Page 16

“By who?” Cruz asks.
I snatch a hat from the back of the booth and flip my jacket inside out. “Amelia.”
There’s a silence. “Seriously? What are you doing? Throwing out some kind of mating signal?”
“Not funny.” I duck behind a beam. “Did you get anything from the bartender?”
“He said Hawthorne paid for a private room but he hasn’t seen anyone go inside with him. Said he might recall more if I showed him something. I showed him my gun.”
Serves the pervert right. I peer around the edge of the beam. I don’t see Amelia anywhere.
I think I lost her.
“He gave me the fake name Liam gave him. Theo Randall. I’ll look into it, but I doubt it will pan out.”
Hardly ever does.
“I also carded a kid with glasses and acne,” she continues. “This job has some perks.”
I snort. “Poor kid probably wet his pants.”
I spin around and come chest-to-face with Amelia. My body turns to stone.
Am I putting out a mating signal?
“Hi.” She beams, a wicked gleam in her eye. “Running from something?”
I clear my throat and take off my sunglasses. “Possibly.” No reason to deny the truth.
She looks me over. “The jacket was a neat trick but it’s not like you’re Tom Cruise and can disappear in plain sight. No one can be that cool.”
I lift a single brow downplaying what I’m really up to tonight. “Okay, how would Tom Cruise disappear in plain sight?”
“Well, first of all, isn’t the point to blend in? Tom would never pick a red jacket.” She eyes the bright fabric of my sleeve.
“Oh ho ho!” Cruz hoots in my ear. “Rookie mistake.”
I’m getting sick of having her in my head this much.
“And the hat,” she reaches up and tips it off my head, “is mine.”
She places it on her head, and only then do I register that the hat is black and in sparkly pink letters across the front it says “BABE.”
My throat clenches.
“It’s a little flamboyant, I know, but it matched my shoes.” She wiggles her pink Nikes. “It was worth wearing tonight just to see you in it.”
I want to smack myself. Rookie mistake for sure.
“So, now that I’ve caught you, you have to answer me.”
I realize I’ve been quiet for a long time. I’m not sure how to answer her, and therefore the best option here is to remain silent.
“Why are you running from me?” She drags the words out like she’s the principal and I’m a school kid getting in trouble. If she’d been my principal in high school, I wouldn’t have minded all the time I spent in her office.
I shake my head. Where is my partner? She spewed all that crap about having each other’s backs, and now when I need her, she’s gone ghost protocol.
I study Amelia. Which is a mistake. She’s too beautiful in a black tank and cut-off shorts, showcasing way too much of her tan legs. It feels like her blue eyes are taking a nosedive into my soul and I’m afraid she can already see whatever it is she wants to find.