Page 49 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

The barman snapped the top off the bottle and placed it down in front of me.

“And one for the pretty lady over there – whatever she’s drinking,” I said, nodding in Leah’s direction.

The barman turned to see who I was talking about then nodded. I watched him mix her drink and deliver it to her, indicating towards me when she enquired about its arrival.

Leah’s face lit up as she eyed me. She held the drink up and mouthed a thank you, eliciting a scowl from the old guy trying to pick her up. I smiled a fraction, giving her an intense look that spoke of nothing but lust. She licked her lips in return.

We kept this interaction up for a while longer, until the old guy got the hint and stormed off in a huff. Not long after that, Leah slid off her stool, giving me a flirty glance, and sashayed off towards the bathrooms.

I watched her the whole way until the door closed behind her swaying hips, then threw back the rest of my beer and followed.

Leah was checking the stalls for occupants when I slid in through the door. She gave me a little nod to confirm we were all alone before exhaling quietly and giving me a grin.

“How’ve you been, Patch?” she said softly.

Leah had called me Patch since the first time we’d met in the Captain’s office. I’d had a sticker on my jacket that’d come off a shipping package I’d opened that morning, and as eager as I was to get to my first assignment, I hadn’t checked the mirror before running out the door. Unfortunately, the name stuck just as much as the sticker had.

I grinned at her. “Hanging in there,” I said cryptically.

She let her gaze roam over my face, unabashedly showing me just how much she wasn’t acting when she was showing her interest in me. “When this assignment is over, you and I are going to celebrate,” she said.

Her eyes twinkled, letting me know exactly how she wanted to celebrate. That too, had been something she’d stuck with since that first encounter in the Captain’s office. She’d never made any attempt to hide her interest in me. It was one of the things I liked about her. She didn’t play games. What you saw was what you got, and what you saw what pretty easy on the eye.

With long blonde hair and warm, chocolate eyes, she was hit on wherever she went. Over the last eighteen months, I’d often considered taking her up on her offer and seeing where things went when the assignment was over.

An image of Kaeli popped into my head like a roadblock. I wondere

d if she would consider any sort of relationship with me when this nightmare was all over. Of course, I’d have to make sure Ken was put away for a really long time so she wouldn’t have to worry about him coming back for her or her mother.

The thought of Ken brought it all rushing back into perspective. The smile slipped clean off my face. “What does Captain know about these fakes that are going around?” I asked.

Leah slipped right into business mode along side of me. I had a feeling she thought it was her offer that had given me the incentive to get on with it, but I wasn’t in the mood to clarify.

“We know it’s the fakes that are landing people in the hospital, and we know the fakes are being produced by someone who calls himself The Shadow.”

I nodded to let her know she was right. “I think the Shadow is Ken Lehmann. I saw his son, Aaron, at the Cross earlier tonight selling the fakes.” I pulled out the packet I’d pulled off him and handed them over. “I lifted these off him as he left.”

She lifted her eyebrow up, letting me know she was impressed, but as she took them, she shook her head. “Ken’s not The Shadow. We’ve been following him since you informed us of his step-daughter’s involvement. Done some pretty thorough digging around. There’s nothing there. There was supposed to have been at least two exchanges involving The Shadow over the past fortnight, and Ken’s been under our watch the entire time.”

I frowned. It had to be Ken. “He could still be working from a distance. His kid knows something. I’m sure of it. He just had that look about him. One minute he was all cocky and arrogant, and the next he looked like he was about to have a full blown panic attack.”

Leah shook her head. “Captain’s positive it’s not Ken, but we do know the originals that are being crushed are confirmed to be genuine Mr. X’s.”

I nodded to let her know I already knew that. I did a quick mental recap of all TJ’s buyers. Ken was the only one who’d been buying more than usual.

I sighed. Captain had a rep for having a sixth sense about these things. If he didn’t think Ken was The Shadow, then chances were he was right, but I didn’t want to rule it out on gut instinct alone.

“TJ pulled a seller off the corner this morning. Vinnie’s pulled all the data off his cell, including The Shadow’s supposed number, so we can probably test it out. I have a line to his step-daughter, so I could get her to watch him when we try.”

Leah shook her head again, this time with an exasperated expression. “Come on, Patch. She’s a known drug dealer’s step-daughter. You can’t let her get to you like that. Chances are, she’s just as dodgy as he is. I’ve been watching her at school. She’s just good at playing little miss innocent.”

I felt myself tensing up at her skepticism of Kaeli. I started shaking my head before she’d even finished speaking. “No way, Leah. You’re reading her wrong. Trust me, Kaeli’s not involved. She’s a victim in this.”

Leah rolled her eyes and growled. “Jesus, Patch. Just because she looks good in a skirt, doesn’t mean she’s a victim. She’s probably getting some fancy car for a graduation present in return for her services. You can’t let her get to you like that. You’ll end up letting the whole operation go to shit, and for what? Because a pretty school girl batted her eyelashes at you?”

I blinked at the bitterness in her voice. I knew the situation with Kaeli could look as though she was playing the game, but I had no doubt she was innocent. Anyone who spent five minutes with her should know that. I didn’t know where her bitterness was coming from.

“I know what you’re saying, Lea, but you need to trust me on this one. Kaeli’s as innocent as they come. She’s only in it to keep her mom safe.”

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