Page 77 of The ARC Unit: Breach

His gaze stayed on mine. “In origine?”

I kept the cover smile in place. “Originally? Connecticut. E tu?”

“Europa,” he responded.

Fucking Europe, broad enough to answer without giving me anything useful.

Luca scoffed beside him. “L’Europa non è un paese!”

Europe’s not a country. Finally something I agreed with Luca on, but Kade just ignored him.

“Che lavoro fai?”

“Private capital. Soprattutto immobiliare, qualche investimento distressed.”

Mostly property, with enough distressed investment work mixed in to make Mia Morgan sound useful without making her memorable.

“Quindi compri problemi.”

In his version of finance, I bought problems.

I smiled. “Solo quando rendono.”

Only when they paid.

One corner of his mouth pulled slightly as he studied me, the closest he had come to smiling.

“Ti piacciono i problemi, a quanto pare.”

Apparently I had a taste for problems. I held his eyes a little longer than the cover required.

“Solo quelli interessanti,” I responded.

Only the interesting ones.

I could hear my own heartbeat through the sudden awareness of the microphone at my hip. Something moved in Kade’s face again but Luca asked him about Morgenstern. My attention sharpened, and the next several minutes unfolded slowly enough that I could feel every decision I made inside them.

Luca wanted to introduce Kade to two men waiting near the lower cabanas. The blond woman, Sofia, came with us because she was apparently incapable of letting Luca go anywhere without finishing whatever story she had started. I let them move first and deliberately hung back far enough to make it look as though I had no reason to care.

Wolf spoke immediately.

“Hold where you are.”

I slowed.

Then Luca said, “Morgenstern can replace the driver. They already handled Ulm.”

Kade answered too quietly for me to catch the first part.

I moved again.

“Mercer.”

“They’re talking about Ulm.”

“Raven heard it. Stay open.”

“He didn’t hear Kade.”