I put my hands up in surrender. “All right. You win. Whoever you would like.”
“Thank you. As it happens, I already have somebody in mind, actually.”
“Really?”
She nods. “The universe must have known I’d start looking soon because I literally ran into this guy yesterday morning as I was getting my coffee. He even heard of the club and me. I think he’s been here a few times. He said that he was having a hard time finding work and asked if we were hiring.”
I tilt my head slightly, mild alarms going off.Some guy who was hitting on you, you think would be good for this job?“That’s a bit of a strange coincidence, don’t you think?”
“What are you talking about?”
She’s so smart and oblivious all at once, it’s laughable. “He probably was here one night, saw the hot woman asserting authority around the club and thought he could shoot his shot at you.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not? You are an incredibly beautiful woman. I’m sure any man would move mountains to be with you.”
She holds my gaze for a moment, then looks away, flushed. “You make it very hard to keep things casual when you say stuff like that.”
“I can save it for dinner. You never set a date with me.”
She blinks, then her smile softens. “Sunday night. Georgio’s. Seven o’clock.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Anyway,” she says. “I’ll give him a call on my break.”
She stands, breaking our connection completely. “That’s fine. What’s his name?”
Before she can answer, my phone rings. I pull it out of my pocket to see that it’s Ares.
“I need to take this.”
She waves me off. “Go ahead.”
I watch her walk out of the room, then answer the call. “Yeah.”
“Our friend has been spotted on your side of town,” says Ares.
Sergei. I had a feeling that was him watching me from the edge of my property. “Anywhere in my neighborhood?”
“One of our guys spotted him sitting in his car at the end of your block for a few hours last night. He’s definitely watching your movements.”
That’s not good. This needs to be dealt with swiftly. “I want him found yesterday. Understand?”
“It’ll be done.”
He hangs up. Son of a bitch. I can’t help but think of Sasha coming home from school and running into this guy… or something worse. Maybe my first thought of having somebody keep an eye on the property wasn’t so paranoid, after all.
Either way, this guy needs to be found. And found fast.
15
EMBER
It took me a good hour to get to this place. Agent Rastelli texted me the address and a time to meet early this morning. Nothing else. I guess that’s how this thing is going to go.
The hour that it took me to get here was enough time for me to think through what I’m doing… not that I haven’t been thinking about it before. The light flirting with Roman came easily. Maybe a little too easily. Just the same, I don’t think he suspects anything.
