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I glanced up to find all three of the Vigil guys watching me. “It’s Beckett,” I said, though I had the sense they’d already guessed that. “He’s asking how I’m doing. Do you think I could tell him at least a little about what we’ve been doing? I don’t like hiding things from him. It would help him understand how we all reacted last night. We don’t have to mention the, er, illegal bits.”
I wasn’t sure how Beckett would react to finding out I’d been a party to not one but multiple breaking and enterings. I could ease into explaining that part, right? Or maybe it wouldn’t need to come up at all if we could sic the police on the bad guys sooner rather than later.
Logan was already shaking his head. “I don’t think you should mention anything about our investigation into your dad’s death or even what we do in general. We don’t know him that well. You’ve only been seeing him for a few weeks, haven’t you?”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “I know he’s not a jerk. I think he proved yesterday that he’s pretty open-minded. He was a lot more welcoming to you all than you were to him.”
“You can’t know how he’d react to information like this,” Logan said. “Youthought it was crazy at first, and it’s your dad we’re talking about. And even if he’s okay with it, how much do you know about his family? His friends? You can’t guarantee there’s no one in his vicinity who could tip off the wrong person, even inadvertently. Is not hiding things important enough to put your mom even more at risk?”
He knew exactly the right button to push. I winced and looked down at my phone, grappling with two opposing forces of guilt now.
Slade teased his fingers over my hair. “I think Beckett presented himself pretty well yesterday, Piccolina. I don’t have any vendetta. But I also think Logan makes a good point—at least for now, until we have a better idea of who we’re dealing with.”
I sighed. “All right. But if I keep seeing him, I’m not keeping him in the dark forever.”
“Of course not,” Dexter said mildly, but his expression twitched as if he’d suppressed some emotion. Washejealous?
I pushed that question aside and brought my thumbs to the phone’s keypad.Sorry I didn’t update you earlier! My mom made it through and is in stable condition now, thank God. I’m doing okay now that I know she’ll pull through. I wish I hadn’t needed to rush off on you yesterday.
He replied almost instantly.I completely understand. It made sense for you to go to her—she’s family. You haven’t gotten any more of those strange texts, have you?
Oh, hell, what should I tell him about that? I wavered and then typed,No, nothing else like that. I’m starting to wonder if I did just imagine it. It all happened so close together.
As I sent that message, Dexter made a wordless exclamation and motioned to his computer screen. “Someone’s just left something at the shell corporation’s office.”
I leapt off my chair alongside the other guys. We all gathered around Dexter’s chair, staring at the computer screen.
He’d managed to mount a camera in the hall, in a position that captured the office door at an angle. Even with the awkward view, I could see a large manilla envelope taped to the door.
“When did that happen?” Logan demanded.
“The person who dropped it off came by just a couple of minutes ago, while we were talking,” Dexter said. He rewound through the footage to show a figure wearing a baggy jacket, the hood pulled up so we couldn’t make out the person’s face. They stopped at the door just long enough to stick the envelope there and then spun around and hurried off again.
My pulse skipped a beat. “We need to know what’s in that thing. Could we go grab it before anyone from the office shows up?” I paused, and my stomach sank. “But they might be keeping an eye out for us—or at least me—there. We don’t know if that’s the place where they noticed me.”
“You shouldn’t go in,” Logan said firmly.
Dexter tipped his head toward Logan. “We probably shouldn’t either. If they saw Maddie there, then they probably know we were with her. Even if they’re not sure who we are, they’ll recognize us if we turn up again.”
“What about Beckett?” I had to say. “I know you didn’t want to tell him anything, but he’d do this as a favor for me. I know he would. And he hasn’t been at all involved in our investigations before, so him coming around the building wouldn’t tip anyone off.” And then they’d see that they could trust him too. Or I’d find out that we couldn’t after all, but without revealing anything really risky.
“Maddie,” Logan started with an edge in his voice.
Slade’s hand shot into the air as if he were eagerly answering a question in class. “Simpler solution,” he said with a grin. “I wasn’t with the rest of you that day. I can waltz on in there and no one should be the wiser. These quick fingers will grab the prize, and I’ll be out in a blink.”
My mouth twitched with a smile despite myself. Okay, that probably was a better solution. I’d forgotten Slade hadn’t been with us the other day.
Dexter reached out and wrapped his fingers around mine so tentatively that I didn’t startle even though the gesture surprised me. “It’s still a risk,” he said. “Everything we do involving these people is a risk now. Your mom is the one who got hurt. I think you should make the final call on whether we do anything.”
My throat constricted. I gripped his hand in return, recognizing that from him the gesture was as momentous as a full-body embrace. Slade and Logan waited for my reply.
I dragged in a breath. “We can’t do nothing,” I said. “And as far as we know, the criminals have no ideaanyof us came to the office, since they haven’t looked around carefully enough to find the cameras. Slade going takes out even more of the risk. So I say we do it.” I tore my gaze from Dexter’s face to Slade’s. “Just don’t get caught.”
He saluted me. “You can count on me. Now I’d better get going while it’s still there.”
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Slade
