“Ingenious.” Giving up resistance, Jax circled her waist and kissed her just because he could. And maybe because her creative insanity turned him on.
“Ummm, yes.” She licked a corner of his mouth. “What do you want and what will you do to get it?”
He chuckled. “If I thought there was any way to drag you from your fun and games to a nice, air-conditioned bedroom—” He kissed the frown forming over her nose. “I’ll settle for making bush monsters if you’ll give me a clear run-down on what you’re planning with Sunshine. And tell me if you’ve received any response to your flyers.”
“You’re not going to yell at me for interfering in a federal case?”
“I did that. It didn’t help. Now I’m just trying to run interference.”
She handed him the clippers. “This calls for lemonade. You may need something stronger but beer is all I’ve got.”
“Beer works.” Jax studied the bush she’d been mutilating. He thought it might be called a butterfly bush and decided the long purple spiky flowers dangling from the “hair” made it female. He started pruning small features instead of broad ones, hollowing out leaves on the sides to indicate a jaw, leaving leafy “lips” plump. Trimming sticks into shape was torturous.
“This is pure nuts,” he informed her when Evie returned with his beer. Sweat was already pouring off his brow.
“I’ll turn the sprinkler on,” she suggested helpfully.
“Let’s go back to the fence and unbury the garden bench. Whacking the plants back should be good for them, shouldn’t it?” Pressing the cold can to his head, Jax steered Evie toward the shade. He lopped off a few of the taller weeds so they could sit.
She sipped her lemonade once they settled on the crumbling concrete bench. “Okay, what did Grumpy Gump say this time?”
“Not a thing, yet.” Jax explained how Ariel had found connections between Roark’s phone scammers and Sunshine.
“Can’t businesses all use the same bitcoin exchange without being connected?” She leaned over and yanked at a thorny weed. It broke off in her glove.
“Whoever is running this operation is uniformly sweeping the scammer bank accounts, plus the Sunshine accounts. They’re related somehow. And then there’s the question of who is supplying Roark’s dad with the names and numbers of vulnerable old people.”
“Sunshine, among others, I imagine.” She sighed and sipped her drink. “Marlene really was onto something.”
“Probably. Sunshine may only be one of many mushrooms cropping up under a huge rotting tree. Any way you look at it, they’re dangerous. We’ve been warned off for a reason.”
“More than one way to kill,” she murmured, repeating Dante’s earlier warning. “People lose their money to a scammer and feel stupid, depressed, neglect their health, kill themselves. Or they lose savings needed for necessary health care and die without medical attention. Although I blame that problem on the feds. Still, you have people being murdered by misery.”
“Politics are not the problem here. Thieves are. Embezzlers, counterfeiters, murderers, tax evaders...”
“Yeah, yeah, bad guys, nest of, got it. So what is it you want from me?”
“Tell me what you’re planning.”
She shrugged and sipped her lemonade. Jax knew Evie was organizing her scattered thoughts, not easy when her overactive mind was planning parties, tonight’s dinner, and sabotage.
“We’re just gathering information. Sometimes, it’s easier to persuade people to talk if we rattle their cages. I’m betting that everyone at Sunshine knows only a small piece of the big picture.”
“But a few know the full picture, I get that. I doubt the ones on top are easily rattled.”
“Oh, they’ll rattle if the money vanishes. We need a lot more info to make that happen though. So I’m just hoping scared people have loose lips, and we can pick up a few nuggets when they all get together tomorrow. Is that what you wanted to know?” She gazed up at him through thick lashes concealing her crystal blue eyes.
“So you’re just going to explode party favors and see what happens?” That would be typical.
“Well, if Reuben can dig into a few accounts with that IRS scam, it might be more than party favors, but yup. That’s the basic game plan. I think our ghosts are quite creative, if I do say so myself.”
Jax groaned and closed his eyes. “Ghosts?”
She patted his hand. “Not real ones, silly, although if Marlene can show up, that would be a bonus. Just think Halloween Haunted House with cute little ghosties popping from the walls and floating about a bit. Reuben is really into haunted houses. We’ll have to have one this year.”
Jax tried not to imagine a roomful of gangsters shooting at floating blobs. “You installed cameras?”
“Silly question. Of course, if we’ve made them paranoid, eventually they’ll smarten up and start searching for equipment. We’re probably blowing the fed’s chances to bug them.” She shrugged.