Page 26 of Cast in Shadow
“Tell me something, Zeke.”
“What?”
“Do you do this often?”
“Do I do what often?” he asked warily.
“Work for people who want to find other people who don’t want to be found.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
The right side of his mouth lifted in a half-smirk, half-smile. “Because I prefer to work for myself.”
That was something she could relate to. “You don’t work well with others, huh?”
If she hadn’t been watching him so closely, she would have missed his barely imperceptible flinch.
“I don’t like taking orders,” he clarified.
The more time she spent with Zeke, the more intrigued she became. He could say he was taking her to Charley for the money, but Aggie believed there was more to it than that. Deep down, Aggie sensed in him a kindred spirit, despite the fact that they came from different worlds and had different ways of doing things.
“So ...,” she asked, “given what you know about me, what makes you think I would?”
“She didn’t say she wanted you to work for her,” he countered. “She said she wanted you found because she feared you were in trouble. She was right.”
That was beside the point. “Does she seem like the type of woman who does anything without an endgame?”
“Listen to what she has to say. If you don’t like what you hear, walk away.”
Aggie didn’t think it would be that easy. From the little bit Zeke had revealed about Charley, the woman didn’t seem inclined to accept a simple thanks, but no, thanks and let Aggie go on her merry way.
“If she’s so easy to walk away from, why didn’t you?”
“I did at first,” he admitted quietly.
That was news. “Oh? What changed your mind?”
His face hardened again. “I told you.”
“Right. The money.”
He didn’t respond to that, choosing instead to stuff food into his mouth.
Aggie tried to focus on the latest data returned by her trollers while Zeke channel-surfed from one news station to another. He paused on a story about a Boston bank president whose body had recently been found. Initial reports suggested the guy had been shot execution-style.
“Turn that up, will you?” Aggie requested.
“The brutal murder was discovered earlier today,” the reporter said into the camera. “One source close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it is believed that the president of the bank, Colton Colman, siphoned millions of dollars from customer accounts, including that of reputed mob boss, Eamon Kelly. The district attorney confirmed that an investigation will be launched ...”
Aggie felt Zeke’s penetrating gaze.
“Did you have anything to do with that?”
Aggie frowned. “No.”
Her fingers flew over the keyboard, her frown deepening. The mob boss wasn’t one of her targets. If money was being siphoned from Kelly’s accounts, it wasn’t her doing.
