by Holly Rayner
“Good,” Jed said, looking satisfied.
When they reached the top of the stairs, Jed led the way to a large door on the corner of the first floor. When he opened it, Sophia gasped.
The room was filled with candlelight, and it was like stepping into another time. A large basin tub was filled with steaming hot water, surrounded by bowls of chocolate-covered fruit and champagne. Through a set of French doors, Sophia could see a terrace, and, glancing down, she saw the view of a beautiful little courtyard.
The crowning glory of the room was the giant, canopy bed. It was draped with gossamer curtains, and, surrounded by more candlelight, it was the most alluring setting Sophia had ever seen.
“Now, why don’t we check out what this bath has to offer before seeing what that bed has to offer, all without the fear of anyone crying in the night?”
Sophia grinned up at him, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and relishing in the strong, muscular feel of him beneath her fingertips.
“I think that sounds like the best idea you’ve had all night, and that’s really saying something.”
She stood on her toes to kiss him, enjoying the sensual surroundings as she prepared for a night of pure romantic bliss.
“I love you, Sophia,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.”
And the rest of the night was sheer, beautiful perfection.
The End
Secret Triplets
And now, as a special treat, mine and Alexa Ross’ previous novel, Secret Triplets, in full.
I hope you enjoy!
Copyright 2017 by Holly Rayner and Alexa Ross
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.
All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
Chapter One
I had never been unhappier.
At this point, I would have taken just about any job. Another long, dejected look around my room didn’t do me any favors. The fluorescent light overhead was flickering, another corner of hideous green and orange wallpaper had come free, and, as I turned, my office chair almost toppled over. In the black of the humming computer screen in front of me, my reflection wasn’t even angry, just sad.
There was no point in asking myself how I’d gotten here, because I knew all too well. The date was marked on the calendar that was dangling precariously from a nail in the wall. It was back in January, on the page with Sherlock Holmes on his feet and ready for action, his iconic hat set on his head and his pipe at the ready. Below him, on the first square for January 1st, there it was: move-in day.
It had been a symbolic move-in day for a symbolic feat.
After six years in the business, I had finally gotten my own office, my own place. I was no longer going to work from home anymore; I’d made it. Sure, the only place I had been able to afford had been a crappy second-floor bathroom of a room, but I had just been starting out, just building my business; it had just been a stepping stone. Who would’ve thought it would have come to this? A stepping stone to bankruptcy? A few months’ worth of no jobs?
I cast my glare toward the foggy, spider-webbed window, past which, across the street, busy men in nice, clear windows worked unceasingly. “Private Investigations Boulder,” the sign below them read. Maybe in a few months I’d be there in one of those windows, working for the very company whose job offer I had refused a month ago. I took another look around my office and sighed. Sure, working for a company would mean a loss of freedom and independence, but at least I’d have something to do.
Checking my email on my computer only confirmed what I knew already: no emails, no jobs, nothing. It had been like this since Private Investigations Boulder had set up shop across the street—even getting a sit-down with a potential client didn’t mean much these days.
My computer screen reflection tucked a piece of hair behind its ear self-consciously.
Maybe I just needed a haircut, some glasses, something. A blue-eyed blonde wasn’t exactly what anyone would call promising detective material. And yet, I had proven myself, hadn’t I?
My gaze went to my corkboard, where my previous successes hung proud: the Donatti family shaking my hand, their olive faces bright with smiles after I found their missing inheritance; Jenna Baker’s surly frown, a nice contrast to the Baker family’s faces when I showed up with their missing daughter in tow; then, near the bottom, with a pin stabbed through its tail, Miss Murple’s unimpressed-looking fat tabby, Oscar, my proudest achievement of all. Nabbing Oscar’s burglar had been no small feat. The bent-over, gangly man had run, tabby blob in hands, for blocks before he finally gave up and handed the poor yowling thing over.
And yet, what difference had that made? My gaze fell to my phone, the ugly old taupe thing that I couldn’t remember hearing ring in the past week, or even month for that matter.
The difference all my past accomplishments had made was not much. No, not much difference now that I was stuck here in this cramped box with nothing to do but regret not accepting the job offer from the very company that was putting me out of business.
In fact, my previous successes were proving to be more useless than I had even thought. In the beginning, I’d taken the difficulties in stride, assuming my lack of experience and being a woman were obstacles that would be overcome with time. This, however, proved not to be the case. Despite my experience, no one took me seriously as a private investigator. It was one thing to be a woman, but it was another thing to be a blond, blue-eyed, young-looking one who smiled too much and had a high, uncertain voice.
Yes, my appearance certainly wasn’t helping, as my two latest interviews had shown. In the first one last week, the shawled old woman and suited old man had taken one look at me as I’d opened the door before flying off, mumbling some unlikely story about a detective mix-up. In the second one a few days ago, a sour-faced pair of sisters had only pretended to give me a chance, drilling me with such ridiculous questions that when they marched out there, high and mighty with their rejection of my suitability, I was actually relieved.
My gaze rose to the smiley-faced clock on the wall beside me, which was grinning mockery at me. Five p.m.
I threw my pen at it, though the cheap blue thing just bounced off the glass and then onto the carpet below.
If Mom had known how that stupid, cartoon, black-and-white, smiling thing would mock me, reminding me of every new day that passed with fewer and fewer clients and less hope for a better future, she would’ve never bought it for me.
But she’d had no idea how badly this would all go. Hell, I’d had no idea either.
And yet now here I was, once again staring at the ironic reminder of my failure. Another day gone, and I’d done nothing but lost some rounds of chess to a computer, reread Critical Mass for the fifth time, and prayed, hoped, longed for a client, for anything.
The sound of knocking on the door surprised me so much that I almost fell off my chair.
And yet, even as I rose, the three sharp knocks were repeated, one after another, perfectly in time. When I opened the door, the man had his pale, skeletal hand crumpled into another knock position, prepared for three more knocks, presumably.
“Are you Alex Combs?” his high-pitched voice asked.
I stared at him. My mind was so busy processing what it was seeing that it couldn’t come up with anything to say yet. White hair, yellow teeth, aquiline nose, hollowed-out face—this man looked more like a movie villain than anything. His hooded, gray, lifeless eyes weren’t helping either. He had no wrinkles to indicate his age however, except for a strangely prominent crease in the m
iddle of his forehead.
“Are you?” His high, cold voice snapped me back to life.
I nodded dumbly.
“Yeah. I…that’s me.”
He eyeballed me dubiously, his liquid gaze rolling over my try-hard black and navy business suit, then my hopelessly blond hair.
“Come in,” I said before he could run away.
I opened the door, and, at the sight of my dismal little office, his doubtful expression became downright disappointed.
“You have worked in the industry…for a while?” he asked.
“Yes.” I flopped into my chair, making the thing almost fall over altogether.
I gestured to the mauve-cushioned wooden chair which he only stared at.
This was my first client in months; I couldn’t mess this up!
I jumped up, and the words flew out of my mouth. “Okay, here’s the deal. Those guys over there—Private Investigations—I can tell you right now, they can give you a better rate and more guys working on your case.”
The man squinted at me as if trying to see if I was joking.
I took another deep breath and plowed on. “But they don’t have what I do: six years of experience in the field, a passion that keeps me working on cases until the wee hours of the morning, and a doggedness that doesn’t stop until it gets results.”
He was still staring at me, his face unmoved.
“I know I don’t look like much,” I said, “but I can promise you this: I will work until your case is solved or you can have your money back. You have my word.”
At this, his eyebrows raised and stayed raised. Then he took a sweeping look around the room that ended on me. Abruptly, he slid into the chair.
“You have my attention,” he said.
I collapsed back onto my own chair, trying not to look as relieved as I felt.
“So, tell me a bit about yourself,” I said. “What is it you’d like looked into?”
“I’m Russell Snow. I’m trying to track down someone dangerous. Very dangerous. Really, an unhinged criminal.”
He searched my face for a reaction that I tried not to give. If he saw just what I was thinking, he might have left entirely. Why was this guy coming to me instead of the police for help with finding a so-called “unhinged criminal”?
“Okay,” I said.
He continued. “His name is Brock Anderson. I want evidence of his criminal activities so I can hand him over to the police.”
Each statement was a smooth sliding-out of syllables, after which his gaze scanned my face for their absorption. Finally, he finished up with, “So that’s your job. Follow him and get evidence.”
I nodded.
“Those ‘private investigators’ across the street were useless. What about you?”
He scanned my face, and I scanned his.
With that white hair and unsettling face, the name Russell Snow fit. It fit too well, I’d say. It was probably fake. There was something off about this request, this guy, all of it, and yet I was in no position to refuse any job.
“Okay,” I found myself saying. “I’ll do it. Just tell me what to look for and I’ll get to work. What evidence should I be on the lookout for?”
A half smile slid onto his lips and then fell.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
My next scan of his face revealed nothing; it was lowered, focused on his phone as he texted. He was apparently under the impression that he had told me enough, when really he had basically given me nothing to go off.
“So what about you? What is your relation to this case, this Brock Anderson? Can you give me anything else to go off?”
He didn’t look up from his phone, only shook his head and said “no.”
Right, now this guy was getting on my nerves.
“And my fees, $50 an hour, you’re okay with that?” I said, and he nodded and waved a bony hand in an unconcerned figure eight.
“Won’t be a problem. I’ll pay $2,000 at least, more if it takes longer.”
And then he sat there, texting away, forgetting me entirely. As if he hadn’t just made an insanely lavish offer.
I stood up.
“Well, thank you for your time, Mr.…Snow. I will get to work on your case immediately and give you updates on my progress every few days.”
I held out my hand, but he only glanced up, nodded again, and then, after a good minute more of texting, rose and shook it.
“Work business” was his explanation before sweeping away.
At the door, he paused and grabbed my hand again.
“Miss Combs. Can’t stress discretion enough. We’ll be in touch.”
I found myself yanking my hand out of his iron, cold grasp. Then he was gone, leaving an even worse feeling behind him, an insidious uneasiness.
I watched him glide down the hallway and disappear down the stairs.
What had I gotten myself into?
Chapter Two
I raced back into my office with a twist of excited apprehension in my gut. Regardless of how sketchy this guy seemed, I had agreed to do his job, so now I had a job to do. A job. An actual job! I didn’t bother glancing at the clock. It didn’t matter what time it was. All that mattered was that, for the first time in a long time, I had a job.
My tracking didn’t start out well. The first internet search of “Brock Anderson” brought up over 18 million entries. The next, with quotation marks around “Brock Anderson,” generated a more manageable but still numerous 27,900. Nonetheless, I methodically scanned through the results, from a soda company’s Corporate Ergonomics Manager to the gangster-looking baseball player to the stud football jock to the porky child on Twitter who liked baseball too. But of all the pictures I scoured, none of them matched the description, and the subjects didn’t live anywhere near Boulder.
Searching “Brock Anderson Boulder” proved more promising; it brought up a site, which provided 99 entries of people apparently named Brock Anderson near Boulder. Luckily, only half or so mentioned no age or an age in the 30s range. So, I printed out the list, picked up my blue ink pen, put on my best telemarketer voice, and began calling.
My premise was simple and involved a bit of white lying and a lot of being hung up on, but at this point, what did I have to lose?
“Hello there. I’m calling from ScarTronic, a new scar skin care cream, and we wanted to offer you a free trial. Could I get some information about you first?”
And so my scar-cream selling, tracking-down-Brock-Anderson campaign began.
For some of the Brock Andersons I called, it only took a few words for me to determine that I was talking to the wrong Brock: their voices had 50 years of smoking in them or the drawl of a bored teen. These I escaped with a quick “sorry, wrong number!” before I even made my scar pitch. For others, however, ruling them out took a bit more sleuthing, like asking questions about current and former professions and scar location.
And so I slogged through the list, through Brock Anderson after Brock Anderson, old and young, in their 30s and 80s, who had “no scars” or “one birthmark on my butt,” who was “born and raised a farmer and will die one” or who was on welfare but just for the “past coupla years, is all.”
When one Brock Anderson admitted to being a former marine with a scar on his eyebrow, and I was all but ready to go over and meet him before he admitted that he was actually an old woman with a young man’s voice who had an uncanny psychic ability and had taken advantage of my miscall. She had lied because she was lonely and wanted someone to talk to. I agreed to meet Ms. Mabel, which was her real name, for coffee next week before hanging up with dismay.
My list was now a series of crossed-out entries. I had gone through every last Brock Anderson. There were none left. Meanwhile, the clock had sped ahead without my even noticing. It was now 10 p.m. It smiled at my shock while my belly groaned.
I got out my phone and immediately found myself ordering pizza. I told the pizza boy, who sounded like it was his first day, that I wante
d a medium pepperoni, hung up, and then got to work.
Now that I had scoped out all I could about this so-called Brock Anderson online, I moved on to the only other lead I had on him: Russell Snow. My creepy client probably hadn’t counted on me searching him out too, but if his name was as fake as I thought, I probably wouldn’t find anything anyway. Searching “Russell Snow” turned up 36,000 hits, notably a lot of business professionals and even more pictures of snow plows in every color of the rainbow. By the time my phone rang, I had just typed in “Russell Snow Boulder.”
Although I told the pizza boy on the other end that I’d be right down, I couldn’t help but click the search button before I dashed off. The boy at the door was as expected: a stammering, pimple-faced, mustache-attempting teen who held my delicious Pizza Nova medium extra-cheese pepperoni pie in shaky, disproportionately large hands.
I accepted the box, handed him the cash with a kind smile, and ran up the steps two-at-a-time, though it wasn’t just my stomach that was eager to return to the office. It was my mind too, which internally sighed at the computer screen that awaited me: no results found.
As my mouth devoured pizza slice after pizza slice, my gaze stayed on the disappointing screen. Meanwhile, my mind hardly noticed the cheesy goodness entering my mouth.
The realization was literally staring me in the face. Russell Snow was not as he seemed, and this job was looking to be my most difficult yet.
It looked like I had gotten what I’d wished for: a job, though what a job it was.
Chapter Three
I woke up to red. Red, oozing liquid that smeared as I jerked away in horror, my low moan becoming a sad laugh.
Pizza sauce. I had actually fallen asleep on top of my pizza.
I put my fingers to my cheek, and they came away with red and white goo. Clearly, I had gotten a nice sleep mask of pizza.
