  “I’ll stay at the house,” Anne said, placing an arm around Katie’s shoulder. “I’ll text you every hour with updates.”

  Wild Card stood. “I’ll take breakfast upstairs and let them know Doc is on his way.”

  Lisa wrapped her arms around me. “I know you’re worried, but you called Doc instead of taking her to a hospital because you trust him.”

  “Maybe she has mono,” Alex said, wrapping his arms around both Lisa and me, squeezing us together. “Wouldn’t that be funny? Hattie would blush for a year knowing she caught the kissing disease.”

  Lisa and I laughed as we broke out of Alex’s hold and stepped back.