Page 103 of Renegade
Greystone pulled out his phone. Set it up like he was taking a selfie of him and Caroline. She moved close, struck a pose, but instead of taking a picture of them, he snapped a few of the man across the table. And because the dancer was doing such a good job of holding Erik’s attention, he didn’t even notice.
Greystone kissed Caroline’s cheek, pressed his mouth to her ear and whispered, “I gotta upload this. You comin’?”
She shook her head. “Staying with target.”
One nod before he made his way through the club, down the stairs, and toward the entrance. Outside, he put space between himself and the long line of clubbers. After uploading the photos to a facial recognition software app, he stood there staring at the bar as it moved from twenty-percent to thirty-eight percent completed.
Two women walked over to him. “Hi,” one of them said. “Are you leaving?”
“No,” he replied.
“Can you bring us inside with you?” asked the other. “This line isn’t moving and we’re freezing.”
He glanced at their dresses, which covered the essentials. “Sorry, ladies, I gotta take care of this.”
“Can we come find you when we get inside?”
“I’m with someone,” he replied.
“You can never have too many friends,” one of them said.
“Mygod, you are so hot.” The first woman held up prayer hands. “Please don’t leave us out here. We’ll buy you a drink.”
“Or several, then take advantage of you.” The women started laughing.
He glanced at his phone.
YOU’VE GOT A MATCH!
“Excuse me.” Greystone walked away, called Dakota.
“Hey,” Dakota answered. “What’s going on?”
“I need your help,” Greystone said.
Thirty seconds later, Greystone had laid out his plan.
“We’ll get there as soon as we can,” Dakota said.
The line went dead.
They needed to be swift, and they needed to be exact. There was no room for error, no chance this could spiral out of control.
As Greystone walked back inside, the line manager admitted the two women who’d come over to him.
“Hey!” one of them said. “Can we buy you that drink?”
“Sorry, ladies. Enjoy your evening.”
“We’ll come find you,” one of them called out.
Greystone made his way toward the stairwell. Back on the second floor, he homed in on their table. All three were sitting there, the dancer had moved on. As he approached the table, Caroline’s gaze found his.
Beauty, strength, and courage.
That’s what she was to him.
I gotta tell her how I feel.
