AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Fine." He steps back, his heated gaze running over me. "See you in the morning, beautiful," he says, tipping an imaginary hat before striding away.
I wait in my car until Diego pulls out of the garage in his Bentley and then follow behind him. I don't make a secret of it. Trying to tail him without being seen is pointless. I'm sure he has far more experience at this game than I do. He's the freaking mafia. I've spent my career to date dealing with scammers and low-level cybercrimes.
This is my first actual case, and it was given solely as a means to an end. My boss is probably praying right now that I screw up enough for him to have cause to fire me.
Quite frankly, I hope he trips and falls on Legos tonight.
I follow Diego through the Loop at a snail's pace. Traffic is as heavy as ever, slowing progress to a crawl. A breeze blows through my cracked window, bringing a dichotomy of smells…the faint hint of chocolate from the factory, the sharp scents of the city, and the freshwater and fishy smell from the Lake.
My phone rings as a young couple stumbles through the crosswalk ahead of me, arm in arm. I glance at the navigation screen and then hit the button to answer when I see my brother's name.
Maybe he can distract me from Diego's filthy threat.
Maybe talking to him will help me convince myself that I didn't like anything about the things Diego said to me. Except…I'm honest enough with myself to know part of me liked it a little too much.
He's a criminal. You're a federal agent. Forget it, Athena.
"What are you doing?" Ceres demands as soon as I answer the call.
"Working. What are you doing?"
"Working. Remind me again why we told Ma we wanted to grow up?"
"Uh, I'm pretty sure you told her that because you hated being told what to do. I never told her that. I was perfectly fine being spoiled at home and having no bills," I say, smiling. Even as a kid, Ceres was a handful. He wanted to do everything his way. How he ended up in the military, I'll never know. It was the last thing any of us expected of him.
I kind of expected him to be a rockstar or something crazy, to be honest. He had that restlessness about him. I guess he was always a little too reasonable for that, though.
"You were spoiled."
My smile grows. He's twelve years older than I am. If I was spoiled, he played a big hand in it. Not that he'll ever admit it or anything. He swears I annoyed him, which is a lie. If I followed him around, it was only because he let me.
"What are you working on so late?" he asks, changing the subject.
"I'm tailing someone."
"Ah. Who?"
"What are you working on?" I ask instead of answering, already knowing he isn't going to tell me. He can't, not any more than I can tell him who I'm tailing. But we ask anyway. It's what we do. Neither of us can talk about what we're doing, but we want to know. I think he worries about me. I know I worry about him.
"Same shit, different day." He pauses. "You'd tell me if you were in trouble, right?"
"Ceres," I say quietly. "I'm fine."
"So you say," he mutters. "But you're halfway across the country. I preferred you closer to home."
"You mean you preferred me where you could keep an eye on me."
Diego takes a right, rolling to a stop at the intersection. Once he's sure it's clear, he takes the ramp to the interstate. I follow behind him, sure he knows I'm following him. He doesn't try to evade me, though. He doesn't speed, either.
"No, I preferred you closer to home," Ceres growls. "I miss you."
I sigh, turning on my blinker to get over into the left lane behind Diego. "I miss you too." He thinks I moved to avoid him, but the truth is, I just wanted out of cybercrimes. Busting scam rings all day was exhausting.
Most of the time, even when we managed to track them down, they were outside of our jurisdiction. We'd bring in local authorities, but they'd just pay off the police and be back in business in a matter of days.
Recovering the money they stole was just as exhausting. Half the time, it was long gone. The victims never got it back. Most of them were elderly, scammed out of their life-savings because they didn't know any better. Having to break the news that they weren't getting it back was wearing me down.
I wanted to do something more than that. Only…I'm not entirely sure this is what I signed up for, either. I've dreamed of being a federal agent since I was a little girl. But no one warned me that I'd spend most of my time dealing with men like Dennis who don't think I belong in their boys' club.
