Girl Undercover 4 & 5: Ariel & Financial Devil Read Online Free Page B

barbell with both hands.
    “So I’m thinking I’ll pick one of the places she suggested,” he said, “and hopefully I’ll get her to open up a little before I tell her about my ex. Find out what the deal with the senator is.” He lowered his voice. “Incidentally, what other government officials do you have for me...?”
    I had completely forgotten about going through the rest of the club’s members for Ian like I had promised. It had been easy to forget; I really didn’t see the point in me spending more hours combing through Nikkei’s database. I’d just about had it with his obsessive conspiracy theories. There simply wasn’t enough conclusive evidence there was a conspiracy of any kind and his delusions were seriously holding me back in my own investigation. One day I’d tell him he needed to snap out of it. Get some help if they were remnants of his days as a drug addict. In the meantime, I’d pretend like I had gone through the rest of the database. It wasn’t like he could verify that I hadn’t.
    “I didn’t find anyone else,” I said, not meeting his gaze in the mirrored wall before us that we were both looking into. “Unless there are ones I’m not familiar with, Eastwood and Chatterly are it. Since I know most of the big names, I don’t think I missed any. I spent three hours this morning looking.”
    “I see,” he replied curtly and finished his set of deadlifts. “Well, thanks for checking.”
    I turned away from him so he wouldn’t see how my cheeks were flaming. Spotting a water faucet a few feet away, I excused myself and said I’d be right back. I took my time drinking water. When I was with him again, my face had returned to normal temperature.
    ***
    Ariel was sitting in the cafeteria when I went down there to have lunch the following Thursday. She waved to me the second I entered. I smiled and walked up to her. There was a big grin on her lips.
    “Hey,” I said and smiled. “You look happy.”
    “I am. Ian and I are going out again tonight.”
    “You are? That’s fantastic.” Knowing that she’d been the one to make the next date happen, I felt weird adding something along the lines of “I told you he was seriously interested.” Instead I just asked, “Where are you guys going?”
    “To La Bonne Soup in the West Village. I’ve always wanted to go there. Great French restaurant. So cute.”
    “Did Ian pick that place?”
    Ariel shook her head. “No, I did. I had a few places in mind that I wanted to try out and he went along with it.”
    “Good for you.” Making sure my tone was light, I asked, “Have you guys been in touch a lot?”
    “Yeah, but only via text. We text all day long!” Her brown eyes glittered excitedly.
    “Really? That’s great.” I nodded toward the food counter. “I’m starving. I’m gonna get something to eat. I hope you guys have fun tonight.”
    I walked over to the food counter and placed myself behind the last person in line. The cafeteria was hopping with people as it so often did around noon. I found my phone and texted Ian: Just bumped into Ariel. She told me you guys text all day long and that you’re going out tonite.
    It took until I had ordered a salad and was about to pay for it for Ian to respond.
    SHE is texting me all day long. I’m only responding and trying to be polite. Am anticipating a tough night tonight.

    I gazed over at the table where I’d seen Ariel. She was still seated there, in the middle of texting someone. I paid for my salad and went back there.
    “Hey again,” I said. “Mind if I join you?”
    She looked up from her phone. “No, not at all. Please do.” There was a dreamy look on her face. “I just exchanged another text with Ian. He’s so sweet.”
    I sat down next to her. “What did he say?”
    She leaned into me. “Let me show you all his texts.”
    “Okay,” I said and looked down at the iPhone with the yellow shell in her hand. She used fingers that had hot pink nail polish today to