Leo (Vigilance 3)

“How are you going to catch Swain without getting caught?”

“Don’t worry—”

“No.” I’d never seen him look as angry as he did in that moment. “Don’t do that to me. I know I don’t have your size or your skills.

I shook my head. “Size doesn’t always matter.”

“Really?”

I grinned. “It did tonight, but I’ve seen men and women your size bring down men bigger than me. They just use different techniques.”

“I know I probably can’t help.” No way would I let him get close to Swain. “But I’d really like to know, so I can believe that whatever happens, you’ll be all right.”

I wanted to reassure him that I’d be fine, but I couldn’t do that honestly. “We have connections, people who can protect us. X has a lot of influence, and we have… friends who are experts at making things disappear.

“Organized-crime friends?” he asked

I nodded.

“But I thought you were good guys.”

I smiled. “A lot of people wouldn’t see it that way. We’re certainly not working within the law, but the people we go after are worse than us.”

“Do you really want to help people, or am I just too trusting?”

“I help people, but I’m far from nice, and I’m willing to do a hell of a lot of dark things to reach my objective. That’s why…” I paused. I wanted to keep talking to Ezra. It felt so right having him there. Did I really want to bring up why we couldn’t last?

“So these friends of yours, they can make sure you’re never suspected, and you can just make a congressman disappear?”

I was glad he didn’t push me to finish my thought. “It won’t be as easy as dealing with the men in the alley tonight, but it can be done.”

“I keep thinking I’m dreaming, even though I’ve known for months you weren’t just running a tattoo shop.”

People rarely shocked me, but I stared at him, amazed. “You did?”

13

Ezra

His eyes widened, and I was thrilled I’d actually shocked him. “Of course I did. You wouldn’t tell me who you rented out the shop to or what any of your friends did. All of you look dangerous, and I noticed them using the back entrance of the shop, so I guessed they were the ones who worked with you.”

“You saw all that.”

“Yes. I like to watch you.”

That made Leo smile. “I like that you do.”

“You know I read mysteries all the time, so I thought maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to, but…”

“But you weren’t. You called it, but no matter how curious you are, I don’t want you coming after me to help anymore. You can’t be like those amateur sleuths in mystery books, the ones that involve themselves in anything and everything. In real life, that gets you killed.”

Of course he was going to use this as a chance to remind me not to get involved. “I get that, but if someone broke into the shop, what would’ve happened to me if I had stayed there like I was supposed to?”

“I hope you would’ve hidden.”

“I would have, but you don’t know if they would’ve found me.” His annoyed expression let me know I was right.

“Let’s talk about something else, anything else.”

I decided to let him off the hook. “Fine. What do you like to read?”

He frowned

“Do you read?”

“You actually have to be literate to be a CIA operative.”

I rolled my eyes. “I assumed that, but it doesn’t mean you read for fun.”

I loved the rich sound of his laughter. He always seemed to let go and laugh with his whole body. “I suppose you didn’t pay attention to the bookshelf in the bedroom.”

I tried to remember anything about the room other than the bed. “There’s a bookshelf in there?” I started to push back my chair, but he laid a hand on my leg.

“Finish eating first, then you can go snoop. I love that you didn’t even notice.”

Of course he did. “I was a little distracted.”

“I read horror mostly, along with biographies and some classic mysteries but not much modern stuff. Lately, I listen to more audiobooks because I can do that while I…”

I studied him for a moment. He loved insisting that I share things, but he didn’t like to say anything about himself. Maybe that was because when he was in the CIA, he couldn’t, but I still wanted to know everything about him. “While you what? Or were you about to give away some classified information?”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

I knew it wasn’t, but I decided to give him time. If I could get him to talk about himself a little, that would be good. “Other than reading, what do you do when you’re not working?”

“Between the shop and Vigilance, there’s not a lot of time for anything else. I play video games mostly and watch TV.”