by Paige Tyler
He shrugged into his leather jacket, then wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. “I’ll probably be home late tonight. You going to be okay here?”
She wished he didn’t have to work so late, but she understood. “I’ll be fine. Most likely, I’ll spend the day helping Ben around the apartment building.”
“Well, if you decide to go out, be careful. If you see anyone or anything that looks suspicious, go somewhere with a lot of people and a telephone and call me on my cell.”
“What do you mean, suspicious?”
“Anything or anyone who makes you uncomfortable.”
“But I thought you said the neighborhood was safe.”
“It is. Just…” He hesitated. “Promise me you’ll be extra careful, okay?”
“I promise.”
Derek bent his head to give her a long, lingering kiss. “Okay, I gotta get going. I’ll see you tonight, babe.”
Locking the door behind him, Sosie went into the kitchen to clean up the breakfast dishes. She was finishing up when the doorbell rang. Drying her hands on a towel, she hurried into the entryway to open it and was amazed to see Tracee and Linda standing there.
“We’re playing hooky from work and thought you might want to go shopping with us,” Tracee said.
“I’d love to. But I don’t have any money.”
Linda laughed. “Neither do we. Which is why they invented credit cards.”
Ah. Sosie knew what credits cards were. Most of Santa’s business came from those magic pieces of plastic that let people get things they didn’t have money for, all in exchange for a lifetime of very reasonable payments. Of course, it hadn’t always been like that. Santa and the elves used to give their products away for free. Then the business-minded elves and efficiency experts had pointed out how silly that was, saying Santa could improve the standard of living for all elves if he would sell their wares on the open market. Before they knew it, “profit before presents” had replaced “it’s better to give than receive” around the workshops. It wasn’t long after that when people stopped believing in Santa Claus altogether and started buying their gifts from the stores the elves sold their wares to.
She gave the two women a sheepish look. “I don’t have a credit card, either.”
Both women’s eyes went a little wide at that.
“That’s okay,” Tracee said. “You can still go window shopping with us.”
She frowned. “You’re going out to buy windows for your apartment?”
The other women laughed.
“No, silly,” Tracee said. “We look through the store windows at all the stuff we can’t afford to buy.”
“Oh.” Sosie grinned. She didn’t know why, but that sounded like fun. “I’d love to go window shopping with you then.”
According to Tracee and Linda, the best place to go window shopping was along Fifth Avenue. Walking down the sidewalk with the two women an hour later, Sosie had to agree with them. From clothes to shoes to jewelry, everything looked fabulous. They went into a few of the stores and tried on some of the stuff, which was loads of fun, even if Sosie didn’t have money to buy any of it.
She twirled in front of the three-way mirror outside the dressing room, her lips curving into a smile as she admired the slip dress she had on. Short and slinky, it showed off her legs and made them seem a mile long, something which was rather difficult to achieve considering she wasn’t very tall. Tracee and Linda never mentioned her height once, even though she was much shorter than either of them.
“Are you kidding?” Linda said when Sosie brought it up. “We’re more jealous of your curves, girl.”
Sosie laughed, sure they must be teasing her. She’d never had friends like the two women before. She was having such a good time with them that she almost slipped up more than once when they asked questions about her life back home. Fortunately, she caught herself before she said anything she shouldn’t. The women must have noticed she was being evasive because when they stopped by a place called Starbucks for coffee and a snack a few hours later, Tracee leveled her gaze accusingly at Sosie over the rim of her mug.
“It’s been obvious from the start that you’ve been fibbing to us, so you might as well spill it, girl,” the redhead said. “We know exactly who you are.”
Sosie felt her mouth go dry. “You do?”
“Of course,” Linda chimed in. “You’re an illegal alien from Canada who snuck into the US for chance to live in freedom. You gave up everything to escape your previous life and now you’re completely dependent on the kindness of strangers to survive in this hostile, new city.”
Sosie blinked. Though not entirely accurate, Linda was scary close to being right. “I am?”
Tracee nodded. “But don’t worry. Your secret is safe with us. We both lived in Hoboken before we moved here, so we know what it’s like to feel trapped and completely understand the need to be free.”
“Oh. Well, thanks. I guess.”
Sosie didn’t know where Hoboken was and right then she didn’t care. She was just thankful neither woman had figured out her secret.
Linda waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. That’s what friends are for, right? And we’ll help in any way we can.”
“Of course we will.” Tracee regarded Sosie thoughtfully as she sipped her coffee. “Though hooking up with a cop is pretty damn ballsy considering you’re on the run. Do you plan on staying in New York or will you keep moving around?”
Sosie didn’t answer right away. In truth, she had no idea what she was going to do. She’d thought Elf Central would send out someone to find her, but now she wasn’t so sure. Would they bother mounting an operation to rescue a semi-productive elf girl from the sex toy department who’d requested a transfer from the North Pole anyway? And if they did, would they ever find her? This was a big city and she didn’t stick out as much among the BP population as she’d thought she would. What if her fellow elves simply abandoned her? What would she do? How would she survive? Other than through the kindness of strangers, as Linda had said.
She realized the other two women were looking at her expectantly and she swallowed hard. “Um, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I haven’t thought it out that far.”
Tracee reached across the table to cover Sosie’s hand with hers. “Hey, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to upset you. We’ll figure something out.”
“Definitely,” Linda agreed. “The first thing you have to decide is whether you like it here.”
Sosie smiled. “I love it here. There’s so much to see and do, and everyone has been so nice to me.”
“Especially Derek,” Tracee said with a wink.
Sosie felt her face color. “Especially him. He’s so sweet and kind and caring, and he’s absolutely the greatest in bed.”
The redhead’s lips curved. “That answers the question then. Which means there’s only one thing to do.”
“There is?” Sosie asked.
“Uh-huh. You need to make Derek fall in love with you, so he’ll marry you and you can become a citizen. That way you can stay in New York as long as you like.”
Linda grinned. “And then we can go window shopping all the time.”
Sosie stared at the two women. Make Derek fall in love with her? Surely Tracee and Linda weren’t serious? She and Derek barely knew each other. Even if she could somehow manage to make him fall in love with her it, did she want to? While he was a great guy and she was most definitely sweet on him, it seemed underhanded to get a guy to fall in love with her simply so she could have a place to stay. When she told the two women as much, they looked at her as if she was crazy.
“Sosie, you’re missing our point,” Tracee said. “We’re not saying you should trick him or anything. He already has a thing for you and I suspect you’re already on your way to falling head over heels for him, am I right?”
Sosie had never heard it put quite that way, but she knew what the redhead meant. She nibbled on her lower lip. “Well yes, I suppose that�
��s true. At least the part about me falling for him. But it still seems wrong to make him fall in love with me. It’s as if I’m manipulating him, like a gingerbread cookie.”
Tracee pursed her lips in thought. “Okay, maybe I put it the wrong way. Don’t think of it as making him fall in love with you. Think of it as letting him fall for you.”
She supposed it did sound better when the other woman said it that way. Sosie still wasn’t sure it was the best answer to her dilemma, but she had to admit it was romantic to think she could fall in love with a man she’d just met and live happily ever after right there in New York.
“Do you think he would?” she asked softly. “Fall in love with me, I mean.”
“Girl, I don’t think so, I know so,” Tracee insisted. “Derek was a goner the moment he kissed you under the mistletoe. All you have to do now is give him enough reason to come to the obvious conclusion on his own.”
The more she thought about it, the more Sosie found herself warming to the idea. She already liked Derek, and New York seemed a great place to live. Much better than the South Pole certainly. But then she faltered. What the fig was she talking about? She didn’t know how to get any guy, much less one as hot as Derek to fall for her. Long-term relationships among elves were complicated and usually took years, if not decades to develop, and she didn’t exactly have much experience in the field. Electronics, she understood. Sex toys, she understood. Men, not so much.
She sipped her hot chocolate. “Suppose I agree this is a good idea. How do I go about getting Derek to fall in love with me?”
“That’s easy,” Tracee assured her. “Keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing, only do more of it.”
Sosie frowned in confusion. “You mean sex?”
“There’s a little more to it than that, but sex is always a great place to start,” Linda said. “In fact, why don’t you call Derek and suggest he come home for a quickie at lunch?”
Sosie shook her head. “I can’t. He’s on a stakeout today investigating some big crime at a restaurant. It sounded very important and I don’t think he’d want me bothering him with sex.”
Tracee laughed. “Sosie, if this plan is going to work, the first thing you have to learn is that there’s never a bad time for sex when it comes to men.”
“I agree,” Linda said. “Now, where did you say this stakeout was?”
Chapter Seven
Derek stared blankly at the audio recording equipment in front of him, listening with half an ear to the conversation coming through the headphones he wore. He’d been sitting in the fake delivery truck with Aaron and Tony for half the day, but trying to focus on work was damn difficult when all he could think about was Sosie. Instead of taking notes on who Sammy Saldino was talking to and what they were talking about, he kept counting the hours until his shift was over so he could be with her again.
It wasn’t only because he couldn’t wait to have sex with her again—though that was part of it. He was a red-blooded male, after all, and she was a certifiable love goddess. It was because he enjoyed spending time with her more than he’d ever enjoyed being with another woman. Even if she had screwed with his alarm clock.
“Hey, Derek, you goin’ to write anything down?”
Derek looked up at the question. “What?”
In the seat beside him, Aaron was regarding him expectantly. “I asked if you were going to write anything down.”
“Oh.” He grabbed a pen from the table in front of him and tried to remember what he’d heard. “Yeah.”
Shit, what the hell had he missed? Couldn’t have been much. They’d had a tap on Sammy Saldino’s favorite booth for months now and hadn’t gotten a thing. Derek was pretty sure that was because the bastard knew the place was wired. Since Derek and his team had been listening, the guy hadn’t so much as admitted to double parking or stiffing a waitress on a tip. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t been talking. He’d been talking a whole hell of a lot. The mob boss freaking talked to every lowlife and thug who came into the place. The problem was that most of what came out of his mouth was gibberish. Endless questions and comments about family, friends—even cartoon characters—but nothing that could link him to any crimes. This morning, the guy had filled hours of tape with an endless discussion on what he was buying his mother for her upcoming birthday.
Nobody was that clean, especially Sammy Saldino. But the asshole was smart. Which meant he had to be talking in code, passing orders and receiving updates to and from his minions right under the NYPD’s nose. The guy wasn’t going to say anything incriminating, so listening with half an ear wasn’t an issue.
“Sammy said maybe he’d buy his mother a four-thousand-dollar ring on Tuesday,” Aaron said.
Derek frowned. “Yeah. So?”
“So I thought you were going to write all these gift ideas down in case it was a code for something.”
Damn, he had said he was going to do that. It was a long shot, but at this point, he was ready to try anything.
It was a flat-out fact that Sammy Saldino was in charge one of the biggest criminal operations in the city. From bookmaking to prostitution to drugs to extortion, if it was illegal, he was into it. Allegedly, of course, because no one had been able to pin a thing on the mob boss. After eight years of trying, the feds had given up, so now it was up to Derek and the quickly dwindling NYPD task force. And as the captain had told them after Saldino’s visit yesterday, the window to catch this dirtbag was closing. If they didn’t come up with something before Saldino filed the harassment lawsuit, the brass downtown was going to pull the plug on the investigation.
Which was why Derek wrote down what Aaron had said even though he didn’t remember hearing Saldino say any of it.
“Man, what’s up with you?” Aaron asked. “You seem distracted today. You feeling okay?”
“Maybe he’s hungry,” Tony muttered from the far end of the truck. “I know I sure as hell am.”
“Yeah, that’s it. I’m hungry,” Derek agreed. “Maybe we should get something to eat.”
Aaron leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, no. You’re not getting off that easy. We’ll get something to eat after you tell us what’s going on. I’ve seen that distracted look on a man’s face before and it didn’t have anything to do with food. I’m guessing it must have something to do with that sweet little number who came into the division to see you yesterday. Sosie, wasn’t it?”
Derek opened his mouth, intending to deny it, but the older man wouldn’t let him.
“Don’t even try it,” Aaron said.
Derek chuckled, knowing it was useless. “Okay, okay. It might have something to do with Sosie.”
Aaron glanced at Tony. “What’d I tell you?”
Tony grinned and lazily swiveled back and forth in his chair. “You never mentioned her before. How long you been seeing her?”
“Counting today?” Derek asked. “Four days.”
“Four days, huh?” Aaron exchanged looks with Tony again. “That’s some kind of record for you, isn’t it?”
Derek scowled. “Real funny.”
The two men laughed. Derek probably would have found it amusing, too, if it wasn’t so damn close to the truth. While Aaron was exaggerating, the majority of relationships Derek had been in hadn’t lasted a hell of a lot longer than that, thanks in large part to what he did for a living. Women might be turned on by the idea of dating a guy who came with his own handcuffs, but quickly discovered they couldn’t deal with the late-night stakeouts, double shifts and constant danger that went with it.
Derek swore silently. Okay, that was enough soul searching for one day. He took off the headphones and flipped the audio to external speaker rather than hand the task off to either of the other men. It was easier to listen to Saldino’s conversation that way anyway.
“I’m going to get something to eat,” he announced. “Either of you want anything?”
Both Aaron and Tony said they did, so after finding
out what the men wanted from the bodega, Derek got up and headed for the back door of the delivery truck. He was reaching for the handle when someone knocked on the door.
Frowning, Derek looked over his shoulder at Aaron. “Was our relief supposed to be here already?”
Aaron shook his head, one hand going to his weapon. Tony did the same.
Reaching inside his coat for his own firearm, Derek cautiously pushed the door open and was stunned to see Sosie standing there with a smile on her face and a big paper bag in her hands.
“Sosie!” Derek looked up and down the street, then back at her. He released his grip on his gun, sliding his hand out from inside his coat. “What are you doing here?”
She held up the bag, her grin widening. “I brought you lunch.”
He stared at the bag, dumbfounded. “How did you find me?”
“You said you were going to be in a delivery truck down the street from Toscalini’s.” Her smile faltered. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
“I am. It’s just that…” Damn, he felt like a heel for what he was about to do. But this was a stakeout. He couldn’t let her in simply because she was his girlfriend. He was the lead detective, which meant he couldn’t violate the rules. “Sosie, I appreciate the thought, but you can’t be here.”
“Sure she can,” Aaron called from behind him.
Derek turned to look at the other man in surprise. “That’s completely against department policy and you know it.”
Aaron snorted. “Who the hell is going to tell? Besides, she’s already here now, so she might as well come in.”
“And she did bring food,” Tony added.
Derek turned back to see Sosie standing there looking up at him with a hopeful expression on her pretty face and he couldn’t say no. He checked up and down the street one more time to make sure no one was watching, then took Sosie’s hand and helped her inside. Aaron moved across the truck to sit in the chair beside Tony, vacating his seat for Sosie. As she sat, Derek turned down the loudspeaker. They could still hear the audio, but barely. That was fine since it was all being recorded anyway.
