Page 102 of A Flighty Fake Boyfriend
I would never be content again, unless I asked formore.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The office barely rippled when I walked in Monday morning. Cary at reception glanced up and smiled.
“Mrs. Newcastle wants you to check in this morning before you get entrenched, and there were several messages for you while you were out.”
After having been in the US for a short while, Cary’s accent was noticeable again.
“Thank you.” I took the message slips from her and headed for Lila’s office.
I knocked, and she called, “Come in.”
Her office smelled of coffee and lavender. The seascape paintings echoed the distant sea view from her windows—bottle-green ocean with a cloudy gray sky.
“Welcome back.”
“Thanks. Glad to be back. Anything major happen while I was gone?”
She wore a purple pantsuit today. The ensemble, along with a yellow scarf embroidered all over with violets, made her silver hair and gray eyes brighter by contrast.
“Get a coffee and sit. How was the wedding?”
“Ostentatious,” I said while pouring myself a cup at the sideboard. “I’m sure you can imagine.”
“Yes, knowing Luis.” She sighed. “Are you glad you went?”
“Yes and no,” I replied with honesty. “I got closure.”
“And Laurie? Did he perform as expected? Were all the guests in awe?”
“Laurie couldn’t make it. Something about having to film scenes over with a different actor.”
She spread her hands on her desk. “Oh, how devastating.”
I sat in the chair across from her. “I was upset at first, but I was able to get a last-minute replacement, and we had loads of fun.”
Understatement of the year.
“That’s good, anyway.” She adjusted her scarf primly. “There’s no going alone to an ex’s wedding.”
“Right?” I wanted to change the topic, so I asked, “Tell me about the missing drones? Have you heard from your contact in Mexico?”
Several minutes of drone footage had given us confirmation that a well-known cartel used kidnapping and extortion to attain forced labor to manufacture cocaine. The victims were mostly the children of peripheral associates. Some had been as young as twelve.
“My contact is safe, but she said the area is impossible to infiltrate now. After the drones were discovered, they doubled the number of guards and added booby traps in the area. But the original footage has generated a great deal of interest from law enforcement and government officials.”
“That’s good to know.”
“A nine-year-old girl disappeared in northern Minnesota, but it’s likely a custody dispute between parents. It’s doubtful the case relates to the ones you’ve been working on there.”
“I’ll look into it.”
“That’s about all I can think of right now. You’ll find the rest of the updates on our watch list. We’ll scrum at ten.”
“I’ll be there.”
She smiled, revealing her dimples. “Good to have you back. I’ve missed you.”
