Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [202]
“Do you think I should invest it?” she asked, hoping to bring his attention back to her with the one topic he loved to discuss.
“What’s that, sweetie?” His eyes only glanced at her. He had spotted a couple he seemed to know at the reservation stand, waiting for their table.
“The bonus. Do you think I should invest it in the stock market?”
This time he looked back at her with that smile she immediately recognized as the beginning of another lesson.
“Tess, ten thousand dollars really isn’t enough for you to be getting into the market. Maybe a nice little CD or less risky mutual fund. You really don’t want to mess with something you don’t understand.”
Before she could protest, his cellular phone started ringing. Daniel quickly flipped it out of his pocket as though it were the most important thing in the room. Tess pushed up her strap. Why kid herself. The damn phone was the most important thing in the room.
The wine steward returned, glanced at Daniel on the phone again, and Tess wanted to laugh at the young man’s pained expression.
“Why the hell is it so hard to fucking get this right?” Daniel barked into the phone loud enough for other diners to look over. “No, no, forget it. I’ll do it myself.”
He slapped the phone shut and was on his feet before he had it tucked back into his pocket.
“Tess, sweetie, I need to go take care of something. These idiots can’t seem to get one fucking thing right.” He pulled out a credit card and slipped out two hundred-dollar bills from his money clip. “Please have a shamefully expensive dinner to celebrate your bonus. And you don’t mind taking a cab home, do you?”
He handed her the credit card and the folded bills. He pecked her on the cheek and then left before she could object. But she noticed he had enough time to stop at the door and talk to the couple he had seen earlier.
Suddenly, she realized the wine steward was still at the table and now staring at her, stunned and waiting for her instructions.
“I think I’d like the bill, please.
He continued to stare, then held up the uncorked bottle. “I didn’t even pour one glass.”
“Enjoy it later with the other waiters.”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m serious. On me. Really. Oh, and before you bring the bill, would you add two of the most expensive entrées you have on the menu.”
“You want them as takeout?”
“Oh no. I don’t want them at all. I just want to pay for them.” She smiled and held up the credit card. Finally, he seemed to get the message, smiled back and hurried off to take care of it.
If Daniel insisted on treating her like a hooker, she could certainly accommodate him. Maybe her silly little mind couldn’t possibly comprehend something as complex as the stock market, but there were plenty of other things she knew about that Daniel didn’t have a clue about.
She signed the bill for the wine steward, making sure to add a hefty tip for him. Then she took her two hundred dollars and hailed a cab, hoping the anger would burn off by the time she got home. How could he ruin this for her? She had been looking forward to a celebration. Maybe ten thousand dollars was a drop in the bucket for Daniel, but for her it was a tremendous accomplishment in a long journey uphill. She deserved a pat on the back. She deserved a celebration. Instead, she had a long, lonely cab ride home from D.C.
“Excuse me,” she said, leaning forward in the stale-smelling cab. “When we get to Newburgh Heights, forget the address I gave you. Take me to Louie’s Bar and Grill on Fifty-fifth and Laurel.”
CHAPTER 15
Kansas City, Missouri
Sunday evening
It was almost midnight when Agents Preston Turner and Richard Delaney knocked on Maggie’s hotel-room door.
“How ’bout a nightcap, O’Dell?”
Turner wore blue jeans and a purple golf shirt that enhanced the rich brown of his skin. Delaney, on the other hand, still wore a suit, his lopsided tie and open collar the only indications that he was no longer on duty.
“I don’t know, guys. It’s late.” Not that sleep mattered. She knew she wouldn’t be going to bed for hours.
“It’s not even midnight.