Page 12 of Brooklyn Cupid

Roey nods, satisfaction written all over his face. “Good. Good. So here’s the brief intel on our Lucy.”

I haven’t even moved into Goldsling Towers yet, but she’sourLucy. I like the sound of it.

“Twenty-one years old. Virginia native. Summa cum laude high school graduate. Virginia Tech. Art major. Honor society. Dropped out. An only child. Mother—Belarusian, naturalized citizen, an accountant. Father—American, cable installation.Lucy Moor, her verified online profile, has four hundred thousand followers. Artist and portraitist. Four speeding tickets in Virginia. $45,000 student loan debt—paid off. $4,300 in a bank account. Bone marrow donor. Single. 5’4. Blue eyes.”

Nice to meet you, Lucy Moor.

I mull over the info as Roey answers a phone call, disappears into the bedroom, then comes back.

“That was Seth Gordon,” he announces when he hangs up. “I told him we were on Reznik’s trail. Told him Reznik was meeting up with a young woman, but we lost him, so we are trackingherinstead. He didn’t want the details, just said to get things done.”

“We’re on it.” Miller nods.

My phone beeps.

Amon/Brexton Recovery: Nothing makes my day like your failure, Shooter.

The Brexton Recovery bounty firm is our biggest rival. I met Amon nine months ago when we worked on the same assignment for the Chicago Syndicate. Nice guy but less than subtle in his work ethic and cocky as fuck.

I smirk. “Amon from Brexton. Our employer must’ve told them we lost the target.”

Roey snorts. “Tell the Brexton douchebags to fuck off.” He slumps on the couch next to me. “So, we have a short gig in Atlantic City next week. But I might just take Miller and fly in another guy of mine so you can stay in Brooklyn and get every detail about our Lucy.”

“I don’t understand why we are so fixated on her,” I say.

“Because Reznik didn’t pop up on the scene until he arranged a meeting with her. Somehow, she’s important to him. So prepare to spend some time with her.”

“Doing what exactly?” I try to sound indifferent but I’am excited. Lucy Moor draws me in like a magnet.

“Hustling, Jace, hustling. There’s a lot of money at stake here. Get Lucy drunk and talking.”

“I’ll look suspicious,” I say, hating the wordhustlingwhen it comes to a girl.

“Then don’t look suspicious. We can’t just say,‘Sweetheart, your mom’s friend is wanted by a construction mogul for over a billion dollars he stole from him. Plus, Diadia fucking Tolia carries a deadly nerve agent with him at all times. Want part of the reward for giving intel on him?’” Roey sucks his teeth. “Not gonna work. But if we are lucky, Reznik gets in touch with her again, and we’ll be on him. So work your magic.”

“I don’t have any magic.”

“Then find it, Jace! Be a player for once.”

“She’s out of his league,” murmurs Miller, who rarely gives any input besides work-related stuff, his nose always in the computer.

“Nuh-huh. Bullshit.” Roey shakes his head. “Kill that thought right there. There’s no such thing as someone being out of your league.”

Miller snorts, and so do I.

Easy for Roey to say. Roey with his macho-attitude, over six-foot frame, anddark smoldering eyes that can fuck your soul and make it climax, as per his many dates, could’ve charmed a devil. He can be a lumberjack, a hardcore military guy, a romantic with flowers, dressed in all-white yacht club apparel, depending on what girl he’s trying to get into his bed. I saw him do a Painting & Wine class with a teacher and five of her girlfriends just because she said she didn’t go for anyone who doesn’t appreciate art, so Roey took an art course to prove that he was a humble man.

“Drill this into your head, Jace,” he says, pointing his phone at me. “No one is out of your league. The two reasons you might feel that way are one, you are just running with fantasies without actually having clear intentions about a person, and two, you are not ready to put in the amount of work necessary to woo that person.”

I chuckle. Everything is a military plan for Roey. His invasions can be either a gentle negotiation or a plain ambush. He appliesThe Art of Warto his tactics with women with astounding professionalism.

“Speaking of your current accommodation,” he continues, “your main goal is to spend as much time around Lucy as possible. I still want you here every day to keep you up to date with other assignments. But consider rooming with Lucy as a vacation while trying to get intel.”

Every time I’m around Lucy, I know—I just fucking know—surviving her proximity will be anything but easy. Especially when I need to get her talking and there are several lies I have to keep to myself. But mostly because I’ve always had good intuition. And my gut feeling is telling me she’s going to be the cause of something big in my life, but I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or not.

Once upon a time, Monica was something I wanted with all my heart.

Once upon a time, I wanted to serve my country.

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