But Brantley didn't scoff. “Well, you're smart enough for that. And you’ve been putting up with a lot of shady assholes for a long time. You'd probably be good at white-collar crime.”
Yeah, that's what she'd been thinking. She gave him a surprised but pleased look. “Thank you.”
He sighed. “So, we’re not going to have dinner, are we?”
She shook her head. “I'd rather go back to my friend's apartment to talk about this more. And invite a couple other friends over?”
He hesitated and she leaned even closer. “Listen, we are taking these guys down. Your only real choice here is whether you help us or you go down with them.”
He lifted a brow, but it didn’t look sarcastic or mocking. “Damn.”
“What do you think will happen if one of those guys”—She tipped her head in the direction of the men dining next to them—“met me at a cocktail party and I told him that you told me everything about the buying and selling? They’ve seen us together tonight, being very close. And they’ve seen this dress.” She lifted a brow. “Do you really think I couldn’t convince them that there was some pretty intense pillow talk going on between us?”
Brantley’s mouth formed a little “o”. She wasn’t sure if he was intimidated or impressed. Or both.
She didn’t want to play games and manipulate people. But to save innocent animals? Or people? She definitely would.
“And now”—She lifted her phone, leaned her head on Brantley’s shoulder, and snapped a selfie. With the four men clearly in the background—“I have something to remind them of the night.”
“Okay, geez. I was going to cooperate,” Brantley said. “You made a really good case even without the threats.”
She gave him a smile. “Oh. Good.”
He gave the menu a longing glance. “But I really love the scallops here though.”
Caroline looked over at Spencer and Zander’s table. The expressions on the faces of the men there said plainly that she and Brantley did not have time for dinner.
“We need to go,” she told Brantley. “Like now.”
“Fine.”
They stood and Brantley put his hand on her lower back as they walked back through the restaurant to the front. They passed Zander and Caroline could swear that she felt the tension radiating off of him as he turned, watching them go.
Geez, could he be any more obvious? She risked shooting him a knock it off frown behind Brantley’s back.
She read his return frown clearly. I’m this close to tossing you over my shoulder.
But maybe not in a totally good way. More in a you’re in very big trouble and I’m super pissed right now way.
Crap. They were going to have to talk.
On their way out the door, Brantley slipped Max, their “hostess”, a big tip for getting him a table that they ended up not using. Max thanked him and tucked the hundred-dollar bill in the front of her bra. Caroline almost blew Max’s cover with the snort she had to pretend was a cough.
“You gotta calm down or I’m not letting you go in with me,” Spencer told Zander as they strode down the sidewalk a block behind Caroline and Brantley.
They weren’t close enough.
If Brantley wanted to hurt her, pull her into an alley, shove her into a car, or a million other things he could imagine—and was—they were too far back to do anything about it.
“I’m fine. Shut up,” Zander muttered.
“We have to trust her. We’re here as backup,” Spencer said.
“This isn’t an op. We don’t know what we’re here as,” Zander ground out. “We don’t have any idea what’s going on.”
“Caroline is getting us proof of a crime. Or an informant. Or both. We need to let her do her thing,” Spencer argued.
“Since when does she have a thing to do? We didn’t talk about this. This wasn’t the plan,” Zander said. Every muscle in his body was tight and his heart was pounding so hard he could practically feel the pulses of blood through his veins.
“You’re being irrational,” Spencer told him.
“Fuck off.”
“He’s in love with her and she’s walking down a dark street with a guy who might be a criminal,” Max said to Spencer. Very unhelpfully. “Give him a break.”
“I can’t believe you let her do this,” Zander snapped at her.
“Hey, I didn’t let her do anything. She’s a fully functioning, grown-up human being. She can do what she wants,” Max said. “But, for the record, I’m all in here. Team Caroline. This is awesome.”
“This is stupid,” Zander told her. “She could get hurt.”
“Someone could mug her tomorrow. A hurricane could wipe us all out next month. She’s safer with him than in a lot of other situations.”
Zander just growled at her.
“Because we’re right here,” Max went on. “She’s not stupid, Zander. She wouldn’t be doing this without backup.”
“And we’ve now got a hell of a lot more than we had before she showed up,” Spencer added. “We’ve got a person of interest in a federal investigation seen by law enforcement interacting with other persons of interest. And soon we’re going to have that person of interest holding evidence in that investigation.” He looked at Max. “I assume he’s going to have a photocopy of the list?”
“He’s going to have the actual list.”
“I thought I had the actual list,” Spencer said.
“I gave you a copy.”
He sighed.
“Hey, having the original is always more valuable.”
“Yes. I know,” he said dryly.
“Anyway, yes, the original list is at my place.”
“And,” he went on, addressing Zander and ignoring Max, “we’re going to be able to enter the apartment where the person is without a warrant, because the owner of the apartment is going to let us in.” He looked back at Max. “You are going to let us in, right?”
“Will you show me your tattoos if I do?”
He lifted a brow. “I’ll—”
“Knock it off,” Zander told them both sharply. Their banter-bickering bullshit was annoying as fuck. “Yes, she’s going to let us in.”
“The grumpy pants thing is not as hot when it’s directed at me,” Max muttered. Just as Caroline and Brantley climbed a set of steps to the front door of a townhouse.
Zander and Spencer pulled up short.
“Come on,” Max said.
“We have to give them a little time,” Spencer said. “Let them get inside. Let him get comfortable.”
Zander was going to climb out of his skin. “Jesus, man,” he said after what felt like twenty minutes and was really more like two. “I’m so sick of waiting on you.”
“This is why you’d be a terrible federal agent,” Spencer told him. “You’re not patient enough.”
“Yeah, well, sitting around doing nothing seems like a shit job I don’t want anyway.”
Spencer just shrugged.
“Caroline would be an awesome agent,” Max said after a moment. “White collar crimes would be her specialty. You should totally recruit her.”