camera, so I could stay on his ass. As much as it allowed me to blend, for this I
needed to be invisible, and wearing a three-thousand-dollar necklace wasn’t going to work. If I had worn my pocket-crazy cargo pants this morning, instead
of jeans, I could tuck the camera away and call it good. Since that wasn’t an option, and the Jeep was in a parking lot a block over, I needed somewhere else
to stash my camera. Somewhere close so I wouldn’t lose Ramirez.
Ramirez took another drag on his cancer stick as he texted with one hand. I
was running out of time.
Light from the nearby bookstore beckoned. I dashed out of the shadows and
ducked into the bookstore. There was a coffee shop just inside. A man stood behind the counter, and light glinted off his wire-frame glasses as he tracked my
entrance. He shot me a warm smile. “Back for more coffee, young lady?”
Returning it, I noted his hand-printed name on tag tacked to his shirt. “Hey,
Dave, can you do me a favor? There’s something I want to check out and I don’t want to lose or damage this.” I pulled my camera off my neck, wrapped the strap
around it, and handed it over. “Could you hold this for me? I’ll be back for it.”
“Sure.” He took it and tucked it on a low shelf behind him. “We close at ten,
I can hold it ‘til then.”
“Thanks.” I scribbled my cell number on a scrap of paper, then added
Kayden’s name and number, just in case. “If I don’t make it back, I’ll send my
friend to pick it up.”
“Sounds good.”
After giving him a quick wave, I was back out on the street. Thankfully, Ramirez hadn’t moved while I made my drop-off. In fact, he was still focused on
his phone.
“What the hell are you doing, Arden?” Kayden’s voice was a low hiss in my
ear.
“Getting ready to follow my target. If you can, pick up my camera on the way to the Jeep, will you? Dave seems nice enough and all, but that camera cost
me a pretty penny, I’d like it back.”
“Then why the hell did you give it to him?”
I dodged a young mom, her stroller, and her over-excited dog. “Because I’m
going to stick to Ramirez’s ass when he moves.”
“We are not splitting up.”
“If he moves, I move.” A litany of oaths came back, but I ignored the angry
man in my ear, and worked my way up the street, closing in on Ramirez’s position. “Something’s up, because he’s way too focused on his phone.”
Sure enough, my target took another drag, then dropped the cigarette and
crushed it beneath his foot. He checked his phone once again and then slid it back into a pocket, before stepping into the current of bodies crowding the sidewalk and headed away from The Dragon.
“He’s on the move.” My pulse sped up. “Maybe Ellery’s calling him off of
Hobbes?”
“If he’s working with Ellery.” There was a hard edge to Kayden’s voice, but
at least he stopped cursing.
“Only one way to find out.” My stomach churned with a noxious mix of anticipation and terror.
“Keep the line open and watch your six, dammit,” Kayden bit out.
“Roger.”
“Arden, be careful.” That was Bishop. “Shaw, I’m sending Wolf out to pick
