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He frowned, staring down at it. “No, this is a classic. It’s from Jim’s Formal Wear.”
“And that would be?” I asked, my eyebrow raised in question.
“You know…Jim. Down the street.”
“How much did you pay?”
“A thousand.”
I snorted in amusement. Walking over to the tux, I looked at the label. It was one I’d never heard of. “Looks like you got ripped off.”
“Well…it doesn’t matter. In a few days, I’ll have enough money to buy any tux I want.”
“Buying clothes is not how I’m going to spend my millions.”
I walked over to my bedroom and hung up the dress, letting it out of the bag to hang without wrinkling. It really was gorgeous but understated. I didn’t want to stand out with anything too flashy that would be remembered when Mr. Allsebrook realized he’d been robbed.
“Do you have an appointment at the salon?” Snatch said from my doorway.
“In two hours. Why?” I asked, turning to face him.
“I’m going to do a final sweep of the area. I want to check our exit.”
“From the rooftop?” I asked, wondering why he would need to check it again when we were up on the hotel roof for two hours yesterday scouting the area.
“Like you said, there are a lot of people coming to this thing. If anything goes wrong, we won’t be able to walk out the front door with the eggs. They’ll lock that place down.”
“Our plans are pretty solid. Aside from any complications with the safe, I think we’re good.”
“Alright, I’m heading out. I’ll meet you back here tonight. Don’t forget the necklace.”
I glanced at the dresser where a black box sat. Inside was a sparkling diamond necklace that must have cost a few hundred thousand dollars. It wasn’t at all my style, but my simple ruby necklace wouldn’t cut it for tonight. I needed to fit into the crowd.
After I laid out everything for tonight, I shaved and showered, then headed to the salon. I needed my hair out of my face for tonight, so the ladies were tucking my hair up in some fancy style that I knew I would hate come morning. My head already ached from the number of pins they slid through my hair. I distracted myself as best I could with a magazine, but reading about famous people didn’t interest me unless they had something I wanted.
Sighing, I tossed the magazine aside, ready to close my eyes and feign a nap when movement outside the salon caught my eye. Across the road on a park bench sat a man who looked just like the man who was following me. Dark hair and a black leather jacket…there was no way it could be anyone else. Shivers raced down my spine at the sight of him, but how could that be? I didn’t know the man. Other than sitting across from him at the diner, I knew nothing about him.
And how could he possibly know where I was? I lost him the day I caused the accident. No one had followed me, and I kept my eyes open for days after I lost him. There wasn’t a single car on the road that had followed me. A bus passed and when it cleared the window, the man was gone.
“Did you see that?” I asked without thinking.
“See what?” The woman doing my hair practically dropped everything to look in the same direction.
“Out the window. Did you see a man in a leather jacket on the bench?”
“Honey, I wish I saw a man like that out there. Everyone in this town wears a fancy suit or golf attire. Lord knows we could use a little spice in this town.”
That was so strange. He was right there. I couldn’t have imagined him. But how could he just vanish like that? It wasn’t possible. My mind had to be playing tricks on me. Maybe I was making the whole thing up in my head to alleviate the boredom of the day.
Still, when my hair was done and I was ready to head home, I did a quick sweep of the area. Any traces of him would surely be gone by now. But when I walked over to the bench and sat down, I noticed a chain on the ground at my feet. Bending over, I picked up the chain and examined the medal on the end, dangling and twisting in front of my face.
“A Saint Christopher medal,” I murmured. The worn silver barely reflected any light, but it was beautiful in its tarnished state. I wasn’t sure if it belonged to him. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I saw him, but this necklace could belong to him, and until I was sure he was really gone, I wasn’t letting it go. I slipped it into my purse for safekeeping and closed my eyes, running through what I saw again.
He was sitting across from me. Did he ever look up? I scanned the bench in my mind, focusing on the small details. His eyes shifted to the left. A thick strand of hair fell over his forehead. His eyes slowly blinked as he turned to me just as the bus passed.
He was here. I knew it.
I stood and glanced around, searching for him in every person that passed, but he was long gone. Either that or he was watching me from afar. Shaking my head, I hailed a taxi back to the hotel. I couldn’t think about this now. I had a job to do. When it was all over, I would search for my mystery man.
