winced. “Yeah.”
“We’ve never done that before,” Max said, his voice tinged with excitement. “Count me in.”
Everyone started talking. He heard someone claiming seniority while another insisted his dubious familiarity with nightclubs was necessary for the project.
“I’m proposing we do a trial run,” Eric said over the voices and waited for them to quiet down again. “First we will need to put together a surveillance team. Audio, visual …”
A couple of people eagerly put up their hands. Eric assigned them roles best suited for their strengths and weaknesses.
“We need a team to do background checks.” Several hands went up. “And we need a decoy,” Eric said as he wrote down the names of the volunteers.
“Decoy?” Martha frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
“We need a seductive woman who will put the moves on our target and see if he takes the bait.”
“Ooh!” Julie’s hand thrust up high. “Pick me!”
A cold chill swept through Eric. No, no, no. Not Julie. She was too innocent, too sweet. He didn’t want Julie as a decoy. It could get dangerous.
“She needs to seduce a man who is probably a bastard,” Eric said between clenched teeth.
Julie waved her hand wildly. “I can do that!”
“She needs to know self-defense,” Eric continued.
Julie propped up her waving arm with her other hand. “I took a course last month.”
“Eric,” Perry said with wry amusement, “I believe someone is volunteering to become a decoy.”
Eric met Julie’s gaze. Her eyes glowed and her cheeks were flushed. She radiated with enthusiasm. Julie looked incredibly beautiful and sexy.
He wanted to be the good guy. He wanted to give her everything her heart desired, but he couldn’t allow her to take on this assignment. She would discover how emotionally draining it was to pretend all the time and lie convincingly. She would start to see the dark underbelly of her world and she would begin to question why she wanted to save it in the first place.
He wasn’t going to be the one who destroyed her innocence. He wanted her to hold on to it just a little while longer.
Eric struggled to break eye contact and looked around the room. “Anyone else?”
2
JULIE FROWNED. WHAT WAS going on? He didn’t write down her name. How many decoys did they possibly need? And it wasn’t as if he had a vast pool of potential candidates.
“No, seriously, I can do it,” she insisted, waving her arm to capture his attention. “I can be the decoy.”
Eric didn’t look at her. “We’ll take that under consideration. Asia? What about you?”
Julie’s hand went down with a thump. Oh … Of course. Her face started to burn bright red as her stomach did a sickening, spiral dive.
What was she thinking? Asia was gorgeous and glamorous. There was a hint of a challenge and the promise of danger in her eyes that men found irresistible. Asia could lead any man to temptation. Julie couldn’t lead a man anywhere even if she had a detailed map.
Asia leaned back in her chair and toyed with a pen in her hands. “Sorry, I would make a horrible decoy, but I’d like to take lead on the trial run.”
“Eric will be in charge,” Perry kindly informed Asia. “But you would make a great decoy. I know you had practice on the force.”
“The focus on those stings was different. We weren’t targeting a specific person. Anyway,” she said with a shrug of her shoulder, “I don’t approach men—they approach me.”
Julie silently nodded in agreement. She had seen it countless times. She was sure Asia could approach men with success, but her friend never needed to practice.
“However,” Asia continued, “I think Julie would make a great decoy.”
“Thanks,” Julie said softly as she kept her head down and her gaze firmly on her clenched hands in her lap. She appreciated what her friend was trying to do, but it wasn’t any use. She wasn’t like Asia. She wasn’t even Asia-lite.
Eric exhaled sharply. “We can always hire out an independent contractor.”
Ouch. Julie squeezed her eyes closed. Could the humiliation get any worse?
Asia abruptly leaned forward in her chair. “That would be a waste when we have someone right here.”
Julie reached out and placed a restraining hand on her friend’s arm. “It’s okay, Asia,” she whispered. “Let it go.”
Asia reluctantly backed down and Julie felt her friend’s arm shake with the restrained aggression. Julie also found it difficult to stay in her seat for the remainder of the meeting. She knew people were giving her pitying looks, but that didn’t sting as much as Eric’s firm and swift rejection.
She hunched her shoulders, trying to appear smaller and invisible as the tears pricked the back of her eyes. Julie heard Eric’s voice as he outlined the strategy, but she wasn’t listening.
What exactly did Eric think she couldn’t do? Did he think she couldn’t seduce a man? Or was he unsure if she could be helpful in an investigation? Maybe it was both? Julie pressed her lips together as the pain ricocheted in her body.
Okay, so she wasn’t hot like Asia. This was not breaking news. She wasn’t mysterious or exotic, but she didn’t look like a zombie, either. All she needed was to take on a sexy alias and she could be the best decoy Eric had ever seen.
But maybe he thought it was impossible. The guy had seen and done it all while hunting down artifacts. He’d probably bedded gorgeous women across the globe and met his match with the best seductresses who hid important treasures. Julie couldn’t compare to that kind of competition.
Julie gave a start when her coworkers got up from their seats. She hadn’t noticed the meeting had ended and she watched the others leave the room, buzzing with enthusiasm about their assignments. She was envious, knowing she was probably going to be stuck with a desk job. There was nothing exciting about that, even if she got to work on the case. Why should she be thrilled at being a Bosley when she wanted to be a Charlie’s Angel?
She cautiously glanced in Eric’s direction and found him watching her. He held her gaze for a moment and she couldn’t look away. His blue eyes were stormy and intense. Eric seemed as if he was about to say something. She braced herself. She had no doubt it would be blunt and brutal.
Eric decided against it and set his mouth in a grim line. He walked out of the conference room without saying a word.
Julie sagged against her chair and took a deep breath.
“That could have gone better,” Asia muttered.
“Thanks for coming to my defense,” Julie said as she patted Asia’s arm. “But if you want the decoy assignment, you should go for it.”
Asia rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. That is why I quit the police force. They always wanted me to work for Vice and dress up as a hooker when I wanted to solve cases.”
It sounded as if they both couldn’t get the assignment they wanted because of the way they looked. Julie never thought of it that way. She always assumed her friend eventually got what she wanted, but maybe Asia’s appearance was a disadvantage as well as a benefit.
Asia gathered her pen and notebook. “So, what are you going to do now?”
Julie shrugged. “Before or after I crawl into a hole and lick my wounds?”
“Come on, Julie,” Asia