Elite Ops: Easy Target Part 30

"No. Though it wasn't for your lack of trying. I met him here. We chatted. He saw someone he knew. I excused myself to get a beer." An hour ago.

Kyle turned toward her and frowned. "I don't get it. Lurking in corners isn't your style. You're typically the life of the party. You work a room better than anyone I know, except maybe Liam."

Tori narrowed her eyes. "I'm better at it than he is." Their brother Liam, a successful real estate magnate in Denver, possessed many of the same qualities she did: ambition, drive, and an absolute hatred of failure. Then again, who wanted to fail? But it was more than that for them. Failure was never an option.

Which didn't mean that it didn't occasionally come up and take a piece out of you when you were already down for the count.

Kyle snorted. "Yeah, whatever. You two can duke it out at Christmas or whenever Liam decides to deign us with his presence."

Tori touched his arm. "Hey, don't take his absence personally. He keeps his visits pretty few and far between, even before you moved back home. Which is more than I can say for you when you were in Florida."

Kyle's eyes clouded briefly with regret and he looked away. "Yeah, I know. And hopefully someday you'll stop giving me s.h.i.+t about it."

She laughed. "Too soon? I'm not mad at you for leaving anymore. I get why you had to go, but I'm your sister. I will always flip you s.h.i.+t about stuff like that. It's my job."

He returned his attention to her, his blue-green eyes-nearly identical to her own-narrowing. "Then it's my duty to hara.s.s you about Cade. He's totally into you. Why are you d.o.g.g.i.ng him?"

It seemed that since Kyle and their sister Sara had both found their soul mates this year, they expected everyone else to do the same. Granted, their adopted brother Derek had also found his true love, and they'd gotten married in August. What none of them knew, however, was that Tori was already spoken for-at least on paper.

end.