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“He and no.” The waitress shrugged and spun around to return to the bar.
Josh downed the rest of his first beer and pulled the second one toward him. “You have generous friends.”
“Are you sure it’s not one of your friends? I don’t see any of my friends at the bar, not that I have many here in Miami.”
“I don’t have any.” He clinked his glass with hers. “Maybe it was a mistake. Should we drink up before he realizes it?”
One side of her mouth turned up in a smile, but she didn’t feel like smiling. That was too weird. Who would be buying her drinks?
“Can you excuse me for a minute? I’m going to use the men’s room.” Josh shoved back from the table. “I’ll swing by the bar to see if I recognize anyone.”
“Maybe once this person sees you up close, he’ll realize he made a mistake.”
“You’d better take a sip of that drink before he can take it back.”
As Josh walked toward the restrooms to the left of the bar, Gina picked up the second mojito and sniffed it.
A black scrawl on the cocktail napkin caught her eye and she dragged the napkin toward her with her index finger.
The words jumped out at her.
Dump this guy. You’re still married. Meet me behind the bar down the block from Joanna’s place, paloma. R.
Chapter Three (#u384220e4-1c6b-5e90-9906-f81936431ef2)
As he washed his hands, Josh leaned into the mirror and practiced winking. He was pretty sure that was a move his slick buddy Slade would’ve tried, but Gina had looked at him like she was staring into the face of Ted Bundy.
Maybe whoever sent that second round of drinks over noticed how badly he was tanking with Gina and was trying to help him out? That was a strange move for someone to make. If a friend of hers was at the bar, why not come by and introduce himself?
Maybe the guy was there right now and having better luck with Gina than he was. Could she be any more uptight? Maybe Ariel and her bunch had sent the wrong SEAL out here to do the job.
He yanked a couple of paper towels from the dispenser, dried his hands and tossed them into the trash before shoving out of the men’s room. He held the door as two men came barreling through.
When he walked past the bar, nobody stopped him to claim responsibility for the drinks. He approached the table and sat down. Gina greeted him with a tight smile, her purse clutched in her lap, the second mojito untouched.
“Everything okay?”
“No, actually.” She folded over the corner of the damp napkin beneath her empty glass. “I just got a call from my mom, and my son isn’t feeling well. He woke up, and he’s asking for me. I’m sorry. I’m going to have to leave now.”
He watched her lips as they formed the lie.
“That’s too bad. I hope it’s nothing serious.”
“Just a stomachache, but he needs his mom.”
“Of course.”
“I can leave some cash for my drink.”
“I’ve got this one.” He stood up as she shot up from her chair. “Can I walk you back to your mother’s place?”
“No, thanks. It’s not far and it’s still crowded outside. I’ll be fine.” She stuffed a white napkin into her purse. “W-we could try this again...if you want, later.”
“Sure. I’ll make my list of requirements first—so we’ll have something to talk about next time.”
The zinger seemed to go over her head. “Fine, yes. Call me.” She pivoted toward the front door and practically leaped over the tables to get there.
As soon as she disappeared, Josh tossed some bills on the table and set Gina’s full glass on top of them, since her second mojito seemed to be missing its cocktail napkin.
He’d seen a back door to the bar by the restrooms and made a beeline to that hallway. He slipped through the door and jogged toward the alley that led to the street. He flattened himself against the stucco wall and peered around the corner.
As he expected, Gina had already passed the alley. Her white jeans stood out in the crowd. She stood out in the crowd.
He joined the stream of people on the sidewalk, edging toward the curb, keeping cover. She glanced over her shoulder once or twice, but each time he stepped off the curb into the gutter and out of her view.
She turned and crossed the street, and he jaywalked to get out of her line of sight. He edged around the corner and spotted her several feet ahead of him.
Maybe she’d been telling the truth about her son. Her pale face and wide eyes when he’d returned to the table screamed scared rabbit, but maybe that’s how she looked when her son was sick. Hell, what did he know about having kids?
Her mother’s pastel-colored condo loomed down the block, and he’d have to end his sleuthing once Gina went inside. He’d probably never find out the truth about why she ditched the date early. It was probably that wink of his.
Then she passed the front entrance to the condo and his heart rate picked up. She wasn’t going home to check on her sick child?
With one final twist of her head, Gina ducked into what looked like a bar almost a block down from her mother’s condo. Hello. Maybe she wanted to pick up some ginger ale for the kid’s stomach.
He didn’t plan to blow his cover now by barging into the bar after her, so he cut down a small side street after the condo and headed to the alley running behind the buildings, including that bar.
He strode down the alley toward the back of the establishment, hoping it had a rear entrance. As he reached a Dumpster, a vision in white jeans and a red top stepped into the alley from beneath the black-and-gold awning of the bar’s back door. A yellow light spilled over Gina’s form beneath the awning.
Josh jerked back and ducked behind the Dumpster. Luckily, the light bulb that had been screwed in above the Dumpster lay in shards at his feet. Even if Gina glanced this way, he’d be nothing more than a shadow in the night.
And glance, she did. Her head turned from side to side as she rested a hand on the purse pressed against the front of her body.
Josh crouched and waited. She waited. They both waited for something...or more likely someone.
A slight movement across the alley caught Josh’s attention and he melted against the wall, watching beneath half-shuttered lids.
A man emerged from the darkness, creeping like a jungle cat in his all-black clothing, his focus pinned on Gina, still in the doorway of the bar.
Josh’s muscles tensed and his finger twitched as if it were on a trigger. He remedied that by slipping his hand in his jacket pocket and gripping the gun nestled there.
Through narrowed eyes, Josh followed the man’s silent approach toward Gina. Could she see him coming at her through the blackness of the alley? The only light past the condo building was shining right on Gina. Where were the other lights from the other businesses? Josh nudged a piece of broken bulb with the toe of his shoe. Was this light broken by design?
A thrill of adrenaline percolated through his veins, and he hunched forward.
Gina’s head jerked back. She’d spotted him—the predator.
She threw out one hand and her voice carried in the enclosed space of the alley. “Where is he?”
The man’s voice came back, too low-pitched for Josh to hear a response.
“Where?” Gina tossed her long hair over one shoulder, giving a good impression of a woman in charge—but Josh picked up the tremor in the single word.
Once again, Josh missed the guy’s response, but he pointed to the end of the alley.
Did Gina know this man? Would she go off with him? Josh couldn’t allow that without knowing the identity of the man first. Somewhere in his job description for this assignment he’d read the word protect.
Gina shuffled forward without much enthusiasm, or at least not enough for her companion, who took her arm.
Wrong move, buddy. She shook him off and stepped back. “He can come here.”
“He can’t.”
This time Josh heard him loud and clear.
“That’s the only way.” Gina shifted her stance toward the door, but the man was beside her in a second, his hand on her shoulder.
She twisted away from him and that’s all Josh had to see.
He stepped out from behind the Dumpster and startled a cat who’d been crouching and watching, too. The cat yowled in protest at being outed from his hiding place, and two white ovals in the night turned toward Josh.
Josh took one step forward and that was enough for Gina’s pal. He shoved Gina against the door where she stumbled and went to her knees.
“Hey!” Josh took off, but the man was anticipating his move.
He spun around and sprinted down the alley.
Josh ran up to Gina. “Are you all right?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m going after him.”
“No!” She grabbed the sleeve of his jacket, but he slipped away and chased after the man who’d reached the end of the alley and a cross street.
Josh pumped his legs to catch up, but a white sedan squealed to a stop and the man jumped into the back seat. Josh sprinted to the end of the alley and tried to get the license plate of the car, but it had already woven into traffic and all he could see was a white blur sandwiched between two other cars and a bus.
Josh spit out an expletive and dived back into the alley. When he reached Gina, she’d pulled herself up and was brushing dirt from her white jeans.
“What the hell are you doing here? Did you follow me?”
“It’s a good thing I did.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “What was that all about? Did you know that guy?”
She backed up against the door, pinning her shoulders against it. “Are you some kind of creepy stalker? Was it you who closed the blinds and the door of the condo yesterday? I should’ve shot you when I had the chance.” She patted her purse. “And I still might.”
“Me?” He jabbed an index finger into his chest. “What about that guy? Was he, or was he not trying to get you to go somewhere with him.”
She blinked and brushed some hair from her eyes. “I suppose so, but he was trying to take me to someone I know...knew.”
“Don’t you think that’s suspicious? Why didn’t the person just come to you?”
“That’s what I was telling him when you appeared out of the shadows like some kind of night crawler.”
“Thanks for that visual.” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “And you weren’t telling him that. You’d already told him and it didn’t look like he was taking no for an answer, and then when I showed up like a night crawler, the dude pushed you and I’m the creep?”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t a creep, too.”
Josh closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. “Are you going to tell me what that was all about?”
“Why should I?” She jutted her chin forward in a manner that told him she was ready for a long siege.
“Oh, I don’t know, because we were on a date and you lied to me to get away and meet some creep in an alley. I figure you owe me an explanation. I even bought the drinks.”
She sagged against the door, her once-proud shoulders slumped forward. “He said he could take me to my husband.”
Josh’s mouth dropped open. If she really thought Ricky Rojas was alive and well and living in Miami, he had some really bad news for her.
* * *
GINA FLINCHED AT Josh’s expression of shock. If they did have any chance at a normal, dating kind of relationship, she’d have to open up to him about her life at some point. She just didn’t expect it to be in a dark alley with her hands stinging from a fall and this suspicion between them.
Josh cleared his throat. “You’re married?”
“I—I don’t know.” She rubbed at a smudge of dirt on the thigh of her jeans. “It’s a long story.”
Josh reached across her and opened the metal door of the bar. “Let’s have another drink and you can tell me all about it.”
She poked her head into the bright hallway that led to the noise and conviviality of the bar, and it all seemed so normal. She’d never told anyone her story and it bubbled and hissed inside her like some malignant concoction. She might not want to tell Josh Edwards the whole sordid tale but eking out a little at a time just might ease the pressure.
“Why the hell not?” She swept past him into the bar and the door slammed behind him as he followed her.
They couldn’t find a table, but two stools beckoned at the end of the curved mahogany bar and they claimed them.
Josh rapped his knuckles against the wood. “Beer, please, whatever’s on draft. Do you want one of those minty things again?”
“I’ll have what he’s having.” She planted her elbows on the bar, hooking her feet around the legs of the stool.
Josh didn’t waste any time. He spun around on his stool, bumping her knees with his, and leaned toward her. “Let’s start with the basics. Are you married or not?”
“I was married to RJ’s father, but I thought he died over a year ago.”
Josh’s dark brows collided over his nose. “You thought he died?”
“Yes, but the scene was kind of chaotic at the time, and I never actually saw his dead body. I mean, I saw his body, but for all I know he could’ve been faking it. I was told he’d died.”
“Why would someone tell you that if it weren’t true?”
“There are reasons, and I can’t get into those.”
