Page 6 of Agency
Smiling, I weighed her words with a toss of my head from side-to-side. “Nah. We’ll go with exchanging names.”
“Fine,” she said with a laugh. Then: “Carmen.” Her eyes flashed as she shifted her crossed legs even more towards me. “You?”
“Morgan,” I said.
“You serve, Morgan?”
“Military, you mean?”
“Unless they’re teaching waiters how to break men’s arms nowadays…”
“Didn’t mean to be that obvious,” I said.
“Why not? Always nice to meet a man who can take care of himself. Instills confidence, especially in a place like this, and this late at night.”
“Fair enough, and I suppose you’re not wrong. But, yeah, I served. Been a while now.”
“Thought so. You have that… bearing about you.”
“Bearing, huh? Got family in the military, then?”
“Something like that. Let’s just say, I’ve known quite a few military men over the years.”
“Have you now?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Intimately.” Her eyes fluttered as she made the insinuation. “That’s not a problem, is it? I hate to hide much about myself.”
“Not here right now, are they?”
“No. Would it be a problem if they were?”
“Well, don’t have a lot of cash to buy the next round of drinks if they slap down a coin.”
She smiled at the joke about the challenge coin, and I could have sworn I saw her blush before she replied, her face ducking away slightly as if to shield herself from my scrutiny.
“Oh, not to worry, I’d have it covered. After all, you just lost that game of pool.”
“Then, no.” I leaned in a little, tried to catch her eye. When I did, which was only a split-second later, I spoke again: “Not a problem.”
“Good.” She took another sip of her martini, gave me another flash of her gorgeous smile even as those pale blue eyes continued to bore into me. “What do you do now? Since you left?”
“Sales,” I lied. “Finance software.” We always ran under fake credentials, shell companies, and stories, especially when we were doing fieldwork. We tended to go with incredibly boring industries, ones that most people would never be too interested in carrying on long conversations about.
After all, You could never be too careful, especially when guarding a woman who was suing an aging billionaire to prove his paternity.
“Are there a lot of finance companies in St. Louis? I’d have thought that was more of an NYC kind of thing.”
“Not a lot–mostly private hedge funds. But enough that the bosses thought it justified my coming out here and meeting a few of them.”
“I had no idea. Not surprised, though. Your having to come out here, I mean.”
“Oh?”
“Well, it’s just that you don’t sound like you’re from around St. Louis.”
“No? Where do I sound like I’m from?”
Putting a French-tipped finger to her chin, she looked up to the ceiling for a brief moment before smiling and bringing her eyes back down to mine. “Boston, right?”
