her, his dark eyes hard. Her hand was still on the doorknob and she gripped it tight. Adrenaline coursed through her body, urging her to fight or flee.
chapter 13
“Who are you?” she demanded.
He didn’t answer, just stared at her, his pupils weirdly dilated. She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Baby standing to her left. Her partner appeared startled, but not alarmed.
“What’s going on?” Kit asked.
Before anyone could answer, Dara emerged from Kit’s apartment, improbably carrying a glass of orange juice. She hurried toward the man and handed him the juice, which he downed in two quick gulps. It was like a scene out of Alice in Wonderland, Kit thought, people in the wrong places doing things that made no sense.
“Much better,” he said, handing the glass back to Dara.
“That’s a relief,” Baby said. “Kit, let me introduce you to Steven Harper. He’s the hotel developer I mentioned earlier. He was worried he might be having a hypoglycemic attack and needed juice”
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” Kit said. Though her brain was playing catch-up, her heart hadn’t stopped pounding from the shock of finding a strange man in the office. “I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be here besides you and Dara.”
“Not a problem,” Harper responded, reaching to shake her hand. He was tall, at least six foot three, dressed in gray slacks and a sports jacket. His deep tan had an orangey undertone that made it look fake, as if he’d had it airbrushed on earlier that day at a tanning salon.
“Here’s a card with our website address on it,” Baby said, handing it to Harper.
He turned to Kit. “I’ll admit, I’m impressed with the work you and your partner do. Are you game for a project where every square inch of the property has to be astonishing?”
“Of course,” Kit said, forcing a smile. “We don’t like projects unless that’s one of the requirements.”
“I’ll be in touch,” he said to Baby, “and then you can make a formal presentation.”
“My suggestion?” Baby said as she swung open the door for him. “You should meet with a number of designers at this time.” She was following her never-seem-like-the-pursuer strategy. “It always helps to see what else is out there.”
As soon as Harper departed, Dara grabbed Kit’s attention to review a few matters and then packed up to leave, looking almost relieved to be taking off. Baby hung back, clearly eager to talk.
“I’m so sorry I sounded rude when I first walked in,” Kit said. “It just caught me off guard to find a stranger here. I thought you were meeting with the hotel guy this morning.”
“That was the plan but he had to postpone it because of a business issue, and then he obviously got caught in a rust storm on his way here. Have you ever seen a tan quite that shade?”
Kit smiled. “I hope I didn’t jinx things with him.”
“I’m sure you didn’t. The bottom line is that he seemed impressed with our work and my instinct tells me we’re definitely a contender.”
It was typical Baby to take things in stride. And yet Kit worried that underneath that unflappable demeanor Baby might be starting to lose patience with the predicament she’d suddenly found herself in. She’d been forced to double up in the office as a safety precaution, warn clients that their credit card accounts might be endangered, and coexist with a partner who looked wigged out most of the time. That was hardly what Baby had in mind when she’d decided to plunge back into the field.
“How nice that would be. And I promise, Baby, I’m going to extricate myself from this situation so it doesn’t wash over on the business anymore.”
“Any news?”
Kit told her about confirming one more aspect of X’s story and her plan to meet with him the next night.
“I’m still not happy with that idea,” Baby said, shaking her head.
“He’s got information of value,” Kit told her.
“So does Vladimir Putin, but that doesn’t mean I want you cozying up to him.”
Kit swore she’d be extremely careful.
Later, she ordered Chinese food for dinner but only picked at it. Her thoughts were consumed with the upcoming rendezvous with Kelman. She worried she was banking on it more than she should be. What if, when push came to shove, Kelman refused to pony up all the info she needed to know? And then there’d be the added challenge of determining how much to actually believe.