Page 14 of A Real Good Bad Thing

“Intelligence. Six years.”

“Served for seven, myself. Cal Winters.”

“Jake Hawkins,” I said, shaking his hand. “See you around.”

Once I hit the street, I fingered the napkin in my pocket with the clue Ariel had left for tomorrow. Another chance with her was hard to resist, even though I probably should. I had enough on my plate to take care of—emailing tutors and planning my next step in the investigation.

Tonight’s visit to Sapphire had only reminded me that this was no easy job. I’d just begun, and I had a lot of legwork ahead of me to get to the bottom of the missing ten million dollars. Finding stolen goods wasn’t for the faint of heart.

Hell, the best gigs with the biggest payoffs were the toughest ones with the most twists and turns.

Distractions like beautiful women were ultimately just that—distractions.

As I walked away from the club, heading back to my hotel, I weighed my options, but I stopped weighing them when I spotted a familiar silhouette up ahead of me.

A blonde, with strong legs, and a confident stride. Had she come from the nightclub? How had I missed spotting her?

No idea, but I didn’t want to miss her now.

Guess that was the answer to whether I should see her tomorrow or not. I couldn’t wait. Distraction or not, I wanted to see her right fucking now.

I didn’t want to surprise her, so rather than run to catch up with her, I strode a little faster. As the salty ocean scents breezed by, I upped my speed, lasered in on the target in front of me until I was twenty then ten feet away from her. But she never turned around. She just kept marching forward on the sidewalk, passing the tourist shops, weaving past travelers.

Oh hell.

She probably had earbuds in.

When I was five feet away, I said, “Hey, Ariel.”

Nothing.

I caught up to her, gently setting a hand on her bare arm.

She jerked away, her eyes popping. Then she stumbled and I grabbed her arm immediately, steadying her. Her breath came fast.

“What the hell?” She ripped out her earbuds.

Now that she’d gained her footing, I let go of her and held up my hands in surrender. “I come in peace.”

“You scared the life out of me!”

I gave aforgive mesmile. “I know. I’m sorry. I called out to you.”

“I was listening to a podcast,” she said, a little defensively, her breath still coming quickly.

“Anything good?” I asked, hoping to defuse the moment.

She narrowed her eyes but didn’t answer. Instead, she roamed her eyes up and down my frame, like she was assessing my outfit. “What are you doing?”

I quickly weighed the benefits and drawbacks of telling a reasonable lie.

The fewer lies I told, the easier this thing with us would be, but I didn’t want to let on why I was there. “I was trying to decide if I wanted to go into the nightclub. But I’m not much of a dancer.”

There. That was true enough. And I hadn’t admitted that I had been in there, scoping it out for a job.

Her expression softened slightly. “Oh,” she said. Then she glanced in the direction of the club too, and down at her clothes. “Same here.”

I laughed. “So you decided not to go in either?”

---