It was comical that the guy was so careful not to admit anything, even though the journal chronicling his criminal past was right in front of him. But Eddie hadn’t avoided prison all of these years by being stupid. Raider leaned back in his chair, noting the faint scent of cigar smoke wafting from the leather. “If you’ve read my sheet, you know how. I just got better at it all.”

Eddie reached over and tugged a silver ball on the Newton’s cradle set near his laptop. It hit the next ball, sending the farthest one out and then back in. “The last guy who went into business with me gave me this. He lied to me and is no longer with us.”

Raider swallowed. “It’s very nice.” He let just the right amount of sarcasm into his voice.

“Isn’t it?” Eddie let the spheres stay in motion, their clacking sound rhythmic. “So you work in credit card and identity fraud mostly. Anything else?”

“Maybe. I wouldn’t mind expanding globally to the drug or trafficking trades, but I don’t have the connections yet.” He sank into character to keep from grimacing.

“You think I do?” One of Eddie’s dark eyebrows rose.

Raider shrugged. “Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. I’m not willing to think beyond our first contract with each other until we see if it works out. You’re the first guy I’ve offered a deal to. There are several other organizations in the country I could approach. You were just the easiest.”

Eddie’s chin lifted. “It’s nice when business and pleasure combine, isn’t it?”

Was the asshole talking about Brigid? Yeah, probably. “Sometimes life works out,” he agreed, sounding unconcerned, angling his wrist to check the USB device masquerading as a watch on his wrist. “Let’s get down to business. I have five hundred million—”

“Oh, not yet.” Eddie stood and walked around the desk. “We have some business to do first.” Continuing past Raider, he opened his office door and strode out.

Raider stood and followed, acutely aware that Jonny P had yet to holster his gun. “Where are we going?”

Eddie strode beyond the round poker table to the door directly across from his office and used another keyboard before it clicked open to reveal a back alley. A town car was parked next to a grungy green dumpster.

Raider balked. “What exactly is happening?”

Jonny P prodded him in the center of his back with the gun. “Move.”

Ah, man. This might be bad. Raider spotted Josh the Bear stepping out of the driver’s side, barely visible in the rainy night. He wore black slacks and shirt with his gun holstered at his side and in plain view.