Dangerous Secrets (9 page)

“Odd for a guy that owns a restaurant and is
opening another,” Vincent said.

“He loves food, but just never had the inclination
to learn to cook,” she explained. “He does know what he’s talking about, though,
and has a great head for business. He had Carmela’s running in the black in two
years and clearing huge profits by year three.”

Trent just shrugged at that. “Okay, we’ll go to his
place and sit on it until he comes home. Then I will go and talk to him, with
Mallory, since he knows her.”

Happy with that she sat back and buckled her seat
belt.

Chapter Ten

Mallory lay on the back seat, knees bent and
playing a game on her phone. She’d gotten good and bored about ten minutes
after they’d parked. Trent didn’t blame her. Stakeouts and the whole waiting
game in general
was
pretty boring.

Vincent was slouched low in his seat so that anyone
walking along wouldn’t see him right off. Just as Trent was doing, all in an
effort to ensure some nosey neighbor didn’t go and call the cops on them.

“Car,” Vincent said, adding a yawn afterward.

Which of course made him feel the need to yawn, too,
but Trent resisted, barely. Squinting into his driver side mirror he shook his
head. “Pulled into a driveway three doors down,” he said.

Checking his watch again, he frowned.
Mal’s
boss, David, should be home any time now if she’d
been right about his time table. Of course, that didn’t take into account any
unforeseen issues at
either the
new restaurant, the
current one or traffic in general.

“Car,” Vincent said with a sigh.

Rolling his head against the seat, Trent shot him a
look to just shut up. Vincent gave him the single finger salute and a grin.
Chuckling at that, he went back to looking in his mirror.

The car was getting closer, closer and then slowing
before pulling into the correct drive. “He’s home,” he said.

Mallory sat up too fast and nearly slid off the
seat in the process. Thankfully, she caught herself on the front seats. Otherwise,
he’d have had to figure out a way to pry her out of there.

She gave him an
embarrassed
grin and wrinkled her nose. He found that so damned cute.

Cute?
Cute! Damn it, he
was getting deeper and deeper in with this woman.

Okay, he didn’t really mind but, shit, he needed
his head in the game. “Come on, Mal. Let’s go and ring the bell before he gets
somewhere in the house he might decide to ignore it.”

Getting out of the truck, he pulled the back door
open and helped her out. Keeping her hand in his, Trent led the way to the
house and up onto the porch. At the door, he rang the bell before stepping back
so that she’d be seen by the man first.

Hopefully, the guy would open up for one of his
employees.

Luck was on their side and a few moments later, the
porch light went on and the inner door opened up.

“Mallory, whatever are you doing here?” David
asked. The man was in his late forties or early fifties, a good twenty pounds
overweight, had all his dark brown hair, and had the kind of face that one just
trusted.

“Can we come in for a minute, David? We won’t take
up much of your time, but it is important,” she said.

“Of course, of course.”
He unlocked and pushed open the screened door, before waving them
inside. “Come on in,” he smiled.

“David, this is Trent, Trent, this is my boss,
David.”

“Of course, nice to meet you finally, sir,” Trent
said, playing his part. “Mallory’s told me a lot about you during our many
phone conversations. I hear you’re opening up a second restaurant soon. How’s
that going?”

David shook Trent’s hand and shook his head slowly.
“I’m
sorry,
Mallory’s never mentioned you before.”

“She has been keeping me her little secret,” Trent
said with a smile at her.

“I didn’t want to jinx it,” she said, going along
with the whole thing. “Trent and I have been dating for a little while now, but
with his job always taking him out of the country, I didn’t want to get my
hopes up that it could work.”

He slipped his arm around her waist and hugged her
to his side, careful of her shoulder. “I told you right from the start, Mal.
You’re the one and there’s no getting rid of me,” he said softly, leaning in to
press a kiss to her lips. He was playing with fire kissing her right then and
there, but it was worth it when she sighed into the kiss and leaned closer.

David gave a soft chuckle that broke them apart.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Trent. And yes, the second restaurant will be
opening soon. Not soon enough for my stress levels but soon.” He smiled at them
both, looking much like a proud parent. “Oh, how rude of me, please come in.” He
waved them toward a hall.

“Would either of you care for a drink?” he asked
them. “I was just getting the water ready for my nightly tea if you’d care to
join me.”

“We really won’t be here that long, hopefully,”
Mallory said. “I hated having to come and bother you at home but I figured it
would be easiest here.”

“Of course, why did you come?” David asked as he
went to take the whistling kettle off the stove.

“You know about Mallory’s attack,” Trent said
quietly.

“Of course I do, it was a horrible thing. Again,
here I am being a horrible host, how are you doing Mallory? Do you need
anything?” the other man asked her.

“I’m doing very well. Physical therapy starts next
week,” she said. “It’s still a bit tender and aches first thing in the morning
but I’m getting there.”

“Good, that’s good,” David said with a smile.

“As it happens, sir, it appears that the man that
attacked her was looking for something very specific. We know that Mallory
didn’t and doesn’t have it, but we were talking things through, and she thought
that maybe it was a case of bad labeling. I understand she tends to sign for
all sorts of packages that come to Carmela’s?” Trent said in a leading manner.

“Yes, she does. Not only is she my head chef, she
takes care of all that sort of thing when I’m not around.
Which,
for the last couple of months, hasn’t honestly been all that much.
The
new place has been pulling me every which way.”

“Completely understandable,” Trent said with a nod.
“But we got to thinking that maybe the item the man who attacked her was
looking for got sent, by mistake obviously, to the restaurant and Mallory
signed for it.”

David frowned, but suddenly had a look of
understanding crawl over his face. “Because her name would have been on the
shipper’s tracking information at the destination,” he said.

“Precisely,” Trent nodded. “We were hoping maybe
you knew of the package. From what she’s told me it would be a hard drive for a
computer. We’re thinking if you do have it, then we, Mallory and I, could take
it to the police and hopefully there is something on there that identifies the
man behind her attack and maybe tells us why this all happened.”

David was nodding. After a moment his face fell. “I
did have one like that,” he said with an apologetic look to them both. “But
after opening it I realized it wasn’t mine so I gave it to Marcel to ship back
for me.”

“Marcel does the accounting and such for the
restaurant,” Mallory told him quietly. “He also handles all the returns or
shipping we have to go out.
Documents and forms and whatnot.”

“That’s right,” David said. “I can’t promise that
he still has it, but I know he was behind and I told him to only do it when he
had time. With our year end coming up at Carmela’s, he’s been busy with all the
paperwork for the government and such. He likely hasn’t done anything with it
yet.”

“Would you mind terribly calling him, David?”
Mallory asked. “I know it’s late but this could be important to solving this
whole mess and it would take a load off my mind to know it was in the
authorities
hands.”

“I’ll call him right now,” David said as he patted
his pockets. “As soon as I remember where I left my phone,” he muttered. After
a moment he snapped his fingers and went to the jacket over the back of a
chair. Rooting through the pockets he came up with the phone.

“What are the odds Marcel still has the package?”
Trent asked Mallory quietly as David made his call.

Shrugging, she looked up at him. “David is
right,
Marcel’s always run fairly ragged any time it comes
around to year end. At least, last year he was, and I know he was building to
it this year. I’d say relatively
good
. Especially
since David just considered it a mistaken shipment, it wouldn’t register high
on his level of importance to attend to immediately.”

Trent hoped she was right. They needed to find the
damned thing and sooner, rather than later.

David came back with a big smile on his face.
“Marcel still has it and is very happy to turn it over to you so you can get it
to the authorities. He said that you should stop by his place and he’ll get it
to you right now, tonight.”

“That’s wonderful,” Mallory said. Moving to her
boss she gave him a hug. “Thank you, David.”

The older man blushed and shrugged. “I just hope
that the bastard that hurt you is caught and pays.”

“Believe me, I do, too,” she said with a smile.

After David gave them the address, they stayed a
couple more minutes to chat and then left.

In the truck, Trent shot Vincent a look.
“Jackpot.”
All he had to say to have the other man letting
out a relieved breath and grinning.

Chapter Eleven

Once they’d gotten the package from Marcel, they
returned to Mallory’s apartment. With beers in hand for the guys, and a soda
in her own,
they all were now peering into the box at the
hard drive. It really didn’t look all that important. Mallory knew that first
impressions could be very deceiving.

Vincent had it in hand and was peering at a set of
numbers on the side. “I don’t
know,
bro. This thing is
fairly old, technology-wise.”

Trent took it from him and peered at it. “Yeah, but
in theory the guys at the office should be able to get into it and take a
look.”

“In theory,” Vincent allowed.

Passing it back over to the other man, Trent sat
back on the couch. “Take it to them and tell them
it’s
top priority. We need to know what’s on there. I’m betting that it not only
incriminates
Mal’s
attacker, but someone else.”

“Gut feeling?”
Vincent asked him.

“Yeah,” Trent said with a slow nod.

“Well, then,” Vincent said. Tipping his bottle up,
he finished off his beer and set the empty on the table. Picking up the drive,
he stood and headed for the door. “I’ll call you as soon as I have anything
from the geeks.”

“Thanks, man,” Trent said, before locking up behind
him and arming Mallory’s new alarm.

“Do you think they’ll find anything?” she asked
curiously. She wanted to have more hope, but after watching the two men eyeing
the drive up and talking about it, she was worried they wouldn’t get what they
needed.

“I think they will. Whether it’s what we need to
put a stop to this and throw someone behind bars?” He shook his head and
shrugged. “I honestly don’t know.”

Not what she wanted to hear, but what she’d been
expecting. Sighing, she slouched on the sofa and stared at her toes.

Trent’s big body and heat settled in next to her
before he slid an arm around her shoulders. “We’ll figure this out, Mal,
promise,” he said, tugging her toward him.

Leaning into his chest, she nodded. “I know. I just
want this over with,” she said.

For long minutes, he was quiet. “That bad with me
around, is it?” He didn’t sound like he was teasing.

“What?” she said tipping her head up to look at
him. “No, Trent, that’s not what I meant. I like having you here, a lot. Likely
more than I should, honestly, since we just met. I just hate the idea of
someone out there, lurking in the shadows, and waiting to hurt me for that
damned hunk of hardware.”

He was staring into her eyes and, after a moment,
smiled. “So you like having me around do you?”

Figures that would be the part he’d hear. Rolling
her eyes, Mallory smacked his rock hard abs and put her cheek back on his
chest. “Too much,” she muttered.

His chuckle was deep and made her smile. “How much
is too much?”

She could have played it out, made him sweat, but
it felt wrong. Sitting forward, she set her pop down on the coffee table and
turned to look at him. He must have caught her serious mood, because he set his
bottle of beer aside as well.