“I’m Kennedy.”
“Opal.”
She offered a smile that put Opal on edge all over again. At the age of twelve when two girl bullies cornered her after school and gave her a black eye, she learned that women didn’t play nice. Especially with a young girl with too many secrets.
Kennedy circled her. “She’s a size two. Who’s that size?”
Every head swiveled to Sophie.
They did have a similar build, but Opal knew for a fact she was more muscular than Sophie.
“Perfect.” Kennedy clapped her hands. “We’ll start with clothes.” She circled to stand in front of Opal again. “I’m already guessing that Elin’s putting you into some kind of government job.”
“How do you know that?” she asked in a flat tone.
“Because Cipher has been using a lot of insiders who work in the government. That means we need office clothes.”
Sophie bobbed her head. “I have a whole closet full of professional clothes I wore when I taught at the university. I’ll grab a selection. Izzy, will you help me carry them?”
A stunning, curvy woman with the softest brown eyes Opal had ever seen flashed a smile at Opal before hurrying after Sophie.
Opal stood in the middle of the room, chin raised against the awkward tingle riding along her spine—the tingle that reminded her too much of twelve-year-old Opal…before she met Smith.
Kennedy was staring at her feet. “You look like a seven. Is that right?”
She gave her a stoic blink. “Yeah.”
Kennedy glanced around at the remaining women. “Alyssa’s a seven.”
The woman named Alyssa nodded, her shiny hair bouncing around her shoulders. “Heels and boots?”
Kennedy grinned. “Yes.”
“Be right back.” Alyssa shot Opal a smile that felt too welcoming to be sincere.
Her back snapped straighter but she continued to observe the women who clustered around her, going over their names in her head. So far, she’d caught all but one.
The woman was what a person could only call lovely, with a sheet of smooth jet-black hair. She was dressed simply, in dove-gray trousers and a soft sweater. No jewelry. Nothing to make her stand out in a crowd, yet her eyes were an accessory of their own thanks to the intelligence sparking there.
Another wave of unease struck Opal. She’d been in a lot of bad situations in her lifetime, but this was one of the more irritating she could remember. She wasn’t off her game—she wasneveroff her game. But playing the part of a normal woman, one who cared about shoes and clothes and polished nails, would require skills that Smith didn’t exactly teach her.
Alyssa returned first, arms overflowing with ankle boots, sleek black heels and a pair of soft leather flats. As she walked to the bench at the end of the king-sized bed and set them down, her sweater pulled tight across her abdomen to reveal the rounded curve of pregnancy.
Next, Sophie and Izzy entered with clothes still on hangers draped over their arms. They went straight to the bed piled with half a dozen pillows in shades of deep blue and laid it all out.
The woman wearing dove gray gave her a simple nod. “Want to see what they brought?”
“I guess so.”
She offered a small smile, almost private, in a way that put Opal at ease even as it made her suspicious. “I’m May. Weapons specialist for the team. I mostly deal with bombs…but this is fun too.”
Taking in the information, Opal drifted to the bed where Kennedy was organizing the clothing and shoes into piles of blazers, skirts, soft sweatshirts and leggings, more clothes than Opal had ever owned.
“Casual day clothes here. Office wear goes in this pile.”
She shook her head. “This is an op. Where the hell am I wearing heels?”
Kennedy arched a brow. “Sometimes you run in boots. Sometimes you run in heels. Either way, you’ll be prepared.”
