"What is the big deal with this bomber?" I asked, padding beside Michael up to Seymour's house. "If we looked for everyone that tried to kill you, we'd do nothing else."
"I need to find out what this guy knows." Michael said.
"Well, if there's anyone in Miami who can track down a bomber, it's our old friend Seymour here."
"Hope he's still not mad about the face full of gunpowder last time we dropped by."
"Well, he was pretty enchanted with you once upon a time." I stopped in front of Michael.
"Pretty enchanted with me? Yeah. He showed it when he attacked me with a baseball bat."
"Will you tighten my collar?" Michael kneeled down beside me.
"You know, Dawn, if, uh—if you wanna talk about what happened the other night—"
"There's nothing to talk about. We were just blowing off some steam, right?" He was quiet as he tightened my collar. Something caught my eye. I turned my head towards Michael and nosed open his shirt to see a burn mark on Michael's left side. I don't remember that being there. Until…until after that night. "I did that, didn't I?"
"We should go in." Michael stood up and walked to the back of the house and I followed him. "Dawn, you want to take care of—" I shifted.
"Yeah, I'll go take care of Mr. Security over there…while you say hello to Seymour." I walked over to Jackass and stood there acting like I was just part of the party.
"Security!" Seymour yelled when he saw Michael. Jackass started to pull out a gun but I grabbed his arm twisted his wrist making him drop the gun and kicked him in the knee to make him fall to the gun. I picked up the gun and pointed it down at Jackass. "Nice going, Jackass!" Seymour pulled a gun out on Michael but Michael disarmed him. They talked for a minute before Seymour turned back to his confused guests. "All right. What' everybody staring at? This is a party." Seymour said some other things to Michael and then turned to Jackass. "All right, Jackass, see how they just laid you out again? That is called teamwork, people. And it is a beautiful thing. So, up and at 'em." I helped Jackass up. "Hit the blender and make some smoothies. Mango."
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"Dawn." Michael called after me as I headed out of the backyard of Seymour's. "Dawn, I need a favor. Uh, I need to put some money together."
"Seymour said he'd front you." I said.
"Yeah. Seymour's not that type of guy I would like to owe money to long term."
"You wanna borrow money? If you need cash, you can get a job like the rest of us."
"I can't fill out a W2. If the people who burned me…find out I'm looking for a job, they'll wonder why I need the money." I stopped and turned to him.
"I just passed on a gig for some art dealer. Someone's stealing paper clips or something dull. Pay's good. You take a job under a cover I.D., no one needs to know."
"You're the best."
"Mm-hmmm. I expect a commission, Michael." I walked off.
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I laid on the bed, my front paws dangling off the edge. Fiona, Michael and Sam crowded around the counter, looking at a floor plan.
"I got to tell you, this corporate espionage stuff is kind of fun." Sam said. "You know there's no guns, no explosions. It's like going on the kiddy rides at the carnival." Sam chuckled. "So, uh, any idea how our spy got his way into the art dealer's office?"
"I know how I'd do it." Michael said. "Cleaning crew comes around midnight…from the service entrance here, away from the gallery cameras."
"Well, that's good, because then there's no door codes either…" Fiona said. "'cause the cleaning crew opens them up for you."
"Get in, find a hiding place, let everyone clear out."
"And you got the place to yourself." Sam said. I let out a loud snort and Fiona, Michael and Sam slowly turned around to face me. I raised my head off my paws.
"As stimulating as all this is, I still don't see why you called me over here, Michael." I said.
"It always helps to bounce ideas, Dawn." Michael said.
"Uh, hey, Fi, there's a wonderful view of the ocean out on the balcony. Wanna check it out?" Sam asked Fiona.
"Absolutely." Fiona said, going out onto the balcony while Sam followed behind her, beer in hand. I hopped off the bed and jumped onto the barstool, squeezing all four paws onto the seat. I leaned into him.
"Is this about the other night?" I asked. "Is this about me not staying for breakfast? Or me burning you?"
"Is it so strange that I would want your opinion on a job?" Michael questioned me, staring at the floor plan.
"Look me in the eye and tell me that's all this is." He looked up and opened his mouth and took a deep breath.
"I have to go see Gray." Michael grabbed his jacket and left.
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I sat on a couch beside Sam, drinking my Nutty Irishman. I looked over at the fat man over by the bar.
"That's our boy." I said, finishing my drink and turning back to Sam.
"Mmm."
"Bigger in person."
"Mmm. Recently divorced. Lives here at the hotel. He spends a good chunk of his time bouncing in and out of rehab." Sam chuckled. "Looks like he's ready for another visit. You sure you're up for this?" I took the bug from Sam and put it in my bra and took off my collar and handed it to him.
"Planting a bug in a cellphone. You think I can't get a guy to go up to his room?"
"No, I'd say you have the gift of getting men to make bad choices."
"Michael told you."
"He didn't have to."
"Well, don't look at me. He started it."
"Dawn, Mr. Orr is waiting."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
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"Maple, we're making progress." Michael said. Michael and I met up with Maple at the bar to update her. "We should have everything we need in a couple of days. You just need to sit tight."
"Sit tight?" Maple questioned him. "Gray is acting weird. He's walking around the office, staring at all the employees, checking people's desks."
"That means he's getting paranoid." I said. "That's good. The worse it gets, the more he turns to Michael for help."
"What if he knows?"
"There's no way he rebuilt the security footage from those hard drives yet." Michael said. "Now, the most important thing is for you to just act completely normal. Pretend that nothing is going on."
"I'll try. I gotta run. It's nice meeting you, Dawnna."
"You too." I said. I turned to Michael. "You know, pretending nothing's going on is easier for some people than others." Michael stared down at me and opened his mouth to say something when his cell phone rang and he answered it.
"What have you got, Seymour?"
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"Your bomber is holed up in that little cottage right there." Seymour said from the back seat of the Saab. "His girlfriend run over this morning for a little, uh, together time." A man opened the front door and looked around the yard.
"Booby trap on the front door." I said. "I guess he's not expecting any more visitors." A girl kissed the man and walked off as Michael picked up his binoculars and looked at the rest of the house as the man went back inside.
"That's no problem. I got the shotguns and those breeching rounds I bought. They'll cut through that wall like it's cardboard."
"Or my bow and arrow can."
"That would make a little bigger bang than we want." Michael said. "The door isn't the only thing rigged to blow. Look." Michael handed Seymour the binoculars so he could look. "I'm gonna do some scouting, figure out a better route for an approach. Dawn." He looked at me. Watch him, he mouthed. He got out and went to walk the perimeter.
"Man. That guy." Seymour laughed. "I mean, it's like he sees around corners, you know?" He chuckled and I turned to look at him. "So what's up with you two? You're not together anymore?"
"We're in, uh, different spaces, Seymour." I sighed.
"Different spaces? Give me a break. As a practitioner of tai chi, let me tell you something, missy. Go with the flow of the universe. All right? It's destiny, you two." I let out a light laugh. "What?"
"Nothing, nothing. It's just Fiona said the same thing."
"She's a smart girl then. You don't argue with destiny. It will kick your ass." He sighed. "Believe me."
"I'll keep that in mind, Seymour."
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I followed Michael into the loft and he closed the door behind me. Fiona was on the bed while Sam was behind the counter, rummaging through the fridge. He closed the door, beer in hand and turned to us.
"I can drink this outside if you two need some alone time. Fi and I can look at the beautiful view again." Sam said. Michael and I exchanged looks.
"Drink it here, Sam." I said, shifting and hopping onto the bed beside Fiona.
"So, Seymour find your bomber?"
"Yeah." Michael answered. "The place he's staying at is wired to blow if we so much as knock on the window." Michael pulled a yogurt from the fridge.
"Yikes. Well, in other news, I got a lead on a precision drill…we can use on Gray's file cabinet. Buddy's gonna give us a break." Michael phone rang and he answered it.
"Yeah, Maple, what's going on?...You're at the office? You're not supposed to…You're at the office on a weekend? If you used your employee security code, Gray will know that you're there…Maple, he's not just gonna leave document around for someone to find…It's a trap. He knows you're there. You need to get out right now." Michael rushed out the door, keys in hand. Fiona, Sam and I were right behind him. "Maple, listen to me very carefully. Are you in the copy room?...Get a box of paper, some duct tape and extension cord…Tape the cell phone to the top of the box and run a wire behind it and put it in the gallery entrance. Do it now. I'm on my way." He hung up as he walked down the steps to his charger. He looked up at us. "Fiona, you got explosives?"
"I'll pretend you didn't just ask that." Fiona said.
"I have to take a more direct approach with Gray."
"I like the sound of that." I said, wagging my tail.
"Mike, you want me to come with you?" Sam asked.
"Uh, no." Michael said. "I want you to get in touch with Gray's hit man."
"What about me?" I asked.
"Sorry, Dawnna." And with that, Michael was gone and Sam and Fiona left me, tail dropping and puppy dog eyes.
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Michael pressed himself up against the house and I rounded the tree. I looked at Michael. He pointed at his eyes then the bomb on the window then at me. I nodded. I nicked an arrow into my bow. I had super glued a water bag on the tip of my arrow. I pulled back on the string and aimed at the bomb and fired. The bomb was knocked off and the glass shattered. Michael stepped in front of the window and shot a water bag at Brian's stomach who fell to the ground.
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I sat on the hood of the charger, tail over my paws when Michael came down the steps of Seymour's place.
"That was quick." I said.
"I got the account number…used by the man who hired Connolly to kill me." Michael said. "I just need to turn it into a name."
"Hey. Sorry." Seymour came running out of the house to us. He stopped and pulled out two long wooden boxes. Michael gingerly took one. "It's a little something I had made for, uh—Well, it's in honor of our first operation together. Go on, open them." I looked up at Seymour.
"I don't have disposable thumbs, idiot." I said.
"Right. Sorry." Seymour opened the box for me and Michael opened his. I looked inside.
"Oh!" I looked at the knife in my box and the knife in Michael's box. "Matching throwing daggers." Seymour picked up my knife and slid it under my collar. "That's…very thoughtful, Seymour."
"And if you look at the engraving there, it means destiny." Michael looked up from his dagger at me, I avoided his gaze. "It's a symbol of your bond. So. I'd better get back. You know, uh, don't wanna leave Jackass alone too long with the captive." He went back inside.
"That was kind of sweet."
"You know the morning after we, uh—" Michael couldn't seem to finish the sentence but I knew exactly what he was talking about.
"Yeah."
"I brought you garlic chicken, shrimp with melted butter. But you were gone." He stared down at his knife, his turn to avoid my gaze.
"My favorite. Maybe next time, I'll have to stay." I hopped off the hood of the car and padded into the shadows, becoming a friend of the night.