Lander laughs and shakes his head. “That was a long time ago. I was about your age when it happened, I think. It didn’t mean anything. I just wanted to take a vacation and I wanted someone to sleep with while I was there. She said she was game, so I took her. I was kicked out of the club because their staff isn’t allowed to fraternize with the guests . . . and when the manager tried to fire her I lost my temper.” Lander shrugs and sighs. “I’m not pleasant when I lose my temper.”

“Sooo, you’re like the Hulk.”

Lander chuckles softly. “Something like that. But really, Travis is right; I didn’t handle the whole thing well. Like I said, I was young.”

“Like me.”

“Like you.” He crosses his arms. “So will you feed some false information to Travis or not?”

“Oh, I’ll do it. But if we last six months and you still haven’t taken me on a trip, we’re going to have problems.”

“Fair enough,” he says as his eyes follow a passing pedestrian as tall as an NBA player with a dog the size of a toaster. “Why did he send you after me? He is the reason you’re down here, right?”

“He wants me to get a sense of why you’re coming to this dinner. He doesn’t believe that you actually want to support this politician.”

That’s not entirely accurate, but I don’t feel guilty about misrepresenting Travis’s request. At this moment the lies are so much more logical than the truth.

“Right,” he says slowly. “But what could you realistically get out of a man you’ve supposedly just met?”

“Maybe he’s testing my skills as an interrogator.”

“Tell him I said I think I’ll be able to make some good business contacts at the dinner. And tell him that you made plans with me tonight.”

“Are you making plans with me tonight?”

He reaches forward and brushes my cheek with his hand. “Meet me at my place at eight. I’ll have champagne chilled and dinner delivered.”

“I might tell Travis that we’re just meeting at a restaurant,” I say with a smile, “since we just met and all.”

“Very well, tell him that,” Lander says. “That is, if you think you’re capable of carrying off the lie.”

It’s a funny line. Probably funnier than he realizes.

I leave him without another word. I’m almost back inside Travis’s building when I get the text.

Are you being good, Sweet?

My steps slow to a stop and I take a moment to look around. Am I being watched? Shivering slightly I text back: Yes.

I wait to see if another text is coming, but there’s nothing, and eventually my screen goes dark.