Page 52 of The Saint

Beth set down the pot with unreadable detachment. Her bright smile remained in place as though Amelia had asked about field-trip duty.

“If you tell me what Hailey was working on, I’ll jump in. Just hand me a list of everything you know.” Amelia squared her shoulders. “I’ll tell you everything I find out. I just want to find her.”

“Even if I knew what she was doing, her work was classified.”

“I’ll swear on a Bible or sign my name in blood. Whatever it takes to—”

“It doesn’t work like that.” Bethalmostmasked her condescension.

Camden picked up on the thinly hidden superiority and was positive that would only fuel Amelia’s fire.

“And even if it did,” Beth continued, “I don’t have time to help you. You can’t just go into the field blind, without training, and—”

“Camden said he would help.”

Beth’s lips flattened before her gaze swiveled, eyes fiercely challenging him. “Did you?”

He grinned, thinking Beth’s head might explode. “I can do the heavy lifting, and I’m sure Titan could work out the classified part.”

“As if it’s that simple.”

“Sometimes it is.” His flippancy was just enough to balance Beth’s condescension. The truth was that he had no idea if Boss Man would sign off on a wild goose chase, but Beth didn’t know that. She also seemed to hold Jared in untouchable regard. That would work in Camden’s favor. Beth blinked slowly and took her time to calculate a response that said no way.

“We could call Jared now,” he offered.

“I bet we could…” Beth let out a deep breath and turned toward the cabinets. “Let see if this place has some peppermint schnapps or something. Because everyone in this room will need it.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

After Beth topped everyone’s mug off with a heavy splash of peppermint schnapps, Amelia was certain their late-morning meeting would leave her shell-shocked. She had prepared to hear details about Hailey and Jonathan that would make her question everything, and that still might happen. The peppermint schnapps hadn’t been to soften blows. It had been to manage an insufferable bureaucracy. The only thing she learned that day was that even spies had to do paperwork.

Their meeting took hours, and for most of it, the three of them snacked on pastries while requests were made, questioned, and parried. To Beth’s credit, the treats were very tasty and appreciated.

Not until Amelia climbed back into their SUV and the seat warmers kicked on did the gravity of her request become clear. She and Camden were approved to dosomethingthat no one would explain. She didn’t know when or where, just that they had a green light. Both Camden and Beth seemed surprised.

Amelia shivered as something akin to adrenaline pumped in her blood. The windshield wipers and tires on the rain-slicked road were the only sounds for several miles. Camden checked his mirrors and merged onto the interstate. He was so casual. Then again, this was his day job. He didn’t need schnapps. The conversations and negotiations were his norm. “What do you want to do when we get back?”

“Take a hot shower and decompress.” She glanced at the casual way he drove, alert but at ease. She hated driving in the rain. She hated wondering if the drivers around her were paying attention to the road and conditions—a car accident could easily upend everything. “Your boss—Boss Man—he sounds intense.”

“Jared Westin?” Camden snorted. “He is.”

“Brock and Parker, not so much?”

“They are in their own ways. Brock’s real quiet. Does his job. Disappears. I don’t see him much, but Parker is always available. He’s a magician with technology and ammunition.” He slowed for traffic. “They’re mostly based in the US. Though Jared and Parker spent a lot of time setting up our headquarters in Abu Dhabi.”

He’d mentioned the Middle East before. “That’s where you live?”

Camden nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you like it?”

He gave a pointed glance out the window. “We don’t have forty-degree days and rain all the time.”

Amelia pulled her coat over her chest. Just thinking about the cold made her shiver again. “Do you like your job?”

His jaw worked back and forth. “It has its moments.”

“That’s vague.” Though she could say the same thing about running Events and Occasions. She liked working with Veronica and enjoyed chasing deadlines with logistical challenges. Despite the fact that she detested the ins and outs of running a business, the sense of accomplishment that came from a completed checklist was always nice, and nobody on Earth would complain about taste-testing samples from potential menus. Events and Occasions used to be lots of fun.Now?She didn’t know if what happened with Hailey and Jonathan had changed things at work or if that simply changed her perspective on her own life.

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