In her tiredness—and euphoria—Godiva had totally forgotten. From the quick way Rigo swept up his clothes with one hand, the other checking his phone, he had as well.
She had a lovely bathroom because if you’re going to remodel, why not do it right. Two quite easily fit into the huge shower tub combo. She enjoyed running her hands over him with the excuse of soaping him up, but before it could turn into something else, he murmured, “Later tonight?”
“Feels like it might be a three shower day,” she gloated. “I’m just putting that thought out there.”
They got themselves dry and clothed in record time. One of the houseguests had taken the somewhat newer car, leaving them the old one. Rigo offered to drive, and soon they were at Bird’s place. Everyone was there.
Joey looked up, as excited as Godiva had ever seen him. “Bryony was put to work stirring the stuff for the charm, so she didn’t even have to sneak. She was easily able to siphon some off. Sara and a couple of her lab students are busy working on the antidote now.”
“So what’s the problem?” Godiva asked.
“How to disperse it without getting caught,” Jen said.
“We were able to put people among them, but Bryony is pretty sure she overheard something that points to them doing the same to us,” Doris went on. “If so, not only are our kids in danger, but if they’re recognized, they won’t be able to get close enough to spritz the Cang team with the antidote.”
“Long Cang definitely knows us,” Joey said, indicating himself, Mikhail, and Rigo. “Jen as well. None of us can do it.”
Godiva put up a hand. “I volunteer. Nobody on Cang’s team would pay any attention to an old bat doddering about.”
Joey smiled her way. “Thank you. But at most, you would be de-charming one person, maybe two if they’re close enough together. From what Caleb has heard, a platoon of them will be converging on the Oracle Stone site. And Bryony said that they made a huge batch, so that supports the idea of it being split up over a large team.”
Jen said slowly, “Could we bring in some tough shifters from LA? They won’t be known to Cang’s people.”
Mikhail spoke up. “But Cang will have issued orders to be watchful. I don’t think his captains will let anyone close. Especially if his people sense other shifters. And many can.”
So that was why the tense faces. Godiva frowned down at her fingers interlaced with Rigo’s longer, stronger hand. Can’t be shifters. Or known. But there’s the Big Secret, so . . . was this a Catch-22?
No. Because if she could fly under the radar . . .
She looked up and smiled. “I have an idea.”
Everyone turned her way, faces hopeful.
“I’ve got a bunch of friends. All over sixty—most even older. Wait, wait, I’m not done yet. I know they can’t find out about shifters. They wouldn’t have to. If I told them that someone is trying to, oh, say, market a new and nasty street drug, but this spray neutralizes it, I absolutely guarantee I’d get you a platoon of enthusiastic volunteers. And who pays attention to a bunch of old bats, whether they are spritzing the air or standing on their heads?”
She sat back in satisfaction, watching the faces change one by one from doubt, to maybe, to hey it could work.
Joey said, “I don’t believe there’d be any danger, as the idea is to saturate the air as the targets pass, but still, I’ll only agree if I can get some of my people to be in range, if hidden, just in case.”
“I can totally agree with that,” Godiva said. “The woman I expect will be my number one volunteer is ninety-six. She’s still sharp as a pistol but a bit unsteady on her pins. We don’t want her trying to outrun villains.”
Joey turned to Mikhail, who said, “If we can protect them.”
Jen turned to Godiva. “We’ll help with recruitment. Just tell us what to do.”
It took the rest of the day and well into the night for Godiva to go around to all the women she thought might help. Rigo offered to go with her.
She only had two turn-dow
ns: one regretfully said no as she’d recently had a hip replacement, and the other wanted to go but was scolded out of it by her daughter, who unfortunately had come to the rest home for a visit and would not take a hint to leave. But since that particular would-be volunteer was Edna, nearly 100 and not too steady, Godiva didn’t push too hard. She knew Edna would be tickled simply to be asked—and she was.
“Come by again,” Edna cackled. “And bring that handsome fella. I can’t do much beyond look, these days, but my, my, he’s easy on the eyes!”
Rigo stayed right beside Godiva the entire time. The first time she introduced him, it felt odd to be saying, “We’re together now.” But as the afternoon turned into evening she found herself really enjoying introducing him.
But it took time to explain what was going to happen and what to do. Caleb’s team had already learned the typical daily routes of each Cang minion. They matched each of Godiva’s ladies with one target, somewhere near the Cang minion’s daily starting point. And each woman was given a small spray bottle, with quickly printed-and-pasted labels like Bug Repellent and Hand Sanitizer and the like. Each woman was also given Doris’s number to call to report in on success or a need for someone else to make a second pass.
“You’ll smell them coming,” Godiva said to each woman, passing along what Sara had told them, word for word. “This street drug has a very strong smell of eucalyptus. As soon as you whiff it, start spritzing. It will neutralize the drug, and a drug that doesn’t work is a drug nobody will be able to sell.”