Free The Spy With the Silver Lining by Wendy Rosnau Page A

clientele—the only woman in the place besides herself. She was a dark-haired woman who looked to be in her thirties. A little on the short side, but what she lacked in height, she made up for in curves.
    Casmir had always been self-conscious of her slight bustline, and the point hit home as she eyed the brunette’s cleavage. She wanted to blame the endowment on the woman’s pink two-sizes-too-small T-shirt, but fair was fair.
    “What can I gittcha? ” the busty bartender asked.
    “I’ll have a…” Casmir glanced down the length of the bar as she perched herself on the stool. “A beer, I guess.”
    “On tap I got—”
    “Anything will be fine.”
    The woman stared at her, as did the men lining the bar. It was no doubt due to her European accent.
    “You lost?” the woman asked, setting the glass of beer in front of her.
    Casmir reached for the glass. “I need an address,” she began.
    “An address?”
    “Yes, a street address.”
    That brought forth a few chuckles.
    “We don’t got no street addresses around here. All the mail is dropped off over at Wanda’s. You a foreigner?”
    “I’m not local.”
    “That’s obvious, honey. You’re lost, right?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “Then why do you need an address?”
    The woman’s frank questions set Casmir to thinking. Polax had told her to blend in to her surroundings. It was clear she would never fit in here. Not unless she lost an eye and grew a wart. She hadn’t given it much thought until now, the disguise she would use to fit in. But by the looks she was getting she needed to come up with something fast.
    “I’m meeting my boyfriend. He lives around here.”
    That statement raised every eyebrow at the bar. Not able to take it back, Casmir produced the best suck-up smile she could muster. That was something she didn’t need to think about. The actress could charm the pants off a guard at Fort Knox.
    “Who might that be?”
    The question came from the end of the bar. Casmir stretched her neck and locked eyes with a shabbily dressed man in a ponytail wearing a leather strap around his neck with a knife dangling from it half the length of his arm.
    She hesitated, glanced down at her hand, and suddenly the perfect cover popped into her head. “My boyfriend, or maybe I should say fiancé, is from around here.” Casmir spun the diamond and ruby ring on her finger to bring attention to it. “His name is Pierce Fourtier. Ever heard of him?”
    The minute she dropped the name the entire room turned quiet. She glanced at the woman—whose mouth had dropped—then down the line of vagrants straddling their stools. Her perfect cover suddenly didn’t seem so perfect—they were all looking at her as if she’d lost her mind.
    “You’re saying Pierce is your man?” Miss Bosom asked.
    A second later the line of beer drinkers burst into laughter.
    Casmir opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get anything out, the door slammed and all eyes turned to see who had walked in. She followed suit, and there stood Pierce, looking as if he wanted to kill someone.
    If she didn’t do something quick, he was going to ruin her perfect lie and her perfect cover for being in Snake Heaven. But then, would that really matter? She wasn’t going to be here that long. If she found Mama by dark, they could be gone by morning.
    She stood, checked her smile, then, making sure her acting skills were in play—an excited bride-to-be—she rushed to Pierce and wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips before he had time to slit her throat.

Chapter 7
    S he had shocked him, then went to work on the kiss until he kissed her back. Casmir knew how to put a man over the edge in a matter of seconds.
    It had taken a little longer with Pierce. She’d been forced to use her tongue, but in the end she felt his body slowly relax, and at the same time come alive.
    Five years of playing this game had made her a deadly adversary. Nadja Stefen might have the best