Chapter 1
Jocelyn
Out of all themen dining in the restaurant, I wondered how many of them were liars. I surveilled area where I sat, spotting diners as they ate. The classical music coming from the restaurant’s overhead speakers gave a nice backdrop to the humming of voices surrounding my dinner companion and me.
I caught the smiling face of one woman as she gazed into the eyes of the man across from her. She appeared as if she hung on her date’s every word. Another woman threw her head back and let out a boisterous laugh, her brunette locks wafting with the movement of her head.
Second date, probably.I guessed. Likely, doing her best to make a good impression on her date. If it all worked out, maybe she hoped it would lead to marriage, kids, and a family of her own. I pondered how long after saying theirI do’swould she wind up in an office like mine, trying to find out how many women her spouse was cheating on her with.
That thought brought me back to my date. He was a liar.
Pierce Reid continued talking about something that I wasn’t paying too much attention to. Instead, I dropped my sights on his left finger. It was empty, but the barely visible tan line circling his finger gave him away.
I would venture to guess the ring was in his pocket, or somewhere like his glove compartment. He could easily slip it back on before walking in the door to his wife and two children.
A wife named Gloria whom he didn’t know had hired me two months earlier to catch him in the act of cheating.
Why is one woman never enough for men?
I forced that thought to the back of my mind and pasted a smile on my face before discreetly pushing my hand inside of my clutch, ensuring my voice recorder was turned on.
The candlelight at the center of the table illuminated my face at just the right angle, as I leaned in. Pierce’s eyes lit up as he stared across the table at me.
“Are you sure you’re not married?” I asked, running my finger along the rim of my wine glass.
Pierce’s wide smile waned for a second before he pressed his palms into the table. “Why would you ask me that?”
“I mean, you’re intelligent, good-looking, and gainfully employed.” There’s a flirtatiousness in my words, as if I am really into this guy. “What woman was dumb enough to leave you on the market?”
He didn’t respond right away. Again, I think of the many women sitting in this dining area of this French restaurant and wonder how many of them will fall victim to a man like Pierce. He was everything I described him as. The problem was, he was also a liar and unfaithful.
I squinted.
He was stalling to think of a reply.
“I could say the same about you, Cheryl.” I almost flinched at the phony name I’d given him. It was one of the aliases I used as a PI but my least favorite.
Of course, he would think to turn the question back on me—the typical response for most cheaters. I’d once fallen victim to that type of reversal. The kind that made me second guess almost everything I thought I knew. Pierce was smooth. He knew what he was doing, which led me to believe his wife wasn’t the first woman he cheated on.
I shifted back from the table and raised my wine glass, smiling. “Touché,” I said, taking a sip of my Maison Leroy red wine. Pierce had made a show out of having the waiter introduce the French wine, citing all the details, before half-filling our glasses. Admittedly, the wine was great. A little fruitier than a straight pinot noir. I decided to add it to home rotation.
Ideas of wine aside, I kept my smile firmly in place and my attention on Pierce. I was a hair’s breadth away from getting what I needed.
“You look beautiful tonight,” Pierce said, changing the topic. The way his heated gaze dropped to my cleavage, he appeared as if he wanted to feast on me instead of the dinner he’d ordered.
A buzzing sound in my head started. The sound was my pent up annoyance that I couldn’t outwardly call Pierce on his bullshit. Not yet anyway. My insides rumbled with nausea.
I laughed and batted my eyes. “Thank you, Pierce. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were flirting with me.”
“Only think? I’ll have to step my game up.”
He chuckled and winked.
My smile wobbled, but I refused to let it to drop. I’d played this role dozens of times for the clients who’d hired me. I could do it with my eyes closed—playing the unsuspecting woman out on a date with a guy she’d just met. Meanwhile, my real reason for being here was because the guys’ wives had hired me as their private investigator to get the truth about their low-down, dirty, cheating ass spouse.
Men.
I fought not to roll my eyes.
