Lucky Girl (Lucky Alphas Book 2)
By: Mallory Crowe“Where have you been? I’ve been calling.”
“I was in the shower. Why? What’s wrong? Where’s Zoe?”
She heard a heavy sigh over the line. “I didn’t mean to worry you. Everything’s fine. But I got an interesting call from the PI I hired.”
“Was the interesting fact that you hired a PI when I was handling this already?”
“Harper, I—”
“For you to bring any outsider into this is ridiculous. What if he finds something? What if he figures out what we did?”
“You’re too close to this, Harper. We both are. An outside perspective is always good, especially when there’s so much on the line. Lucas won’t go to the police even if he finds anything. I’ll make sure of it.”
“You’ll make sure of it? How on earth are you going to make—” Suddenly it clicked in her head. “You’ve got something on him, don’t you? What are you blackmailing him with?”
“If I told you, that wouldn’t make me a great blackmailer, now would it?”
“If you didn’t tell me, that wouldn’t make you good friend.”
“Don’t throw that shit in my face. Right now I’m one of the best friends you’ve got.”
Depressing but true. “I found another box in the woods today. I want to start looking in the east side forests tomorrow. I’ll make sure there are no more scattered around.”
“Someone else has to have found one by now,” warned Wade.
“But as far as we know, no one has done anything about it. People in this town know you. They also knew how terrible your dad was. Even if they thought that you had something to do with it, they might not go running to the police. Everyone here has enough problems without adding accusing one of the richest men in the world of murder to the list.”
“Until we find out who’s putting the boxes there, I’m not assuming anything,” said Wade. “If you need to handle your business and leave, that’s fine. I’m sure Lucas can—”
“Would you please stop trying to get rid of me? I said I’m going to help you, and I’m going to. Believe it or not, I’m a pretty good investigator. Finding people is what I do for a living.”
“You’re not looking for a person. You’re looking for a ghost trying to put me in prison. There is a difference.”
“Not as much as you think.” But she didn’t want to give him any more details than she had to about her job. Instead, she tried changing the subject. “So anyway, who is this guy who you hired to replace me?”
“He’s not replacing anything.”
A likely story. “What exactly qualifies him as an investigator? What are his credentials?”
“What are your credentials?” Wade shot back, as though that were some sort of defense.
“My credentials are that you’ve known me your entire life, and if you go down, there is a very real possibility of me going down with you. Do I have to remind you that I recently saved your fiancée’s life? Don’t ask me what my credentials are. I’ve proved myself to you multiple times.”
“Fine. I’ll back off. You can’t blame me for trying to get more information on you. If anyone understands the desire to live a secretive life, it’s me. But you don’t need to be secretive around your friends.”
“Maybe I’m not being secretive. Maybe this is just how I want to live my life. I don’t need to tell you every single detail about my goddamn day to be friends with you.”
“I’m not asking for every single detail. I’m asking for some basic ones.”
She shook her head. This was a bad idea. She couldn’t handle Wade right now, and she had no idea what exactly he wanted from her. “Did you call to tell me something, or just to get on my ass about things that don’t matter?”
“I called you to tell you to go easier on Lucas.”
“Have you considered going easier on me?”
“I’m hardest on the people I care about. If you want to keep on accusing me of infringing on your privacy or getting in your way, that’s fine. Lucas is there for your own safety, and I’m not going to apologize for that. So get off your fucking high horse and, for once in your life, listen to somebody else.” The next thing she knew, Wade had hung up and the line was dead.
