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I have to get her out of my head for one more night. Finish the mission.

“Here you are, sir.”

I grab the drinks and return to work.

Chapter 4

Amelia

Whyyes,thosetowelswere very interesting. No, I didn’t know I couldn’t be in a private hotel admiring towels and pretending to be a hotel employee. Okay, I did. P.I. work is harder than I expected.

I wasn’t looking at towels, though. I was looking for Caleb’s dad. He supposedly works in the hotel, and now that I’ve been kicked out, I don’t know how I’m going to find him.

A hotel employee steps through the exit behind me and instantly engages with something on her phone.

“Excuse me?” I approach the young woman. “I love those earrings. Did you make them?”

She stops, slowly lowering her phone. “Yeah.”

“You have such a talent. I tried to make resin jewelry once. It did not end well.”

She gives me a funny look. “It’s not that hard.”

I don’t know if that’s supposed to be an insult or not. “I’m not very crafty. So, um, have you worked here long?”

“Six months.” She starts walking again, and I’m forced to follow her if I want to keep up the conversation.

“You don’t happen to know a man named Thane Harris, do you? You see, he’s my boyfriend’s long-lost father, and I’m trying to find him so I can start my own detective business.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “But like, doesn’t he have a phone? Can’t you just message him?”

Is she treating me like I’m a seventy-year-old right now? Not cool.

“I don’t have his number,” I say with a tight smile.

“I don’t know him. But I know some of the older employees,”—she looks pointedly at my shoes as she says this, and my Converse takes immediate offense—“get together at the JEWEL. They’ll probably be there tonight. Thursdays are their usual hang-out night. They invited me once, but I was like, ‘No way am I going to hang out with a bunch of boomers.’” Her eyes go to my skinny jeans now. This girl is so judgmental.

“Good thing that’s right up my alley.” I grin and thank her before hurrying away. Time to go undercover.

I stop at a thrift store on the way back to my hotel and buy everything I could possibly need. Hats, wigs, masks, dresses, shoes, and some handcuffs. All the basics.

I’ve got a skip in my step back to my hotel room at the Paris. Where I find… “Maddie? What are you doing here?”

She’s sitting on her suitcase right outside my door, looking very regal in crisp khaki pants and a white button-up. Who travels in such uncomfortable clothes? She grins when she sees me. “Thought we were overdue for a little girls’ trip. Plus, Connor and I decided someone needed to come and keep you out of trouble.”

I run down the hall, my bags swinging wildly at my sides, and wrap her in a hug. “This is going to be the best weekend ever!”

“I have to leave Saturday, though.”

“Please, I’ll have this thing wrapped up by tonight. We’ll party the rest of the weekend like it’s 2014.”

She raises a brow. “That was an oddly specific and random year to choose.”

“It was the best year and you know it.”

“I don’t even recall that year.”

“How unfortunate you missed out, and now it’s 2015.”