The Professional Alibi

Chapter 4: Embracing the Unknown

This mysterious man with the face of a god stares at me, waiting.

For what?

After a few beats and still nothing coming from those way too luscious lips of his, I raise a brow, trying to give the impression of impatience rather than .

"Isn't that why I came? To hear your proposition? My arrival implies I'm interested in hearing what you have to say."

One side of his lips twitches upward and he inclines his head.

He brings his coffee to his lips and sips, his eyes never leaving mine. When he returns the cup to its spot on the table, he's still got a simper on his mouth. "I have a job that requires a certain kind of person. A person that's intelligent, open-minded, can multitask, remembers details, and is confident in her abilities."

I bring my cup to my lips and blow the steam off the surface of my cocoa. "Go on."

The man's gaze follows the cup and watches me blow at the steam before clearing his throat. "I'm told this will be your first assignment."

I nod.

"This is completely clandestine. You must tell no one."

"Obviously."

"Not even your parents."

"I don't answer to my parents and haven't since joining the academy four years ago."

His brows shoot up. "That's not what I was implying."

"Then what were you implying?" I say, tilting my head.

"Only that newbies tend to want to confide in someone about their exciting new job. You'd be breaking the cardinal rule. If your family knows, then your family becomes a liability. Their ignorance protects them."

"Understood."

"Good."

"Are there any other details I can learn about the job? Like your name?"

He's grinning now. "Call me Wade."

Hmm. Not a name I would've associated with that body. Of course his mamma didn't know what kind of man her baby would turn into, I guess.

I hold my hand out to him to shake. "Nice to meet you, Wade."

Wade inclines his head and shakes my hand. "Nice to meet you too." The legs of his metal chair screech as they scrape across the surface of the cement floor when he stands, all business again. "Anything else needs to be done in the privacy of my hotel room."

"Your hotel room?"

He takes another swig of his coffee, this time taking a longer pull from his cup before putting it down. "Yes. I don't live here. The hotel is my office today."

"Where are you based?" I ask.

He lifts a brow. "In our line of business, that's not a question you should ask."

I press my lips together and nod, mentally doing a facepalm. Rookie mistake. Never be too curious. I take another sip of my cocoa, pulling in as much of the warm, sweet chocolate flavor as I can before I stand. "After you."

I follow his rental car to a motel a few minutes away from the House of Ugly. The hotel is on the smaller end, with a door leading to the lobby, and only three levels. As we step onto the elevator, Wade stifles a yawn.

"The beds here not comfortable?"

He slides a glance in my direction. "I wouldn't know. I got the call to come here a little after two thirty this morning."

My stomach drops as the realization hits me. The nice lady on the other line may have been awake, waiting for the phone to ring, but Wade wasn't.

I groan and rest my head on the wall of the elevator. "Sorry about that."

"About what?"

"You getting called so early. I didn't make the call until two fifteen. I didn't expect them to wake anyone. I assumed you worked around here."

"Ahh." He nods knowingly. "That explains a lot."

"Sorry again," I mumble, shaking my head.

The doors open, and he holds out his hand, gesturing for me to exit first.

When we get to his room, he opens it with a keycard and ushers me inside, then turns on the light.

The room is clean with a bathroom to the left, a full-length mirror to my right, a TV on the wall, and a queen sized bed. On the far end of the wall sits a tiny desk with an office chair and the air conditioning cranked and whirring at full speed. A small duffel bag sits near the foot of the bed, untouched.

"Have a seat," Wade says, ushering me further inside.

I sit in the chair, angling it so he can sit on the bed and we can talk comfortably.

He finds a spot at the foot of the bed to sit, then rests his hands on his knees and looks up at me through the fringe of his dark lashes. "Okay. Here's what I can tell you. Most of your paperwork was already signed while you were at the Academy. There're only a few new documents to sign to transfer you to Apex."

He holds out his hands. "That's the easy part. The hard part is I can't tell you much about your assignment except that you'll be working in Washington state, and you'll be working with a team of four other guys, plus myself. I'm running point on this, which means I'll be overseeing you and the others. Each guy is doing a separate job, working in tandem to meet a larger end result." He pauses and narrows his eyes. "Do you follow me so far?"

I nod. "I think so. Four operators employed autonomously from one another, working toward a larger objective."

"You got it." He grins, straightening. "You are sharp. Good."

I incline my head in thanks. "How do I fit into this?"

Wade gnaws on his lip and rubs at the dark scruff on his face. "Each guy needs a professional alibi, and I want you to be that alibi."

"So I just lie if someone asks me if they were with me?"

He shakes his head, almost apologetically. "Not quite. Each one of them is in a different high school working undercover. I want you to be their girlfriend."