Page 54 of To Catch A Rook

“I’m Hillary Lane.” She stuck out her hand for a perfunctory shake, but her smile to Gertie was much warmer than the one I’d gotten. “It’s lovely to meet you.”

Gertie’s eyes widened like she was seeing a mythical sea creature, stunned and somewhat awed. “Yes!” she exclaimed, finally closing her gob to shake Hillary’s hand in return. “Of course, I know who you are. Hello—hi. Hi!”

Apparently, meeting me was a hell of a lot less impressive than the likes of billionaire blondies. Perhaps Gertie was attracted to Hillary as much as I was.

“And you are …” Hillary stared expectantly; Gertie turned a deep rose.

“Gertrude Chicowsky.” She smoothed her hands nervously down the front of her jumper. “But please—call me Gertie.”

“It’s great to meet you, Gertie. I’m glad you’re keeping our overseas friend here company.”

Hillary’s eyes crinkled in barely masked enjoyment, and her gaze snagged on mine for a brief second before turning back to Gertie. “How do you two know each other?”

I shot my hand out under the table to squeeze Gertie’s knee in warning, but the gesture was lost in her star-crossed sputter.

“We work together,” Gertie blurted quickly, as if she couldn’t get the words out fast enough. “Well—we—ah—both work for Mr. Alvarez, but I’m just the assistant. Lauchlan is the tech guy.”

Hillary’s expression held brief surprise, but then turned indecipherable as she looked me over. I prided myself on being able to read others’ secrets like the open book their bodies were, but Hillary was a master at shutting me out.

I preferred to be the one who told my own story, but it was bound to get out eventually. My cover did match the one I’d already told her, even if I’d been intentionally vague.

“See?” A smirk danced along my lips at Blondie’s attention. “I’m the tech guy.”

“That you are.” Hillary scrutinized me for a moment too long before she lit up into a sunny smile, turning all her warmth to Gertie’s cherubic face. “It was so nice to meet you, Gertie. Order a bottle of wine on his dollar, okay? Trust me, he’s good for it.”

With a wave and a laugh, she sauntered away on catwalk heels, leaving me and Gertie to check out a fantastic backside view as the server grabbed her coat.

“You’re friends with Hillary Lane?” Gertie hissed once Hillary was out of earshot. “Lauchlan, that’s huge!”

Her eyes were shiny with giddy excitement. I was man enough to admit my heart kicked up a notch or two when Hillary was around too. Her wee form had so muchpresence, a Queen to be worshipped on a throne.

And that Queen had come tometonight.

The long con required many steps, and I was slowly moving through each one. A bottle of wine with a sweet Midwest girl was the perfect nightcap to a craic week.

“I’m friends with everybody, Gert.” I picked up the wine menu next to our plates and browsed through the American offerings. “You included. What do you say weget some wine and dessert?”

Marty: Deal’s done. On your desk for the morning.

I shot off a text in response, relieved to have this particular company off my hands. Marty was a gem, working late into the evening once again to help lighten my load. I loved the man.

I stared out the window as Josephine drove down the winding road that led to the base of the mountain. The rich landscape of color, the gold, crimson, and copper of autumn dotting the tops of the trees was the perfect tapestry to calm my roiling mind, even if just for a moment.

We were well outside the clustered city boundary, heading toward the farming fields in the river valley below.

When Lauchlan suggested skydiving as a ‘real’ date, I had swiftly turned him down and suggested a hot-air balloon ride instead. I liked to play my well-calculated games as much as the next mercenary-trained billionaire, but I was not jumping out of a plane with a man who was after … something.

Naturally, I assumed he was after money; it was usually what everyone wanted from me, after all. I had been pruned and prodded from the time I was born to be a cash cow; for Daddy, for Stanley, Logan … and those were just the blatantly obvious agreements.

I’d fended off many men and women when I came into my grandmother’s inheritance. Luckily, being born a Lane and owning several successful businesses already had given me a healthy dose of detachment and suspicion. Opportunistic assholes came and went, bowing out or shoved out before they could make any headway into my head or my heart.

Once I’d built my empire, trusting people no longer mattered. Everyone I did business with was thoroughly vetted. I had very few people in my personal circle, and they were all I needed. Anyone else was just a fun distraction.

Now I knew Lauchlan was working for Alvarez, I wasn’t sure what his end goal was, but I was determined to find out.

Neither Alejandro nor Marco knew anything about my personal mission—that Iwassure of. Other than picking off individual predators, I hadn’t even made a dent in the trafficking situation, and the pressing weight of that failure on my chest grew heavier with each new day.

Blackbird had hacked into the HR records and sent them to me this morning; Lauchlan had only worked for the company for a month, just a few weeks after our meeting at Quintessence.

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