“It’s nearly five. Why don’t you let me take you to dinner?”
Her heart thumped. Not because she was afraid, but because she wanted to spend time with this man. He made her feel safe. “Okay. But I have to change.”
He seemed puzzled. “Why? You look terrific.”
“I’m wearing yoga pants and an old shirt.”
“You still look terrific.”
Driven by impulse, she went over and put her hand against his chest. Stood on tiptoe to press her lips to his cheek. She hadn’t kissed him since New Year’s Eve when she’d worked up the courage to give him a quick kiss on the mouth. This kiss wasn’t as daring as that one, but it made lightning blaze beneath her skin.
Colt didn’t move. Didn’t catch her to him or try to turn his head and meet her lips. He let her kiss him on the cheek and stood utterly still until she backed away. He frowned at her. A baffled frown, not an upset one.
“What was that for?”
Angie felt herself turning red. Naturally. “For being you. For saying nice things when you don’t have to. For coming to check on me and not thinking I’m a nut for, well, anything. Thanks.”
“I like you, Angie. I have a lot of thoughts about you, but that’s the most important one you need to know. If nothing else, we’re friends. You can count on me to be here for you.”
She trembled in a good way. “I know I can.”
“Good. Now go change so we can eat.”
Angie headed for the bedroom, feeling buoyant. Maybe she should be more cautious, but her brain wasn’t in control right now. She’d already let it have far too much input where Colt was concerned.
It was time to let go—and pray she didn’t regret a second of it.
Chapter Six
Colt took Angie across the bridge to a restaurant on the eastern shore. It was a smaller place, out of the way, unlikely to be frequented by anyone they knew. Not that he cared about being seen with her. He didn’t mind that. But he wanted her out of her usual haunts and somewhere different where he could observe those around them.
See if anyone stood out or seemed to be following them. A professional wouldn’t be obvious, but Colt wasn’t sure whoever was out there was a professional. Not with the clumsy way they’d deleted the Cardinal Group files and torched the building.
He was sure that fire had been arson. But why? There was no need to do it since they’d hacked the server and deleted the files. Unless they were covering up something else.
Colt had gone to Charles Martinelli’s place with Ty. The house was unlocked and it’d been ransacked. There was no sign of Martinelli. His car was gone, his wallet and keys, and it looked like someone had gone through his closet and taken out some clothes, which seemed to indicate that Martinelli had been in a rush to get the hell out of town.
They’d searched for a passport, but hadn’t found one. The mail had been piled up on the floor beneath the slot and they’d gone through it. Nothing but bills and junk mail.
They’d taken his desktop computer back to BDI for analysis. Ty and Jace were running searches on passenger manifests for flights out of the country. Ian was mining his contacts for information on the Cardinal Group’s partners and staff. Brett was currently in Germany with Tallie, shopping for furniture or something, so he was out.
Colt had taken point on Angie’s safety. He’d thought Jace was going to argue with him over it, but Jace merely arched an eyebrow and said, “I trust you to take care of Maddy’s dearest friend in the world.”
Not that they knew Angie was in danger. It was an abundance of caution due to her having worked on the Cardinal Group account before it disappeared. Add in the fact Martinelli had done a runner, and they weren’t taking any chances.
“This is really good,” Angie said around bites of parmesan-crusted chicken. “How did you find this place?”
“Yelp.”
She laughed. “Got me there. I use Yelp, but only when I’m traveling and need to know what’s around. Or when I need the opening hours to a place I like because I’ve forgotten what they are.”
“I like to search for new-to-me places with high ratings.”
“You’re a foodie.”
“Nah, just half French.”
“Why didn’t you go into the wine business? You clearly like wine and food, and you said your father was a winemaker.”
An invisible band tightened around his chest. “It wasn’t an option for me. The business passed to my uncle, and my mother and I moved to America.”
Uncle Guillaume had never approved of his brother’s marriage to Colt’s American mother. Though his father had entrusted Guillaume with the estate and believed he would honor his wishes, Guillaume had not. His sons were older because he’d married younger, and he’d brought them in to help run the company. There was no need for Colt or his mother in that scenario. They’d been cut out.
“Do you ever think about going back?” She was innocently asking questions, but each one twisted the knife a little deeper in an old wound.
“No. Besides, I like what I’m doing now. It’s far more exciting.”
“And dangerous. Unless winemakers have to worry about falling into a vat of wine or something.”
He laughed in spite of himself. “Not typically, no.”
“So you decided to become a spy instead.”
“I’m not a spy.”
“You work for Ian Black. I don’t know what he does, but you can’t tell me that man is not a spy. I’ve been around him just enough to know he’s not ordinary.”
Colt snorted. “No, he’s definitely not ordinary. But we’re a security firm, Angie. We provide services around the globe, which is why language skills are important. We aren’t spies.”
Not technically. On the surface, they worked for whoever could pay them. But that wasn’t the real story. The real story was the mission. To protect and defend the innocent, and to put a stop
