Page 27 of Cutter’s Lady

Cutter frowned. “I know. I would have sworn I gave both those guys the slip this afternoon. There must have been a third person I didn’t see. I never would have dreamed that. It seems like more men than you and I would warrant. But then, maybe they’re hoping we’ll lead them to Mora.”

“But how do you know there isn’t another man here, too?”

“It’s unlikely. I didn’t see another suspicious car besides the white one.”

Cutter ordered their drinks and food, then turned to Leslie. “Looks like our tails aren’t risking coming inside to eat. They must be watching the car. So while you sit here waiting for the food, I’ll make a side trip to the docks. They’re not too far away.”

“How are you going to keep those men from following you?”

He grinned. “I’ll leave through the kitchen. I’ve been to this place before; that’s one reason I chose it. From the restaurant’s back door I can go right into the back door of a department store that faces the next street. I’ll catch a taxi there, go to the docks and hopefully be back before you finish dinner.”

Cutter left their table and sauntered toward the bathrooms, but instead of turning right into the men’s room, he turned left and disappeared into the kitchen. Leslie swallowed nervously and took a sip of the fruity alcoholic drink the waiter brought. It tasted so much of the fruit that it seemed to have hardly any alcohol in it. Leslie sipped at it repeatedly as she tried to appear as if she were waiting for her companion to return from the bathroom.

The cocktail was soon gone. Feeling silly sitting here alone with Cutter’s full drink sitting in his place, she traded her empty glass for his and drank it, too. By the time the food arrived, Leslie was too relaxed to worry about what the other diners thought of Cutter’s protracted stay in the restroom. In fact, she realized that she was inclined to giggle to herself and she was forced to the conclusion that the drink had had more alcohol in it than it had seemed too.

She poked at her food. The two successive drinks had been large and had filled her up so that she wasn’t hungry. Hardly noticing what she was doing, she drew trails with her fork in her food and pushed the gooey beans up into a little hill. She looked across the table at Cutter’s plate and wondered if she ought to mess it up, too, so that it would look as if Cutter had been there.

The phantom diner. A grin broke across her face, and it was all she could do not to giggle. Leslie glanced around the room. Maybe people were beginning to wonder about her absent companion. There was a man over there who was definitely staring at her. Where was Cutter? It had been an awfully long time. What if something had happened to him? Maybe she ought to go after him. But no, that was silly. She didn’t know where he was. And Cutter could take care of himself.

She pulled out her phone. She should do something constructive. She’d been meaning to look up San Cristóbal and now that she’d seen a bit of it she was even more curious. She opened her browser and looked up the Wikipedia entry for La Luz.

Luckily she wasn’t so tipsy that she couldn’t get immersed in reading about a new subject. Leslie quickly exhausted every link about La Luz and moved on to the Chempua entry. It was weird reading about a place she was currently in, but didn’t know well, and she was almost tempted to go outside to see if she could spot any of the historic buildings she was reading about. And maybe she would see Cutter coming back. Before she could decide whether that would blow their cover or not, she spotted Cutter winding his way back through the restaurant.

He strolled to the table and sat down, not looking as if he’d just dashed to the docks and back. “Miss me? We’re all set.”

“Hello, Cutter.” Leslie beamed at him, flooded with relief.

Cutter stared. He glanced down at her plate, which resembled a topographical map, and finally his gaze came up to rest on the two large, empty glasses. He looked back up at her. “You had two Red Sins?”

“Two whats? Oh, that drink? Yes.” Leslie slid her phone back into her purse. Cutter was way more interesting than any Wikipedia article. “As a matter of fact, I did.”

“On an empty stomach.” Cutter groaned. “That’s all I need, a drunk on my hands.”

“I’m not drunk,” Leslie protested indignantly. “I’m never drunk.”

Cutter cocked a disbelieving eyebrow and dug into his food. “It should make an interesting report for our tail—‘Anxious ex-wife staggers out of restaurant.’”

Leslie stretched as tall as she could in her chair and looked down her nose at Cutter. Her mouth was pursed slightly in an attempt to look severe, but she succeeded only in looking like a little girl playing grown-up.

“I never stagger,” she informed him haughtily.

“Mmm. Like you never get drunk?” Cutter grinned.

Leslie had no idea what an enchanting picture she made, cheeks slightly flushed, her dark eyes liquid and soft, a few stray wisps of hair escaping from the tight restraint of the bun and straggling around her face and down her neck. He had seen her looking aloof and beautiful, angry, even sexy, but he had never seen her looking amusing. He rather liked her this way.

“Try saying that you don’t stagger after you try to stand up.”

Leslie let loose a giggle, surprising herself, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, my. I do believe those drinks were stronger than they tasted.”

“That’s putting it mildly. That’s why they call them Red Sins: they’re dangerous, but they taste so sweet.”

Leslie set her elbow on the table and rested her chin on the palm of her hand. She liked talking to Cutter, despite their arguments; there was something freeing about being with him. She didn’t have to worry how she looked, how she sounded. Nothing she said would pierce that thick hide, and he wouldn’t look at her with concern and remind her about her mother because Leslie was a little tipsy, the way her father would. The way she herself probably would tomorrow.

No, talking to Cutter was just fun. And fun was what she wanted right now. She gave Cutter a wide-eyed look. “Goodness. Is that what sin is like: dangerous and sweet?”

Her look went straight through him and exploded in his gut. She was being flirtatious. There was no other way to describe that overly innocent tone and expression. Her eyes were huge and sparkling with amusement. Her cheeks glowed. There was none of the tautness he had seen in her before. Before they left La Luz, she had changed clothes, exchanging her trim red suit for a full skirt and a cotton T-shirt, belted at the waist with a wide leather strap. It gave her a softer look, more casual and relaxed. Cutter decided she was very enjoyable to look at this way. To be frank, he thought, she was very enjoyable to look at almost any way.

“Yeah,” he said in response to her question, “that’s what sin’s like. Didn’t you know?” Everything in Cutter was calling him to touch Leslie, but he kept his hand pressed to the table.