Page 20 of Meet Cute or Your Money Back

“Fine.” The word is a boulder in my throat, heavy and hard. I can’t just sit back though, can I? Duke deserves better. My wife deserved better. She knew Drakon had been following her. She’d all but told me, warned me. And I dismissed her as though she was paranoid, too caught up in finalizing my other mission to remember the one I had wrapped fifteen months earlier…leaving a scorned man seeking revenge on the death of his brother.

I clear my throat, pushing the ghost of Jenna aside. “But keep me posted. Every detail.”

“Of course,” Hunter promises. “We’ve got this, brother.” Then, he takes off to place the other cameras, leaving Griffin and me in the yard at the side of the house.

“All right,” Griffin says, clapping some dirt from his hands. “What’s our plan for tonight?”

Tonight. I almost forgot. It’s Thursday night, only leaving two days before the gala this Saturday. I need to know everything I can about Allie before then, if possible.

“Allie’s reviewing that new fusion place downtown, and you, my friend, are going to be there having dinner for one.”

“What’s my reason for having dinner alone at a trendy spot downtown?”

“Do you need a reason?”

His brows lift. “Do you think someone will believe thatthis…” He pauses to gesture up and down at himself. It’s not even noon and he’s dressed in a three-piece Hugo Boss suit. “…dines alone?”

“I think a man as poised and confident as yourself isn’t afraid to eat alone at a hip place.”

“It’s more believable if I’m there with someone.”

“Well, it can’t be a woman because then you look like a jerk. And it can’t be me because I’ll be undercover watching from the back. So unless you want Hunter there with you?—”

Griffin groans. “Remember last time he had to play Romeo with me?”

I grin at the memory.

“It isn’t funny,” Griffin says. “He growled at the hot bartender. Actually growled at her. That shit only works in romance novels…not real life.”

“Reading a lot of romance novels,are you, Griffin?”

He rolls his eyes. “I think you should read more of them.”

I huff a laugh, unsure if he’s joking or not. “So I take it you’d rather dine alone for the night than have Hunter join you?”

“Fine,” Griff grumbles.

“All you need to do is flirt with her. Send over a drink. I need to see how she handles an interested guy approaching her,” I explain.

“Got it. Play the charming stranger, gauge her reactions, keep it casual.” Griffin nods, already slipping into his role. “Not my first rodeo. Any tips on wooing the fair Allie?”

“None yet. Just...be less ‘you’ and more ‘mysterious yet harmless flirty dude,’” I say, trying to inject some levity into the situation. “She seems the type to be turned off by someone who’s too charming…if that makes sense. Can you dial down the charm, or is it stuck at ‘irresistible’?”

“I make no promises.”

“Griffin—”

“I might be able to dial down the charm, but I’m naturally set to ‘devastatingly handsome,’ so no guarantees.” He flashes a grin that I begrudgingly admit would easily work wonders on any woman…and Allie is probably no exception to the rule.

“Keep it light. Friendly. Flirty. Don’t be so intense that she can’t stop thinking about you weeks from now. We want her to fall for a normal guy. Not Griffin the Heart Destroyer,” I warn, though part of me wonders if I’m saying it for Griffin’s benefit or my own.

“Thatcher, please. Professionalism is my middle name,” he says with a wink.

“Since when?” I retort, but don’t push it. I know he canpull this off without turning it into a rom-com cliché. And I trust Griffin. But…

I can’t ignore the twinge of unease I feel sending him to flirt with Allie, though I’m not sure why. She’s no different than any of the other women we’ve vetted and taken on as clients. And watching how a client handles a man giving her attention helps prepare us for the mission of taking them out into the world to flirt. Ineedthe intel.

Griffin is merely a tool to learn more about Allie.

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