Page 23 of The Saint

“I had a quick thought, and I’m probably off base and out of line, but what the hell.”

“I’m all ears.”

“If you see those agents again and your gut tells you something’s off… I want you to listen to your gut.”

She rolled her lips together. Gone were the warm and fuzzy feelings that had enveloped her like a safe cocoon. He knew better than she, and his words sounded a lot like a warning. She trusted him. As random and unknown as he was, he was the only person on her side.

“Do you know who they are?” she asked.

“No. I swear, but… you never know in my line of work.”

“The super-secret phone-answering profession.”

He chortled. “Yeah. Exactly. Those are my people, even if they’re not. We’re all in the same orbit, like you said. We all have our motivations and marching orders. Sometimes it gets a bit murky.”

“Murky?”

“You should watch out for yourself.”

Concern needled the bottom of her stomach. He was validating what she sensed.

“Do you know more than you’re telling me?”

“I swear I don’t. But I know the system, and that’s enough to listen to your instincts. Promise me?”

Her instincts said Camden was where she should put her trust. If she didn’t know which way was up, she would ask him. Her sister had trusted him—even if it hadn’t been Camden specifically. That was what Amelia would lean into.

“I promise.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Camden sat at the bar on the far barstool in one of the restaurants that his teammates weren’t likely to frequent. He wasn’t sure where the avoidance came from. He rolled a glass half-filled with Coke between his palms and studied the upscale space.

Titan Group’s Abu Dhabi headquarters was as far away as Amelia Stone likely imagined. Camden tried to conjure up what she might think of his workplace, but no matter what she came up with, it probably wasn’t going to be a two-tower gilded skyscraper hotel.

The building served as an exclusive hotel that catered to princes and billionaires, at least on the surface. In reality, it was an elaborate cover that brought in money and provided a safe place in the somewhat inhospitable, unpredictable Middle East region.

Jared started Titan Group out of sheer willpower, strong connections, and an unflappable sense of right and wrong. But Titan also played in the gray. They took jobs that weren’t necessarily paid for, and that hotel helped to foot the bill.

Titan’s Abu Dhabi headquarters was hard for Camden to absorb. Growing up in New Jersey, he hadn’t known anything like that existed. He’d joined the army after a recruiter promised he would see the world. Naively, he’d believed the man.

Yeah, he’d seen the world, but where he was currently was a better fit: more flexibility, more adventure, more excitement. He was an everyday guy living in the land of more, more, more, where Maseratis were a dime a dozen.

Most people were probably like him and couldn’t fathom the place.Could Amelia?She’d mentioned a creative, vivid imagination. Her words lingered in his mind and tightened the muscles in his chest. He couldn’t explain why. He didn’tknow anything about her and purposefully hadn’t searched the internet for her picture.

That hadn’t stopped Shah and Amanda, though. Shah reported on Amelia’s lack of social media with the exception of an event-planning company she owned. Amanda had needed only a fraction of a second to find Amelia’s picture. Still, Camden had refused to look.

He could explain his indifference to social media. People posted only what they wanted the world to see, and it was rarely the truth. Amelia Stone didn’t want anyone to see much. What did that say? He was curious.

Amanda had also found pages of internet hits on Amelia’s company, Events and Occasions. Many corporate and philanthropic organizations appeared to have utilized her services. Events and Occasions was also often mentioned on society pages that showed off weddings and parties of the who’s who in Washington, DC.

Camden had scrolled through a few of the company’s online hits. Without dropping Amelia’s name, they managed to share that she was an excellent event planner. She liked to be behind the scenes. She was successful and well regarded. He could see that in the woman he’d spoken to on the phone. He also sensed from her success and their brief conversations that she was someone that wouldn’t be told a cover story without pressing for the truth.

Out of the corner of his eye, Camden saw Liam walk up to the bar. He sighed, not in the mood to talk. It wasn’t because he’d been assigned to desk duty for what felt like a hellacious amount of time, it was that desk duty had given him a puzzle he couldn’t stop thinking about. Maybe Camden shouldn’t have taken a break in that restaurant. If he’d really wanted to be alone, he could’ve gone to his apartment.

Liam pulled himself onto a barstool and ordered a Coke.

Camden raised his chin when the bartender asked if he wanted his soda topped off as well. “What’s going on, man?”

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