“But you probably would have,” Sandra pointed out.
“No, I wouldn’t.” She’d thought about this all night long. She’d sat up in her lonely bed and wondered if she would have been able to resist him if he’d decided to seduce her. Would she have turned down those lips on hers? Told him she didn’t want those big hands on her body? Perhaps not, but the choice had been taken away from her and the choice was the whole point.
Sandra shifted and looked around her. “You sure about that because he’s pretty hot.”
She didn’t need to go there. Deflection was her friend, and the truth was she needed to do her job. “Do we have any information on our pickup man?”
Sandra looked like she wanted to argue but she merely sighed and moved on. “We know he’s on the island.” She glanced to her right, nodding. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
Greg Hutchins eased behind the bar. He was carrying a tool kit. He was not much older than Drake, but somehow he seemed more mature. There was a calmness about the man they called Hutch that she found soothing. “I need to move the camera over the bar. It’s not getting the coverage I want. I thought I could bring our friend up to speed while I work. No one should question it since it’s my actual job.”
Sandra went to work on another batch of piña coladas. “Anything new?”
He went up on his toes and started playing around with the small camera that covered this section of the bar. “Yeah, he’s definitely here on the island. Our spy came in on a fake passport. He flew from Seoul, but we think he was in North Korea last week. I got off the phone with Tag a few minutes ago and he’s found some interesting tidbits in the world of banking. Looks like the assistant recently took out a five-thousand-dollar loan, and yet that money isn’t in her account. She’s either got a secret one we haven’t found yet or she made a big purchase in cash.”
“Or she hired someone for a job they don’t want on the books.” Like running them down the night before.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Hutch said. “But I also know the other two have some very complex monetary situations. They’re both old money, and old business money at that. I’m going to have our forensic accountant take a look at it, but I think we’re going to ID our suspect in person before we track them down financially. I’m taking the late shift the next couple of days and if I see anything, I’ll give you a call. Sandra and I are in constant contact, and we can’t seem to ditch the kid.”
“Apparently Sandra’s giving him lessons,” she replied wryly.
Hutch frowned Sandra’s way. “That was her choice. I tried to tell her I could plant some bugs he’ll never find, but she chose to go this way. You know he’s young enough to be your son.”
Sandra rolled her eyes. “My daughter is way older than Drake. You have to get them young, Nina. You’re right to dump that pretty boy. He’s what? Thirty-two? You know what they say about old dogs. My little puppy there is learning lots of new tricks.”
Drake set his tray down. “Tricks? What new…” He flushed. “Seriously? I didn’t think we were going to talk about that. Like that’s private.”
“Not if I get you in a club it won’t be. I think you’ll like a little humiliation play.” Sandra replenished his supply of fruity cocktails.
“I will not,” he said in a way that made Nina think he might. He picked up his tray and turned. “People are talking, Ms. Blunt. And they’re watching you.”
Then it was time to go. She picked up her martini and turned, bumping into a mass of muscle.
“Hey, I think we’re about to go in to dinner.” JT loomed over her. “We should probably sit together.”
“You should definitely sit together,” Drake said under his breath before he stalked off.
“He’s a handful, but look at that tight little ass,” Sandra said with a sigh.
JT’s eyes widened.
Nina found she couldn’t hold out on him. She’d hated not talking to him all day. She’d gotten used to their friendship, to the easy way they seemed to fit together.
It was only a few more days. She could survive being close to him. She slid her arm through his. “Come on. Take me to dinner where your assistant will shoot daggers my way, and later on I’ll tell you all about Sandra and her May-December romance.”
“I’m not that old,” Sandra groused. “May-October, maybe…”
“I’m going to need that story,” JT said, his free hand coming up to cover hers. His voice went low. “But he’s right. I do think people are talking about us. I think I’ve come up with a way to stop them.”
“Holding hands should help.”
“Or we could give them something else to talk about. I mean, that’s kind of our job, right? I’m supposed to distract them so you don’t seem threatening in any way, so they think you’re only here because I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving you behind.” He’d stopped right at the edge of the crowd and she found herself being turned from his side until she was standing right in front of him, looking up into the greenest eyes she’d ever seen.
All day she’d managed to keep some distance between them, but she was now reminded of how much chemistry they had. Her body didn’t care that he’d lied to her, that he’d tried to get her kicked off her own op. Her body only remembered what
