I had to admit, they were pretty entertaining. It made me giggle softly. “I’m an only child.”
“Oh, I bet it’s heaven,” Ariel said.
“Hey!” Amanda exclaimed. “I came after your ass when you were kidnapped, ho.”
“Like you’d ever let me forget it.”
I turned my attention to Ariel. “You were kidnapped, too?”
God, how did I already so quickly forget about that?
Everything moved so fast…
Ariel nodded. “Right off the street. They slammed into my car and pulled me from it.”
“Jesus,” I whispered as I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes.
“You know,” Amanda said as she nudged the bowl of jambalaya closer to me, “Ghost didn’t put those cameras in your place for anything creepy.”
Ariel dropped back into her seat with her own bowl and drink. “Yeah. He’s intense, but he’s not that guy.”
I arched a brow. “He put cameras in my apartment.”
Amanda winced. “In the common areas,” she corrected quickly. “Entryway. Living room. Kitchen. Hallway. He was following Cap’s directive. They needed someone close to the firm. Someone who might see things the higher-ups don’t.”
Ariel nodded. “You were already on their radar because of your position.”
“My position?” I repeated.
Amanda sighed and rested her elbows on the table. “Some of the guys think you’re a target because you’re close enough to the top floor to see something you shouldn’t. The others think it’s the opposite.”
“The opposite?” I asked cautiously.
“That they’re keeping you just far enough out of the loop so that if something blows up, they can hang it around your neck,” Ariel said bluntly. “Paper trail. Access. Signature authority. You’d make a convenient fall girl.”
I choked on the Dr. Pepper I’d just taken a sip of. “I’m sorry—what?”
“You’re going too fast,” Ariel muttered, elbowing Amanda.
“What? She deserves to know what the theories are,” Amanda shot back.
“Theories?” I repeated weakly.
Amanda’s expression softened a little. “Nothing’s confirmed. They’re still gathering information. But those are the possibilities they’re working with.”
The word fall girl echoed uncomfortably in my head.
“It’s also why you’re safe here,” Ariel added. “These guys might look like they eat nails for breakfast, but they’re all vets. They protect their own. And right now, you’re under that umbrella whether you like it or not.”
Whether I like it or not.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“If you help them sort through what you’ve seen at work,” Amanda continued, “they’ll make sure you’re not the one left holding the bag.”
If I help.
I still wasn’t entirely sure what that meant in practice.
