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“What makes you think he’ll speak to you?”
“Because,” she purred and raised a brow, “he just so happens to enjoy American women.” I could hear the disgust in her voice.
“When and where?”
She laughed darkly. “No, Paul. You made it perfectly clear where we stand. I work alone.” She turned to leave, and I caught the back of the dress and saw it mirrored the front. The curve of her spine made my knees weak. Christ, I forgot what it was like to be around a single woman. I thought of the wives at Shadows. They were almost like sisters. Nicole was definitely not a sister. She was something else entirely.
“Shit.” I turned away and hated the feelings her body drew to the surface. When I left Talya in Mexico, I promised myself I wouldn’t look at another woman again because of what I did for a living. Life had proven to me over and over that I wasn’t meant to find happiness that way because it always had to come to an end. Now more than ever, I needed to focus on anything but a woman. Especially one who would rather see me hit by a bus.
I watched from outside the shop as she bought a pair of shoes and earrings. She paid and headed out.
“You done?” I asked, and she rolled her eyes. “I figured we should get something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.” She turned away, and I moved to block her path.
“Yes, you are.” I didn’t mean to sound knowing. “Everyone needs to eat, and we are not done talking.”
She looked across the street when something caught her eye. “Let’s go this way.”
I wanted to ask what she’d seen but instinct told me to follow.
She seemed to relax and never said another word. We found a food truck a few blocks away and ordered some tacos. We sat at a table under some twinkle lights, and to my delight, she ate heartily. I hated girls who didn’t eat; it wasn’t real.
“I spoke with the team.” I figured I should break the silence since I shut her down last time. She kept eating. “It’ll be an adjustment, but we’ll work with you. More than anything, we need to be able to trust you and know you trust us.”
“What’s messed up is that you’re an American soldier. You had my trust from the start. It was you who broke it. You accused me of following you, then you insulted me and yelled at me rather than just ask me about the birth certificate. I understand you’re here to do a job, but so am I.”
“Nicole, I?—”
“Let me finish, Paul. I need you to respect my job and not belittle me because I don’t wear camo and carry a rifle. We’re all working toward the same goal, and until you can see that, I don’t think we can do this.”
I pressed my lips together and knew she had every right to call me out. I came at her in the wrong way, but she didn’t know how personal this whole thing was. Not that I’d tell her.
“You’re different than the other guys.” She brushed her fingers free of cilantro. “You seem heavier, more uptight.”
I nodded. “Maybe I’ve had more than my fair share of heavy.”
“I can understand that statement.” She sighed then reached into her bag and handed me an envelope. “One of us needs to start the trust train. I guess it’ll have to be me.”
I looked inside and saw my son’s birth certificate. It was the original. This copy wasn’t redacted, and a million emotions ran through me as I read Tayla’s name, then next to it, Eric Noah. I blinked away sudden tears before she could see them and swallowed hard. She’d named him after me. The old me.
“Thank you.” I quickly tucked it in my pocket, worried that I would show how much it affected me. Suddenly, her eyes shifted over my shoulder and her expression fell.
“What?” I went to turn, but she grabbed my hand to stop me.
“We’re, what, ten minutes from the hotel, nestled between two buildings next to a taco truck?”
“Right.”
“So, what are the odds the man from the restaurant would be here?”
TWELVE
NICOLE
“Pretend to take a selfie and try and get a clear shot of his face.” He handed me his phone. I smiled and pretended to pose and snapped a few in a row then handed it back to him.
“I’ll send this to Cole to run through our database and see if anything comes up.” I kept my eye on the sleazy French man and wondered how long he had followed me. “He still there?”