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.Whendoes your shift end? Can Itake you out for a meal orcoffee or something? And grill me with morequestions about mymissing brother? Sure,why not.Ames turned onher waitress smile again. Sure.Why not? One good thing about the earlymorning shift, I m off byone.Give me some time togo home and clean up,and I ll be good to go. Ames went to fill coffeecups and take orders fromthe morning rush ofcustomers.The familiarwork settled her some, soby the time she facedRoss again, the flutters inher stomach had turned to a dull ache. Where can I pick youup? he asked. My apartment s onDodge Street. Themoment the words wereout of her mouth, sherealized how stupid it wasto let him know where shelived.But the town was sosmall, if he wanted to findout, he would anyway. See you later, then. Ross rose from his stooland faced her across thecounter.His eyes lockedwith hers, and his lipsparted as if he were goingto add something& ormaybe lean across thecounter and kiss her.Thenthe moment passed.Henodded, turned and strodetoward the door with thatgliding grace.Ames tore her gaze away from the back of hisjeans and went to get MaryBates s order of pecanpancakes.Sick, sick puppy, Ames.Even though the man withtoo many names andmysteries spelled bigtrouble, the way herheartbeat quickened in hispresence wasn t just aboutfear. Nick had searched everynook of the house and dugup every damn place hecould think of in thebasement.He d dug in theclearing in the woods,revealing nothing but treeroots, which, it turned out,were a bitch to chopthrough.The chances ofElliot having hiddensomething there receded by the minute.Thedocuments and currencyNick expected to find mightbe ruined by moisture nomatter how carefully Elliotpackaged them beforeburying them.Stupid ideato come here.Everythingwas probably back in NewYork or maybe with Elliothimself wherever he was.He d followed a hunch thatjust wasn t panning out. But he d been so certainElliot would flee to a placehe considered safe , aplace beyond the usualreach of the Espositos.Nick jammed the shovelinto the earth and restedhis forearms against thehandle.At this moment,he d honestly like to killElliot himself.If it weren tfor that weasel, he d behaving a normal, unassuming day at themuseum, probably writingfund-raising letters.Occasionally dull, thatexistence, but infinitelypreferable to this mess.His friendship with Elliothad dragged him back intoa world he d carefully cutall ties with.Bloodlineskept the Rossis connectedto the Espositos for life.Acrime family was something Nick had beenborn into, never chosen.And now he was back onthe Espositos radar,reliving the nightmare he dseen play out with hisfather after he tried toleave.He lifted his face fromwhere it rested against hiscrossed arms and lookedaround the silent clearing.He still hadn t grown used to the absence of humansand the presence of everyother sort of other damnanimal.Insects buzzed,birds called, leaves andsticks rustled as smallcreatures scamperedthrough the woods.Howeasy it would be forsomeone to sneak up onhim here as he blithely dugaway and eliminate him.He d even given wannabe murderers a nice headstart on his own grave.Sweat trickled down hisspine.He cursed Elliot sname and pulled theshovel from the earth.Itwas nearly time for hisdate with Ames.Time togo back to the house herhouse, as he thought of itnow and stand under theweak stream of water inthe shower, wash away the grime and sweat of hislabors.He d question heragain, find out any detailsabout Elliot that mightopen a new line ofexploration.If he felt guiltyabout using Ames, he dbury that guilt deep,maybe in one of thetrenches he d dug out inthe woods or down in thebasement.Later, as he picked out a shirt to wear with his jeans,Nick was annoyed torealize he was taking histime choosing, consideringhis appearance and howhe d look to Ames.Thatwas date thinking, and thisdidn t count as a real dateany more than last nighthad been.He sought outthis woman for one reasononly to learn more abouther brother. That was what he kepttelling himself right up tothe moment when he rangthe buzzer of herapartment and sheappeared moments later inthe doorway.Then thepretense collapsed.He couldn t suppress thegoofy grin on his face evenif he wanted to.He wasthat happy to see heragain as if he hadn t just talked to her in the diner ahandful of hours before.Her sunny presence madehim feel more buoyantthan he d felt in a long time including before thisEsposito mess began. Hi.How was work? heasked. Oh, you know, work-like. She locked the doorbehind her and followedhim down the steps on the side of the house, whichhad obviously once been asingle-family dwelling, nowconverted into a duplex. I love the customers,really.But slinging hash ishard work. She soundedalmost unnaturally perky,and he wondered if shewas still wearing herdealing-with-the-publicfront.Nick glanced sideways at her. So you re startingup the web-designbusiness you told meabout? He took a momentto appreciate her figureunder the dark-blue skirtand flowered top with aneckline that he wisheddipped a little deeper andshowed more of thatcreamy skin. Yeah.It s doing well butnot quite well enough that I can quit the restaurantyet. Starting a business isn teasy. They walked out tothe crappy Volvo he dbought for cash themorning after the shit hitthe fan.He opened thepassenger door for herand watched Ames climbinside.His gaze lingeredon her legs when her skirthiked higher. You mentioned beingbetween jobs right now, Ames said after he slidbehind the steering wheel. What business were youin before? I m a& I was a curatorat a museum.I lost my jobdue to budget cuts. Thatand your crazy brotherincriminating me in hisscheme so the Espositosare on my ass. Ames s head swiveledtoward him so fast hercurls bounced.Her alreadywide eyes turned intosaucers. Really? I neverwould have guessed that.You don t seem& What? Artsy enough? Itwas a history museum.Mydegree was in archeology,but I only went on one digas a kid, going through amidden pile near the East River.Really cool to findtraces of the everydaylives of average people
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