Page 45 of Stealth Mission

Yet.

“What would you like?”

“What do you recommend for a hot summer day?”

One quick nod.

So, he’s not much of a talker…

I take a look around at the faded tropical decor and grab a paper menu as the bartender gets to work on some kind of concoction. He returns in less than a minute. Condensation glistens on the glass as it slides across the counter. “There you go.”

“Thanks, looks refreshing.”

The fan on the ceiling stirs the air around, lifting the scent of fresh orange juice and tequila from the cup. He turns to leave without a word.

“Excuse me. Before you go, I wanted to see if you remember seeing my friend around town. I’m trying to find her. She’s not really a cell phone kind of girl.”

Reaching across the bar, I hold up my phone, showing him the picture.

He squints and leans closer. “I don’t think so.”

“Maybe she was with some other people… two men, possibly.”

“She might have been here. I was laid up with a bad foot—” His words drop and his narrowed gaze slices away from my phone to something beyond my shoulder.

Hard-faced, he mutters under his breath as he clenches the bar. “Not again...”

I turn and follow the trail his acidic glare takes across the room.

In an instant I go from relaxed to furious.

Marianna!

But that’s not what snaps me to attention. The mayor is to the point of shaking her. I’m leaping off the barstool, when a strong hand grabs my arm.

“No. Don’t.”

“I’m not going to let?—”

“That’s her father.”

Fury whips through me, roughening my voice. “I don’t give a rat’s ass if he’s the Pope. He’s not going to push a woman around like that. Now you should let go.”

“That’s the mayor. He’s the wrong person to mess with.”

I harden my jaw as I watch the man seething in his daughter’s face.

“Like I said, I don’t care.”

He grips my arm tighter, his calloused knuckles whitening. “If you’re going to take this on, do it outside. I don’t want to clean up the blood.”

When he releases me, I’m off the stool, striding across the terracotta tile floor toward the drama that’s playing out in the far corner of the restaurant.

Marianna’s wild gaze lands on me, then flares with shock and embarrassment. Color rushes up her neck and brightens her cheeks.

Questions stomp through my mind. What the fuck is going on with her father and why isn’t anyone else intervening?

There are a few people dotted around the open-air restaurant and every damned one of them is ignoring the ugly scene.

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