He looked down at her with wide eyes.
“I read that she played a role in her father’s arrest.”
“Yep.” She hooked her arm into his again. “Like I said, not everyone here is bad.”
They made their way around the room and London led him into another room where a small band was playing music. “Let’s dance,” she said.
“I don’t dance. Definitely not in a penguin suit.”
“Just stand there and hold me.” She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“That, I can do.”
They swayed to the music. It was probably supposed to be some waltz or something like that, but London swayed with him like she was at a high school dance. She felt safe in his arms and allowed the rest of the world to disappear.
“I could get used to this,” she said quietly.
He grunted a response, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad grunt. It was just Ezra being Ezra.
“So this thing you do, how long are you going to keep doing it?”
“Not sure. Until we’ve run out of people to help.”
“That could be forever. There’s always someone in need.”
“True, but we’re working with a specific, distinct subset of people.”
“Just that list of people? No one else?”
She paused. She’d never considered that they could expand what they do. “I never thought about it. I don’t think my friends have either.”
They danced until the end of the song, but when she moved to step back, he held her close. She didn’t say anything, just waited for him to say what he needed.
“I understand why you do what you do.”
That was a relief, but she heard a giantbutcoming.
“I don’t know if I can sign on to be part of that. I’ve never done anything like that. Illegal.”
Her heart sank a little. “I’m not asking you to participate.”
“Even if I’m not an active participant, knowing makes me guilty, right?”
“I guess. If I were planning a murder, you might get into trouble for not reporting me. But this is white collar, money crimes.”
“How am I supposed to sit by and wait for a phone call saying that you’ve been arrested? How can I build a relationship with you knowing that is a possibility?”
So many emotions crashed through her. She didn’t have an answer for that. She’d never had that kind of worry over someone. “I think it would boil down to you trusting that we know what we’re doing and we won’t get caught. We don’t take unnecessary risks.”
“But it’s still risky.”
“More for my friends than me.”
“But they could drag you down.”
“They wouldn’t.”
“People do all kinds of things when they get desperate.”