Page 110 of The Bartender Special

Ethan straightened his shoulders and pushed his chest out. The only thing he didn’t do was salute. “It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Jack nodded to Callum.

“While he does that, do you think you could get into the utility closet Benny’s in? There's only the owner and one cook on shift right now, and both should stay in the front.”

Callum didn’t skip a beat.

“Are the bathrooms near the room you're in?” he asked Benny.

“Yeah. The beginning of the hallway. The storage room is next to them. I'm in a closet in that room.”

Callum suddenly looked guilty as sin.

“I think I know how to get to you without getting caught.” He turned to Justus, who looked pumped as all get out to be where he was. “If your mom finds out, she’s going to kill me.”

Justus was cheesing.

Benny sounded less enthused.

“When I'm finally unhooked, what happens? I can't just walk through the front door again after he already thought I left.”

Jack tried to see Benny's face, but it was too hard with the totem-pole-like stance they were in.

“Then you fall the rest of the way out and I'll catch you. Deal?”

There was a pause.

Then, “Deal.”

Jack gave their ground team a sweeping look.

“Let’s get it done.”

Ethan and Callum moved their cars before the three of them looped back around and went into the bar. Jack watched them go in silence until it was just him and Benny and the window.

Jack realized that one thing felt truer than true in that moment.

Benny De Carlo sure was a hard man to ignore.

He cleared his throat now, underlining Jack’s unspoken point.

“I was spying.”

Jack tilted his head to the side a little.

“Come again?”

Benny’s hair brushed along Jack’s.

“We were driving by, and I saw the sign for the bar and figured I hadn’t really done much for Cassidy’s, so I thought it would be good to see what y’all were up against,” he started. “Then the dang owner walked up and started instantly bragging about the place and how what he had in the back room was going to help put that 'hick bar' out on its butt. And that got me all mad and so I kind of had to go look after that. But then someone was walking around and I got spooked and tried to run.”

He let out a long, low breath.

“I panicked, got my big butt stuck in a damn window, and told Ethan to call you. Sorry I’m so pathetic.”

Jack didn't know which piece of information he wanted to tackle first.

So, instead of tackling any one point, he said the first thing that came to his mind.