Page 33 of Wicked Ambition

“Do you see a piece you like?” Oz prompted.

“I’m trying to find something. It’s all garnet and citrine, and I’m not a huge fan of either one. Besides, the gemstones are so…chunky. The smallest one has to be five carats, and I don’t like chunky.”

Fear did strange things to people’s thought processes. Oz took a minute to find his patience. “Point at the thing you hate least. Hell, point at anything.”

She scowled up at him. At his warning look, she cleared her expression, turned back to the window, and then used her index finger to single out a pair of red dangly earrings. “Those aren’t too horrible. If the weight doesn’t make your earlobes hit your shoulders.”

Choking off his laughter, Oz smiled down at her. “Thank you. Luckily for your earlobes, the prices are stupid, so you’ll have to do without.”

“Somehow, I think I’ll manage without the garnet. I prefer my birthstone anyway.”

“What’s that?” he asked, more for the chatter than out of any genuine interest.

“Pink tourmaline.”

“I thought you said you didn’t like pink?”

“That’s in clothing, not gemstones.”

“What month were you born?” This time he was legitimately curious.

“October, at the end of the month. I’m a Scorpio.”

As they walked, he noticed the dark clouds were rolling in fast. Shit, the afternoon rains were coming earlier than he’d estimated. Just what he needed on top of everything else. Ayla wore white pants and a gauzy green, purple, and white shirt. Both would be damn near see-through if the skies opened up.

The idea of men ogling her made Oz scowl.

He wasn’t touching the Scorpio thing. She wouldn’t appreciate his opinion on horoscopes. “How close to the end of the month?”

There was a hesitation before Ayla said, “Halloween. And save it. I’ve heard all the jokes.”

“It seems like a pretty cool birthday to me. At least you didn’t have to put up with the shit I listened to about my birthday after we studied William Shakespeare’sJulius Caesarin school.”

“What shit was that?” Ayla sounded genuinely curious.

“‘Beware the ides of March.’”

“March fifteenth. That’s your birthday?”

“Yep,” Oz said easily. The conversation wasn’t the most scintillating in the world, but Ayla lost some of her stiffness. He took another look at the sky and wished he could relax, too. Not only were the Russians still dogging them, but the storm was going to be a strong one.

Baggs left the café first to follow the woman who’d come over to their table. After that, he was supposed to get the car. The plan was to lose the tail and walk Ayla over to where his teammate waited. They’d figure out what to do about the woman at that point depending on what Baggs saw. The problem was Petrova’s men didn’t seem ready to disengage, and it was going to rain sooner rather than later.

Another thought occurred to him. Would the wig hold up to a downpour?

He didn’t know, and he didn’t want to test it.

It was Ayla who spotted the bakery and brought him to that window. The display had a three-tier cake flanked by cupcakes of various sizes. Lots of pink and white, but she didn’t seem to mind the color in this instance either. Maybe stopping to buy a box of something would convince the Russians to move on. “Let’s go inside,” Oz said and steered her toward the door. He held it for her, and after a quizzical glance at him, she entered.

The shop had a few small bistro tables. They were filled, but Oz wasn’t planning on staying long enough to grab a place to sit. Unless the rains came. With a little luck, they’d be in the sedan and away from here before that happened.

“Oh!” Ayla hightailed it over to a display case.

Oz followed more slowly. Cupcakes. Some were decorated with the faces of alpacas, otters, foxes, coatis, and a couple of other creatures. Next to them was a cupcake collection with frosting made to look like flowers and a third grouping with the colors of the Toros baseball team. But it was the animals that had Ayla entranced.

A clerk came over. “We’ll take half a dozen of the animal cupcakes,” Oz told her in Spanish. “One of each animal.”

“I’m not hungry,” Ayla said softly enough that the woman wouldn’t hear her as she packed their order.

---