by Kacey Shea
I was at a complete loss for words. She was hot when she was all worked up like this! Had it been any other time I would have egged her on to a verbal sparring. Since I had come back to town it didn’t take much to get us to argue, so I shouldn’t have been surprised we were at it again. However, this was not the place or time, and Ortega was probably waiting for us inside. I needed to fix this and quickly. I just didn’t know how, exactly.
“I’m sorry. I’m just excited we solved our first case and I’m so glad her mother fucker of a fiancé is getting busted. I’m nervous to tell Miss Ortega because I’m not sure I can hold back my joy. I need you to help level me out. That’s all I meant by that. Truce?”
Kate eyed me with a wary expression so I added, “And for the record, I think women are amazing. I served with some of the toughest, smartest, and kick ass women out there. No gender issues here, I promise.” She smiled at that.
“Okay, Jon, I’m sorry I jumped down your throat. It’s a sore subject with me, I guess. Now, let’s go spread some horrible news!”
Kate opened the truck door and hopped down from the high seat with renewed enthusiasm. I tried to hold back any smartass retorts. She was like a bouncing ball of emotions, and most times I couldn’t keep up.
I walked into Cartel and looked around the small shop, spotting Veronica immediately. She was dressed just as fashionably as the day before but wore a troubled look on her face. I wove my way to her table and Kate followed behind me. Veronica stood to greet us. I quickly made introductions before we all sat down together. I didn’t know how to sugar coat the news, so I decided to be as direct and to the point as possible.
“Miss Ortega, we were able to complete our investigation in a rather quick manner. I’m sorry to tell you this, but your fiancé is exactly what you suspected him to be. A cheater.” Veronica’s face went completely blank for about thirty seconds before it turned to one of anger. “Please tell me what you found,” she said in an eerily calm voice. I recounted the details and watched her face closely as she soaked in the information.
“May I please see the conversation?” she asked after I told her we had taken screen shots of everything. As she scrolled through, her face showed the same disgust we felt in busting Anthony Scott. Veronica handed the phone back to me and took a deep breath. Closing her eyes, she pulled in air through her nose and slowly blew it out her mouth.
“Ese hijo de puta trampa! That lying son of a bitch! Last night he left the house saying he had a client emergency that had to be taken care of immediately. Instead, he was rushing out to meet some whore? He was probably chatting with her while I was in the next room studying! If he thinks he can treat me with such disrespect and get away with it, he has another thing coming. Yo nunca quiero volver a verlo de puta!” She was getting louder by the minute and I was worried something had cracked inside the sweet woman I met the day before. The calm, cultured Veronica Ortega was nowhere to be found. In her place was a feisty, strong, independent Latina. I was impressed.
Kate commiserated with her. “Men are such pigs.” She glanced over at me briefly before continuing. “Present company excluded of course. He thinks he can treat you like that? Hell no, sister. You are way out of his league. I hope he got hit on by a transvestite last night.” Veronica nodded emphatically to everything Kate said, but was taken off guard by her last words.
“Wait. What?” she questioned Kate, obviously confused. I explained. “The address we had your fiancé meet our fictional ‘Candy’ is a very popular hangout with the local transvestite community. In fact, I hear with some of the regulars it’s almost impossible to tell whether they’re male.” I had to grin and that news seemed to lighten the mood. Veronica had a faint smile on her face.
“I can’t even begin to thank you for what you have done for me. I had myself convinced I was being paranoid and letting my childhood taint what Tony and I shared. Now I know I should never have questioned my gut feeling. I knew something was not right. Thank you again.”
I smiled and stood, both Veronica and Kate standing as well, and I reached out to shake hands. “Thank you for your business, Miss Ortega. It was a complete pleasure exposing your fiancé for the person he truly is. Hopefully, you will not need our services again, but if you’re pleased with our work please feel free to share our information with any friends or family.” Before I had time to step away from the table Kate was shoving a small stack of our gifted business cards into Veronica’s hands.
“Yes, good luck with everything, I hope you really make him pay before you kick him to the curb. Here are our business cards. Feel free to pass them around.” I winced as Veronica stopped to read the cards before placing them into her bag.
“You know, next time you print business cards you should really change the abbreviation and just go with the full wording, private investigators. It looks like the mathematical term the way it’s written here.” I tried not to laugh out loud as Kate’s smile faltered briefly.
Kate and I made our way back out to the truck. I unlocked the cab with my remote, and we each climbed in to buckle up. As I started the ignition, Kate couldn’t contain her excitement. “Wow, that was amazing! Doesn’t it feel great to have such a badass job, exposing liars and cheats to the world for the greater good and all that?” I had to laugh at her enthusiasm.
“It does feel really good, actually. I like having a job with clear goals and purpose. I mean, as much fun as it is breaking up bar fights and wrestling drunk assholes who act like they are a bunch of tough guys, I think I prefer this gig.”
She studied my expression. “How is that going, by the way? You been working many nights at the bar?” I shrugged.
“A few. I mean, I’d be happy to quit that job, but we’re just starting out with this PI thing. What if it doesn’t take off? I need the extra income, and I’m able to balance both. For now, anyway.”
As we made our way towards Kate’s studio she asked me another question, “So I’m surprised you’re okay with Evie off on her own today. I’m impressed you trust Tate enough to not tail them all day like some crazy stalker boyfriend!” She laughed but I remained silent. I didn’t trust myself to remain calm if I spoke. She studied me and I focused more intently on the road.
“Oh my god! You’re going to stalk them. How do you know where they are? Did you inject some kind of tracking device under Evie’s skin when she was sleeping?” She laughed and I tried to join in, but my laughter sounded wrong, even to my own ears. I didn’t want to admit what I had done, but Kate would never shut up until I gave her something.
“I may or may not have installed an application on QT’s phone that allows me to track her without her knowledge.”
Kate gasped. “Oh my god, that’s so creepy! You didn’t really? Did you?” At my continued silence, Kate exclaimed. “You did! Oh wow, Jon, she’s gonna be pissed when she finds out you did that.”
I cleared my throat, “She’s not going to find out because we aren’t going to tell her.” Kate just laughed.
“Ha! Nice try, buddy, but I’m not on your team here. Hoes before bros and all that. Evie is my best friend. I’m not keeping this from her.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve got that saying reversed. Anyway, I need you to do me a solid and not tell her. At least until we break this case. I don’t trust this Reynolds guy, and I need to know where QT is so I can keep her safe.”
She studied me for a moment. “What’s in it for me?”
“Keeping your best friend from being murdered by a possible serial killer isn’t enough for you?”
“I don’t think Tate’s a serial killer and neither do you. I don’t keep things from Evie, but I’ll make an exception if you let me in on some top secret PI work—something that will really help you break open this case. Like search his home or something crazy like that.”
Although I knew she was probably joking, and that it probably wasn’t the best of ideas, once Kate mentioned searching Tate’s home that was all I could think about. We could
really get some inside knowledge if we snuck over there. If I placed a few of the listening devices inside the home, I could hopefully wrap this case up and get Reynolds out of our lives for good.
“You know what, Kate? I can’t believe I’m going to say this right now, but that is a great idea. Let’s do it. Let’s go break into Tate Reynolds’ house.” Kate bounced up and down in her seat, clapping like a mad woman, a gleeful expression on her face.
“Yay! You won’t regret this; we’re going to be awesome at breaking and entering!”
I just shook my head at her. I hoped this idea would pay off, because it probably wasn’t the smartest idea. I checked my phone to see where QT was at the moment and was relieved to find Reynolds had picked her up and was now traveling in the opposite direction of his home. We were cleared for takeoff.
Kate and I pulled down the street and spotted Reynolds’ residence. There were no vehicles parked outside or in the drive, so I figured we were clear. Just to be sure, we parked a street over and walked. We looked like a couple out for a casual stroll on a beautiful sunny morning. For once, Kate let up with the mindless chatter and for that I was thankful. The house came into view and we strode up the drive.
The street seemed dead this time of day, but I could never be too sure. Near the back of the carport was a gate that opened easily to the backyard. There was no lock so we didn’t even have to jump the fence. Once in the backyard we had more cover. I tried the back door in hopes it was unlocked, but as I suspected, it was secured. Kate and I looked around and I quickly spotted a small high bathroom window that was slightly ajar. I reached up to open the small opening and it moved wide open with no problem.
I looked to Kate and nodded to the window. “There’s no way that I fit in that opening. If I give you a boost, do you think you can crawl through and come unlock the back door for me?” She rolled her eyes at me.
“I’m a yoga queen. Of course I can handle that. Just don’t let my legs go until I’m mostly in. I don’t want to get stuck.” I was surprised at her confidence and willingness to get a little dirty.
“Okay, in ya go . . .” I opened my hands to make a foothold and she gracefully used it to pull herself up. She reached for the opening and pulled herself in and right on through like a pro. Going hands and head first through the window made me a little nervous, but she didn’t make a sound. She probably landed in one of her yoga handstand poses. I was impressed.
Kate’s smiling face popped out the back doorway a few seconds later. “Come on in, big boy!” There she was; silly Kate was back to play. As I entered I handed her my phone. The app that showed Evie’s GPS coordinates was open and a blinking icon showed her current estimated location.
“Here, you keep an eye on this while we search around. They aren’t too far from here, but don’t seem to be heading in this direction. Let me know if that changes. Now let’s check this place out.” Kate grinned and nodded enthusiastically.
“What should we check out first?”
I walked through the house and she followed behind. “Look for anything that stands out. Let’s start in the bedrooms; that should tell us something.” She giggled.
“Oh yeah, like what kind of vibrators or other kinky stuff Tate is into!” I shook my head. Always back to sex with this one.
“Focus, Kate, I need you to focus. We need to make this quick.”
We made our way to the hallway and started with the first door, linen closet. Next door, boys’ room; there were two beds and several toys strewn about the room. A pile of dirty laundry but not much else; the room actually seemed a little sparse for being shared by two boys. I wondered how long they had lived here. The next door was open and showed the bathroom Kate had entered. I walked inside and closed the small bathroom window.
“Shouldn’t we have like gloves or something? You know, so we don’t leave finger prints and DNA all over the place?”
“Why would we be worried about that? This isn’t a crime scene. Do you expect someone will be dusting for fingerprints after we leave?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. They just always have gloves on in the movies.”
“Well, this isn’t a movie or some bad cop drama, Kate.”
She scowled and I moved to the next room, this one obviously decorated by a woman. The queen size bed was covered in a white lace and lavender bedspread, and lots of throw pillows adorned the headboard. There was one bedside table. A small antique lamp, a stack of library books, glass of water, and cell phone charger were the only items on it. I moved to examine the closet and Kate moved to the bedside table.
“Oh my god, I love these books. This story is the best, about this dreamy cowboy who falls in love with the rancher’s daughter. Very scandalous. And holy mother, there are some incredible sex scenes in this one.” She continued to ramble while I noticed the closet lacked any male clothing. In fact, it was filled mostly with scrubs, several in the same pink shade I saw the woman from yesterday wearing. Strange, where were Reynolds’ things? I heard Kate gasp reverently behind me.
“Holy mother of pearl, this is quite the collection! It’s like the Holy Grail in here. Damn, Tate must suck at giving orgasms.” I turned to find Kate staring wide eyed into the night table’s open drawer. I came up behind her and looked over her shoulder to see about a dozen different vibrators. Wow. I didn’t even know that many different models existed. I raised my eyebrows. Kate giggled and shut the drawer.
As we exited the room I faintly heard the slam of a car door in the distance. Oh, shit. “Kate, the tracking device! My phone!”
Her eyes bugged and she exclaimed, “Oh, shit!” while pulling my phone from her back pocket. Sure enough, the blinking cursor sat right upon our location. We heard the sound of the front doorknob twisting open. I grabbed Kate and quickly detoured into the bathroom, pulling her inside the small bathtub and sliding the shower curtain closed in front of us. We could hear the muted sounds of voices talking.
Kate was shaking so I pulled her flush against me, wrapping her in one arm and bringing one finger to my lips for the universal sign to keep quiet. She met my steady gaze with a fearful one of her own, but locked eyes with me anyway. I felt her trembling. I hated seeing my spunky, bold Kate scared like this. I didn’t want to get caught, either, but at this point there was nothing we could do but hole up and hope we weren’t discovered.
I took my free hand to gently cup her face, rubbing my thumb up and down her cheek in what I hoped was a soothing manner. The air around us started to thicken and Kate’s breathing quickened. My entire body was on full alert, noticing just how perfect her curves fit against me. I stilled my hands and Kate’s eyes fluttered closed. My heart raced. It had nothing to do with the fact we were hiding in Reynolds’ bathroom shower, but everything to do with the woman plastered to me. My mind started imagining all the things I wanted to do in this shower with Kate, but the moment was broken when a male voice came from the hallway.
“Thanks for letting me stop back by here. I can’t believe I forgot the ice chest; I never forget my food. I love food! I’m just going to use the restroom real quick and we’ll get out of here.” Reynolds’ voice got louder as he came closer down the hall.
“No problem. I’m just excited to find out where you’re taking me next!” Evie’s voice carried through the open bathroom door. The sound of a door shutting further down the hallway had us sighing in relief. A few moments later we heard Tate’s steps down the hallway and a “You ready to go?” before the front door opened and closed and was locked. The moment I heard Reynolds’ car start up, I released Kate from my arms and we clambered out of the shower.
“We should go,” I directed without looking back at Kate. I hastily made my way towards the back door. In a state of rare behavior Kate didn’t argue and followed me out of the house quickly and quietly. With the excitement of breaking and entering gone, it was a silent trek back to the car.
I started my truck and I looked over at Kate. “I should get you to work now. Look,
about what happened back there . . .” I paused and she cut me off quickly with a tense smile. “We tell no one what happened, just like we promised. You let me play private eye and I won’t tell Evie you creep on her locations. A deal’s a deal.”
She dismissed any further conversation by straightening to look out the front window, a stiff posture to her frame. Well, okay then. I didn’t know what to do with the feeling of disappointment that passed through me so I directed my attention to driving her to work and cranked my angry metal music as loud as it would go.
I WOKE EARLY, ANXIOUS AND nervous to spend the day with Tate. He was secretive about where he was taking me and what we would be doing today. I hated surprises because I hated being unprepared. I was studying my closet, trying to decide what to wear when I received a text from Tate.
Tate: I’ll be there closer to 8:30. Sorry, I’m running late.
I flicked my eyes to the top of my screen where the clock showed it was only seven o’clock now.
Evelyn: You plan ahead for being late awfully early!
Tate: I got called in to teach this morning. I’ve got one more class, then I’ll be over.
Evelyn: No worries. I’ll be ready when you get here.
Tate: Good! I hope you’re hungry. Breakfast is our first stop.
I went back to perusing my closet. I selected a worn, comfortable pair of faded blue jeans and gray Chucks. For my shirt I picked a deep blue V-neck tee. The words ‘peace, love, & happiness’ were written in gray script lettering across the front. I loved this shirt because the relaxed fit was so comfortable and it made the blue in my eyes appear even bluer. I decided to go out of my comfort zone and left my straight brown locks loose and untamed from the usual hair tie. I didn’t bother with much makeup either, just applied a little blush and some nude lip gloss.
It took me longer than usual to get ready because my muscles were still really sore. I heard the front door shut a little after seven-thirty, probably Jon on his way to meet with Kate and Veronica. I hoped that meeting would go okay. I felt badly about not being there to deliver the news, but Jon was adamant about keeping my date with Tate.
