Page 4 of Stuart Woods' Smolder

“I didn’t mean I was sick. You know what? Forget all that. YoucalledLance.”

“Again, we’ve already established—”

Stone held up a hand, stopping her. “Let me guess. When he finished his spiel, he offered you a job.”

“He did.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“Per your instructions, I said no.” Stone had made her promise she wouldn’t join the Agency until after she’d gained more experience at the firm.

“Good,” Stone said, relieved. “Sorry, Lance. You can’t win them all.”

Lance smirked. “Stone, we both know that’s not true. Carly, you should probably tell him the rest.”

“There’s more?”

Carly nodded. “Lance has offered to let me go through training at the Farm with no obligation to join.” The Farm was the CIA’s training facility in Virginia.

“I thought it would be helpful to let her get a taste of what working for the Agency would be like,” Lance said.

“How altruistic of you.”

“Just doing my part to help Carly reach her full potential.”

Stone stared at him for a beat, then shifted his attention back to Carly. “And you said yes to this?”

“I did,” Carly replied.

“You do realize it’s a trap, don’t you? Once Lance pulls you in, he’s going to do all he can to keep you there.”

“Of course it’s a trap. I’m smart, remember?”

“I thought you were, but now I’m beginning to wonder.”

“You recall what I got on the bar exam, don’t you?” Leave it to Carly to take what he said literally. “Perfect score. Didyouget a perfect score when you took the bar?”

“I know the answer to that one,” Dino said. “He did not.”

“Et tu, Brute?”

“What? It’s common knowledge.”

Stone took a breath, then said to Carly, “When does training start?”

“A new session starts in the morning. Luckily, a slot happened to free up,” Carly said.

“Tomorrowmorning?”

“You seem to be having problems understanding what I’m saying. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Ignoring her, Stone glanced at Lance. “And I bet if I asked, you’d say you had nothing to do with opening a spot.”

“Do you really think so little of me?” Lance asked.

In unison, Stone and Dino said, “Yes.”

Lance shrugged. “I might have made a call.”

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