“Of course,” Cash answered with a sly smile. “Consistency is one of my best qualities.”
Fox laughed. “So you’re spending the next few weeks clubbing around Manhattan? I hope the kid isn’t too much of a spoiled brat.”
Cash prickled. “He’s not at all, actually. Well, that might be an exaggeration. He seems like a sweet guy, though. Just a little lost. His family provides him a sizable trust fund and a nice apartment, but he gives the entire paycheck to charity.”
“Odd,” Fox grumped.
“It is. He has a bodyguard, too. The man just got started in security after a lot of years working as a thief in Albany. Just small-time stuff with his friends, but he’s caught my attention.”
Fox waggled his eyebrows. “Caught your attention, hey?”
“Not like that.” Cash had too many other things to focus on. He wasn’t about to let his dick distract him. He just found the energy between Raiden and Lawrence weirdly compelling, and since it was his job at the moment, it only made sense to try to figure things out. “I’ll run a little more background research on him and make sure there aren’t any loose ends I’m missing.”
“You’re always so thorough,” Fox joked, jumping back up to his feet. “They teach you that in the classroom?”
“Absolutely not. In the classroom, we just learned how to jerk off senators and bribe public officials. I had to learn research skills all on my own.”
“Just make sure you’re careful,” Fox cautioned again. “Reed can be impatient, and he’s not shy about using violence when he wants to get his way.”
Cash and Fox exchanged quips for a while longer, but soon enough, Cash’s sometimes-colleague snuck back off into the night. Cash went back to his desk and turned his attention to poking through some dossiers Reed had sent over, profiles of Horizon executives that Cash cross-checked with his own research on the men. Quickly, though, his thoughts drifted back to what Fox had warned him about.
He’d heard plenty of stories about Reed; he wasn’t surprised about that part. Cash had been working in Manhattan long enough that he was familiar with all the major players. But Fox knew that Cash could hold his own, and they’d each tumbled with men much worse than Reed could ever be, so why the warning?
He made a note to be more cautious and maybe start to poke around in Reed’s business, too, just to be safe. A few hours later, he finally yawned and started to make his way to bed. Lawrence would be meeting some friends for brunch in a few hours, and Cash found himself looking forward to running surveillance and laughing along to their gossipy conversation from the side.
And anyway, he wouldn’t actually be watching Lawrence from afar much longer. Soon enough, the background research would be done, and Cash would go in to make real contact. When that happened, he’d really see what the bodyguard was worth.
