Guilty Pleasure by Lora Leigh

latest stock reports?”
    Marty almost snorted at that one. Each man’s expression was carefully composed as they spoke. They appeared relaxed; they even smiled; but there was something about their eyes, about the tense set of their bodies that told another story.
    “Shayne Connor,” Courtney stated, her voice low. “I haven’t seen him in years.”
    “You know him?” Marty’s gaze swung to her friend.
    Courtney nodded. “He and Bastian partied extensively in Europe and especially in Spain for a while. Shayne’s family disowned him, you know, though a sizable inheritance from his American grandfather allowed him to maintain the lifestyle he had been raised in.”
    “Disowned him?” Marty’s brow arched. This was a story she hadn’t yet heard on the ever elusive Shayne. “Why?”
    Courtney turned back to her, a hint of worry in her gaze now, before she breathed out roughly. “For his suspected involvement in a bombing in Spain. Bastian never believed he was involved, but his parents are very rigid. They threw him out of their home and publicly disowned him. It destroyed him. Shayne spent several years trying to exonerate himself before he simply disappeared.”
    He hadn’t disappeared; he had been recruited, instead. She’d known he was born of a Spanish father and an American mother, and that they were considered wealthy. She’d never heard he’d been disowned, however.
    “He and Sebastian are friends, then?” Alyssa asked, her normally quiet gaze glinting with the barest hint of curiosity.
    “They were very close as boys, I know.” Courtney shrugged as she and Alyssa sat back, their attention shifting between the three men. “Even as young men they were more like brothers before Shayne was sent away by his parents. I saw him only a few times after that.”
    Marty kept the three men in her peripheral vision. Interesting. An undercover FBI asset, a CIA operative, and a former undercover Interpol agent. What did the three have in common besides friendship?
    It could be a chance meeting, she thought. Sebastian was friends with Shayne, just as he was with Khalid. This was a very popular establishment. It wouldn’t be a surprise that the three would come together. Unless you knew for a fact that two of them had ties to information and resources that placed them squarely in some very dangerous situations.
    Finishing her drink, Marty wiped her lips with her napkin before collecting her purse from beside her plate and smiling at her friends.
    “I’m heading home,” she told them. “It’s been a long day for me.”
    “Already?” Courtney pouted. “I was hoping we could have a few more drinks before we left.”
    “Not tonight.” Marty shook her head. “I’m driving. But next time, I promise.”
    “She’s being a spoilsport, Aly.” Courtney turned to Alyssa. “Do something about her.”
    Alyssa shook her head as a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “She’s not the only one who needs to make an early night of it,” she said. “I need to head home as well. Perhaps next time.”
    “You’re both going to give me a bad reputation if I begin arriving home before midnight,” Courtney stated ruefully. “Ian may begin to believe I’m actually settling down.”
    “I’m sure you can convince him otherwise.” Rising to her feet, Marty gave the other two women a little wave before moving from the balcony and heading along the wide hall to the stairs. As she left the restaurant she noticed that Khalid was no longer at his table.
    She needed to get home to her computer, from which she could pull up the information she needed on the three men. There was a connection among them; there had to be. Despite appearances, those three should not be together, for the simple reason that they all had something to lose if the wrong people saw them together. Someone like Deerfield, or one of his agents.
    Shayne Connor might be an agent, but only a few within the FBI knew that. The operation that had brought