AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not yet.” Hailey checked her phone just to make sure Ayala hadn’t sent her an email in the past hour.
“Did you offer any suggestions for the motive behind these attacks?”
“I did not, and the agents wondered the same. While they didn’t dismiss my fears out of hand, they did question why someone would want to muzzle us.”
“After what my two teammates discovered about Denver so far, I would’ve thought they might put two and two together. But that would require them to think outside the box and to entertain the idea that someone on the inside—CIA, DoD, the army or maybe even their own agency—has some kind of vendetta against Denver.”
“I can tell you right now, that’s not how they’re thinking.” She aimed a chopstick at his plate. “Do you like the food?”
“It’s great—better with this.” He held up his fork. “Gets the food to my stomach faster than chopsticks.”
“I knew you’d be hungry.” She placed her chopsticks across the edge of her plate. “So, the FBI is no use, although the agents did say they’d look into Andrew’s whereabouts.”
“And Marten’s? They could start with his phone. Did you tell them someone texted you from Marten’s phone after the ferry incident?”
“They’re going to put in an order to ping his phone.”
“Have you tried texting the phone since the time right after the incident on the ferry?”
“I’ve texted him a few times, but there’s been no response, and they don’t look like they’re being delivered.”
“More tea, Hailey?” Lottie had returned to the table with the check on a tray with some fortune cookies. She placed the tray firmly in front of Joe.
Hailey covered her smile with her hand. “None for me. Lunch was delicious as usual. You could send the waiter back here with some to-go boxes, though.”
Lottie raised her hand over her head and snapped her fingers. “Danny. Boxes over here.”
Joe made a show of grabbing the check and taking out his wallet.
Lottie looked down her nose and pursed her lips into a smile. “Good guy. You keep, Hailey.”
Laughing, Hailey shook her head at Joe, whose face almost matched the red wallpaper in the restaurant, which was a couple of shades brighter than his hair. “He’s not mine to keep, Lottie.”
“Maybe you see it in fortune.” Lottie tapped the tray, and the fortune cookies jumped.
When Lottie scurried away to another table, Joe held up a twenty-dollar bill. “Do you think this is a big enough tip? Lottie scares me.”
“She’s just toying with us. She likes to play the role of tiger mom for the tourists, but she’s actually an extremely astute and modern businesswoman. Her son and daughter run the family’s financial empire now, but Lottie is the one who grew it.”
“I can believe that.”
Danny, clearly in awe of Lottie himself, not only brought over the to-go containers, but he filled them up with their leftovers. Once he’d bagged them, Joe handed him the check along with several bills.
Hailey wiggled her fingers over the cookies. “I love fortune cookies. Superior Best gets theirs from the fortune cookie factory around the corner, so they’re super fresh.”
Joe snatched one of the cookies from beneath her fingers and cracked it open. “Ah, but are they accurate?”
“Well?” She tapped a chopstick against Joe’s teacup. “What does yours say?”
His eyes widened, and he twisted his head around to track Lottie’s flitting progress across the restaurant. “She planted this.”
“Not possible. C’mon, out with it.”
Pinching the little slip of paper between his thumb and forefinger, he read aloud. “‘You will meet a dark-haired beauty. Take a chance.’”
“No! You’re lying.” She snatched the fortune from his fingers and held it up to her face. The exact words he’d just read danced before her eyes. “I wouldn’t put it past Lottie, but I don’t see how she could’ve managed that. I could’ve picked that one.”
“Could’ve gone either way.” Joe batted his eyelashes at her. “Are you implying I’m no dark-haired beauty?”
