That portion of my plan had less to do with military strategy than with an effort on my part to preserve what little was left of my nerves. I figured the only way to shut the two of them up was to separate them.
“I’m sorry, Boss,” Guido whispered as we crouched side by side in the brush. “I keep forgettin’ that you aren’t as into crime as the boys I usually run with.”
Well, I had been half right. Massha on the other side of the road was being quiet, but as long as he had someone to talk to, Guido was going to keep on expressing his thoughts and opinions. I was starting to understand why Don Bruce insisted on doing all the talking when the bodyguards were around. Encouraging employees to speak up as equals definitely had its drawbacks.
“Will you keep your voice down?” I tried once more. “This is supposed to be an ambush.”
“Don’t worry about that. Boss. It’ll be a while before they catch up, and when they do, I’ll hear ’em before. …”
“Is that you Skeeve?”
The voice came from the darkness just up the road.
I gave Guido my darkest glare, and he rewarded it with an apologetic shrug that didn’t look particularly sincere to me.
Then it dawned on me where I had heard that voice before.
“Right here,” I said, rising from my crouch and stepping onto the road. “We’ve been waiting for you. I think it’s about time we had a little chat.”
Aside from covering my embarrassment over having been discovered, that had to be my best understatement in quite a while. The last time I had seen this particular person, she was warning me about Aahz’s imprisonment.