“So, what are your plans for tomorrow’s board meeting?” Roark asked cautiously.
Evie beamed. “Reuben, did you plant the ghosts?”
* * *
With Roark outof the house when she woke up, Ariel sighed in relief and returned to her routine. After that mind-bending kiss, she needed to recover her equilibrium.
She did her exercises and took her shower. She fed Mitch Turtle, sat down at her desk, and checked email.
Pris sent enthusiastic gratitude. After hearing from everyone at the phone bank, her mother had very reluctantly agreed to block her gentleman caller. She’d booked an appointment at the eye doctor.
Find her a boyfriend?Ariel emailed back, even though she thought phone smashing was the best solution.
Finding boyfriends wasn’t exactly easy, Ariel knew. That had been a foolish thing to say.
Roark wasn’t here to prepare her first meal of the day. She fixed tea and toast and ate a peach.
But when she returned to her numbers, she couldn’t summon her usual excitement at watching a spider web of finance unravel. She had an inexplicable urge to know the people behind the numbers.
Roark knew how to research people. He could teach her. But he’d run off into the real world where she couldn’t easily go. Or had any reason to go.
She had a bike now. She could ride into town. Why would she?
Oddly unhappy without Roark’s energy vibrating her walls, she returned to tracking the cryptocurrency related to his father’s nasty business. An unsophisticated person like his father wouldn’t even know bitcoins existed. The trail was cold this morning, since Roark had emptied the bank account. But there had been other bank accounts buying cryptocurrency through this dealer.
She just hadn’t been able to hack the dealer’s password. But she could hack into the bank accounts buying from him.
She had quite an interesting list by the time Roark returned. Her mind instantly emptied of anything except last night’s kiss.
No one had ever kissed her before. She usually didn’t like being touched.
She wanted to be kissed again.
Roark’s touch—had awakened parts of her better left sleeping. He’d be gone any day. There was no purpose in learning what she couldn’t have.
And still her stupid pulse picked up pace when she heard him enter the back door.
She had a right to be curious, didn’t she? Maybe she’d never exhibited interest in others because they weren’t interesting. Roark was. And exciting and annoying and...
Breaking routine, she printed out her bank account list and took it back to the kitchen where he was throwing chopped onions into a pot while texting one-handed. At her entrance, he glanced up, and a huge grin spread across his dark face.
“Cher! To what do I owe this honor?”
Honor? She studied him quizzically, then laid the paper on the table and repeated the words she’d memorized. “Your father transfers money to Bytes Unlimited once a week.”
Roark flung a handful of garlic into the onions, then set down his phone. Stirring the pot, he gestured for her list. “Da knows not’ing of bitcoins.”
“Someone empties his checking account down to the minimum balance.” She handed him the list.
He frowned. “He don’ know not’ing about minimum balances.”
“Someone does. They clear it out once a week.”
He frowned at her list, stirred his onions, and added more garlic. “And the money goes to Bytes Unlimited?”
“Bitcoin dealer, yes.” She pointed at the list. “Other accounts buying from that dealer follow similar pattern.”
Her strained effort at communication had his full attention, she realized with relief.