“Will you? Are you certain?”
“I’m here to do a job, that doesn’t mean I have to be everyone’s best buddy.”
“No, you don’t. You don’t have to go for a drink with them or see them outside the job, but you do have to trust that they’ll have your back and they need to trust that you will have theirs.”
“I will. I might not be the easiest person to get to know and I didn’t take this job to make friends, but I promise you that I will have their backs, no matter what. I worked with everyone fine when I was pretending to be Jacey, didn’t I?”
He narrowed his gaze, staring at her. She meant every word, in fact she’d sounded almost passionate.
“You’ll be just as careful with your own safety,” he stated.
“Yes, of course.”
Hmm, that hadn’t sounded as convincing as it should have. But he had no right to hold her back.
Chapter Four
“Last address on our list,” Josh said. “This guy isn’t going to be here. He’s probably in Mexico by now.”
Cady climbed out of the truck, looking over at the run-down apartment building where one of their target’s girlfriends was supposed to be living.
Leonard Doran was a weasel of a man who’d been stealing money for months from a charity. Cady hated scum like him. He’d managed to make off with nearly a million dollars before someone had spotted the discrepancies. He was the son of one of the board of trustees and no one had suspected him.
Now it was up to them to track him down. The charity hadn’t wanted to go to the police and risk scaring off their other donors. She wasn’t sure how they were affording their fee, but that wasn’t her problem. Her problem was finding this asshole and hopefully getting some of the money back.
She and Josh had been chasing down false leads all day. She could understand his frustration, the likelihood that this idiot was still in the city was pretty low. She followed Josh across the street, looking up and down the road. This area was by far the worst location they’d been in all day. A hooker glanced over at them, sizing up Josh briefly before falling back into an alleyway.
Wise choice.
Josh might have a slight build, but he carried an air of confidence. He wasn’t an easy target and she had no doubt it was his presence that kept the group of young thugs standing on the corner from approaching them.
“We need to be in and out quick,” Cady muttered.
Josh glanced over at her briefly then he turned to stare at the youths. “Maybe you should wait in the truck. You can sit in the driver’s seat with the doors locked.”
She stopped and looked up at him in exasperation. “I’m not some delicate princess. I’m paid to do this job, same as you.”
Hunter had finally relented and sent her out on a job. So far, everything had been routine and fairly boring, really. But one thing she’d figured out is that the men who worked at Black-Gray Investigations were all protect-the-woman kind of guys. She was meant to be their partner not someone to be coddled and watched over.
“Yeah, except Hunter won’t kick your ass if I come back injured.”
“Hunter isn’t going to blame you if I get hurt, why would he?”
Josh gave her a disbelieving look. “Why indeed?”
He started up the steps. She growled under her breath with exasperation. What the hell had Hunter been telling them? She’d made an effort to be part of the team, well, she’d put on a good pretense. But she was determined not to become too close to anyone.
Although she kind of wondered if she was kidding herself. These were good guys, Rusty would have liked them. The more time she spent with them, the more she liked them too.
“We’re just getting used to have a woman on the team. It’s just going to take some time to get used to you.”
“Well, I don’t need watching over and I don’t want to be treated differently. Just pretend that I’m Tiny.”
Josh’s lips twitched. “That takes more imagination than I’ve got. You’re a lot chattier for one thing, and you definitely smell better.”
Cady shook her head, falling silent as they climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. Screaming voices came from the apartment they were here to check out.
Josh reached for his gun, pulling it out. Cady did the same. They cautiously approached the door which was open slightly.