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Lori spun toward the little alcove to her left and headed toward the pay phone, a sure sign that the bathroom was near. She wasn’t even sure people used pay phones anymore, except as a means to locate the restroom. She glanced back to see that Quinn had already turned away, then popped into the alcove, counted to twenty and stuck her head back out.
There he was, shaking hands with a slight blond man wearing wire-rim glasses. He looked like the pictures she’d found of Peter Anton online, only he was smaller than she’d expected. Delicate as the gentleman was, his watch looked as if it weighed a good three pounds. Definitely the rich Mr. Anton.
Now Lori had the element of surprise. Not that she expected him to spill some deep, dark secret to a strange woman, but her spying would be completely ineffective if he knew the crazy-haired woman in red heels was Lori Love.
Ducking back behind the wall, she finished off the champagne in a few big swallows and hurried into the bathroom to buy a little time. She wanted Quinn to speak with Anton and move on. Then her plan would be ready for execution: Share a couple of drinks with Quinn. Start a conversation between him and some other engineering nerd about a fascinating topic. Something like “the structural inadequacies of today’s failing bridges.” Then slip away for a little reconnaissance while Quinn talked the night away. The perfect plan, as long as she could strike while the nerd iron was hot. Quinn wouldn’t be nearly as absorbed by some rich trophy wife’s thoughts on bridge deficiencies; Lori had to find the perfect foil.
After tucking more than a few stray curls back into place and dabbing a little nude lipstick on, Lori slipped back into the party. She spotted Quinn right away by searching out the broadest shoulders in the room. Peter Anton was nowhere to be seen.
Raising her chin, she marched out.
“Hey,” he whispered when she wrapped her arm around one big bicep. “Everything go okay in there?”
“Well, it was a close call, but I only got one foot wet.”
“Excellent work.”
When he lifted his head, Lori was forced out of the private little world he’d created and back into this group of strangers.
“Let me introduce you.” A flurry of names and titles floated around her, none of which she’d remember in a few seconds, but Lori dutifully smiled and shook every hand. “And of course, you know Jane,” Quinn added.
“Jane!” Lori felt stupidly relieved when she spotted Quinn’s assistant at the edge of the group. “I didn’t know you were here.”
Jane inclined her head and the light gleamed off her simple chignon. “Ms. Love, it’s a pleasure to see you again. May I refresh your drink?”
Quinn made a shooing motion. “Would you please go have fun? You’re not on duty tonight.”
“Hmm.” Jane raised an eyebrow. “Then I don’t need to remind you that your Monday flight was changed to 11:00 a.m. before I leave?”
“Uh…” Quinn squinted. “Only as a gesture of friendship.”
“Of course, Mr. Jennings.” Jane smiled at Lori before she weaved her way into the crowd.
Lori shook her head, watching as Jane disappeared. “Is she always so formal?”
“Pretty much. She’s sweet once you get to know her, though. I think she’s just more comfortable keeping her distance.”
“Was she educated at a Swiss boarding school or something?”
“I have no idea. But sheisvery smart. Just a few minutes ago she told me she liked you.”
“Really?” Lori didn’t like the warm and fuzzy feeling she got from Quinn’s revelation. This man was nothing but a friend she was using for sex. Despite what Molly thought, it was going nowhere, so the opinion of Quinn’s friends should mean nothing to her.
She told herself the same thing several times over the next half hour as she made small talk with the rich people he hung out with every day. She nodded when she didn’t understand the political talk. Laughed at inside jokes that went over her head. Pretended pleasure at every new introduction even as her brain reeled.
But finally—finally!—Quinn introduced her to a likely candidate. Edward’s scruffy Afro and smudged glasses marked him as an outsider in this crowd, as did his rumpled jeans and plaid shirt. “Edward just joined Mountain Alliance as their soil engineer. How are you liking it over there?”
Edward mumbled something back, then brought up a problem with some new site with a high water table. So began a conversation about excavation techniques that eventually turned into a friendly argument about the benefits of blasting versus…Well, Lori didn’t care. She just said a quick prayer of thanks and slipped away unnoticed.
She needed a better prop than her empty champagne glass, so the bar was her first stop. As soon as she had a water glass in hand, Lori slunk along the edges of the party, keeping her ears open and her eye out for Peter Anton. She didn’t quite know what spying on him would accomplish. There’d probably be no talk of that pesky female garage owner. And even if there was a minuscule chance that he’d been responsible for her father’s skull fracture ten years before, the man was unlikely to have blood under his fingernails or a mark of guilt on his forehead.
She heard Quinn’s name before she spotted her prey. When she turned toward the sound of “Quinn Jennings,” she found herself not three feet away from Peter Anton.
“Yeah,” he said. “He says we’re on his schedule, but he does want us to firm it up within a few months.”
The other guy—Bliss, maybe?—nodded. “Well, if we don’t have it by then, we won’t have it at all. He understands that this is all preliminary and not to be divulged? I don’t want this floating any farther than it already has.”
Anton’s mouth opened, but before he could answer, his gaze landed on Lori. His eyes traveled down her body before he studied her face. Heart seizing, Lori smiled and moved on, pretending she hadn’t been standing in the middle of the crowd, staring. She circled around, glancing over her shoulder in a flirtatious way just in case he caught her checking. He did. In fact, he offered a rather predatory smile as he leaned closer to his companion and resumed their talk. She hadn’t meant to make herself quite so noticeable.
