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The scandal surrounding Leanne’s involvement in her sister’s murder was contained due to a lack of police investigation and family grief. However, she’s right. If the Agency was caught continuing to operate an op on US soil without sanction, all bets would have been off. It would have set off a series of internal investigations that would have sent whomever was after Leanne underground—more than they already were.
In other words, despite living, she’s been doing it with one eye over her shoulder. There’s never really been closure on who hired the hit on her in the past. I jump in as devastation falls across Thorn’s face. “Does your husband know?”
She nods. “We don’t keep secrets from one another.”
Sam clears his throat. “Tell us everything, Lee.”
Leanne lays out exactly what she was investigating in the months she was in hiding—the money transactions both on and off shore. The people involved. How she survived. As she details how she endured, I couldn’t quite reconcile the businesswoman with the agent. Now, I’m irritated with myself for missing it. I don’t beat around the bush. “I’m in. What do you need?”
“Why, Ethan, I’m so glad you asked.” Leanne sketches out some initial thoughts about how to eliminate who might be hunting her. Sam and I debate the merits of which areas of the dark web we each will wallow in.
Much to my surprise, it involves a phone sex business based in North Carolina. “You’re kidding. Those still exist?”
Sam chuckles. “Internet porn just isn’t good enough for some people. They like a live voice.”
Thorn names the amount this business rakes in and we each whistle. “More than just a few people like this business. Q?za already determined most of their clientele is from overseas.”
Leanne confirms, “Someone on the inside isn’t just laundering the money; they’re dry cleaning it and wrapping it up with a pretty bow.”
I question, “You can’t get in deeper?”
“Not on my own.”
“You won’t have to,” I assure her decisively not just because of the fact she’s been a colleague but because of the fact the company in question is based in Seven Virtues.
And I’ll do anything to protect my Fallon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
SEVEN VIRTUES, NORTH CAROLINA
HomeGoods is having a sale this weekend. We expect to see every family member associated with the Freeman/Marshall/Hunt clans shopping.
Stalk your favorites with a modicum of class, people.
—Viego Martinez, Celebrity Blogger
“I’ve got to be boring you with all these talks about tapestries, Ethan,” I joke as I lift my iPad closer.
He brings his drink closer to his lips. My eyes drift over his face as he lifts the highball to his lips, takes a drink, and licks his lower lip before placing the glass to the side. “Not at all. To be honest, Fal, it’s not something I know much about.”
“Really?”
“I could tell you how to disassemble and reassemble a desktop in about thirty minutes.”
“Now you’re talking sexy, Mr. Kensington,” I tease him.
He rolls to his side, and I get a frontal view of his delicious body. I whisper, “Is it any wonder I can’t get enough of you?”
“Hmm. That goes both ways, baby.”
I turn into a similar position, my robe gaping open when I do. It causes him to groan. I bite my lower lip before I direct our thoughts away from an intimate one and ask more about his work. “So, is that what you do in your store all day? Rebuild computers?”
“Sometimes, though it’s rare,” he replies, vaguely. “Sometimes, I help when people have problems with their systems. Things like that.”
Instead of coming off as not smart enough for a man like Ethan, I joke, “My major requirement when it came to my computer was that it didn’t crash after I turned it on.”
He smirks and it causes the gusset between my panties to dampen. “That’s the way most people are, witch. You’re not alone.”