Which never happened to him. When he saw a face, he remembered it. That memory had saved his life more than once.
After he decided she wasn’t in the lobby, he crossed through the revolving door and into the cool November breeze. By now she was probably in a cab and long gone.
Oh well. Like Denise said, it was undoubtedly nothing. Maybe if he took another look at the surveillance footage, he could figure out what bothered him about her.
Something slammed into the back of his legs and he stumbled forward a few feet before he caught his normally stellar balance. His gaze jerked down and he saw a familiar looking scarf wrapped around his legs.
“Oh my goodness, this is so embarrassing,” said a feminine voice.
At his feet was the woman he was chasing after. She was crouched low and looking up at him with dark brown eyes and cheeks blushing the deepest red possible. The woman snatched up the scarf and stood, taking a step back. “I didn’t mean to run into you like that. The stupid wind caught my scarf and I’ve been chasing it like a fool for the last few minutes and I wasn’t thinking and—”
“Don’t worry about it,” he interjected. He smiled at her, trying his best to make her feel more at ease. “No harm done and if I weren’t here, you might never have caught it, right?”
She let out a small laugh and the pink slowly faded from her cheeks. “Right. I’m glad you’re so understanding. You hear horror stories about how upset city folk can get when their routines are interrupted.”
Interesting. Her voice held just a hint of a Southern accent, and she admitted she was visiting. “I’m Jace.” He held a hand out. “I’m glad I made a good impression on behalf of New Yorkers everywhere.”
She studied his outstretched hand for a fraction of a second before she reached out to meet his handshake. He could tell from her relaxed, hesitant grip that she probably didn’t work in the corporate world. So why the hell did she seem so familiar?
“Emmaline Devereaux,” she said. “It’s nice to see a friendly face.”
Devereaux! He made sure the recognition didn’t show in his face. That explained everything. Why she looked so familiar but he couldn’t quite place where he knew her from. This must be Joslyn’s younger sister. The one who inherited the family fortune while Joslyn got nothing.
There was a strong resemblance between the two. Both were petite framed and had pale skin to go with their red hair. But where Joslyn was curvy with fiery red curls, Emmaline was smaller and her hair took on more of a brownish red. Emmaline also spoke with much less of an accent, he noted to himself. Maybe she didn’t live in the family home she’d inherited... Either way, it didn’t matter to him. Now that he wasn’t working with Victoria, all he could do was tell Gordon that Joslyn’s sister was poking around.
Even so, his curiosity got the better of him. “So what brings you to the city?”
A fleeting shot of panic crossed her face and Jace felt a bit more comfortable with her snooping around. Whatever Emmaline’s motives, her face was an open book. If she wanted to cause trouble, Gordon could handle her easily enough.
As soon as she regained her composure, she was right back to smiling. “Oh, just family stuff. I have a few cousins in town I’m visiting.”
He thought back to what he’d read about Joslyn’s cousins. Michael and Luke Devereaux, who both ran DevX Enterprises. As soon as word got out about Joslyn’s arrest, they’d done everything possible to distance themselves from the newly minted black sheep of the family. Jace wondered how open they’d be to Emmaline showing up in the city.
“I hope you have a great time while you’re here then. Did you want me to hail you a cab?”
“I don’t think that’s necessary.” She secured the scarf around her neck and gave it a tight yank to make sure it was firmly knotted in place.
Jace glanced over to the long line of cabs. He’d rather she was far away from Hunt Tower before he went back upstairs to tell Gordon about the strange visitor. “Are you sure? Rush hour is coming, and traffic is only going to get worse from here on out today.”
“My cousins won’t be home from work for a few hours, so I figured I’d wander around the city.”
A laugh escaped him. “Wander around? It’s a big city.”
Her eyes brightened. “Michael showed me this app thing where you can input what city you’re in and the GPS will lead you to all the best things to see.”
“Michael?” Jace already knew she was talking about her cousin, but it would be interesting to see how much she’d tell him about her family.
“Oh, one of my cousins I’m staying with. They’re both very techy. Well, I should probably be going. It was nice meeting you, Jace.”
He stepped away. He supposed he didn’t need any information from her, and he didn’t think she’d be a threat to his soon-to-be former employer. “Nice meeting you too, Emmaline.”
“Emma,” she corrected. “No one really calls me Emmaline. I don’t really know why I said it. One of those days, you know?”
Jace nodded in sympathy. If she was in town because of the scandal caused by her sister, he could only imagine how flustered she was. “You know what, it would be a shame for you to go exploring by yourself. There’s this great little bus tour a few blocks away. It’s not that expensive and it will give you a good idea of what you’ll want to see while you’re in town.”
“A bus tour. Aren’t those a little corny?”
Damn it. Why would she want to do a stupid bus tour? She probably had enough money in her trust fund to buy half the city. For all he knew, she’d never set foot in a bus. “It was just a thought. Don’t worry about it. I really should be getting back anyway.”
“I’ve kept you too long, haven’t I? Have I broken city etiquette by stopping to talk to someone I ran into? I bet I was supposed to keep going. Well, I don’t want you to be late for anything on my behalf. I will find my way from here.”
“I’m not going to be late. It’s my last day on the job.”
“Your choice or theirs?”
“Mine. My contract is up and I’m taking a bit of time off until I find another one that interests me.”
“It must be so nice to have that sort of freedom. What kind of work do you do?”
Jace weighed his options, but didn’t see any reason to lie to her. “I work in security and investigations mostly.”
“Really? Do you have a card?”
He frowned at the strange turn of conversation. “My card?”
“I’m in town handling a little family matter. I might need help looking into it and I don’t know the first thing about investigating anything. So if you need a job and I need help, why don’t you give me your contact info and we can work with each other. I can pay you very well, promise.”
He stared at the debutante in front of him and tried to get a read on what she was thinking. He had no doubt she could pay well, but he had enough padding in his savings account that he could go awhile between jobs. But how would she feel when she found out just what part he’d played in the “family matter” she was looking into? “What makes you think I’m actually good at what I do?”