Embrace the Darkness (The Maura Quinn Series Book 1) - Ashley N. Rostek Page 0,97

Mark Ferguson’s file had been the next one for me to go through. He was our lead. Mark was Dylan’s head enforcer.

Two years ago, Mark’s brother had opened a new bank account. Mark’s brother who had been deceased for five years. How did a dead guy open a bank account with routine deposits of large sums of money for the last two years? I had no idea, but I was going to find out.

The amount of money being deposited into this dead man’s account wasn’t enough to cover all our losses, not even close, but it was enough to be suspicious. Mark was the key.

CHAPTER 29

Showing off the platinum wig, I twirled around in the costume shop. “What do you think?”

Dressed casually in a T-shirt, denim jeans, and the ball cap I'd bought him at the sporting goods store we'd just left, Dean looked positively bored out of his mind as he watched me.

Last night, I'd realized I wasn’t equipped to spy on someone. That someone being Mark Ferguson. The first thing on my list of spy supplies had been binoculars because…come on? Who spies on people without binoculars? I'd gotten a pair at the sporting goods store along with Dean’s hat. Next on my list was a disguise. “The black wig or the blonde?” Putting my hands on my hips, I stared at my fellow sleuth expectantly.

Dean eyed the platinum blonde wig I was wearing. This morning, before we'd left, I'd gone over the plan with Vincent and Dean. Vincent’s job was to track Mark’s phone and give me updates on his whereabouts. As of right now, he was at McLoughlin’s, a bar owned by the family and one of the many fronts Samuel and Dylan used to conduct business, I'd recently learned. Dean and I were headed there next.

“The blonde,” he answered. Without taking the wig off, I ripped off the price tag and paid for it at the register.

Sitting in my parked car at an unnoticeable distance down the street, I peered through my new binoculars at McLoughlin’s.

“I don’t know what you think you’re going to gain from doing this,” Dean grumbled from the passenger’s seat while scrolling through his phone.

“I already told you. We’re going to follow him until something happens.”

He sighed. “Whatever you say, Nancy Drew.”

“None of Stefan’s personal security are mouthy,” I murmured under my breath.

Out of my peripheral, I caught Dean’s head lift from his phone. “Then you should have picked one of them to babysit you.”

Well, there went my good mood.

“Do you think I like having a ball and chain all the time? At the end of the day you get to go home, enjoy your independence of running errands, have the privacy of going on a date, feel the freedom of just walking out your front door without having to ask someone to accompany you.” I squeezed the curved sides of the binoculars. Envy was a bitter bitch. “I’m sorry you don’t like being stuck with me. Just remember your agony is only nine-to-five. You get to clock out. As for me, I’ll be shackled to someone else.”

He didn’t respond to my spew fest. For the longest time, the only noise was the cool air being pushed through the car’s vents until he quietly asked, “Why did you choose me?”

I lowered my binoculars to meet his eyes. He was staring at me intently, waiting. “I have many reasons,” I said with a smirk. “Mainly, I don’t like ass kissers. But most of all, you surprised me. Underneath that surly personality of yours, you have a moral sensibility I find refreshing.”

He scoffed. “Just because I didn’t tell Jameson how much you had to drink at Anarchy doesn’t—”

“Then explain why you did it?”

He looked away to stare out his window. “Do you want something from this coffee shop? A drink or a cookie?”

Is he deflecting? I wondered as I eyed him. Regardless, he'd surprised me yet again by the kind offer. “A cookie.”

He nodded and climbed out of the car. “Do not go anywhere,” he ordered just before shutting the car door.

Hours passed by at an agonizingly slow rate. Temptation to give up was poking at me like a woodpecker, but I imagined shooting that annoying bird. Dean, on the other hand, was completely relaxed, not bothered in the slightest by being cramped in my small car. Fidgeting in my seat for the thousandth time, I caught the corner of his mouth lifting. The jerk was laughing at my discomfort and probably assumed