Page 16 of Mountain Security

He nodded. “It’s pretty good. And you should try their hot dogs.”

“Next time,” she said, then coughed into her hand, as if realizing that there might not be a next time. That they didn’t know how long he’d be there.

And he wanted to tell her, there was no reason they couldn’t eat together afterwards.

Hell, we could date for real.

But he knew he’d only end up scaring her if he told her that, so he kept quiet.

“So. Any update?” she asked.

“Not much. The cameras are in place, and they’re working fine. But nobody’s come to take the keylogger yet.” He paused for a moment, then decided to forge on. “I’d like you to work on a list.”

Yvette swallowed the bite in her mouth and looked up at him with luminous eyes. She was shorter today, and he realized this was the first time he was seeing her without her heels.

“A list?”

“A list of people who might have something against your office, or who might benefit from the content of those files.”

“Like political enemies?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. “Chamonix is a small town, Alex.”

“But a rich one.”

Of the seven files that had been stolen, five corresponded to multi-million project proposals. There were companies, and individuals, looking to spend a lot of money in this town.

She pondered his statement for a second. “Yes. A rich one.” She sighed. “I’ll make the list. Is that all?”

“Almost.”

“Okay. Hit me.”

“We need to decide where we’re going on Friday.”

“What’s happening on Friday?”

“We’re going on a date.”

“On awhat?” She almost dropped her falafel sandwich, ended up getting sauce all over her fingers as she tightened her hold on it.

He couldn’t help but make fun of her a little. “It’s what people do when they’re dating. They go out together. If we expect anyone to believe we’re dating, we’re going to have to go out on a few dates.”

“I know what a date is,” she said. Her pink tongue came out to lick the sauce off her fingers, and he got a bit hard looking at her.

More than a bit, if he were completely honest with himself. He hoped it wasn’t too evident from where she was standing, but turned his body away from her, just in case.

* * *

Yvette

He had the balls to turn away from her, after shocking her with something like that.

“Is that really necessary?” she asked. “Going on a date.”

He smiled. “Only if you don’t want my cover blown.”

One could get used to that bright, easy smile. His teeth were white, and so straight—straighter than hers, but then, she’d never visited a dentist when she was young. Last year, her dentist had suggested orthodontics to close the small gap between her two front teeth, but she’d refused. It was part of her, and it’d be as strange to get rid of it as it would to chop off all her hair.

Yvette hesitated. She understood what he was saying, but she didn’t appreciate subterfuge in others, so she didn’t like the idea of doing this to her team. She was pretty sure none of them were involved, anyway. She trusted them all implicitly.

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