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KATIE
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I WATCHED ADAM WALK out of the conference room, frowning.
Yeah, I know I’d been giving him the pep talks and the flashy grins, and I could see that he’d been eating it up like a kid with an ice cream cone on a sunny Saturday afternoon. And I meant all of that.
Mostly.
It was definitely a good idea for him to get in with some of the other employees here and start hanging out with them. It gave him a chance to hear office gossip that he might otherwise miss. I mean, it wasn’t like anyone was in the network, discussing the rumors behind the scenes. This thing he was doing with Chase and James to trap Arthur was a good idea, for sure, and I wasn’t questioning it at all.
But people talk in offices, and they often hit on the truth, even when they’re just taking shots in the dark. I’d always found that gossip around the water cooler was one of the best ways to gain intel.
Hell, it was exactly what I was doing with Joseph, and in a different way, Rachel. So I couldn’t exactly blame Adam for following my lead there, could I?
I also couldn’t blame him for wanting to make some friends. It was a good idea. Seriously.
The problem was, Adam was Adam, and no matter how good that scruff was and how big those glasses might be, he still looked like... him. James had suspected it almost from the start and had just taken a while to get there. And I’d seen other people around the office looking at Adam, cocking their head, and staring, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar and where they might have seen him before.
And these were people he didn’t get to talk to. They were people he couldn’t feed the excuse of Oh, I just have one of those faces that looks like a lot of people. He couldn’t actively talk them out of figuring out who he was, and why they thought they might know him.
The other problem being that this company really hadn’t played coy with his face. Since I’d arrived at the Houston office, I’d been looking around, and Adam’s face was plastered on all of the literature. It was on the employee handbook. It was on the brochures that they sent out to clients. It was on the HR manual. It was in the hiring package.
It was on that poster with all the rules for working in the company that the government made you put up and that offices always ended up sticking in the most unusual places. Like the bathroom.
In short, it was pretty much impossible to work into this office without having at least some exposure to Adam’s face. And though most people probably walked past it without noticing it, the brain has a way of catching on to things like that and holding them in some back-corner closet, just waiting to pull them out when you least expect it. It’s why you knew what color car your neighbor drove even when you couldn’t remember ever actually looking at it. It was why you knew that you passed a market every day on your way to work, even though you’d never consciously thought about noticing it.
So every person in this office knew who Adam was. He was damn lucky no one had recognized him but James.
But I was starting to wonder whether that was true. Had he gone unnoticed, like he thought? Or were the guys inviting him out because they knew who he was and were playing some sort of game? Granted, I couldn’t figure out what game they might be playing.
But that didn’t mean they weren’t.
And that possibility made me nervous in a way I couldn’t quite pin down. Not that I was going to say anything to Adam. At this point, I thought I knew him well enough to say that even if I did say something, he’d probably blow me off. Tell me I was overreacting or seeing trouble where there wasn’t any.
Nonetheless, I decided that if he was going out with said guys, I was going to find a way to keep an eye on him while he did it.
***
RACHEL DRAPED HERSELF over the visitor’s chair in my cube, a grin stretching from ear to ear.
“Have I ever got news for you,” she said without preamble.
I spun in my chair, my mind trying to move from the files I’d been looking at to Rachel and whatever she’d done now—and failing. Because I was coming quickly to the conclusion that when it came to guessing what Rachel might be up to, I was sorely lacking in foresight.
The woman was like a freaking tornado in heels and red lipstick.
“I have absolutely no idea what it could be,” I told her honestly. “Spill.”
She somehow managed to stop draping herself and slide into a sitting position, the better for leaning forward like she had some sort of secret.
“We’ve,” she said mysteriously, “been invited out on Friday night.”
Oh shit, it was going to be one of these conversations where she tried to make it all suspenseful and dramatic, and I hadn’t had enough coffee for this. I didn’t know if I’d ever have enough coffee for this.
Still, I leaned in and played her game. “Invited out?” I hissed, eyes going wide. “To where?”
She waved me off, obviously picking up on the sarcasm, and got down to business. “So I ran into Joseph from customer service and Arthur from the tech security team, and they told me they were going out Friday night to a bar with some of the guys from sales. And of course I said I love that bar, and of course they immediately asked us to come along. So what do you think? I’ve had a thing for Arthur for so long, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to actually get an invitation from him.”
I frowned, mentally going through Arthur’s file.
The guy had a wife and a family. I was sure of it.
“Isn’t he married?” I asked. “Also, what guys from sales?”
Another condescending wave from Rachel. “He’s married, but does that really matter? I mean, he’s so hot. His wife is so lucky. And he wouldn’t be asking me out if he didn’t mean it, I don’t think. Maybe they have some sort of understanding.”
I rather doubted it. I also didn’t think it was worth pursuing at this point. Rachel had very obviously already made her mind up on that point. But she also hadn’t answered all of my questions.
“So what guys from sales?” I reminded her.
She frowned, looking annoyed that I was missing the part about how hot Arthur evidently was. “Oh, right. I guess Ken and his friend Lucky—who isn’t lucky, if you know what I mean—invited your friend Adam out to O’Malley’s for the night, and Arthur and Joseph sort of invited themselves along, and we figure it’s all perfect. Besides, it’ll give me a chance to talk to Adam. And you know I’ve been meaning to do that.”
I caught on the disconnect of Joseph having asked me out for Friday night, but quickly passed over that—if we were hanging out in the same group, it still counted—and smiled.
Because if I’d just managed to score an invitation to the very same club that Adam was going to be at, and I’d have all three of our suspects there at once, which would tie my night into a very clean, very efficient little bow.
It was perfect.
“I’m in,” I said, nodding. “Now, what should I wear to this O’Malley’s place? Are we talking skirt and heels? Or jeans and flip-flops?”
I really hoped Adam didn’t mind me crashing his night out with the guys, but at this point, I didn’t trust anyone in this office—and that included the guys who had so randomly asked Adam to join them for a night at the bar.
***
KATIE: Turns out I’m going on your boys’ night. Hope you don’t mind. =)
Adam: ... Have you become a boy? Because I think that might violate our contract.
Katie: ... Wait, our contract has fine print that requires that I be female? I don’t remember signing anything like that! I call foul!
Adam: Okay, you’re right. It probably doesn’t. But the question stands. What’s going on?
I smiled at the texts, which were, shockingly, the first time we’d communicated on this particular platform and had helped me fly right through any potential problems when it came to me busting in on Adam’s bro date. I quickly filled him in on the details of how and why this whole thing had come to pass, ending with one final thought.
Katie: Also, I think it’s better if I’m there to watch your back.
There was a long pause after that, and moments later, my phone buzzed with a phone call.
“What, exactly, is that supposed to mean?” Adam asked quietly, like he was trying to talk on the phone without anyone noticing that he was talking on the phone.
“Why are you being so quiet?” I whispered. “Are you in the middle of a stakeout or something?”
“If I were doing a stakeout, Natasha, I would have called for you to come keep me company. You know I don’t like staking out by myself,” he said around a smile. “I’m in the middle of the workday, woman. I don’t exactly want people to know I’m call my co-spy during work hours.”
I snorted. “And sitting there talking about calling your co-spy is totally subtle. I think it’s a good idea for me to come because I don’t know the guys you’re going out with. And that means I don’t trust them.”
“Aaaaww, are you trying to take care of me?” he asked.
“Of course I am. You’re paying me to do just that, and I take my job very seriously,” I deadpanned. “And before you ask, no, I’m not going to give you any more than that over the phone. Too much possibility of the enemy overhearing us.”
A snort was my only answer to that, and he hung up before I could say anything else. A moment later, a text came in.
Adam: We better not put it in writing either, then. But you can fill me in on the details later.
I smiled. It was a transparent attempt to get me to go out to dinner with him again, and though I hadn’t forgotten about the risks of being seen with him—and those rules I’d made about not risking my reputation—I was also keenly aware that part of my job was to keep him safe and make sure he wasn’t doing anything that could put him in danger.
No, it wasn’t strictly part of our contract. But I’d committed to helping his company, and as far as I could see, keeping the CEO and founder alive and well was a big part of that.
You could say I was overreacting. And you wouldn’t have been wrong. But I’d seen crazier things happen, and there were literally millions of dollars on the line here. I didn’t think it would actually be out of the question for someone to think that hurting the guy who was hunting you was worth $500,000, much less a million.
And that didn’t even touch the way I’d feel, personally, if something happened to him on my watch. I had already screwed up the first suspect and the entire first week of this investigation.
I wasn’t going to let him get hurt on top of that.
