Hard Case (14 page)
Hailey had trained him too well.
He liberated a crisp five euro bill from his wallet and slotted it under his cup. “Come by tonight,” he said, rising.
“You forgot your puzzle.”
“You can finish it for me,” Hailey told Adam blithely. “That eight across is a tricky one.” He wasn’t attempting to delay the inevitable, but his espresso had cooled and there were still a few postcards he hadn’t mailed.
A phone call or two that wouldn’t go amiss—for old times’ sake.
He could feel Adam’s gaze on him as he ambled slowly up the crooked coastal road. It was boring into the back of his neck like a sharpshooter’s red bead.
A loud
bang
suddenly shattered the silence, as loud as a clap of thunder.
Hailey staggered, but there was no sudden flood of heat down his spine, no crippling ache in his lungs. A Citroën rumbled past at great speed, stirring the pleats of his trench coat with a sputter of billowing black smoke.
Adam would have used a silencer.
Hailey took comfort in the thought.
On the flipside of relief, there was the embarrassment of thinking that loud noises were enough to rattle his cage. It was a miserable lapse from a man who’d once prided himself on having nerves of steel.
He couldn’t resist a glance over his shoulder to acknowledge the slip—at least that was one joke he and Adam could share equally.
Between the rocky parapet bordering the esplanade on one side and the cornucopia of glass-fronted shops on the other, it was no hardship to focus aged eyes on the coffee shop. Two tables remained occupied, mostly by men and women of Hailey’s generation. Adam wasn’t sat at either one.
He was never here. You made him up.
An attractive proposition.
Hailey had spent a lifetime doubting and double-checking.
He knew better now.
It was rare but not unheard of for agents to sometimes crawl out of their graves, to say nothing of returning from exile. Besides, there were two cups on the table he’d just vacated and the folded newspaper was gone.
Adam was not a figment of his imagination. He was a herald.
About the Author
Elizabeth Lapthorne has been writing professionally since 2002. She has a number of books released and is continually surprised by how much fun she has starting a new book and discovering new characters and situations that they put themselves in. She enjoys going to the gym (usually to chew over her latest problem scene), is rarely without a partially read book and has a weakness for chocolate.
Email:
[email protected]
Elizabeth loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at
http://www.totallybound.com
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Also by Elizabeth Lapthorne
The Agency: Flirting With Danger
The Agency: Passionate Immunity
The Agency: Passionate Vengeance
The Agency: Intimate Knowledge
The Agency: Unearthed Treasure
Totally Bound Publishing
