39 Will
YESTERDAY, A PARCEL arrived at work. Nobody had questioned it because I’d mentioned how I was waiting for a package to be delivered, a gift for Miranda. Nobody thought twice about it, just like Abe had predicted.
Not long after I’d received the burner phone, the first text came.
M29: You there?
Will: Yes
M29: Good. More to come tomorrow.
Will: OK
The vague texts had annoyed me. And what the hell did M29 mean? I wasn’t Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
But then this morning after Miranda had kissed me goodbye, another text came not long after she’d left. It creeped me out how fast the phone had pinged, just minutes after she drove off. Immediately I wondered if my house was being watched. If she was being watched.
As agreed upon, I would follow the directions in the text.
M29:UpperEscondidoFalls @ 2
Again, I called for an Uber to pick me up at the pier and was dressed in a T-shirt, shorts, and hiking shoes. I hopped into the minivan donning sunglasses and a Dodgers ball cap. I felt foolish. I never dressed this way, but I needed to look like a hiker who wasn’t the heir to a billion-dollar company.
I wasn’t supposed to be recognizable. I wasn’t William St. James III.
My stomach was in knots as I exited the van with sweaty, shaky hands. I reminded the driver to pick me up in two hours. These meetings were on a lather, rinse, repeat cycle with the Uber drivers. I hated it.
For a Saturday afternoon in June, there were a lot of people hiking. Not that I was surprised, but I thought we were supposed to be covert, undercover. What if I ran into someone I knew?
The last time I’d hiked up to the top was two years ago. I’d tossed around the idea of bringing Miranda up here on one of our lazy Sundays, but I wasn’t feeling it anymore.
As I passed people, no one looked at me as if they wereher. All I knew about this person who was going to be my partner was that she was twenty-nine, had light brown hair and blue eyes, and that she’d been doing undercover work for three years. It didn’t seem long enough to me, but it wasn’t my call.
Reaching the top, I took in the view. It was as awe-inspiring as the last time I hiked up here. Miranda would have loved it.
“Hey, you made it.” A young-sounding voice came from behind me. I turned around slowly.
Brown hair and blue eyes, petite. Shorter than Miranda and very straight. No curves. She could pass for a teenager.
“Yeah, I did. Have you been here long?”
“Not long. I’m Cori. Will, right?”
“Yes.” Relief rushed through me as I inhaled the fresh coastal breeze. Nobody was around us, so I wanted to ask my questions as quickly as possible. “Look, this is incredibly awkward for me. How am I supposed to pretend I’m having an affair? Jason isn’t easy to fool. And I’m a horrible actor.”
She smiled softly. “You have to relax, first off. You seem wound up.”
“Well, yeah! You’ve read the report, right?” Abe better not screw with me.
She nodded, still smiling.
“What exactly will be involved?”
“What does Jason like to do?”
“Whore around, drink, gamble, and apparently steal money.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That last bit wasn’t necessary.”