The Espionage Effect(38)
When he returned to the call to relay the information in Spanish, Anna nudged my shoulder and let out an exaggerated sigh. “I could listen to that sexy accent all day. All night…”
Her doctor’s accent didn’t hold a candle to Alec’s—in my completely unbiased opinion.
Before I had a chance to reply, Doctor Escobar slipped his phone into his pocket. “It’s all settled. My family has a seamstress who creates custom gowns for my sisters. I’ve arranged for her to bring a few selections to your hotel tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Then I’ll send a driver to pick you up at 8:30 p.m. and bring you to the party.”
He gave a pointed look toward Anna, his dark eyebrows lifting a fraction. “And tonight?”
Anna glanced at me, then turned toward him. “With your sign-off, I’d like to be discharged this morning. Would you be willing to come to the hotel?”
“I would. My shift ends midafternoon. I’ll call you afterward.”
“Perfect,” she replied.
With a satisfied nod, he exited the room. I watched him walk past the same spot where he and Alec had been standing and talking, laughing. Was that the reason why Alec had been so eager to drive me to the hospital yesterday? Because Escobar worked here?
The mission is always in play… The phrase Alec had used as he’d driven me to the hospital echoed into my head. Irritation at his not disclosing more about Escobar niggled at me.
“What’s tonight?” I asked as I settled back against the pillows, mulling over how charming Doctor Escobar was. Note to self: charming makes great villain subterfuge.
“Our standing dinner date. He’s been smuggling in Kobe beef filets and New York cheesecake instead of making me suffer through overcooked chicken and stale Jello.”
Should I warn her about her doctor?
No. I didn’t have enough information to go off of. And what would I tell her exactly? That I’d shacked up with a spy? That he thought her guy was a bad guy? The entire situation seemed surreal.
And then there was Alec. He’d forbidden me to participate in his mission tomorrow, and yet through a stroke of fate, I’d be attending the party he hadn’t disclosed to me as an invited guest.
Did I feel obligated to tell him? No.
“It’s okay, right?” She clasped our hands. “We can spend time together this afternoon.”
“No, we can’t. I’ve got a snorkeling date.”
She puffed out a soft snort, but didn’t argue. Apparently friends didn’t interfere when it came to plans with the opposite sex. “That’s fine.” Her shoulder lifted in a halfhearted shrug. “I plan to be sprawled out on a beach bed sunbathing all afternoon.” She angled a leg at the hip, rotating it inward. “All this hospital light has made me look pasty.”
I choked out a laugh, staring at the perfectly tanned skin on the back of her calf. “Anna, you haven’t looked ‘pasty’ a day in your life.”
My thoughts drifted to Alec and his bronzed skin, and how I’d be seeing plenty of sun along with plenty of him all afternoon. How easy would it be to keep my new party-invite information from him? The master deceiver conning the master spy?
A smile played at the corner of my lips. I looked forward to the challenge.
Water sluiced off my skin in tiny rivulets as oxygen flooded my lungs on a deep inhale. My body floated to the surface, weightless. On my back, ears just submerged beneath the gentle rolling waves, I heard muted sounds: distant high-pitched cracks, lower booming thumps.
On a slow exhale, my entire form sank with every lost gaseous molecule. With an effort to balance my breaths, I swayed in time with the rhythm of the sea, in perfect buoyant harmony.
I wondered at the discovery.
Had I swam before? Sure. When I was younger. I’d raced from one side of an Olympic sized swimming pool to the other for better time, to develop another of the many skills I’d been collecting in my armory.
But never to just…exist.
Eyes gently closed, sensations affected me from every possible avenue. A salty taste lingered on my lips. The roots of my hair tickled as waves swept my floating locks to and fro. Cool water lapped at my skin as the warm afternoon sun radiated down, heating the front of my body through the crystalline Caribbean Sea. It was as if the elements all vied for my attention.
Guard down, my thoughts diverted away from my goal of learning all I could in the short training time Alec had unknowingly granted me. I paused to let my new sensory world say hello.
The man who’d stumbled onto my balcony had awakened me in an unexpected way.
And I was overcome by all that my newfound perspective offered.
With a heavier exhale, determined not to miss anything while immersed in a rare nature-epiphany, I let my lower body sink and scissored my legs, catching traction against the water with my fins. I kept my head above water, mask perched above my forehead, snorkel dangling alongside my face.
All the while, through a pair of dark sunglasses, Alec focused his attention toward the shoreline, oblivious to my mini mental fieldtrip. Or simply not caring.
I waited until my forward momentum glided me alongside him, then coasted to a halt inches away. “So what changed your mind? What made you include me in your ‘preparations’ today?”
If he registered my question, not one facial muscle betrayed his reaction. His body bobbed upright, his stone face scanning the half dozen houses sparsely dotted along the beach a hundred and fifty yards directly in front of us. A barely visible cadence to his movement was generated by a methodic flap of his fins with a drag coefficient slight enough to keep his two-hundred-pound lean body perfectly upright.