asked with a hopeful look.
“Nope.” Finn stood with her at the crosswalk, waiting for the signal to change. “How do we do this?”
“Stefan is right,” she said, either not seeing or ignoring his grimace. “You need to be prepared to act as a distraction, but I think I’ll be able to, ah, sweet talk the manager into giving me the money.”
The pedestrian sign flicked to WALK, and they crossed the street. As they headed down the sidewalk toward the bank, Finn said, “I can’t hang out inside the bank. Somebody’s bound to notice.”
She shot him a dry look. “No kidding.” They reached the front of the bank and stopped. Keira put her hand on Finn’s arm. “Let me go in first. In a few minutes, you come in and get a good look around—quickly and unobtrusively—and then tell someone you want to open an account. If I come out with a bagful of money, you can always abort the account opening and tell them you changed your mind.”
“Like that’s not suspicious.”
“People do it all the time,” she said with a wave of her hand.
“And if you don’t come out with a bagful of money?”
She met his gaze. “Then get the hell out of there, boyo.” She took a deep breath. “Are you ready?”
“No, but I suppose that doesn’t matter. What Stefan wants, Stefan gets,” he singsonged.
“Men,” she muttered. “Even ones thousands of years old can still act like whiney little babes.” She sighed and entered the bank.
Finn waited several minutes, as instructed, then went through the door. Once inside, he stopped at the center counter and reached for a deposit slip. He took a pen from a plastic container and started to fill out the slip while glancing around the bank. There were no security guards on duty that he could see. However, cameras were in several locations, and as far as he could see there weren’t any blind spots.
After a few moments, he approached the desk of a loan officer. “Excuse me,” he said.
A pretty young woman looked up from her computer screen and smiled. “Yes, sir?”
He returned the smile. “I’d like to open an account.”
She stood and came around the desk. “I think Ida in new accounts can help you out there. Here, I’ll take you over to her.” Her last few words came out breathy, and her face grew pink as she kept glancing at him from the corner of her eye.
It wasn’t that big a bank, he figured he could have found the new accounts desk all by himself, but he obligingly followed along behind her. She stopped by another desk. The woman behind this desk, gaze fixed on her computer monitor while she tapped away at the keyboard, wasn’t as young or as pretty.
“This gentleman would like to open a new account,” the loan officer said.
“Have a seat,” Ida responded in a deep, harsh voice. She didn’t look up or smile.
Finn knew he’d have his work cut out for him trying to charm this one.
She coughed and typed a few more words onto the keyboard.
He could smell the cigarette smoke oozing from her skin and clothes even without using his preternatural olfactory abilities.
“I’ll pull up the application.” She finally looked up at him from over the frames of her glasses. “Please, have a seat.”
He sat. From here he could see Keira inside the bank manager’s office. She was seated across the desk from him, her hand outstretched, covering his. The guy had a besotted look on his face and Finn had the fleeting thought that they were lucky the manager was a man. Though with her empathic abilities, Keira would be able to affect a female the same way.
As he watched, she stood and moved around to the manager’s side of the desk. She moved her palm to his cheek and held it there, talking to him the whole while. Finn couldn’t make out what she was saying, not even by employing the use of shapeshifter hearing, but whatever it was, it produced results. The manager gave a nod and stood. He walked over to a credenza and opened a drawer. When he turned around, he held a canvas money pouch in his hand. He smiled at Keira and murmured something to her. She smiled back and sat down in the guest chair. When she saw Finn, she tilted her head ever so slightly, giving him the signal that all was well. So far.
Ida started asking him questions for the application, things like his name