“You think Markovich was the loan shark whose goon hit her?” Zeke asked. It didn’t feel right. Markovich wasn’t a good man. He was a criminal. Yet he couldn’t see him doing that.
“Markovich isn’t one to do business like that,” Reyes commented, cementing Zeke’s opinion on the loan shark. “He’s got a soft spot when it comes to women, although he doesn’t let anyone manipulate him because of that. But I doubt he sent goons to beat her up.” Reyes looked up at Duke. They had some sort of shared conversation in silence.
“Why are you so interested in Keira?” Zeke asked, his suspicion growing.
“Because nearly a week ago, the bitch stole money from us.”
Eden gasped. “She stole from you?”
“How the hell did that happen?” Zeke asked. Reyes wasn’t an idiot.
His jaw tightened. This wasn’t something he wanted to tell them. But then he sighed. “She got in tight with one of my guys. He got her a job here, working behind the bar, cleaning up. They installed some cameras in my office. We found them later. They must have recorded me opening the safe.”
“How much did they take?” Zeke asked, guessing it was substantial.
“Hundred grand.”
“You keep a hundred grand in your safe?” Eden asked. “Haven’t you heard of a bank?”
Everyone looked down at her. She swallowed. “Oh, right.”
“So why would she call Eden tonight?” Zeke asked trying to puzzle it out.
“I don’t know, but we have people searching for her. We’ll find her eventually. Maybe she’s feeling the heat and called your girl to help her. Maybe she wanted to borrow some more cash.”
Eden’s eyebrows rose. “I’d never lend her a hundred grand!”
“Eden is not paying her debt,” Zeke said firmly.
“Of course, I’m not!”
Reyes looked from one to the other. “No? You see the problem is that money wasn’t actually ours. We were holding onto it for someone.”
Laundering it, more like.
“And these people are not happy that the money is gone. They’re putting pressure on me to get it back. If they hear that Eden here is friends with Keira, they might just shift some of that pressure to her. Get what I’m saying?”
Zeke got it now. Why he was here.
To protect Eden.
Fuck.
9
Eden looked at Jacob Reyes in confusion. She didn’t get any of this. She didn’t know where Keira was. Or anything about the stolen money.
“But I don’t know where she is. I can’t help you find her.”
Reyes studied her. “You don’t have any ideas where she might go?”
“I. . .no, obviously not since I came here to find her. I don’t even know where she lives.”
“I believe you,” Reyes told her with a sigh. “Would have been a lot easier if you did know where to find her. We used your phone to try and call her number, but it’s dead.”
She couldn’t even feel angry over them using her phone. Her stomach felt like lead. She’d known Keira was trouble. She should never have come here looking for her. And yet, she’d sounded so scared on that message and Eden remembered the girl she’d been. But to take a hundred grand from an MC club? What was the other woman thinking?
Eden took a deep breath. “Who are these other people?”