Page 25 of Dangerous Command
“Come sit with me,” she said.
“I’m here to work. Not chat,” I winked.
“Well… You can clean the rooftop patio, right?”
I smiled. Like I said, the distraction was welcome. I followed her to the patio. There was a small square of grass big enough for one person and flowers blooming in the planter box. I was surprised Wil hadn’t managed to kill them yet. Was Ellie taking care of them?
I lifted the broom and Ellie shook her head. “It’s already clean. Don’t worry.”
It must have made her uncomfortable to have someone cleaning for her, especially someone she knew. But I didn’t mind. I had been doing this for years.
“Maddie,” she said. I shrugged and sat beside her on the long couch.
“How’s married life?” I asked. Her wedding to Wil hadn’t been too long ago.
A twinkle shimmered in her eyes. “Between taking care of Jimmy’s and dealing with the Midnight Miles stuff, we make sure that every minute alone counts.”
Was that dirty, or loving? Knowing them, it was probably both.
“You love him,” I said.
“Of course I do,” she said. “What about you? What’s going on with Derek?”
The truth was that there was nothing going on with Derek. I had always enjoyed flirting with him because of that predatorial look in his eye, like he chose never to look away from me. Because he didn’t want to. And I had yet to see him look at another woman that way.
But it was easier to be alone. I had Mack to take care of; I couldn’t let anyone, besides maybe Lucy, get close to us. The disappointment would break me.
“He thinks I’m a good guide to Brackston,” I said. “We’re trying to find Muro.”
She raised a brow. “Nothing else?”
“You know Derek. It’s work, work, work with him.” I removed the broom from the dustpan and wiped it in front of me, the dust particles going back and forth on the cement. I admit that I liked that about him too. We both understood the value of hard work. “Speaking of which, you used to live in Pebble Garden, right?” Ellie nodded, and I continued, “I’m living there now. Anything you know that might relate to Brackston or Muro?”
She looked out to where the forest met the beach.
“It’s always hard for me to think back,” she said. I had forgotten about that; Ellie had memory problems. “You know, now that I think of it—before I left, my sister had disappeared, coerced into the Skyline Shift too. But I didn’t know that at the time. The police lost interest pretty quickly. Told me she had probably eloped.” Her eyes met mine, and a hint of dread was in them. “They probably knew what was going on, right?”
My stomach dropped. “If Muro had ties in Pebble Garden, then yes.”
Pebble Garden and Brackston were an hour-long drive between each other, but Muro’s greed stretched far and wide, with a plan to take over the entire country, starting with our state first. At one time, he had small ties to many of the different states, before the Adlers dismantled those arrangements too. It wasn’t a stretch to think that he had once had a local town, like Pebble Garden, under his palm too.
“Do you remember any of the officers?” I asked. “Ones that seemed a little off in comparison with the rest?”
Ellie stared out at the cityscape again. “Officer Shines,” she said.
My chest tightened. “Isn’t that—”
Ellie’s eyes lit up, reaching the same thought. She immediately dialed Demi. She had been attacked by an officer with the same name right before the Midnight Miles Headquarters were destroyed. Ellie put the phone on speaker.
“Hey,” Demi said.
“Hey,” Ellie said.
“You’re on speaker. Maddie is here.”
“Hi,” I added.
“What’s up?”
