Who Glares Wins (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (7 page)

I watched as Lily detached herself from her new cop friend and walked outside. "I'm going to wait with Lily outside," I told my brothers. "See you soon."

"Don't forget babysitting Sunday," said Garrett.

"I won't."

Lily insisted we try a new bar downtown,
and had
our cab
d
rop us outside. It was a nice place with plate glass
windows
looking out onto the street.
Despite the many booths
and tables
,
and a long bar
, it was only half occupied
,
given that
it wasn't the weekend yet. We grabbed two leather stools at the bar
and Lily reached for the cocktail menu, running one perfectly
manicured,
pink fingernail down the list.

“Do you want to hear the specials?” asked the barman, his friendly smile wasted on us.

Lily gave him a dejected shrug. “Sure.”

“Tonight is two-for-one on
‘
Men are Scum
’
and
‘
Massive Pornstars
’
.”

“What’s in the
‘
Men are Scum
’
?”

“Rum. It rhymes with scum.”

Lily perked up. “And the
‘
Massive Pornstars
’
?
”
she asked without blinking.

“Rum. It doesn’t rhyme with anything
,
but we over
-
ordered on rum.”

“We’ll take two of each. My treat,” she added to me
, reaching
for her purse. “I sold my rubber dresses.”

I turned to her as the barman moved away to assemble our drinks. “You don’t need them anymore?” Lily was a club hostess and had to dress per the
ir
rules. Sometimes
,
the rules were eye
-
popping. It was a side
of her that
she’d kept hidden until one fateful night a few months ago.

“Not since Flames got busted. I sold them to a guy in Omaha.”

I raised an eyebrow. “A guy?”

“Don’t judge. He’s paying for our drinks.” She beamed as four glasses appeared in front of us. After paying,
Lily took a deep breath, then another. "Jord is never going to be interested in me, is he?" she
asked
,
in a
voice of finality that I never noticed before.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "I don't know what's going on in his head.
He would be lucky to have you.
"

"I realized just now, when I was talking to that cute guy in O'Grady's, that it doesn't make me feel good when I see Jord anymore. I fancy him like crazy
,
and I kno
w we'd be good together, but...
he makes me feel like shit. I've liked him a long, long time and not once has he shown any interest. I'm pretty, aren't I?"
she asked, her face highlighted by the multi-colored
,
blinking
,
plastic ice cube.

"Oh, Lily, yes, of course you are," I said with absolute sincerity
,
because Lily was nothing short of stunning.
She had big, blonde curls and wholesome, glowing skin that made her look like she should be on skincare adverts,
as well as
a button nose, and a curvy figure that most guys looked at twice.

Lily plundered on. "I know I'm not super smart, but I have a job. I'm a nice person. People like me. Guys like me. Why not Jord?"

"Because he's a dumbass?"

"Thank you, honey. I know he's your brother, and I shouldn't lay this on you. But yeah, he's a dumbass! No more, okay? No more waiting around for Jord, no more measuring guys up to him and not seeing them again because they're not him. No more! You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to call that guy."

"I think that's the smartest thing you ever said."

Lily raised her glass. "To me," she toasted. "To going forward."

"To going forward," I echoed, raising my own glass.

Lily
hiccupped
. "I'll call him when I'm sober."

"Good thinking."

"And screw Solomon!" she said.

"Maybe not."

"To not screwing Solomon!" Lily took another large swallow. "But plenty of that with the detective!"

It was one a
.
m
.
by the time our cab dropped us at the curb and we stumbled inside the building that Lily's parents
had
carved into apartments. Lily took the first floor
;
I had the second
;
and the third floor was on a short lease
, and had a history
of
a
revolving door of tenants
.
Thanks to the division of floors,
it
meant Lily wouldn't struggle getting into her apartment
,
while
I would really have to focus on the stairs to get into mine. "This was a good night," Lily slurred. "I am a strong, capable woman."

"Me too," I agreed, my words mashing together. "Screw men. If they think I'm a useless
,
little woman, they're getting a surprise."

"A big surprise!"

"Gigantic!"

"Huge!"

"Enormous!" I paused. "I'm out of adjectives."

"Me too. What are you going to do
tomorrow
?"

"
Apart from stock
ing
up on Advil, n
ot a clue."

~

I glanced up when the
door
to Solomon’s office
opened
,
then back to my laptop
, my head throbbing
. My throat felt hoarse
,
and I couldn't remember a chunk of last night, except there were a lot of resolutions
.
Something about
who wouldn't be screwing whom
,
and that Lily was firm about being no longer interested in
my
brother.
I seem to remember
hearing
that before.
I'd give her a week.

"Lexi. My office." Solomon's voice cut through my hangover and I closed my eyes for a moment, trying not to wince.

I wished I wasn't still pissed off, but I was
;
and, if I
w
ere totally
honest, I wasn't sure why now.
Lily and I had hashed
it through the previous night.
So, my colleagues thought I was a silly woman who
quite
possibly slept with the boss, or still was. So what?
It didn’t make it true.
And Solomon
’s
assumption that one day we'd get it on
?
W
ell, so what to that to
o
!
It wasn't going to happen.

I just wished I had the confidence and the inner serenity to keep thinking like that, but every time the thought snuck into my head
,
it
hung there,
like an annoying commercial jingle
. There
might not be anything
between Solomon and me, oth
er than that he was now my boss
;
but I didn’t
want anyone else thinking there was
more
going on. Not because Solomon was gross in anyway. If anything, he was beautiful. But I had a chance at a job I might be good
at,
and that was important to me
. So,
with that in mind,
today I was dressed like I meant business in black pants, flat boots and a round
-
necked sweater.

Even worse, if a rumor reached Maddox, how would I explain nothing happened
with my boss
to the man I
did
want
?
It would be beyond awkward.

I locked my screen and walked
over
, trying
to disregard
the low level headache I'd had since waking. It wasn't a bitch of a hangover
,
but it
refused to be ignored
. I made myself feel better by slinging a nasty look at Fletcher behind his back.

"
About that job I want you
on
," said Solomon, closing the door behind me.
I perked up briefly before remembering y
esterday's
forgotten
case.
His
case. Not my case.

"Yeah?" I took the chair this side of Solomon's desk, then waited for him to take his and continue.

"The hotel job," he said, then clarified, "
m
y case."

"You want me working your case?" I said
incredulously
, given yesterday’s conversation
. I still had Marissa Widmore's case file in my purse and I hadn't made the call to Elisabeth Fong
yet
to tell her no.

"Yes. You'll be working exclusively on it."

"Alone?" I frowned, not sure if he was being
facetious
.

"Not strictly speaking, but not with anyone in the office."

"What do you mean?"

"You're going undercover."

Solomon's words
took me by
surprise. "Seriously?" I asked
, staring him in the face
. Yesterday, he told me the guys thought I
was useless
, now he was giving me a case to work on. Undercover
and
alone. I was confused. I was also bizarrely grateful that my lingering hangover meant I
di
dn't storm
into
Solomon's office this morning,
demanding to be taken seriously
,
while announcing to anyone who cared to hear that he was just my boss.

He nodded.
"Yes, seriously."

"Who's the client?"

"The Montgomery Hotel and Conference Center." The hotel was Montgomery's bes
t
. To be fair, it was also our only hotel, the small smattering of motels and inns excepted. The Montgomery had been
remodeled
in recent years by
its
new owners, a nationwide conglomerate
. Now,
it catered more to the business crowd than casual sightseers,
although
there wasn't much to see here. The
C
onference
C
enter was a recent addition, providing
a venue
for weddings, conferences, dinners, exhibitions and anything else
people
might need a large room for
.
They also had
associated space that comprised breakout rooms, a dining hall
,
which could seat
three hundred, two bars, a smaller sit-in restaurant
,
and
a
fully equipped business center, as well as rooms in the adjoining hotel for overnight guests.
I heard it did
a fairly
good business.

"Snazzy. What have they hired us for?"

"They have some problems at the hotel and the manager wants us to investigate
and
keep things quiet. We could go in heavy
-
handed
ly
and interview everyone, but chances are we'd just frighten the staff and tip our hand towards the problem. Instead, I've arranged for you to go undercover as a new employee."

"What will I be doing?"
I asked, relaxing slightly.

"You are going to be the manager's new assistant. That should get you access to everywhere in the building and everybody." Solomon pushed a file across his desk and I
reached for it. Leaning back in the chair, I
opened it. Solomon had clearly already been working on it
,
as it
ran
a half
-
inch thick.

"What makes you think
they'll talk to me?" I asked, glancing up at him.

"You're going to be sweet and not very bright. Charm everyone."

I had a bad feeling about this. The first and last time I had to snoop in an office, I ended up with a gun to my head. The sweet and not very bright bit, I could do fine. I temped for years. It went with the territory.