Page 50 of Beautifully Ruined

I hand back her phone as I scoot closer. “This is a tracking app. You can also see my phone, see?”

“I see.”

She sets her water down next to my whiskey.

“This way, I can make sure you’re safe by knowing where you are, and you can see I’m good. We can know where each other is…well, as long as we have our phones on us.”

“So, if you’re The Ghost?”

I smile. “It’ll depend. I do use burners. I have to. But mostly, I work from a computer with my phone. And if we’re playing games…you can check. Once at the start. And if you feel the danger’s wrong?—”

“You’ll know.”

I was going to say she could check again, but I pull her to me and kiss her. “I’ll always watch you.”

And she kisses me back. “Kinky.”

Sometimes, I wonder if she has any real idea just how “kinky” I’d go for her.

Any idea at all.

We’re getting close movingin on that internship. But first, Enzo and I lay the groundwork, gathering everything we can on the entire Walsh family.

While we’ve done digging into the congressman already, I want this to be as thorough as we can, in as many arenas as possible.

We usually get something.

Unless they’re smart and ultra careful. Unless they stay completely offline.

Two days later, I sit back and look at Enzo.

He crosses his arms. “The congressman’s online, he’s savvy.”

“Or has a savvy team.”

“You’re the one who dug this hole, and now your brother’s girl...I mean, your girl, is chomping away, wanting this thing to move forward.”

I ignore Enzo’s dig. “Your point?”

“My point is…” He rolls his eyes, drops his hands as he shoves his keyboard away. “If there is anything worth surfacing, it will. But she wants what the congressman wants, his daughter safe. So, let her help. We’re going to be searching because apparently, it’s not ‘cold feet warm heart’, it’s ‘hard dick soft mind’ when it comes to you and this girl. So, get her in there and let her finish her internshipandhelp us.”

“I just don’t want her in danger.”

“She has us. She’s got The Syndicate. I say she’s in as much danger as any office job holds danger.”

“Look what happened at the last one.”

He says something under his breath. “Let’s just get this girl found, okay?”

“Okay.”

And I get ready to pull the trigger.

“How are the upgrades coming?”he asks me after a few hours of work.

I shrug but don’t look up from what I’m doing. “It’s done. Got word an hour ago.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”