Page 52 of Balls to the Walls

She glanced down at her watch. “It’s only breakfast.”

“Who says dates have to happen at night?” I tugged her with me across the street to a diner. Once inside, we grabbed a booth and sat across from each other. “Order anything you want. Nothing’s too expensive for my girl.”

Then I looked down at the menu and saw that practically everything was under five dollars. Okay, not my best first impression, but it wasn’t like I’d always be taking her to cheap diners.

“What are you going to get?” she asked.

“A cheeseburger, fries, and a strawberry milkshake.”

“For breakfast?”

“Why not? Who says you have to eat breakfast at breakfast?”

The sparkle in her eyes was just like the night I met her. Part of me wished we were back in that cantina, just the two of us as we danced to the sultry music.

“What?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“You’re beautiful,” I said, unable to stop myself from staring at her. I knew now our kids would be beautiful.

“Well, you’re not so bad yourself. So, tell me, why were you in the cantina that night?”

“I was there for you,” I said smoothly.

“You were not,” she grinned. “I remember seeing you in the corner, wondering if you were dangerous. Something about you drew me in and I couldn’t stop staring at you.”

She plopped her chin in her hand as she continued to smile at me. Man, I couldn’t resist this woman.

“Well, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t there for a drink.”

“I never thought you were. A white boy like you at the cantina? I knew you were there for something else.”

“I was. There was a man I was supposed to meet. But I got a little sidetracked.” I shot her a wink, not that she needed me to tell her it was the sway of her body as she moved across the room that had me so enchanted.

“Who was this man?”

“I was going to find out that night.”

She nodded knowingly. “But then you met me and that fight broke out.”

“Precisely. I was more worried about staying alive and getting you out of there than the meet I had.”

“Okay, so what was this all about? I know pretty much everyone that walked into that cantina. Remember, I was on my own mission.”

She had a point. I didn’t want to drag her into any of this, but she might be able to help. If my contact was a regular around there, she would know him.

“Well, to tell you that, I have to go back a few months. As you know, my original mission failed and I ended up all over the place, trying to find a way to get back to OPS.”

“Why did it take you so long?”

The waitress walked up with a smile on her face just at that moment. Luckily, Honey didn’t push for more information in front of the woman. We ordered and waited for her to leave before I continued.

“What do you know about the Aztec Empire?”

“Um…not really much.”

“Yeah, me neither, which is where this tale gets a tad tricky. It was about two months after I fled Russia. I was out of money and had no way to get ahold of anyone at OPS. I went to an American Embassy, but when I got there and they ran my name through their database, I came up as a wanted man. So, I ran and got passage on a small vessel that would take me to Mexico. However, things didn’t go as planned.”

Honey grabbed her milkshake from the waitress as she arrived at the table, then sucked it down as she stared at me intently. “What happened?”

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