Read Online Dead Eye (A Tiger's Eye Mystery Book 1) by Alyssa Day - Free Book Online Page B

afraid that she was going to destroy half our inventory.
    “You should talk to Jack Shepherd,” she blurted out. “He was here when it happened. We really need to get to work here, very busy.”
    Agent Vasquez pointedly looked around the empty shop, but refrained from making the obvious comment.
    “Anyway, why don’t you talk to Jack? I’m sure he’ll have more to offer you, Agent,” she continued, smiling overly brightly the whole time.
    I forced myself not to groan. I’d really wanted to leave Jack out of this. He had enough to deal with right now, and given his somewhat mysterious past, I didn’t think he’d be pleased that we’d just pointed a federal agent in his direction.
    Agent Vasquez, on the other hand, had the same expression on his face that Lou gets when I feed her roasted chicken. “Jack Shepherd is in town? Jeremiah’s nephew?”
    Eleanor’s face lit up. “Oh, you know him? He was always the nicest boy. He came over and mowed my lawn the summer that my son broke his leg playing baseball. He and Dave were good friends, and they nearly ate me out of house and home, especially when I baked chocolate chip cookies.”
    Vasquez’s eyebrows raised a fraction of a centimeter, which was apparently his version of surprise. “You are aware, I presume, that this nice boy you’re talking about spent the last several years as the co-leader of the North American rebellion?”
    I suddenly felt dizzy. “Co-leader? As in, he was the head of it?
    “He and Quinn Dawson. Then suddenly both of them stepped down, and there is new leadership, not that the movement is that active anymore. Between the two of them, their teams shut down most of the more blatantly power-mad vampires. At least, the ones that P-Ops didn’t get,” he admitted, with a refreshing lack of the “we’re the feds, we win at crime” attitude that I’d expected. “We’ve really been wanting to talk to him.”
    He saw the defiance on my face and held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Not in a bad way. We admire Mr. Shepherd, and are wondering if he might want to work with us. Ms. Dawson turned us down in quite… forceful …terms.”
    Quinn. The woman I’d seen in my vision. So she hadn’t been his girlfriend, but his co-leader? And why did I even want to know?
    I blew out a sigh. “Okay. Well, yes, he’s in town. He had breakfast with me and my family this morning, not that your stool pigeons won’t tell you that anyway. He said he had things to do, but he’s probably around. I can tell you where Jeremiah’s house is, if you want.”
    Alejandro laughed, and it transformed his face from serious federal agent to warm, approachable, hot guy. I felt a moment of envy for the woman or man on the other side of the simple platinum wedding band he wore.
    “ Stool pigeons ? Really?”
    “She likes to read mystery novels,” Eleanor confided. “I stick to romances, myself. People rarely get murdered in them, and there’s always kissing and hot, sweaty—”
    “I think he gets it, Eleanor,” I interrupted, feeling my face heat up.
    “Oh, I get it, ma’am. I like the kissing and the hot, sweaty stuff myself,” he told Eleanor, grinning, and she burst into delighted laughter.
    A charming P-Ops agent. Now I’d seen everything. Next, a ballerina firefighter would pirouette into the shop.
    “So, if there’s nothing else…” Hint, hint, get out of my shop, hint .
    “Nothing else for now. I’ll chat with a few people and maybe see you again, Ms. Callahan.” He turned to Eleanor. “Mrs. Wolf, it has been my sincere pleasure.”
    After he dropped that final load of charm, he left, and I sat down hard, feeling like I’d gone a few rounds in the ring with Ronda Rousey.
    “That man is trouble. I wish you hadn’t mentioned Jack,” I said. “It’s not fair for him to get tangled up in this just because he happened to be here when it happened.”
    Eleanor winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to throw him under the bus. I