Page 5 of Mountain Security

I’m now apparently the proud owner of a foot fetish.

The humorous thought at least stopped his hard-on from progressing. Which was good, because he had no desire to torpedo his career.

“Mayor Chevalier,” he said again. Although the man had just instructed him to call him Pierre, it felt wrong to be so familiar. “How can I help?”

“Please, Alex, sit. Let’s order. We’ll eat first, and then we’ll talk.”

Alex sighed. He preferred the more direct route himself, but then, he wasn’t a politician. The mayor reminded him of Colonel Pelegrin, his boss’s boss. He would tell Alex what he wanted him to knowwhenhe wanted him to know it, and not a second before.

Yvette handed him a copy of the menu in English, and for that, he was grateful. Alex’s French was weak enough that he’d almost not made it into the PGHM. He’d never inquired, but he had the feeling Beau had pulled some strings to get the examiner to look at his written French test with some leniency.

As easy as Alex found it to understand computers and programming languages, he found human languages damned hard. Maybe because he’d never learned any as a child. Like most native English speakers, he’d always figured other people were learning English. It hadn’t even crossed his mind that he’d be the one moving to another country and needing to learn that language.

Even now, after living in France for almost ten years, he was the first to admit his French was poor. He’d learned enough emergency vocabulary to get by at work, but his everyday French was basic at best.

The ma”tre d’ himself came over a few minutes later to take their order. Alex’s lips curled into a light smile at how excited the man looked to be hosting the mayor in his establishment.

Yvette ordered theescargots à la Bourguignonne. That was one word Alex had learned early, since he positively hated snails. Just the thought made his stomach clench in revulsion. The mayor ordered next, in his case pan-seared calf’s liver. Alex forced himself to keep his face neutral. He loved France, but still had issues sometimes with the country’s culinary adventurousness.

“The calf’s liver and thefoie grasare wonderful here, Alex. You can’t go wrong with either.”

Alex thanked him but continued scanning the menu, looking for the least offensive item on the menu, finally ending up on the tomato and burrata salad.

Can’t really go wrong with that.

The mayor started, his eyes filling with something that looked a lot like pity. Yvette coughed politely into her napkin. Alex held their gaze steadily.

He wasn’t about to eat snails or cow innards to impress them or anyone else.

As their main meal, the mayor and Yvette ordered the grilled salmon. Alex decided to get the same, to keep things simple.

The salad, when it came, was delicious. Alex focused on enjoying it, trying not to look at the food his table partners were eating, though there was something to be said for the delicate way in which Yvette held the tiny fork.

Who are you trying to kid?

You just like looking at her.

Finally, they were done with the meal. The mayor leaned back in his chair.

“Thank you for coming, Alex. Let me explain why we need your help.”

* * *

Yvette

Alex listened to them without once interrupting.

She liked that about him.

She liked a lot of things about him, if she were honest with herself, including the way he’d ordered himself a salad, despite Pierre’s insistence that he try thefoie grasor the calf’s liver. Few people could resist Pierre when he used that tone.

Finally, when they were done explaining, Alex began asking questions—the kind of questions that made her think they’d done the right thing by bringing him in on this.

“When you discovered the files had been copied,MademoiselleLegrand—”

“Yvette,” she repeated. “That was on Thursday evening last week.”

Alex nodded. “Yes. And after that discovery, did you change anything in the server settings?”

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