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She turns to me with a question in her eyes. “Is this a bad thing?”

“I don’t know. It’s never happened before. Quiet, processing, reserving judgment… I’ve seen it all, but never speechless.”

“You two have quite an operation. How the hell have you remained uncaught?”

“Disguises, roaming VPNs, untraceable phones, impenetrable firewalls, timed email deletion, excellent technological expertise, blanket business profile…” she rambles.

“And luck. Pure luck.”

“And there’s that. But I’d like to think it’s more professional acumen than luck,” she insists.

“Walker caught on. Who’s to say someone else won’t trace all this back to you?”

“Walker caught us because of his intimate knowledge of me personally. And my ass. We can’t forget my ass,” she adds proudly.

“Damn.” He sucks in a breath and shakes his head before shifting his eyes to mine. “What do you have to say about this, Walk?”

“Not much I can say. We’re working through the details as we go. I’m not thrilled with any of it, but I can’t demand she quit. The way I see it, I’ve taken on another full-time job—a lifetime of making sure she’s safe.”

“Have you thought about getting your license? Making this a little more legal?” he asks her.

“It hasn’t come up until Walker mentioned it,

” she admits.

“I’ll cover the costs, for you and Maren.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“That didn’t come out right. I want in. I want to be able to refer people to you, but I’d need to have the proper licenses in place.”

“W-w-what?” she sputters.

“Obviously, there would need to be a few contracts in place, and I’d do my best to keep you anonymous.”

“No, I didn’t tell you all this for a job. It was for Walker. I didn’t want him to lie to you. We’re not interested in being in business with anyone else. Our secrecy is our platform. People feel comfortable coming to us.”

“I know! That’s why I want in. Think about it, run it by Maren. Having a license will give you more and more access to things.”

“Won’t we have to register our names with the state and follow other complicated processes that will compromise us?”

“I’ll look into it next week and report back to you on the full process. If you’re not interested, I won’t push.”

“Actually, I think it’s a good idea to let him look into it, Emi, especially if you’re going to be crawling in backyards for surveillance and hacking into people’s personal finances.” My arms tighten around Emi.

“Fine, but this is not an agreement of any kind. It’s me allowing you to look into what it takes to become a certified Private Investigator,” she huffs.

“Marcus, maybe we should leave it as it is tonight.”

He sits back and finishes off his beer. Then he shoots me that fucking smug-ass wicked grin. Knowing whatever he’s going to say is going to piss me off, I dig around in the cushions, finding one of Micky’s tennis balls.

“She’s mine,” I remind him.

He’s smart enough to cover his face before I pelt the ball at him.

Chapter 24

Emi