Page 23 of Exposing Adonis

“You know, Callum and I have a security firm … ” Geordie said slowly.

“Oh!” Alex Baas seemed to get frustrated. “This is the one insurance approved of. You know, with the board and everything. You guys were my first choice, of course, but you know what suits are like.”

Geordie grunted, letting it go.

Alex - or should I be calling him Mr. Baas? - placed a hand on Alastair and Hugo’s shoulders, nodding at them in approval. They grunted and mumbled to one another.

Then it was my turn.

With a waggled finger, Alex smiled.

“I think I know you from somewhere.” He pursed his lips and brought a hand to his chin, the blue face of his Rolex glinting in the afternoon sun. It was identical to the watch I was wearing now, under my shirt, right at my bicep. “At the risk of sounding like a narcissist, do you work for me?”

I smiled. Of his thousands – or was it tens of thousands? – of employees, he had recognized me? Sure, maybe not by name. Why would he remember some nurse that had been in the audience of his grand speeches in Kemet? This real life celebrity had, somehow, placed me in his memory.

I had never known anyone famous. Sure, I had seen an actor on a set when they blocked off an area of Los Angeles for a shoot. I had seen them in the wild, going to an organic grocery store in Los Angeles. I thought I had once seen Filipino Pop Star Jomari Silang at Max’s Restaurant, which served Filipino food in Glendale. But I didn’t want to get an autograph.

They say that Alex Baas is the richest man in the world, and he had recognized me. What a world I was living in…

“I was in our Kemet refugee camps when they started.” He nodded, but still seemed a little confused. “My brother was one of the staff who were evacuated.”

He snapped his fingers. “I knew it!” Then he put an arm around my shoulders. “Thank you for your contributions.” His eyes glanced over at Geordie and Alastair, before returning to me. “And … you’re helping to rescue Chloe? Is that right?”

“Well, my brother was in the Navy,” I grasped for an explanation without outing ourselves as some specialized assassins who had been using his company as a front for our activities. “And, I guess, Callum thought that he could help rescue Dr. Laurent … somehow.”

My voice lowered at the end, losing conviction. Callum was right. I was terrible at this trade craft thing.

“Her brother has quite a versatile appearance that will help him blend in, and he’s got a good command of the local languages.” Alastair’s casual flare didn’t invite questions. When I gratefully looked at him, he winked. “This is Lea.”

Alex Baas looked at me, his eyes seemed to tick, just a little. A gust of wind blew, mussing his hair, and he frantically patted it down, his fingers ensuring every strand was in its proper place. He lightly touched his face, as if making sure it was still on. When his fingers gingerly touched his nose, I shot a glance at Geordie, remembering his accusation of a nose job.

Geordie returned my look with a shrug as if to sayI told you so.

When the wind died down, Alex smiled. He waved his hand, and uniformed servants appeared. Had they been hovering out of view, waiting for his signal? What kind of weird rich people choreography was this? Downton Abbey?

In their white shirts and black coat tails, they pulled our bags from our shoulders and took them inside. To where? I had no idea.

“They’ll have your rooms set up momentarily,” Alex said, as I tried to hold on to my belongings. “For now, a drink on the terrace is in order.”

A deeply tanned young man held his hands out to me, ready to take the bags. I looked at him, and he looked at me. I tilted my chin up in greeting, and he did the same. In that small gesture, we had asked, and answered, the silent question ofAre you Filipino?

“Mamsir,” he said, under his breath, calling me the gender-neutral honorific that was adapted in the Philippines for both ma’am and sir, then continued in our native Tagalog, “I’ll make sure your belongings are safe.”

“Salamat po,”I responded.Thank you, sir.

“Mga Kaibigan mo ba ito?” He asked.Are these your friends?

My face must have said volumes, because he chuckled, then shrugged in understanding. I did not fit in here, and this stranger was more my friend than any of these pale people I was surrounded by.

“Anong pangalan mo?” I asked.What’s your name?

“Jose Amadol. Joe.”

“Lea Bonifacio.” I shook his hand and he nodded before Alex coughed, interrupting our conversation. He raised a brow at Joe, who ducked his head and scurried away with the other help. I wanted to follow him. I bet I’d feel more at ease with him and his buddies, than on the terrace, sipping drinks.

That fact couldn’t have been more blatant than when the most elegant woman in the world appeared on the top steps, at the French doors that led into the house. The breeze fluttered her white and cream dress about her, and she could have been a Greek goddess.

Even if I hadn’t seen her at the gala in Montreux, I would have recognized her from numerous magazine covers, advertisements and billboards. With one long leg exposed by a high slit, she walked down the stairs with a languid, relaxed slowness. The sensual intentionality of her movements was something to envy, and the men stood by me, transfixed by the view.

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