Page 37 of Wicked Ambition

“Are you talkingspytraining?”

“Not necessarily.” Oz didn’t look at her and Ayla found that aggravating, too.

“Explain it to me like I’m five,” she growled.

The silence stoked her temper.

“Dude,” Baggs said when it became obvious Oz would not reply, “I’m driving. You tell your woman what could be going on. I think she needs to know.”

Need to know? This was why Oz wasn’t sharing anything with her? Ayla upped the wattage on her glare, but he continued to face forward. She hoped he could sense the force of her anger. This was her sister’s life on the line.

At least Baggs was on her side. Sort of. She couldn’t forget that he was Oz’s friend first.

Pushing the hair off his face, Oz sighed and then he turned. He didn’t miss her ire. “Calm down, Pollita. We don’t know who this woman is or if she has any connection to your twin at all. Maybe she really did think you were someone else, and that’s why she came over. Jumping to conclusions won’t find Iona more quickly.”

Ayla started to argue with him, realized it wasn’t worth the energy, and returned to the question she asked originally. “What kind of training would allow her to disappear if it wasn’t spy training?”

“It could have been luck,” Oz said.

Baggs grunted, expressing his opinion onthatsuggestion.

Oz ignored Baggs. “Or she could work in security.”

“Like a security guard?”

“I was thinking more like a specialist. It’s possible she could be part of a high-level team of bodyguards, something equivalent to the Secret Service, but in the private sector.” Oz went back to looking out the front window.

Ayla mulled that over, but she had no idea how likely any of the scenarios were. Hell, for all she knew, Oz was blowing smoke, and she was naïve enough to buy it. Working in public relations had taught her to identify spin, but this was so far outside her realm of experience that she didn’t know what to believe. She put the topic aside.

“Who—”

“The question to ask first isn’t who she is—that’s secondary—the more important question is what was her reason for stopping by our table.” Oz frowned. “If it was mistaken identity, then it’s understandable, but if she came over with a purpose, then I’d like to know what that was.”

She hadn’t considered that. Ayla assumed that the woman thought she was her sister, but what if it was something else? What if she had an agenda? What other reason could?—

Baggs slammed on the brakes and laid on the horn. Ayla squeaked and grabbed for Oz’s seat to brace herself.

When they were moving again, Oz complained without heat, “Dude, I like my spleen.”

“It was either brake hard or crash. Your spleen would be unhappier then.” For an instant, he glanced back at her in the rearview mirror. “Sorry about that, ma’am. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Worry about the other drivers, not me.” Ayla considered what Oz had said before the near miss. “About that woman. What you’re saying is she might have had ulterior motives for coming over to the table. That I shouldn’t take it at face value that she thought I was Io. But that doesn’t make sense. What kind of ulterior motives?”

The men remained quiet, but before Ayla could work up a head of steam, Baggs said, “She might have thought she recognized the Wizard from his time working for the drug lord. Maybe she pretended to be interested in you to get a closer look at him.”

Oz gave her a quick glance. “I got fired less than two weeks ago. Not everyone may know that I’m no longer employed, and Vargas does have enemies, including another drug lord that he’s at war with.”

“And the group the rebels kicked out,” Baggs added. “They were coming over the wall of Vargas’s hacienda to attack that night you had guard duty. And it doesn’t even have to be because of the drug lord. We had our own run-in with them.”

“They should be in disarray.” Ayla saw Oz frown as he spoke.

“It’s been a week. Enough time for a new leader to take over and muster the troops. If she’s associated with them, we need to watch our backs.”

“Lurch—”

“Lurch would be primary, but we went in with him. If that group of motherfu—sorry, ma’am. If that group wants revenge, we’re at risk, too.”

“What woman would want anything to do with those assholes?” Oz asked.

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