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"Yes, why?" I asked.
"Well, your real name isn't Ivory? Is it?" Cooper asked. "And your last name isn't Claw."
I smiled. "Are you sure about that?"
He blinked a couple of times. "I'm pretty sure."
"It's not," I assured him. "But as far as I know Dagen is his name. Although, Asshole suits him better."
Cooper grinned. His smile faded and he pointed at the screen. "Someone named Tony Jones bought a hairdressing salon down the street. He also bought a computer repair shop. No one is going to look twice at a bunch of technology coming in and out. Have you had a problem with hackers?"
Jake's head jerked up. He looked outraged. "We have professional hackers on the payroll to prevent other hackers from hacking us."
"Say that three times fast." Cooper chuckled.
I laughed softly. "His point is, they won't get in here. That doesn't mean they haven't tried." I looked over to Jake.
He nodded. "I’ll look into it." He seemed certain he wouldn't find anything. It was his job to know if they had, as much as it was mine.
"Has this Tony Jones bought anything else?" I said, half under my breath.
"I don't know, but don't you think Tony Jones is a good name for a gangster?" Cooper said. He seemed to like the idea.
"It's not as good as mine," I said distractedly. I was checking out every name on the list now.
"Can I ask you a question?" Cooper asked.
"Yeah, what?" I said.
"What is your real name?" he asked.
I hesitated. I glanced over at Jake, who shrugged. I had gone by Ivory for so long, I only thought about my birth name when Jake or Asshole called me that. It wasn't so much a secret as just… not me anymore. And it was an intimate thing between Jake and I.
"Hey look, here's another one," Cooper said before I could respond to his question. "Two and a half years ago, Tony Jones bought a newspaper stand. All the better to spy on us with?"
"Well spotted," I agreed.
"Should we go and talk to this Tony Jones guy?" Cooper asked. He looked like he was ready to jump up and down in this chair.
"Settle down, Murder Puppy," Jake said. "Let me see what I can find on this guy first."
Cooper sat back. "There might be more."
We kept on looking, but the only other people who appeared to have bought more than one property was us.
"Why a hairdressing salon?" I said finally.
"It looks harmless?" Cooper suggested.
"Like you," I teased.
He grinned. "Exactly." He leaned in to plant a lingering kiss on my mouth. "On the outside, I look like a nice guy. On the inside I'm—"
"A murder puppy," I finished for him.
"Is that my nickname?" He didn't seem bothered by that. "Ivory and the Murder Puppy. I like the sound of that. What is Jake's nickname?"
"The only people who give me nicknames are my enemies," Jake said without looking up from his screen.
