“That’s fucking lucky because I’m done lying around the house or needing an army to go anywhere!”
“Oh, we’ll still have a bunch of guys with us, probably, but listen,” I said, sitting down at her side.
After a quick conversation sharing everything that Legend had said, she laughed, then patted my shoulder. “Let me go get ready for lunch. Maybe I’ll dress up, too.” She tapped the pink diamond pendant that swung from my necklace and winked.
If Diedre wanted to go without a baseball team’s worth of bodyguards, she didn’t get her wish, but she didn’t say anything about the cars that pulled in alongside ours in the parking lot for the pub. I understood why the extra guards got on her nerves. The men who exited the cars looked somewhere between irritated and bored. A few seemed slightly jumpy, glancing all around and making it clear they were on the watch for danger. If the security team did the same thing they’d done yesterday, they would just stand near the cars and smoke while we went inside to do our thing.
The pub—Marco’s—was in a historic building with decorative wrought iron railings that reminded me of lace. The same type of wraparound porch I’d seen at other places in town curved along the outside. The exterior walls were cream-colored brick and the black trim around the windows popped. It looked nice, and I was excited to be going somewhere new.
“Be a gentleman!” Diedre said to Hero, who was driving.
With a sigh, he got out and opened her door, and Danger, who had been in the passenger seat, opened mine for me. I smiled at him and stood, clutching a large envelope and the handle of a small paper bag. Cyclone pulled her purple vehicle into a spot directly beside ours and waved. I liked what she was driving. It reminded me of a Jeep Wrangler. Her red hair flashed in the sunshine as she moved around, grabbing her purse.
I waved back with a real smile.
By two o’clock we were sitting at an outdoor table overlooking a river, like Legend had promised. The water was a beautiful glittering ribbon. The company was the best I’d ever had. Everything was going smoothly. The table was set with a white cloth, but other than that, the place wasn’t too pretentious.
“I’m feeling as sneaky as a superspy,” I whispered to Cyclone, who shook her head and smiled.
She tapped the side of her nose. “You look a damned sight better than Bond, though,” she said with a laugh.
I shrugged, fluffing up my skirt. It still felt like skydiving to be out dressed up this way with the sunshine beating down on my shoulders. I wasn’t hiding in the middle of the night while pretending my clothing choices were only a sex thing—I was beingmyself.
And I loved it.
And no one had made me feel strange or out of place when we were seated. I’d just been handed a menu like everyone else. I tapped the envelope and waited for Cooper to show up. I enjoyed people watching, so I had a good time scoping out the midafternoon crowd. A lady nearby was wearing a yellow sun hat that the servers kept bumping into, and I grinned when she turned to glare at a man who gave her a sheepish smile. She took the hat off and swatted at him, and he laughed, so he must know her.
“Tell me a little about what you did in Miami,” Danger said, surprising me. Legend’s brothers didn’t speak much. He scratched his neck, and I tried not to stare at the sword tattoo there. Behind the sword there were two wings—one from an angel, the other from a demon. I wanted to ask a million questions about the design but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.
I shrugged. “You know, whatever needed to be done, mostly. I did a lot of standing around and keeping tabs on people.”
Hero leaned forward and pushed the long hair from the top of his head back when it slid down in front of his eyes. “That’s hard work. I hate it. Can’t stand it. Give me something I can do and go home again.”
Shrugging, I flushed. “Well, it’s okay for me. I don’t know why, but I like seeing the world, feeling the wind on my face. You know, just being outside or standing around is fine as long as it’s for a purpose.”
“You’re a strange one,” Cyclone said with a smirk. “I would go mad.”
“What has my little angel been up to?” I asked her with a bounce. “Oh, I bought this for her!” I picked up the pink paper bag from where it had been stashed on the floor at my side and handed it over to Cyclone.
She laughed when she lifted the tissue paper. “Is this a yellow sundress?” She glanced between me and Diedre.
“Yes, we found it at La Petite Boudoir. Along with this!” I pulled a small, knitted bunny out of the bag that was as pink as Stormy’s bedroom décor. “What do you think?”’
Cyclone sighed and shook her head. “I think that you’ll spoil her as much as her Uncle Leggy, and I’ll never be her favorite, even though I pushed her out.” She grinned and set the bag down at her side, apparently not too worried, and I couldn’t wait for little Stormy to get her dress. I hoped she would be just as delighted to receive it as I was to pick it out.
“She already has some yellow thongs that should go with it, doesn’t she?” Diedre asked, and the women conferred with each other for a few minutes on what seemed to be an endless supply of shoes for a four-year-old girl. I tuned out when the waiter brought the food we’d ordered, keeping an eye on our surroundings.
The photo I’d been shown of Cooper meant he wouldn’t be difficult to pick out of a crowd. He tended to wear bright colors and teased his white-blond hair into a style that resembled a pompadour—which I hadn’t seen anyone wear in real life since I was in high school. Those interesting style choices were topped off by a sharp shark’s smile, and he was supposedly shorter than me, which would put him somewhere around five foot three.
We took our time eating, and my strawberry salad was good, but I was beginning to think this outing was a bust—as far as work stuff went—when the man I’d been watching for was escorted to a table, and to top it all off, the woman from the blackmail pictures I’d seen was seated directly across from him.
“What is she doing here?” I asked Diedre, who glanced in the direction I was looking.
Diedre grinned at me. “That’s Janelle Parker, Cooper’s business partner. He’s a car salesman as well as being on the council. His wife Anita knows her well, from what I heard. They go play bingo together on Sundays, like clockwork. This is sure to cause an explosion.”
Snatching up the envelope, I sucked in a deep breath. “When are the photographs being released to the council and the news?”
“Six tonight,” Hero said. He lifted a mug of beer and saluted me with it. “Go on, then.” It only occurred to me as I was standing that he might be taking notes, too, on whether or not I was okay to do jobs with them.Fuck.
