Sunday Snippet: In Support of Defense

March entered the room with some wild weather, which isn't a big surprise. Still having the back and forth chilly then warm and lots of rain and wind. I expect nothing less from my birth month.

Got a lot accomplished on my work projects. I have a new one coming in sometime in the next week or two and I'm looking forward to jumping into another new one this week.

Didn't get a lot of television watched this week, but I got a few episodes in.

Finished up The Mandalorian episode I started and thoroughly enjoyed it. My brother used to be obsessed with the sand people so it's fun to see them in action in this episode.

My Battlestar Galactica rewatch continued with "Act of Contrition." So many great moments in this episode and the acting is stellar. For a show that came out twenty years ago, I have vivid memories of watching this for the first time.

I also caught another episode of Only Murders in the Building. I kind of love where they're taking things at the moment. It'll be hard to top the first season for me, but I'm excited to see how this plays out. I'm really hoping it holds up.

That's pretty much it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from In Support of Defense, a follow-up to Justice Is Served.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Arnie Cherlin seeks help from his boss, Derby Stack, and asks her to use Overwatch resources to help his best friend's sister, whose gambling debts are causing trouble. Cricket Lexiss doesn't want Arnie's help, thinking she can handle her problem alone. But when her brother is murdered and her life threatened, she turns to Arnie, which puts him in a tricky place because in spite of blaming her for her brother's death, he's falling for her. Yet he needs to keep his distance to remain objective.

And a snippety peek…

Arnie Cherlin stood on the porch of his childhood best friend's home. "Let's see what the professor wants." He raised his hand and knocked on the door.

Ben Francis came from privilege and never cared that Arnie didn't. Ben made sure Arnie had a place to stay when his mom went on weekend benders and forgot to come home. Ben also found a way to get Arnie into buckling down and paying attention in school.

The door opened and Ben greeted him with a distracted smile. "Arnie! Thanks for coming." Stepping back, he invited Arnie inside the quaint cottage Ben lived in on the outskirts of the university campus.

Arnie didn't like the vibe coming from his friend, but he followed him into the small living room. "What's going on? You're pinging red alert even if you're trying to be cool about it." He flashed a smile when Ben stopped short and narrowed his gaze.

Ben waved Arnie to a side chair. "How do you do that? I never could get anything past you." He sat on the edge of the sofa.

Arnie shrugged. "You know I got good at reading people when my mom came home from one of her lost weekends." He never knew if he'd have happy Maureen or angry Maureen. "And the air force honed my skills with their cryptology program." Decrypting body language took a distinct skill set.

Ben shook his head. "And you want me to cut to it, right?" Leaning forward, he rested his forearms on his knees. "You probably need to get back to … wherever it is you work."

Arnie cracked another grin. "I don't always have a specific location. And I don't mind getting a little work-life balance on occasion." He propped his ankle on his knee. "But you didn't ask me here to play catch up, so yeah, what's going on?" A knot of worry coiled in his gut.

Ben heaved a sigh. "You work for some kind of government agency, right? Like you have resources you can use to help people?" His eyes filled with banked concern … and fear.

The knot grew tighter. "Are you in trouble, Ben?" Probably a stupid question because the universe didn't make straighter arrows than Ben Francis.

Ben shook his head again. "No. Not at all." He straightened and squared his shoulder. "I'm worried about Cricket. She's getting in deep with gambling and owes a significant amount."

Arnie's eyes widened. "Your half-sister Cricket?" Of course Ben meant his sibling … how many people named their daughters Cricket? "Didn't she become a nurse?" The type that wanted to save the world. "Did you say underground gambling?" What the hell?

Ben got up and paced back and forth. "To answer your questions. Yes. Yes. And yes." He sat back down. "Can you please help her? Or, do you have any suggestions for how I can help her?"

Arnie is definitely thrown but he won't turn Ben down. Arnie will call on his boss, Derby Stack from Justice is Served, to help out.

 

That's it for this week. Happy reading!

Skylin