St Kilda Consulting 02 - Innocent as Sin

bigger transmitter. He’s carrying a laptop, so I suppose he could be wireless.”
    “We haven’t found a reliable way to make that kind of transmission go beyond a building. He could have a bigger transmitter in his jeans.”
    “No bulges there, for sure.”
    Faroe laughed. “I’ll tell St. Kilda.”
    The hostess showed Foley to the table personally. Her smile said that if he was lacking bulges anywhere, she hadn’t noticed.
    “Don’t you ever take a day off?” Kayla asked.
    Foley looked blank.
    “Your laptop,” Kayla said.
    He smiled tightly. “Money never sleeps.” His smile faded when he looked at the man beside Kayla.
    Rand met Foley’s glance with a total lack of interest.
    Rude bastard, listening to his iPod while on a date, Foley thought. “Where did you find him?”
    “She pulled back the sheet and there I was.” Rand’s smile was all hard teeth.
    Kayla rolled her eyes. “ Jerry, this is my boss, Steve Foley. Steve, this is Jerry.”
    Neither man offered to shake hands.
    If Foley asked for a last name, Kayla was going to say she and “Jerry” hadn’t gotten that far.
    Foley slid into the booth opposite the closely pressed couple. Then he winced and shifted slightly.
    Rand almost laughed. Poor bastard. Someone didn’t put the wire on right. It’s jerking every time he moves.
    “What’s up?” Kayla asked, leaning against Rand with the ease of a woman with her lover.
    Rand nuzzled her neck and watched Foley’s leather laptop case. If the banker started to take anything lethal out of it, Rand would be over the table and around Foley’s throat before anyone could blink. That case was wide and deep enough to conceal more than one weapon.
    “Sorry to interrupt your Sunday morning, but I need Kaylafor a few minutes. Bank business, you understand. Private.” Foley’s smile was barely civil.
    “I’ll just put in my other earbud,” Rand said, straightening and moving slightly away from Kayla. “Plenty of privacy that way.”
    “I hate to be rude,” Foley said, “but Kayla and I have work to do.”
    “You’re not being rude.” Rand grinned. “Kayla’s been praising you to the skies. Says you’re the world’s smartest banker. I’ve got money to invest. Match made in heaven, right? You just go ahead and conduct your off-hours business while we eat lunch. That way she won’t put in for overtime.”
    Foley stared at the other man.
    Rand stared back.
    The banker realized that short of physically throwing Kayla’s date out of the booth, he wasn’t going to get her alone. A scene was the last thing Foley wanted, but he gave in with little grace.
    “Lunch.” With a grimace, Foley picked up a menu that had more pages than a small weekly.
    “Order for me,” Rand said to Kayla, running his fingertip over her bottom lip. “You know what I like.”
    She caught the fingertip in her teeth, nipped, licked, and released. “I sure do,” she said in a husky voice.
    Foley’s eyes narrowed.
    “Is Lane old enough to see this?” Faroe’s voice asked in Rand’s ear. “We’re only a few tables away.”
    “Behave, darlin’,” Rand said, “or we’ll never get rid of—um, get through with business and on to better things.”
    Kayla ordered steak and eggs for them.
    Foley ordered a Bloody Mary.
    While the server wrote, Rand looked casually around the restaurant. Faroe and Lane were in place several tables over. They’d been there long enough to have food in front of them. Faroe was drinking coffee with his sandwich while Lane sucked up cola and made his way through a plate of cheeseburgers that were barely bigger than silver dollars. Lane was careful not to look anywhere but at his dad or his food.
    The server left, promising Foley the drink in short order.
    If there were other St. Kilda operators in the restaurant, Rand didn’t recognize them. Nor did he see any of the thugs who’d been gathered around Gabriel in Guadalupe.
    A minute later the Bloody Mary appeared in front of Foley. The restaurant made its profit on the bar. As long as someone was drinking, the food would wait.
    Foley took a swallow, then another. “Kayla, we really should be alone to talk about the account I have in mind.”
    “That dude makes a lousy undercover,” Faroe murmured in Rand’s ear. “You’re supposed to guide the mark, not beat him to death.”
    Kayla managed a look of confused innocence. “I don’t understand. Is this about the Bertone account?”
    “Some aspects of banking involve