As Cate stepped out of the restaurant, slightly more relaxed than she’d been on the way in, she caught a glimpse of a gray overcoat less than a block away. Instantly, her guard was back up. “You see him?” she said, smiling up at Draco while eyeing their tail in her peripheral vision.
“I do.” Draco tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, sending a shockwave of electricity from where his fingers brushed her skin throughout her body.
She had to get away from him or lose herself completely.
“Let’s stalk him,” she whispered.
“No way,” Draco whispered back. “We don’t know the extent of his skills. Is he just a stalker, here to keep an eye on us, or is he a mercenary ready to pick us off whenever it’s convenient to him?”
“Now, you’re scaring me.” She sighed. “But what could it hurt when there are people around? Surely, he wouldn’t attack in broad daylight. At the very least, we can let him know we’re onto him. I say we walk straight toward him. Make him the hunted for a change. We can veer off at the last minute.”
Draco cocked an eyebrow. “Give him a taste of his medicine?”
“Exactly.” She grinned up at him. “Okay, we don’t have to get within twenty feet of him, but at least start that way and see how long it takes for him to alter his direction or location.”
“I don’t like you getting anywhere near him,” Draco said. “We don’t know how dangerous he is.”
“Apparently, we walked right by him in front of the bank, and he didn’t attack us then.” She hooked Draco’s arm. “Come on. Let’s yank his chain for a second or two and then go on about our own business of ditching him like the trained professionals we are.” She tugged on his arm. When he didn’t move, she tugged harder.
This time he let her guide him toward their gray-coated shadow. As he walked, he gracefully moved her to his other side. The side away from their stalker.
“Just this once,” he murmured, a frown creasing his forehead. “But it flies against my rule of safety first.”
“Smile. We’re supposed to be a happy couple on holiday,” she said, plastering a cheerful grin on her face.
“He’s been following us. I doubt we have to pretend in front of him. Whoever hired him has to know who we are and why we’re here.”
“Well, let’s keep our tail guessing as to whether or not we’ve outed him—at least until we get close enough to see his face. Oh,” she said excitedly, “we should take a picture in front of him and see if we can capture his face in it.”
“You’re pushing my boundaries,” Draco grumbled.
“Don’t you want to run him through a facial recognition database to see who he is and who he works for?”
“Of course,” Draco said. “But I don’t want you close enough for him to hurt or take you.”
“Fine.” Still, she angled toward the man in the gray coat where he leaned against the side of an ornate building. Cate stopped, whipped out her cell phone, brought up the camera, activated the zoom, and stepped back. “Oh, babe, let me get your picture in front of that incredible building.”
“Don’t do this,” Draco said through gritted teeth and a fake-as-hell smile.
“Just one picture. The folks back home have to see this.” Cate quickly backed up until she had a clear shot of the man in gray over Draco’s shoulder. She snapped the photo the moment before the guy lifted a newspaper high enough to hide his face. Unsure whether her shot had captured the man’s face beneath his hat, Cate figured her effort was better than nothing. If she’d had the cameras she’d brought with her to London, she could have done her own surveillance photos from a distance without the man being aware. Maybe Dmytro could enhance the photo enough to pull facial features out of it. If not...at least she’d tried.
She pocketed the phone, hooked Draco’s arm and let him steer her away from their tail.
After several blocks of switching back and ducking into stores and out back exits, they lost the gray-coated man.
As night descended over Zurich, Cate began to worry. She had yet to receive Brunner’s text identifying the place to meet at nine o’clock. “What if he’s too spooked?”
“Or worse, whoever he’s scared of got to him first,” Draco said.
Her heart sank into her belly, making it roil even more than it had at the thought of the banker chickening out of their meeting. She hoped, for the sake of the man’s family, that Draco’s guess was wrong.
Draco found a quiet bistro not far off the Limmat River and made her sit in the shadows, just out of the glow of the overhead twinkle lights laced through fake ivy and the streetlamp casting a golden circle on the corner.
As the time ticked away, they drank tea and nibbled on cheese and olive tapas.
Every time a cell phone chirped, Cate jumped and glanced down at hers, lying on the table beside her teacup.
“We should’ve ordered wine,” Draco mentioned.
