couldn’t blame them. She laughed often and he’d heard that laugh. Soft. Sexy. And when she tossed all that gleaming red hair, falling like a waterfall of silk down her back, it gave a man far too many fantasies. She’d taken her hair out of the sexy librarian twist she’d worn earlier and let it cascade down her back, thick and rich and unforgettable.
“Fuck.” He whispered the obscenity out loud.
“What is it, honey?” Lana had the binoculars back up.
“Look around that room. That restaurant is filled with suits. Men on the rise. Salesmen. Stockbrokers. Hungry for power. You can see the way they’re talking to each other, their conversations, but most of them are looking at my woman.”
“Babe, I hate to break it to you, but she isn’t yours yet.”
“She’s going to be,” he said with confidence. Because she had to be. But she was up to something. “You notice anything else?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “There’s security cameras everywhere. Lots of money comes to that place. They aren’t risking their customers. Scarlet’s making sure she’s seen on camera. By the customers. Anyone walking in the gardens or the parking garage. She wants to be seen.” Which didn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense when she was always so careful. And now, when she was helping a woman leave the country, and he was half convinced she was, why would she choose to be seen?
“Lana, what the hell is she up to?” Absinthe was intrigued, worried and annoyed all at the same time.
He was good at puzzles. Even brilliant at them. His mind moved at a very high rate of speed and little pieces of information clicked into place for him fast, forming a much larger detailed picture until his mind grasped exactly what he needed. What was she up to? It was beginning to drive him crazy, looping in his mind over and over.
“You’re going to have to tell me what you’re worried about, Absinthe. At the most, I see a woman who might be helping another woman get out of a bad situation. That’s my best guess and you know I’m rarely wrong.” Lana turned to him, her dark eyes focused completely on his face. She couldn’t see anything to set off her warning system, but she was willing for him to convince her.
“Scarlet is behaving entirely out of character. She isn’t like this. She’s cautious. So much so that I thought she was in trouble, that she might be in hiding from an ex-husband, boyfriend or stalker. She stays away from windows; she doesn’t sit in front of them. She’s looking right into those security cameras. She deliberately chose this place so she would be seen, and the other men here would remember her. She wants the waiters to remember her, she’s engaging with them. That woman she’s with is covering her face, avoiding the cameras. She’s letting Scarlet do all the talking with the waiter. When she went out with me, she barely looked up at the waiter and she definitely didn’t want him touching her.”
Lana frowned and glanced back toward the restaurant. “Okay, I can see why that doesn’t follow that she’d bring someone here if she’s getting her out of the country. I could be completely off track. They’re taking their time with dinner and Scarlet’s doing almost all of the talking. She’s looked at her watch a couple of times. Just glanced at it, but I caught it. I thought she might have a partner and sitting there was a signal.”
“I considered that, but it doesn’t make any sense. None at all, Lana. This place? Cameras? No, she’d do a better job of hiding that woman. Something else is happening that we’re not catching.”
Absinthe didn’t like anything he couldn’t figure out. His mind liked intrigue and puzzles and continually needed new learning experiences to keep him from boredom. Knowledge was power, and power meant Torpedo Ink would always be safe.
“Don’t do that to her,” Lana cautioned.
“Do what?” Absinthe studied the restaurant again, looking for anyone in the background that might give him a clue to what Scarlet was doing.
“If you’re really interested in her, you can’t make her into some giant puzzle, Absinthe. I know you. You’ll obsess over her, figure her out and then you’ll drop her and move on. I thought you wanted her because she quieted your mind and she was all about making your body come to life. Don’t make it about solving some