Page 26 of Maneater
I roll my eyes and shake my head before stepping back. “See you around, babe.”
He looks at me over his shoulder, his eyes burning, and I know I got under his skin. “Later, troublemaker.”
A win is absolutely a win.
TEN
JOSIE
I’m pacing when the door finally opens, almost an hour after I get back to the room. “Where have you been?” I ask like a worried mother, moving toward Rory as soon as she walks in, looking relaxed.
“At my massage…?” she asks, clearly confused. “I told you that’s what I was doing. Why do you look like you’re in the middle of a full-blown panic attack?”
I throw my hands up in frustration.
“How could you get a massage at a time like this?”
“Because we have to look like real guests here? And it gave me a chance to talk to the people there? Isn’t that the point of day one?”
She’s right, of course: day one on an assignment like this is all about meeting people, finding leads, and assimilating as best as we can.
“Yes, but… Ugh!” I say, covering my face with my hands. “I’m panicking! And you deserted me!”
“Okay, cool the dramatics. I did not desert you. You had things covered, and I didn’t think you were going to get anywhere with both of us there.”
“Okay, well, I really could have used the backup, Rory.”
Suddenly, her face goes from amused confusion to concern.
“What happened? Did something go wrong? Did he say something? Does he know about us? Gabriel said no one at the company knows about our being hired, but?—”
I shake my head to ease her concern. “No, no. It’s not that. It’s just…I know him, Rory.”
“Well, yeah, I figured that out. I already talked to Gabriel—he doesn’t care. As long as you don’t let it mar your thoughts, he’s fine with using whatever connections you have to make this happen quicker.”
I pause for a moment on the fact that she called our boss but decide to glaze over it, knowing we have bigger issues to worry about. I would have done the same if I were on assignment with someone who knew one of our targets.
“It’s not just that some guy from my past is here, Rory. He works for the company. He’s the VP of Operations!”
Her head tips as she takes in that information. “The VP of Operations?” I nod, and she continues after letting that information sink in. “I guess that explains why he wasn’t on our list of resort employees we should consider. Why is he here?”
I know she’s asking because the list we received from Annette, which included all employees we may encounter, was quite thorough but didn’t include corporate management since they weren’t expected to be here, and Annette believes this is a localized issue.
But here he is.
“I don’t know!” I say, throwing my hands into the air. “He said he had a work emergency when his phone rang at the bar, so I’m assuming the same reason as we are.”
She nods as if that makes sense before posing her next question. “Is he a suspect?”
“I…” I think about that for a long moment before shaking my head. “My gut says no. But…” There is really only one rule in the first few days of an assignment.
“Everyone is a suspect until they aren’t,” she confirms.
“Exactly.”
My logical partner nods once more, then begins thinking.
“Okay, so you use your knowledge of him to get close to him. Hell, you already hooked up with him, so it shouldn’t be hard to spend some time with him. Sounds like a slam dunk.”
