“Dad didn’t cover it up, though.”
“He didn’t believe me, either. And he asked me to just walk away from it. To just let Simon take the blame, pretend that asshole wasn’t guilty. Pretend I didn’t know there was a pot plantation just a few blocks down from us while the guy I was in love with went to prison for stuff that wasn’t even his.” Kate felt tears sting at her eyes. Even after all these years, she thought. It had to stop stinging sometime.
Tim fiddled with his watch, refusing to meet her eyes. “I’m not saying he was right, Kate. I’m just saying… look at it from their side.”
Kate swallowed the bitterness. “I’m not going to go into it. Besides, it’s got nothing to do with why I moved out.” She took a deep breath. “I’m… in a little bit of trouble.”
“Well, obviously… Oh, Jesus.” He got up, grabbing two beers from the fridge. He took off the tops and handed her one. “What did you do this time?”
“I resent that you think I did something,” she muttered.
“But you did, or you wouldn’t be here,” Tim countered, then pointed to his watch. “I’ve got to get back to work soon. Talk.”
She grimaced. She’d already decided she couldn’t tell him about the soul stuff—he was the most pragmatic, least “woo-woo hippie magic crap” person she knew. Even her father had a sense of Irish superstition. Tim believed in two things—the law and his gun.
She had a feeling neither would really be that helpful in her particular circumstances.
“I’m having some trouble at work,” she said.
“Other than shooting yourself in the foot and screwing your boss, you mean?” When she nodded, he rolled his eyes. “You can’t quit. You know that, right?”
That’s for damned sure, she thought. “This is not about me being flaky temperamental Kate, incapable of holding down a job.”
“Because Mom and Dad might lose the house.”
She blinked. “You know that? How’d you find out?”
“Dad asked if there were any police shifts open in Oakland, since San Leandro P.D. laid him off.” Tim looked sad, vaguely angry, and embarrassed. “I told him there weren’t any hours, just not enough budget. Then I heard he’s looking at being a security guard. If they don’t get the money, they might lose the house.”
“I know,” she admitted.
Tim stared her down. “And you know why they might lose the house, too, right?”
“He shouldn’t have loaned Uncle Felix money,” she muttered. Of course, she had, so she couldn’t really throw stones, could she?
“They were trying to keep you employed,” Tim said.
“They shouldn’t have done that, either.”
“They were worried about you,” Tim continued relentlessly. “They always worry about you. So please, tell me you’ll move home and help them out. Tell me you’re not going to quit and make them worry about you more, on top of everything else they’ve got going on.”
“Damn it, Tim, I’m not quitting.” Kate winced. “I signed a contract. I can’t quit.”
“Good.” Tim leaned forward, pinning her with his gaze. It probably worked well in interrogation rooms. “So what’s the problem?”
She bit her lip. “I told you. I’m having some trouble. At work.”
Tim sighed. “What kind of trouble?”
“They, ah, expect a lot from me,” she hedged, trying to figure out how to dance around they want to use me as bait for a serial killer. “And I’m not comfortable with some of the things they’re asking me.”
Tim’s eyes narrowed. “They asking you to do anything illegal?”
“No,” she said quickly. Not yet, anyway. She imagined that killing those people was going to be illegal, but right now, she didn’t seem to be an integral part of that side of the business. For that matter, she might not even survive to get to that part of Thomas’s to-do list. “But I’m still not comfortable.”
“Kate, you’ve been spoiled working for Uncle Felix,” Tim said, rolling his eyes. “It’s called work because it’s not fun.”
She stood up. “I’m curious. Could you be a little more insulting?” she snapped. “You know I worked my ass off for Uncle Felix. This isn’t because I’m lazy and I don’t want to do the job. You know I’m not like that.”
Tim rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. “Yeah. Yeah, I know that,” he said. “Sorry. Low blow. You’re high maintenance, and you’re, like, stupid unprofessional, but you’re not a slacker.”
She wanted to protest that, too, but with her “banging the boss” line plastered on every newspaper in town, she knew she didn’t have a solid argument.
“I am afraid they’re going to screw me over,” she said instead. “They’re setting me up, and I don’t like it, but I signed a contract and I can’t quit. I’ll do the job, I don’t want to flake on this, but I don’t want to get screwed, either.”
“Think maybe you’re being paranoid?” Tim asked.
“Felix was my uncle, and he still screwed me over,” she pointed out.
“Yeah. I’m gonna have a talk with Uncle Felix,” Tim muttered darkly. “He’s been dodging my calls. Asshole. I’m going to his house, soon.”
“I’ll go with you,” Kate said, and between them they had mirroring smiles of vengeance. Her brother might be a thorn in her side, and quite often a self-righteous, judgmental butthole—but once upon a time, he’d been one of her best friends.
It wasn’t till she’d lost everyone else that she realized how much she missed him. Especially now that she might, you know, die.
He frowned, picking up on her somber mood. “What, exactly, are you afraid they’re doing?”
And here was the tricky part. “They’re going into this business deal,” she said slowly. “And I think they’re covering their asses. So if things blow up, I’ll be the one who takes the fall.”
And, you know, die.
But she didn’t need to tell him that part.
Tim’s frown deepened. “And you can’t quit.”
“Nope. My contract with them is pretty iron-clad, and his lawyers are no joke.” They were probably demons, too, now that she thought about it.
Tim nodded, then started pacing. “Any way you can make sure the thing doesn’t blow up?”
She thought about it. “Not that I can think of. Lotta stuff out of my control.”
“Well, I’m no business guy,” he said. “But if my commander were setting me up, I’d see if I could talk things out with him.”
“Um, yeah.” She thought of her last “talk” with Thomas. “I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Tim caught it. It was part of what made him a great detective. “How much trouble are you really in, sis?” he asked quietly.
She grimaced. “The usual amount.”
“Oh, Jesus.” He rubbed his face. “That’s not good.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Can you go over his head?” Tim asked. “If it were me, I wouldn’t go to I.A. unless I absolutely had to. But I’d get a bunch of the guys together. I might talk to the captain.”
She frowned. “Nobody’s higher than Thomas, so I can’t do that. And I don’t really have anybody else who’d be on my side.”
“Then you need some kind of leverage,” Tim said. “If this blows up and you take the fall, what’s the worst that could happen?”
She swallowed. I die a horrible, painful death. “It’d be bad.”
“Like, you’d-go-to-prison bad?”
In a matter of speaking. Hell was the ultimate penitentiary. “I’d definitely be paying for it for a long time.”
He sighed. “You’ve got to look out for yourself. They’re not going to care about you. I’d say, do whatever you have to do to cover your own ass.”
“Really?”
“Really.” He looked solemn. “You need help?”
She laughed. “You think I’m a total and complete fuck-up.”
“Yeah, but you’re still my sister.”
> For a brief second, she thought about telling him everything. But Tim was still a cop. And if he knew the extent of the trouble she was in—she couldn’t stand the thought of him getting hurt, or dying, trying to bail her out of yet another scrape, no matter how serious this one was.
“No, I just needed someone to talk to,” she said, getting up. Then, impulsively, she gave him a hug. “Love you, Tim.”
He looked startled. “Love you, too,” he said. “But don’t get all mushy on me, or I’ll give you a noogie.”
She laughed, feeling a bit better. “Go catch some bad guys,” she said, gesturing to the door. “I’ll be okay.”
“Call me,” he said, then frowned. “And lock the door, will you?”
She locked the deadbolt behind him. Sitting in the empty hotel room, she thought about what he’d said. Then she fished in her pocket.
She had to look out for herself. She liked Thomas—more than liked him. But at the end of the day, he’d dangle her in front of a serial killer to get his soul back. If it was a question between her dying, and him dying… he’d choose himself.
Why should she do less?
She paused. Then pulled out her cell phone… and Cyril’s business card.
…
“It’s all set,” Yagi said. “The trap’s ready. Now, we just need to get Kate there and make sure nothing goes wrong.”
Thomas paced around his desk. Since his call from Cyril, he’d felt a cold, steel-like resolve. “Tell me the details.”
“You’re going to take Kate on a working dinner. Chez Panisse,” he said. “Public, but not as wide open as a stadium or the security nightmare that a public park might pose. We’ll have every entry and exit point covered. I’ve got a full tactical team in place—my team,” he emphasized. “Even if Cyril unleashes a squadron of demon warriors, they won’t touch you.”
“Or Kate,” Thomas added.
Yagi’s eyes flashed with impatience. “She’s not the primary concern.”
“Make her a concern,” Thomas said, then held up a hand. “I’m putting her on the hook, aren’t I? I’ll let Victor have a shot at her. But I’m not losing a secretary just so you can prove a point.”
Yagi studied him for a moment, then nodded. “It’s set up for tonight, seven o’clock,” he said.
“What makes you think Cyril’s going to go for it? It doesn’t seem like a bait type situation.”
“We’ll be setting up another public event for you—a fake,” Yagi explained with a shrug. “But I’m making sure your private dinner with Kate gets out there. They’ll probably know it’s a setup, as well, but I think they’ll like their chances. They’re trying to capture, not assassinate, so the relatively small setting and ease of access ought to tempt Victor and Cyril. If nothing else, we’ll see how serious they are—about Kate, and about you.”
Yagi sounded like a general, planning an attack. “And if they don’t go for it?”
“We keep putting her out there until they do.”
Thomas nodded. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but his call with Cyril had both renewed his need for vengeance, and reminded him that by getting close to Kate—close to anyone—he was putting her in danger. If he showed he was willing to sacrifice her, in a weird way, he was keeping her safe.
At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.
He glanced at his watch. “I’m having a meeting with her right now anyway,” he said, ignoring Yagi’s suspicious look. “I’ll be down in her office for the next half hour or so. We’ll leave from here.”
“Thomas?”
Thomas stopped on his way to the elevator. “Yeah?”
Yagi sighed. “Don’t lock her door.”
Thomas glowered as the elevator doors closed.
I wasn’t planning on sleeping with her, he fumed internally. What, did he look like some horny teenager?
He strode with purpose to Kate’s new office. It was a corner one, just a floor below his. The marketing director who had been booted to get this room freed up was none too pleased that he was being downgraded for a secretary. There was a view of Lake Merritt and the Bay Bridge beyond. She had a large desk, file cabinets, a state of the art computer setup.
“Kate…” he started, then he stopped short.
She was wearing a new outfit—a black, wasp-waisted jacket with matching miniskirt, with black heels that ended in spike points. Her red hair was pulled up in some kind of a bun thing, making her stern expression look that much more severe. Combined with the huge glass desk, the state-of-the-art dual screen computer system, and the imposing view behind her, she looked formidable. With the added gleam in her eyes, she looked pissed, determined… almost sinister.
Holy mice, he thought. She looks like the devil’s receptionist or something.
She glanced at him over the rims of her glasses, her fingers still on the keyboard of her snazzy computer setup. “I was just going over Maggie’s files,” she said. “There’s barely anything here, and what is available is a total mess. She kept a lot on paper. I think she actively hated technology.”
“Well, she did love her iPhone,” Thomas remembered. “She played Angry Birds like a pro.”
“That, I remember,” Kate said ruefully, and for a second, her face softened into the smile he was more familiar with. “I swear, every time I tried to ask her a question, she had that thing squawking away. I still haven’t found that, by the way— and the police haven’t, either.”
They were quiet for a second, then Thomas sat across from her.
“I know it’s not an ideal situation,” he said, and for a second, he wasn’t sure which one of them he was reassuring. “Signing your soul. Working for any corporation in general, and a guy you’ve slept with in particular. But it’s the best we’ve got, so we might as well make it work, right?”
She tilted her head, her green eyes staring at him intently. She seemed… expectant. After a long moment of apparently not hearing what she wanted to hear, she sighed.
“We do what we have to do,” she said with that little chin tilt he’d learned was Kate at her most stubborn. “I signed up for this. I’ll do what I have to, to get out of it.”
Thomas struggled not to feel guilty. He remembered his talk with Cyril until the feelings backed off. “We all do what we have to,” he replied.
“This place is bigger than my last apartment,” Kate murmured, leaning back in her black leather chair. She swiveled to look at him, steepling her fingers together. “Seems like a lot for a girl who’s just going to be scheduling meetings.”
“You’re special.” And damned if that wasn’t an understatement.
Kate leaned closer, and he got a whiff of her perfume. She smelled like vanilla, he thought. Something warm, cozy, comforting. Delicious.
It seemed wrong that he needed to set up someone who smelled like goddamned Snickerdoodles.
He swallowed hard. Then plowed forward.
“I have one year to get my soul back. This company—these companies,” he corrected, “have been my focus and my life since I was about sixteen years old. I’ve been able to juggle and compensate, but the focus this year has to be taking care of the Cyril business.”
“That’s one way to put it,” she muttered.
He ignored the sidebar. “I want you to just keep me organized, keep the company stuff in line, give me the heads up if there’s anything wrong that I need to be involved in. You’re going to be my filter. That means keeping my calendar, but it also means going through my reports, reading a lot of my emails, and taking care of things I can’t focus on myself.”
She blinked. “Seriously?”
He hadn’t meant to go into all that. Maybe he was being optimistic—but if she survived, this would be what he wanted. “What, you thought I was kidding about the job thing?”
“Sorta, yeah,” she muttered, pulling out a notebook and pen.
“Why would I kid about hiring you?”
She did it again—that expectant look. “I don’t know
. I thought you had… you know. Something more nefarious in mind.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Day’s still young.”
She laughed, the tiniest blush riding her creamy cheeks. He suddenly remembered what she looked like when that rosy blush covered all her pale skin.
Stay focused, you ass!
“But you really did want me to be your secretary.” She sounded baffled—and bemused. “I can’t promise I’ll be the most professional, but I do know how to get shit done.”
“Exactly what I was looking for,” he said, holding his hand across her desk. She shook it with a laugh, and he held it for a second, savoring the softness of her skin.
Then he took a deep breath.
“Tell you what,” he said, forcing his voice to stay natural. “I’ve been hearing a lot about this Chez Panisse place. You used to go to Berkeley, right? I’ve heard that’s right next door, so we’ll be in your old stomping grounds. Come with me, tonight, around seven. We’ll get down to brass tacks over some fancy organic food.”
She shook her head. “Thanks, but we might as well just get a jump on it here,” she said.
He felt discomfort start to bubble up. “I don’t have time to right now,” he lied. “Other meetings, stuff I’ve been putting off. Tonight would be best.”
Her chin went up. Stubborn. “Then maybe we should just order in some food,” she said. “It’ll probably be more helpful if I have my computer with me, anyway.”
“Go down to I.T., have them set you up with an iPhone and iPad,” he said. “Top of the line. We’ll work at the restaurant.”
“Thomas, I just don’t think we should go out to dinner.” She didn’t look at him, instead getting up and walking to the windows. He stood up, moving next to her. “It’s… Listen. Last night was…”
It took a minute for Thomas to connect the dots. She was dragging her feet about going out to dinner because she thought he was trying to seduce her. She was balking because of the sex.
She glanced at him, her green eyes sad. “Getting involved with you, even on a casual basis—maybe especially on a casual basis—would be beyond stupid.”
“You think this is romantic?” He laughed in relief. “No, no. Trust me… this is all business.”
Temping is Hell Page 26
