Page 4 of The Shadow

“I’m not positive I do—yet.”

“Meaning?”

“I was talking to one of my contacts, a friend of my father-in-law’s, at his country club this weekend. My contact was telling me how a friend of his might need our help. The guy is apparently the CEO of some big media company, very prominent and well-known.”

“Get himself into some hot water with some unsavory types and now needs our protection?” I struggle at times to separate my emotions from the job, something I never thought I’d struggle with after being in the military. But after seeing these types, guys who think they can buy their way out of anything, do the same shit time and time again, only to pay someone like me to bail them out, it’s really left a negative taste in my mouth.

“Actually, no. Shocking, I know.” Jimmy reads the expression on my face. “He’s actually going through a pretty bitter divorce and he’s worried that his soon-to-be ex-wife’s connections might find their way into his house in the middle of the night.”

“Damn, what’d this guy to do to the wife to piss her off that bad? And who the hell is the ex-wife that she has connections that’d be willing to take him out?”

“That,” Jimmy says before pushing off his knees to stand up, “is all the information I got out of him before he had to leave. I gave him my card and he said he’d pass it along to the guy. So, if he does, I want you and me on it.” He points toward me before turning to walk to his desk. “That’s why I need you free.” He reaches into the drawer and grabs the keys to his cherry-red 1968 Chevy Corvette Stingray. “In the meantime, though, let’s head over to the mayor’s office. He’s got something he wants to run by us.”

I get up and follow him to his car.

“So what’s going on with you?” Jimmy glances over at me, his hand casually draped over the steering wheel. He’s got that look on his face, the one that tells me he’s not going to give it up no matter how many times I tell him there’s nothing going on with me.

“Not much. Just tired, I think.”

“You’re irritated. It’s written all over your face, it’s in your tone with the guys. I know they love to rib you about the lady shit, but that’s nothing new so I know that’s not it.”

“I couldn’t get—” I don’t have the balls to finish the sentence but there’s no need to. The silence is loud and fucking clear.

“Shit. First time?”

“Yup.” I keep my gaze out the passenger window. If I didn’t know exactly why it happened, I’d be embarrassed.

“So what happened? You just roll over and go to sleep?” I finally look over at him and he shrugs. “Sorry, it’s just never happened to me before so I’m genuinely curious.”

I shake my head and laugh under my breath. “Yeah, pretty much. It was embarrassing, I’ll give you that.”

“What was the issue?”

“Uh.” I glance out the window again quickly. “I know it’s going to sound weird, but I actually ran into my neighbor in the elevator going back up to my apartment. I had a—a woman with me. It just threw off my night.”

“Threw off your night?” He repeats it back to me and it sounds just as unbelievable as when I said it. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“I don’t know, she’s a nice lady. She’s respectable and nice. It just got in my head. I didn’t want to be disrespectful to her. What if she could hear me—us?”

“Your apartment is a luxury high-rise. You can’t hear through the walls, no matter how much of a god you think you are in bed.” He can’t hold back his laughter. “Besides, what about the fifty other times you’ve brought a woman back to your place since your neighbor moved in? Why only think about it now?”

“It hasn’t been fifty—and probably because I saw her. I’ve never ran into her when I’m bringing a woman home. I felt like I was giving a bad impression.”

“A bad impression? Harvey, your reputation is that you bring home a different woman every night. No offense but we both know you—ohhh, wait.” He smiles and I look over at him. “The crush, it’s manifested into something more, hasn’t it?”

“Pshaw.” I brush off his comment. “Fuck that. No. Even if I was interested in her more than finding her attractive, that’s not going to stop me from getting business done. I’ve just got a lot on my mind is all and I was trying to be respectful.”

“So all that to say, the reason you’re irritated is because you have blue balls?”

I laugh along with Jimmy, even though that isn’t the reason I’m irritated. He’s wrong about the blue balls, but he’s not wrong about it being about her. I meant what I said to him; I wanted her to have a better impression of me than everyone else. I don’t know why and I really don’t care to dig into it. All I know is, there’s something about Aspen that has me intrigued and more importantly, there’s been a significant change in her behavior since she’s moved in. She’s gone from quiet and shy to downright skittish.

“Well…” Jimmy turns to face me after parking the car outside the mayor’s office. “If it does ever turn into anything more with the neighbor, maybe this could be a cute story you share with her someday.”

I roll my eyes and get out of the car, following behind him as we walk into the building. The fact that he knows my neighbor and his wife is best friends with her isn’t something I’ve conveniently forgotten to tell him. It’s a detail I don’t need any of them knowing. Unless, like Jimmy said, it ever did turn into anything between Aspen and me. But considering she looks at me like I’m a predator about to pounce, I doubt it will ever be a conversation we will have.

Chapter 3

Aspen

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