“Yeah, but it’s a good story. Isn’t it?”
He squeezed her as if forcing out an answer.
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s kind of silly.”
“Silly? Not the word I usually associate with the power couple of the Roman Empire, but whatever.”
“I mean, she was Cleopatra.…Shouldn’t she and Antony have known better? They were so different.…”
“Variety is the spice of life.”
“And from a thousand miles apart.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“And doomed.”
She strongly suspected his mind was on anything but Cleopatra when he let her go and asked, “Don’t you mean scared?”
Kat felt her heart beat faster, adrenaline pumping through her veins, and she knew he was right. She studied him for a long time. “Do you believe in curses, Hale?”
He looked at her. “I believe in you.”
CHAPTER 25
Perhaps it was the crisp wind and the clear sun that greeted them on the deck early the next morning (though Kat chose to credit Marcus’s excellent coffee), but the fact remained that by seven a.m., Kat and her crew were especially…awake.
Nick sat beside Simon, who was at his computer. Marcus stood at attention beside the food. Hale had his feet on the table, reading the morning paper.
And someone had given the Bagshaws a gun.
“Pull!” Hamish yelled, and Angus pulled a cord and sent a skeet flying across the deep blue water.
A split second later, a loud crack was reverberating across the deck. Kat jumped. Hale sighed. The shot went far wide, and Marcus never moved a muscle.
Kat took the seat on the other side of Simon. “Good morning,” she told him and risked a glance at the screen, but Simon said nothing. “Simon…” she tried again, but Hale cut her off with a slight shake of his head.
“Thinking,” he whispered.
Kat waited.
She didn’t sip the coffee. She didn’t take a bite of the fluffy roll. She just sat watching Simon’s eyes.
“Yes!” he yelled and pumped his fist in the air while, behind him, Angus took the gun and yelled, “Pull!”
“So, Simon…” Kat leaned over the table, and Simon finally seemed to realize he wasn’t alone.
“Hey, Kat.”
Kat chuckled. “Hey. So what’s new?” She eyed the computer and the smile that spread across Simon’s face.
“Well…see…you know the bug we put in LaFont’s phone yesterday?”
“The one that made Kat blow our cover?” Gabrielle asked, strolling onto the deck and over to one of the chaise longues.
“Yes, that one,” Kat conceded.
“PULL!”