Rock Chick 01 (34 page)

Still, he didn’t believe me.

“You like booty, not bony. She’s pretty and
all but not exactly your type,” I told him.

As if to prove me right, his hands went to my
ass.

I pressed my hands against his chest. “Are we
gonna do some of that kickass PI stuff now?”

Lee was leaning into me. “In a minute.”

I was having trouble staying upright, Lee was
pressing into me, his hands on my behind, and he was looking at me
with melty-chocolate eyes. His intentions were clear.

“Um, excuse me, but the door is unlocked,
anyone can walk in and we have a renegade coffee guy to catch, we
don’t have time for this. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking of fucking you on my
couch.”

Holy crap.

I did a full body tremble, starting at the
toes and going up.

“Lee! We have things to do, places to go,
butt to kick and we’re in your office with Dawn just down the hall,
for goodness sakes. What if she walks in with my stun gun?”

He let me go, walked to the door, locked it
and came back.

I scooted away but he hooked my waist, pulled
me back and gave me a bit of a shove so I fell to the couch. He
followed me down.

“I can see why you haven’t found Rosie or the
diamonds yet. You’re easily distracted.”

He was nuzzling my neck.

“Yeah, you’re distracting,” he agreed
readily. “Not to mention, I rarely get into the office, I prefer
being out in the field. I hate sitting in this office,” he said
this to the space below my ear and then moved his head to brush his
lips against mine. “From now on, when I have to be in here, I can
look at this couch and remember having a piece of your sweet ass on
it and the time will go a fuck of a lot faster.”

Yikes.

I should have been horrified, maybe, or
offended. Instead I liked the idea of him thinking of me in his
office, even that way or maybe especially that way. I liked the
fact that he told me, matter-of-fact. It wasn’t a roses and
champagne compliment but it worked all the same.

“Oh, all right,” I gave in on a sigh,
wrapping my arms around him and he kissed me but I could swear I
felt his body shaking, like he was laughing.

* * * * *

After we broke in his couch, I used his
private bathroom while Lee checked his e-mail messages, made some
phone calls and once I had all my clothes and hair back in order,
we walked out of his office. He was going to give me a tour and he
took me down the hall in the opposite direction to reception.

There were several doors and he opened the
one next to his office. It was large, held an exercise bike, a
treadmill, a set of free weights, a flat screen TV and a big, comfy
couch.

“This is a room for downtime, waiting or on
call.” This was all he said before he closed the door.

He turned across the hall and opened another
door and I peered inside. It was a bathroom, two sinks under two
mirrored medicine cabinets. There was a double-front, free-standing
cabinet with glass doors showing one side stacked with towels, the
other side holding male toiletries like shaving cream and deodorant
(okay, that was all the male toiletries, but males don’t have a lot
of toiletries and from what I noticed, Lee, nor any of his men,
were into primping and putting shitloads of product in their hair)
but was mostly taken up with various medical supplies (this I found
slightly alarming but I set it aside). There was also a toilet in a
stall and a big tiled space with two shower heads, open bays. All
of this was pristine clean and new-looking.

He closed the door while saying, “When you’re
in the office, you use my private bathroom. This is males
only.”

I felt a weird thrill that he gave this
instruction, using the word “when”. Maybe the next visit would
include me walking down the hall when someone opened the door to
the bathroom with open shower bays. Maybe I should bring Marianne
here, it might change her life. I was beginning to think Dawn was a
very clever girl (even though I still didn’t like her and
definitely didn’t trust her).

“What does Dawn use?” I asked.

He gave me a look.

“Don’t know, don’t ask.”

We walked further down the hall, he opened
the door to a small room that was lined with about a dozen lockers,
a big, fireproof cabinet with an electronic lock and a kitchenette
at the end. No explanation needed for this room and I was glad to
know where I could find the coffee.

Then he turned and knocked twice on a door,
slid a fob across a pad on the side, a green light went on and he
opened the door.

Woo hoo!

Now we were talking.

The nerve center.

We walked into a room with a bank of, like, a
gazillion television screens on one wall each with a DVD recorder
beneath it, underneath that a console full of buttons and knobs.
There were several multi-line phones on the console. Another wall
held radios stacked in inset shelves. I could hear the police-band
squawking quietly. Two guys were sitting in the room but there were
four chairs. Most of the television screens had visual, but a few
were blank. Against the wall opposite the screens, there were a
couple of desks that were a heck of a lot messier than Lee’s, with
folders, papers, empty pop cans and dirty coffee mugs.

Huh.

I had my proof about Dawn.

Both men were sitting with their sides to the
door, both men turned when we walked in and both men grinned when
they saw me. I had the weird, uncomfortable feeling they both knew
what happened in Lee’s office ten minutes ago.

“Indy, this is Monty and Vance, I think you
boys know Indy.”

Say what?

“Hey, Indy,” Monty greeted. He had a blond
military cut, a well-maintained body with a laid back posture and I
was guessing he was about ten years older than Lee. He was still
grinning at me and he lifted his hand and pointed a finger at a
bank of four screens, all of which had visual on different angles
of the inside of Fortnum’s.

Ah-ha.

Now I knew how Lee would think they’d know
me.

Then I stopped thinking and watched in horror
as Tex banged the portafilter on top of the espresso machine. Monty
hit a button and the police band was drowned out by Tex’s voice
shouting, “Fucking steam! Give me some more fucking steam, you
monster!” Which was followed by Duke shouting, “It only gives as
much steam as it gives, man!”

Wonderful.

Now I knew why they were both grinning at
me.

I looked away from the current frightening
goings-on at Fortnum’s to check out Vance.

Vance was younger than Lee, but I was
guessing not by much. He had shiny, straight black hair pulled into
ponytail, a lean body and fabulous bone structure and coloring of a
Native American.

Oh, and he was seriously hot.

Yep, I was definitely going to have to bring
Marianne here, and probably Andrea and more than likely, Tod.

It was like Chippendales but better.

I found myself captured by Vance’s good looks
and watched as he and Monty exchanged glances over Tex and Duke’s
exchange.

Vance’s lips were twitching. He thought Tex
was funny.

Vance looked up to me and caught me staring.
I gave him a tilty-head smile and he smiled back, all white teeth
against dark skin.

“Hi,” I said to him.

His smile widened.

Mm, yum.

Lee’s hand curled into the waistband of my
shorts.

Oopsie.

Monty and Vance turned back to the monitors
and I looked at them too. There was an angle of the foyer of Lee’s
condo building and his empty parking spot in the condo garage.
There was also an angle of the reception area where Dawn was on the
phone (likely tearing me apart to one of her girlfriends) and two
screens showing the Nightingale Investigation parking spots. I was
pretty much praying at that point that one of the blank screens
didn’t show a visual on Lee’s office.

There were eight screens showing various
things, mostly inside, some had people in them both at home and in
offices.

Lee started talking. “We used to do security.
Even though it paid well, it was boring as hell. Made employee
retention difficult.”

“Won’t have a problem with retention if we
keep monitoring your store. It’s like watching a sit com,” Monty
said, his voice heavy on the amusement.

Great.

Monty turned to me. “We asked Dawn to do a
transcript of your speech about El Salvador, Mom and Pop shops and
the American way and we e-mailed it around. Hank isn’t even on the
payroll and he was awarded honorary employee of the week for taking
duty on you that day. I would have paid to see his face when he
walked into that pot farm.”

Double great.

Not only did Dawn do the transcript, I could
be sure she made certain to e-mail it to Lee.

Not to mention the fact that I was break in
the day entertainment to Lee’s troops.

Lee let go of my shorts and said, “Fortnum’s
will be wired for awhile and we need to get a camera on the front
door.”

I looked back at him and his eyes were moving
along the screens and I got the impression he didn’t miss a
trick.

He briefly glanced at me then back to the
screens. He was being professional but I also got the feeling he
was ticked about something and trying not to let it show in front
of the guys.

“Currently, we do mostly investigations,
mainly corporate, embezzlement, fraud, theft. We pick up some
domestic investigation, only high-income, usually gathering
evidence to substantiate adultery or other incontrovertible grounds
to get large alimony and settlements.”

“Usually poking the nanny,” Monty put in.
“That’s fun to watch.”

“Depending on the nanny,” Vance spoke for the
first time, his voice deep and rich, his eyes off the screens and
on my legs, saying he wouldn’t mind watching me get poked if I was
the nanny. I was also hoping he wasn’t communicating he didn’t mind
just watching me get laid by Lee.

Yikes.

Though, you had to admit, he had balls
checking me out in front of Lee.

Lee kept talking. “Staff does rotation in
here, depending on what assignment they’re on. That way they don’t
have to sit in a windowless room very often and can keep sharp
doing field work.”

Lee started to move me to the door and I
called, “Later, guys.”

Both looked at me, Monty gave a small wave,
Vance grinned. I wondered if I would see the guys later, like, say,
Lee had a company picnic.

“Do you have cameras in your office?” I asked
Lee when he closed the door.

“Nope.”

Thank God.

“Tell me about Monty,” I went on.

“Monty’s an ex-SEAL, knee injury took him
out, the only guy who takes five shifts in surveillance a week. He
manages the room. He comes in if we have any field operations, most
of which he plans because he’s good at it. He’s been married twenty
years, has five kids and may look mellow but even with a bum knee,
he’s a serious guy you do not want to mess with.”

Yikes.

“Field operations?”

“Sometimes, end work on a corporate
investigation. Mostly when we work with the PD or Feds.”

“What do you do with the police and the
government?”

Lee didn’t answer.

I didn’t push.

“And Vance?” I asked.

“Vance is the master of multi-tasking. He’s
off the rez, a recovering alcoholic, ex-con, grand theft auto. He
has quick hands, quiet feet, can make himself invisible, is an
excellent tracker and can do anything with cameras and electronics.
He usually traces skips but he also does a lot of our wire work. He
wired Fortnum’s. I would have given him the new skip but he just
bought himself a week in the surveillance room. As for you, if you
look at him like that again, I’ll cuff you to the bed and only let
you go for bathroom breaks.”

“Jeez, now who’s jealous?”

I said it out loud, but I meant to think it
and might I add that this was a habit that was becoming
alarming.

My comment was a big mistake.

Without warning, Lee’s hand closed on my
upper arm, he opened the locker room door and pulled me inside. He
slammed the door shut behind us, shoved me against the lockers and
came up on me so there wasn’t room to move.

I looked up at him, about to say something
but thought better of it because his face was Badass Angry.

“Something to learn about me, since you
haven’t already taken it in,” he said in his scary, calm voice, “I
recognize I’ll have to put up with you receiving attention, I’ve no
problem with that. I’ve had a lot of practice. What I
don’t
like is that you flirt as easily as you lie, it’s second nature.
You’re gonna have to make an effort to stop because I don’t like
it. I especially don’t like it when you do it with my men, they
have to keep focused and we’ve already established you’re
distracting. It’s okay for me to think of fuckin’ you on my couch.
I don’t want it shoved in my face that Vance’ll be thinkin’ of
fuckin’ you in the surveillance room or on his Harley which he no
doubt saw you starin’ at like you’d do anything to be astride
it.”

“So that’s Vance’s Harley,” I said. Yep.
Aloud. Again.

Lee came even closer and his body pressed me
back into the lockers.

“Lee, move back,” I warned, beginning to get
pissed off.

He didn’t move.

So, I went into being full-fledged pissed
off, wedged my hands between us and shoved.

He still didn’t move.

“It’s harmless,” I told him.

“Does it feel harmless to think of me workin’
late nights with Dawn?”

I blinked at him, confused. After the
mind-bogglingly good time we had on the couch, I was
way
over any upset about Dawn.

“Well, yeah,” I said.

He stared at me, his face stony.

“For goodness sake, she’s not your type.
Vance is cute, for certain, but he isn’t my type.”