Armed With Steele

by Kyra Jacobs

  Molly Gillenwater. The ice queen who had been less than thrilled to process my application on Monday. I shivered at the memory. Was she always so frosty to everyone, or did she just hate me for some reason?

  “Mr. Frankston requested I call to set up a time for you to come in for an interview. If you’re still interested in the job, that is.”

  Truthfully, the thought of taking this second job was about as appealing as going down a long bumpy slide and landing barefoot-first into a patch of prickly cacti. But I’d promised Nate. And more importantly, I’d promised Grace. “Oh, yes. Absolutely.”

  I picked the first available time slot she offered and hung up. Then I sat there for a few moments, trying to decide whether I should be excited about this advancement in our plan or skip town. And believe me, skipping town sounded like one hell of a great option right then.

  Especially since I still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of my ghost of a partner since he’d bolted out the door on Monday. Had I said something wrong and ticked him off? Or was this just his way of making sure I understood that our relationship was strictly professional?

  I gave myself a mental slap. Why was I worried about relationship issues with Nate? We were business partners, nothing more. He’d said to let him know when I got the call, and now I had. So I took a deep breath and did just that. Via a text message.

  Maxwell just called, I typed. Interview Mon 9am.

  I hit Send and rolled out of bed. After I hit the bathroom, I slid into my taking-the-dog-out red plaid lounge pants and headed for the back door. And for a strong cup of coffee, to drown the growing school-girl crush I seemed to have on Nate.

  Brutus tromped along at my heels as we passed into the kitchen. Apparently I’d forgotten to close the curtains over the sink the prior night. Now, between the brilliant fall sunshine and cheery pale yellow walls, our kitchen was practically glowing.

  I squinted, my eyes nearly shut, and groped my way forward in search of a mug from the cupboard overhead. Unfortunately, my left big toe found a cupboard of its own first. I curled both hands into fists, and waited for the shooting pains in my toe to subside.

  “Sonofabi—”

  My cell phone began to ring.

  “—tchhhh.”

  I hobbled back to my bedroom, cursing the entire way. Brutus remained under foot, which didn’t help the situation any. “Hello?” I said, my voice tight with pain. And annoyance.

  “Jessica, it’s Nate. A-are you alright?”

  “Yep. Just…stubbed a toe, that’s all. What’s up, stranger?”

  “Yeah, sorry about deserting you this week. I’ll explain later. But I got your text—way to go!”

  Later? My heart did a pathetic little flip-flop. Which I did my best to ignore.

  “Does that mean you haven’t bailed on me, then?”

  “Bailed on you? No, it’d take a lot more than—” He paused. Cleared his throat. “It just hasn’t been safe for me to be around you the past few days. But now the ball is officially rolling, so we need to get moving on our strategy. You got plans tonight? “

  I looked down and bent my big toe back and forth—not broken, thank heavens. “Sounds like I do now. Wait. What do you mean, not safe? Should I be worried?”

  “Safe for you, not me. Again, I’ll explain later. I’m in between runs so I don’t have long to talk. Can you be at 8679 River Canyon Drive around seven tonight?”

  “Hang on, let me write it down.” I gimped over to my desk and grabbed a pen. “One more time?”

  “8679 River Canyon Drive.”

  “Got it. This is your place?” An invite to Nate’s? My heart skipped another beat or twelve.

  He snorted. “No, I wish. It’s Charlie’s house. My place is even less safe than yours. Anyway, if you get there before me, just wait outside.”

  “Outside? Um, okay. I’ll keep an eye out for your cruiser.”

  “No, no, I’ll have my personal vehicle. It’s a blue—” His two-way radio sprang to life, and drowned out a few of his words. “Should be the only car in the driveway.”

  “Okay, see you—”

  The phone disconnected.

  “Later.”

  Chapter 13

  I pulled into Charlie’s long, winding driveway just after seven that night. His lot was deeper than it looked from the road, perhaps because it was so heavily wooded. After a few twists and turns, dense trees gave way to a small, open lawn skirting a beautiful two-story home. A sleek royal blue Chevy Camaro, complete with white racing stripes that ran from grill to tail, was parked before the garage. And there, leaning up against it, was Nate.

  I parked my little Civic, and momentarily struggled with a silly case of car-envy. Of course, once I stepped out and got a better look at my partner, that emotion became the least of my worries. Nate looked like a damn Levi’s model tonight, what with his black boots, dark button-flys and a black, fitted leather jacket.

  And that I even noticed was so…pathetic.

  I walked around the passenger side of my car to retrieve my things and reviewed my goals—get in, strategize, and get back out. No messy emotional stuff; this was strictly business.

  “So you found it okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” I opened my passenger side door. “For the most part. Thank goodness for MapQuest.”

  “So, I probably owe you a bit of an explanation.”

  I plucked a bag of pastries and my purse from the front seat and bumped the door shut with my elbow. “You don’t owe me anything, Nate.” I turned in the direction of the home’s front walkway and began to walk away, wanting to put some distance between me and those perfectly fitting jeans of his.

  But he reached out and snagged my arm. “Yes, I do. Look, I asked you to be my partner in this, and then I go and disappear on you when what I should have been doing was building your trust. Bu—will you please look at me?”

  I sighed, braced myself for the view, and then looked up at his face. Those infamous brilliant blues blazed down at me.

  “Thank you,” he said, and released my arm. “I had every intention of sticking around Monday, but then I got that text from Katie.”

  “Katie?”

  “My girlfriend.”

  I shifted on my feet. “Oh, right. The hot date you went running out for on Saturday.”

  He smirked. “I never said it was a hot date. And trust me, it was anything but.”

  “You know what?” I held my free hand up, keys dangling. “You can stop now. Really. So you’ve got a girlfriend? It’s really none of my business. You asked for my help in solving a crime, not out on a date.”

  He nodded, and looked off into the woods. “Well, actually, it kinda is your business now. See, she called as I was headed to your place on Monday. Had a fit that I’d already made plans without first consulting her. Then she starts sending nasty texts, so I knew I’d better get over there. I arrived in time to get screamed at, dumped, and left on the porch as she stormed off to her sister’s house.”

  “Oh, Nate, I’m so sorry.” Not.

  “It wasn’t your fault. Things between us had been going downhill for a while now. And she was getting more and more paranoid lately.” He laughed through his nose. “You know what she told me that night?”

  An uneasy feeling settled into the pit of my stomach. “No, what?”

  “That she’d overheard some older woman in the checkout line at Macy’s last week telling another woman about how her daughter was dating an Officer Steele.”

  My cheeks began to burn. “Nate, I—”

  He held up a hand to stop me. “I told her she must have heard wrong, but she just wouldn’t listen. It didn’t help that she also went in for a haircut Monday afternoon. Marissa must have said something about you and your big makeover, because that sent her into some noisy tirade at the salon.” He paused, shook his head. “So when she learned that I was headed to your place instead of hers, well, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And no matter how many times I tried to t
ell her otherwise, Katie’s absolutely convinced now that you and I are seeing each other. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

  “Ha ha. Yeah. Hilarious.”

  My mother and her big mouth. I shook my head. She must have been down here, visiting Sharon.

  Jiminy Cricket perched his chipper little rear on my shoulder again and whispered, “Clean up needed at register one…”

  The annoying little bug was right, though. It was time I came clean. I looked up and locked eyes with Nate. “Listen, Nate—”

  “No big deal. I’m just going to avoid your place for a while—she and I both live in your neck of the woods, and she’ll be watching for my cars. She’ll cool down eventually. But right now, I don’t want to get her any more pissed off than she already is.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because when Katie gets pissed,” said someone in a husky voice from the shadows, “look out.”

  A tall, slender man with tousled, sandy-blond hair and dark chocolate eyes stepped into view. To me, his look screamed rich bachelor: unbuttoned white oxford with a white tank underneath, faded designer jeans fraying from wear at the cuffs, and leather sandals. He walked up behind Nate and clapped him on the back. “How ya doing, man?”

  Nate smiled. “Hanging in there, buddy.” He pushed off from his car and came to stand next to me. “Charlie, I’d like to introduce you to my new off-the-record partner, Jessica Hartley. Jessica, this is Charlie.”

  I held out my free hand. “Nice to mee—”

  Charlie broke out a long, low whistle. “Damn, Nate, you failed to mention that your new partner in crime was smokin’ hot.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to see if some supermodel was standing behind me.

  “Ah, and modest, too. Nate, you lucky dog.” He gave Nate a soft jab in the shoulder, and I came to understand why I’d been given the instructions to wait outside for him. Charlie was like the big bad wolf on two legs.

  “Excuse Charlie, Jess. He spends too much time alone and often forgets his manners.” Nate planted a fist square into Charlie’s upper arm.

  Judging by the way he flinched, I had no doubt Nate’s jab felt a lot less pleasant. He fisted both hands and rounded on Nate, then looked over at me and stopped. “Where are my manners?” Charlie said through forced smiled and gritted teeth. “So nice to meet you. Won’t you both please come inside?”

  * * * *

  We followed Charlie up a flagstone path that wove its way around the side-load garage toward an ornate, oak front door. Charlie opened it and stepped aside for Nate and me to enter.

  “So, Jessica, did you bring one of your famous desserts with you?”

  “Oh, this?” I glanced down at the bag of pastries in my hand, long since forgotten. “No, nothing in here was my doing. But one of my clients is Reem Bakery, and Mrs. Reem won’t let me walk out the door without trying to fatten me up first.”

  “We wouldn’t want that.” Charlie gave me a not-so-subtle once-over as he closed the door. “Would you like something to drink?”

  “Sure, whaddaya got?” Nate asked.

  “The usual,” Charlie said, rubbing his sore shoulder.

  Before I could ask what that was, Nate answered for us both. “We’ll take two, thanks.”

  Charlie headed off to get our drinks, and I followed Nate into a large, sunken living room. What a bachelor pad! Black leather sofa, over-sized leather chair, glass-topped coffee and end tables…definitely no plans for children in Charlie’s near future. At least there wasn’t any weird, erotic artwork on the walls. Everything in frames seemed to be pictures taken of scenery, many of them featuring Charlie in hiking gear.

  Nate took a seat on the couch. I threw him a dirty look.

  “What?” he whispered, resting his arm on the back of the sofa and leaning toward me.

  “You could have warned me that your BFF was such a dog,” I whispered back.

  “No way,” he said quietly. “You would have never agreed to any of this if I had.”

  He had a point. I set the bag of goodies on the coffee table before him and plopped down on the couch two cushions over. “So, let me get this straight. Not only do I need to be on the lookout for punk burglars and deranged Maxwell employees, but now I’m on your psycho ex-girlfriend’s hit list, too?”

  Nate chuckled. “Don’t worry, she’ll cool down in time. Right now, she’s just a woman scorned. The worst she’s capable of is a good tongue-lashing.”

  Riiiight. I’d seen plenty of scorned women before. Heck, I’d been there, done that, bought the freaking t-shirt. We were a lot more dangerous breed than he realized.

  I crossed my arms. “Yet another reason to stay single. One less person to piss off.”

  Nate said nothing, but Charlie, who walked in with our drinks, didn’t miss a beat. “Ah, even better, you picked an available one.” He crossed the room and handed Nate and I each a frosty pilsner of beer.

  “Charlie,” Nate growled.

  “Thanks.” I felt the tension begin to escalate between them again, and tried to think of something clever to say to try and diffuse the situation. “Mmm, nothing like a cold brew to go with…donuts.”

  “Breakfast of champions,” Charlie answered with a wink and swiped a cruller from the bag. He settled into a seat catty-corner from me. Nate opted for a caramel long john, sans the wink.

  Time to get down to business. “So, Charlie, Nate brought over some really cool spy gadgets for me to use if I get in at Maxwell.”

  “When you get in at Maxwell,” Nate corrected me.

  I ignored him, kept my eyes on Charlie. “Did you pick those out for me?”

  “You liked my toys, did you?”

  I smiled shyly, playing it up a bit. “I had no idea spy gear had gone so…high tech.”

  Apparently talking shop was the way to get Charlie to stop thinking with anatomy parts below the belt, because suddenly he was off and running with spy tool tales. I listened with rapt attention to his spiels about the necklace tracking device and barrette bug. Soon Nate chimed in as well, and the tension in the room ratcheted down a few notches.

  After our first round of beer had been extinguished, Charlie hopped up and offered us another.

  “No, thanks,” I said with a grin, “I want to be able to make it home in one piece tonight.” It wasn’t a complete lie, but not my real concern, either. Getting tipsy would only complicate things—and probably compromise my decision-making abilities. Bachelor Charlie had no doubt wooed many a woman in his day, and I wasn’t about to add my name to the list. Or Nate’s list, for that matter. “But a glass of water would be great.”

  “I’ll take a water, too, Charlie. Thanks.”

  Charlie headed off to the kitchen, and the room grew quiet. Whether because of the beer in my system or the fact that I’d gone without seeing Nate all week, his brilliant blue eyes seemed to be even more inviting tonight than usual. I slid off the couch and walked across the room to admire a large, scenic photograph hanging on the wall…and silently berated myself for even having that thought.

  “That was the summer before last,” Nate said, close behind me. I hadn’t heard him leave the couch. “Charlie and I flew out west to visit his parents, and ended up doing some serious hiking. Two bachelors at one with nature.” He chuckled. “It was one hell of a good time.”

  I studied the two men pictured: bare, tan chests glistening in the sun and large packs on their backs. At least they were both wearing shades—had Nate’s blue eyes been visible, I probably would have gone into cardiac arrest.

  “It looks absolutely beautiful out there.”

  “Beautiful,” he agreed.

  I turned my head to peruse the picture to our right, and caught him staring at me. I looked away.

  He didn’t.

  The room suddenly felt too small. The air too thin. And much too filled with his now-familiar cologne.

  “So.” Charlie re-entered the room, saving me. “What’s the plan, gang?”

  I spun around.
“Plan?”

  “Which we were just discussing.” Nate turned away to resume his seat on the couch. “So here’s the deal. Jessica has an interview scheduled with Maxwell Office Solutions Monday morning. I’ll have her wear the necklace, though I highly doubt anyone will have a clue then that she’s in any way connected to Grace Sullivan.”

  “Won’t their identical addresses draw a flag?” Charlie asked.

  “Jess already thought of that. She listed her business PO Box on the app instead.”

  “Which will work until she gets hired,” Charlie muttered into his beer.

  “We’ll cross that road when we get there. In the meantime, the address is hidden and we’ve given Jess a disguise. Even if someone had seen her picture before, they’d be hard pressed to recognize her now.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Charlie looked at my hair for a moment. “Let me guess. Former blonde?”

  “Dishwater,” I said as I resumed my seat.

  A smirk stretched across his lips. “Nate always did prefer brunettes.”

  Even out of the corner of my eye I could see Nate’s gaze turn stormy.

  “It was Marissa’s idea, actually,” I said in his defense.

  “Sure it was,” Charlie purred, throwing one leg over the arm of his recliner. “So, you’ve got the new look, a lock on an interview…about time you meet up with—”

  “No,” Nate boomed, his voice echoing off the living room walls.

  “But Nate, who else could give her the scoop on everyone ther—”

  “The answer is no, Charlie. I don’t want Jessica getting anywhere near her. It’s too risky. For both of them.”

  “Her?” I looked from Charlie to Nate. “You mean this widowed cousin of yours?”

  “Jesus, Nate! You were just gonna send her in blind?”

  “Yes, my cousin. And no, Jessica’s not going in blind. She already has information on her future boss and coworker. From Grace.”

  Charlie shook his head as he swung his leg back down to the floor. “I don’t know, man. She could learn a ton from—”

  “Shut up, Charlie. No contact, and that’s final.”