I snort-laughed. If only he knew. “Trust me, this is one lady who doesn’t need a knight to protect her.”
And then I stopped talking because the elevator doors slid open and there she was. When Kat had asked me whether I wanted her to coordinate her dresses with my suit and tux for the wedding events, I hadn’t really had an opinion about it. Now I was glad I’d said yes, because she was a vision in a sleeveless, curve-hugging, dark blue velvet cocktail dress with a plunging V-neckline. There was a bit of sparkle at her ears, neck, and wrist. Small, tasteful diamonds, the kind people with old money tended to wear. Her fashion choices made her fit in as much as her beauty made her stand out.
A feeling of unease slithered up my spine. She had moved in circles like this before—she’d told me herself—both for her cover job at the State Department and for her real career at HEAT. I wondered which version of Kat Hartmann had shown up tonight. I pushed away the negative thoughts. How could I feel anything but optimism when the most beautiful woman in the hotel was smiling in my direction and making a beeline right for me?
“Gage,” a man’s voice said. “Gage Halifax.”
I surfaced from my Kat trance and glanced left. Clive Greenly, one of the men who had taken me to dinner nearly two weeks ago, stood beside me with his hand out.
I shook it. “Good to see you, Clive. This is a surprise.” Rex was no longer with the company, so it seemed unlikely he would have invited the man to the wedding.
“I was scheduled to fly home to Berlin last week, but something came up, and I’m in town a bit longer. I kept hearing about Christmastime at The Plaza, so I thought I’d book a room for the weekend and see what all the fuss is about.”
As I introduced him to Will, the women reached us. I kissed Kat on the lips, then kissed Stacia’s cheek. “You both look gorgeous.”
Stacia was also in velvet, I now noticed. Her dress was long and black, not tight but also not hiding the fact that she was very, very pregnant.
Clive gave a slight bow as I introduced him to Stacia, then Kat.
Kat stepped closer to Clive as she grasped his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Your name sounds so familiar. I work with foreign dignitaries through the State Department. Are you by any chance…?”
“I’m from Germany, but I’m hardly a dignitary.”
The man grinned a little too widely for my taste, but Kat leaned close to him and brushed his arm. I immediately wanted to punch him, but that was a terrible idea for many reasons. I couldn’t think of any of them at that moment, but I had a vague sense I would be glad later if I didn’t pummel a business associate in the lobby of a fancy hotel where I was attending a friend’s rehearsal dinner for the wedding of the season.
Will and Stacia were too busy flirting with each other to notice Kat tucking a strand of her long, red hair behind her ear and laughing a little too long at something Clive said.
“You’ll have to forgive me,” Kat said, briefly grasping his arm. “I’ve had a little too much pre-dinner champagne.”
Something was wrong. The sudden tipsiness. The uncharacteristic touchy-feely interaction with another man. The way she’d lightly touched her ear as she tucked her hair behind it. I’d seen her do that last Saturday when she’d been using an in-ear communication device. Suspicion stirred in my gut.
Then the truth clicked in my head. She was in contact with her team. She was working Greenly. Kat was working on an operation that involved Roxy Energy, or at least the CEO of it, and she’d told me nothing about it. She’d never even mentioned she knew his name. The only conclusion I could draw from the evidence staring me in the face was that she’d been lying to me every minute of our time together for the past two weeks.
CHAPTER 24
KAT
“I’ve received the data, KitKat,” Pasco said in my ear. “Good work. Signing off now.”
I touched my hair and stealthily shut off my in-ear comms as Gage and I stepped away from Greenly. A few feet in front of us, Will slung his arm around Stacia’s shoulders, and they blended into the knot of attendants. We fell in with the crowd heading to the festivities in The Oak Room. Gage didn’t hold my hand or touch me in any way.
I kept pace with him and nudged his shoulder. “What’s up, my white knight?”
“Don’t.”
One of the groomsmen and his date approached us. Gage’s shoulders relaxed, and he grinned. The four of us introduced ourselves. But then Gage hung back and let his friend go on ahead so that it was just the two of us again. He dropped his guard and once again let his sullen mood show on his face.
My stomach dropped, but my mind resisted what it was trying to tell me. Gage couldn’t have caught on to me working Greenly. When we turned right toward the hallway leading to the reserved party area, I touched his arm and led him to the edge of the corridor that was lined with life-size, black-and-white photos of famous people. I smiled and pointed to one, hoping his friends would think we were appreciating the art.
“Gage,” I spoke quietly, “something’s obviously wrong. Can you tell me?”
He didn’t speak or move. He barely blinked.
“You’re not going to be able to keep up a pretense all night.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Why is that? Do you think you’re the only one around here who can act like a fake?”
“Hey, G-man!” Another groomsman came up behind us and slapped him on the shoulder. “No making out in the hallways.” He winked at me, then spoke to Gage again. “Seriously, man, two minutes to showtime.” He glanced at me again. “Miriam, Rex’s mother, runs a tight ship.”
