back to her room, the camera swinging at her side. When she reached her bedroom door, she turned to flash him that brilliant smile. “We’ll take a look at these pictures in the morning, shall we?”
She didn’t wait for him to answer. “Sweet dreams, Dagger.”
There she went—the girl and his only lead.
Chapter Four
Andie snuck out of her apartment the next morning at a crazy early hour.
Well, she didn’t sneak so much as walked out, and it only seemed crazy early because it was a Saturday and she didn’t have to get up for work. Regardless, she found herself at her best friend’s apartment on the Lower East Side bright and early, her hands filled with two steaming cups of coffee.
Spencer threw open the door and smiled up at her from his wheelchair. “Ah, the prodigal foster sister returns.”
Andie walked in to the tech-lover’s dream apartment and handed him his cup. “Very funny.”
“I thought you’d abandoned us peons for the Upper East Side.” He still wore a smirk as he wheeled his chair around her and led the way to his living room. “To what do I owe the honor?”
“First of all, I have come to visit you about ten times in the past few months since I’ve found my birth parents so you can stop with the guilt trips. Besides, it’s not like you ever visit me at my place.”
He gave a short laugh at that. Andie had to figure she was one of very few who could tease him about his reclusive ways and get away with it. She and Spencer had been taken in by the same foster family when he was eleven and she was ten. They’d clicked instantly and for the first time in her short life, she’d started to understand what it meant to have real family. Since then they’d been as good as siblings, if not better. But even she couldn’t save him from his tendency to stay cooped up in this apartment.
She walked over to a desk that was filled with electronic gadgets and devices. Some he’d created and others he used…but for what, she didn’t know. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know. Back when they were around twenty, Spencer had gotten in trouble with the law for hacking. Because he was young and it was his first offense, they let him off with a warning on the condition that he work with police as needed.
He’d been working with law enforcement as a consultant ever since, in addition to his other work, which he never discussed. But it was that connection to the police that brought her to his apartment.
“So, what do you need?” Spencer asked. He came to a stop in front of his desk with its multiple computer screens and turned to face her.
“What makes you think I need anything?”
“You only bring me presents when you’re up to something.” He ticked them off on his finger. “Let’s see, it was a box of donuts when you asked for my help breaking into the sealed adoption papers. A bottle of my favorite whiskey when you asked me to teach you how to send a phishing email. Then there was the year’s supply of bacon when—”
“Okay, I get the point. I’m transparent.” Andie flopped down onto the leather couch beside his desk. “What does coffee buy me?”
He smirked. “What is it you need?”
“Information.”
At his “no duh” expression, she continued. “Of the law enforcement variety.”
He cocked one brow. “I see. And what exactly am I digging into?”
Andie leaned forward, setting her camera on his desk. “I don’t know, exactly.” She launched into the story of everything that had happened the day before, ending with their interaction the night before. Minus the kiss. There was no need to tell Spencer about that, especially since it didn’t mean anything.
Of course, knowing that didn’t do anything to dilute her reaction every time she remembered that kiss. Magic. It had been magic, pure and simple. Sweet, and too brief, but magic nonetheless.
But not mentioning the kiss didn’t seem to help as far as Spencer was concerned. He dropped his head into his hands and groaned. “So you took in a known criminal—”
“We don’t know he’s a criminal. He’s just…in trouble in some way.”
Spencer looked up, his eyes wide with horror behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “Andie, people are not stray dogs. You can’t just take them in.”
She ignored him. They’d been through this territory more times than she could count. Don’t be naïve, Andie. You can’t trust