Redwood (Linear Tactical #11) - Janie Crouch Page 0,1

to get the relatively little amount of money she needed. Two hundred at most. Yeah, she’d probably have to kiss some stranger she had no interest in. But she’d kissed a lot of people she’d had no interest in over the years—usually very handsome guys who’d also been some of the biggest jerks on the planet.

She wondered what most of them would say if they could see her now. Stooping so low for a couple hundred dollars. Nobody from her old life had ever tried to reach out to her. Not that she blamed them. Everyone had condemned her for what she’d done.

Including the judge who’d sent her to prison.

She took a sip of water and a deep breath. The past wasn’t what she needed to focus on. Only now. The now was all she could live for.

She glanced around the bar using the mirror. She couldn’t be too overt in her approach in order for this to work. But there were things she could do to draw the right guy’s attention.

The best option was probably the man a few stools over from her at the bar. Businessman, possibly late forties, slim build, in a suit with his tie loosened. Probably here in Reddington City for a computer conference or cattle convention—whatever kind of stuff they had in Wyoming. He seemed manageable.

He was watching the game on the TV but had already glanced at her a couple of times. All she had to do was make eye contact, and that would probably be encouragement enough.

There was another guy though, one already sitting in one of the booths she wanted. He looked a little more . . . slick than the guy at the bar. More product in his hair, suit fitting him a little better. He was frowning at his phone. Maybe someone had stood him up? It might be worth seeing if she could get his attention.

But God, she didn’t want his attention. She didn’t want either man’s attention. Wanting attention was what had led her to this very place. And she’d had enough attention to last a lifetime.

Careful not to meet either man’s eyes, she let her gaze wander further down the bar. Two women chatting. A couple huddled close to one another. An older woman scrolling through social media on her phone.

She accidentally met a man’s eyes across the bar. They both happened to catch each other’s gaze. But then she couldn’t look away. She tried. She glanced down at her water to let the moment pass, but when she looked back up, his eyes were still on her.

Holy hell. It was like something out of a movie, where everything and everyone else faded away. What was it about him? She’d been on the arm of more beautiful men. This man wasn’t beautiful. His face was too rugged, too rough cut. He was certainly attractive, but he wasn’t beautiful.

He was a warrior.

And she really couldn’t force herself to look away, despite the warning signals blaring inside her mind that she was drawing too much attention to herself. That this man was truly noticing her.

She wanted him to notice her.

Two years ago, she would’ve let him know that she wanted him to notice her. Would’ve walked right over to him, gotten much closer to that chiseled jaw and broad shoulders.

Her fingers tingled with the impossible urge to touch him, to run them through his thick, brown hair. She wanted to know what color those intense eyes staring back at her were.

She sucked in a breath. When was the last time she’d felt the urge to touch a man? When was the last time she’d thought about anything more than mere existence?

He was sitting on the opposite side of the bar—the corner, his back to the wall like hers was. He was also able to study the room.

The thought forced her to jerk her eyes away—he definitely wouldn’t be studying the room for the same reason she was. She was here for a purpose. She had to keep that in the forefront of her mind. She couldn’t afford to let an attraction, even one as visceral as this, derail her.

There was no way she could use him for her mark. He was too big, too strong, too sexy.

Far too aware.

This really wasn’t the time for her libido to start working again. It had been in hibernation for eighteen months and needed to stay that way, at least for tonight.

But she wished the situation was different. Wished she was just