“Too soon?” Sam asked.
“We did only meet today.” She loved his direct approach. Sam was a take the bull by the horns kind of a man, and she hated putting him off.
“OK, I’ll back off a little. Maybe if I ask you next week?” He grinned, an infectious sight.
“A little while longer.” Lia looked down at her dinner, trying to hide her pained expression.
Sam reached across the table, his big hand wrapping around hers. “Hey, I know I said I would not pry, but whatever it is. Whatever you are running from. Let me help.”
“Who said I was running?” Lia asked, wanting to pull back from him, but she didn’t; the warmth of his touch was hard to resist.
“Come on, don’t play games. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine, but don’t tell me I’m not reading the situation right. I have seen this too many times not to know what I’m looking at.”
“What do you mean?” Lia asked. She thought she had been so careful and not left a trail anyone could follow.
“You live here, in this house, but you aren’t living here.” He pointed around the kitchen. “You don’t plan to stay. I can see it in the lack of stuff in your kitchen. Your bedroom too.”
“What about my bedroom?” Lia asked defensively.
“You still have a suitcase propped up in the corner of the room, despite this being a two-bedroom property. Most people would have stowed it either in the spare room or the attic.”
“That’s it, you are basing your assumptions on my suitcase? I might simply have messy habits,” Lia said.
“The house is spotless. Mainly because you don’t have any real personal effects. No photos. No…”
“OK, you’ve made your point,” Lia said, putting her fork down, her appetite gone.
“I’m sorry.” He sighed. “This is why I don’t get out much.”
“Because you are so judgmental?” she asked, her voice harsh.
“No, because I go looking for problems, whether they exist or not.” He reached for her other hand, and she let him take hold of it, liking the way he smoothed his thumb across the back of her hand. “But I think the problem here is real. It exists, doesn’t it?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she stared down at her plate, trying to decide what to tell him. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
He let out a pent-up breath. “As long as you don’t hurt my heart by telling me there is another man in your life, I can take it.”
“There is another man, but not what you think.” Lia risked looking at Sam, both hating and treasuring the look of concern he returned.
“Go on.” His voice reinforced his concern for her.
“Before I moved to Bear Creek, I had a well-paying job, I was the personal assistant to the CEO of a big corporation.” She took a big gulp of her wine, while Sam sat quietly and waited for her to continue. “You’re a good listener.” She smiled softly at him, her heart racing to think that he was hers.
“I’ve had more practice than you would believe.”
He gave her the strength to continue. “It was a good job, and I enjoyed it. I had a lot of responsibility, organizing my boss’s work day, and often his personal life. I booked both working dinners and dinner for him and his wife.” She pressed her lips together. “The longer I worked there, the more my boss relied on me. Both in his professional and personal life.”
“Did he pressure you to sleep with him?” Sam asked.
“Goodness, no. Nothing like that.” She shook her head adamantly. “He only had eyes for his wife.”
“So what happened?”
“Some very valuable jewelry went missing.”
“And you got the blame?” Sam asked in disbelief.
“Yes.” She raised her eyes to meet his. “It seems my boss wasn’t everything I thought he was.”
“He let you down?” Sam’s voice was soft, coaxing.
“I thought he trusted me. Anyway, he sent some men to search my apartment and one piece of jewelry was found there.” She gave him a weak smile. “I ran.”
“How did it end up in your apartment?” Sam’s expression changed. “You were set up. Why?”
She picked up her glass of wine and sipped it. “I have analyzed this from all sides, and I still have no idea. Only my boss knew the combination of the safe. But I was in the presence of my boss enough times, that it was assumed that I watched and learned.”
“That’s it? That’s not a lot of evidence. The jewelry could have been planted. What about fingerprints?”
“What do you mean? You have accused me of not planning to stay in Bear Creek because I didn’t put my suitcase away.”
“Ahh, but I’m an expert.”
“They found the evidence in my apartment. Any reasonable person would accuse me.”
“But I am not reasonable,” Sam told her. “I know you are innocent, and I am going to prove it.”
“No!” Lia shook her head. “I don’t want you involved in any of this.”
“I can help you. That’s what I’m here for.” His voice was fierce. “I will not let anyone hurt you. And the best way to prevent that from happening is to prove you are innocent.”
“You don’t think I’ve tried? Before I came here, I went over it all.” Lia stood up and began to clear the table. “There was nothing to prove I didn’t take it.”
“Security videos?” Sam asked.
“Offline.” She turned to look at him. “I could have done it.”
“And the safe. You say only your boss had the combination?”
“Yes. But the theory I could have learned the combination is accurate.” She sighed and folded her arms across her chest. “If I close my eyes and think about it, I probably could put in the correct combination code in a couple of tries.” She closed her eyes, held her hand up and mimicked the action of Mr. Delamere as he stood in front of the safe. “559735.”
“Are you sure?” Sam asked, sounding impressed.
“I remember things,” Lia explained. “I can read an article in a magazine, and recall it months later. I can watch a documentary, read the instructions, recipes… You name it, it’s filed away somewhere. I can’t help it.”
“You are a genius,” Sam said in awe.
“Not really, I can regurgitate facts and arrange information. But I don’t come up with original ideas. Those are the people who are geniuses.”
“You are selling yourself short,” Sam said.
Lia let out a long breath, her shoulders sagging. “Look where I’ve ended up. I think we can both agree I have not played things smart. Somewhere along the line, I upset someone enough to make them want to hurt me.”
“Your boss’s wife?” Sam asked.
“No,” Lia answered quickly. “I don’t know her enough to upset her. I may have made dinner arrangements and bought theater tickets for them. But I didn’t have a relationship with her.”
“You never met her?” Sam asked.
“I met her, but when she walks into a room, she ignores everyone who isn’t important. And I am not important to her.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “But you have been in the same room as her? You’ve listened to her talk. You knew her well enough to buy her gifts from her husband.”
“From listening to him and the conversations they had.” She blushed. “I don’t mean in an eavesdropping kind of a way.”
“You don’t have to explain it,” Sam got up and came to stand next to her. “We’re similar. It’s why I’m good at what I do.”
Lia leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him. “I just want it all to go away.”
“I know, honey, which is why I’m going to help you straighten it all out.” He kissed the top of her head. “Tell me your boss’s name, and I’ll go take a look.”
“No, I don’t want you involved.”
“I am involved.” He tipped her chin up so that she had to face him. “I was involved the moment we first met. And if we are mates for a reason, maybe it’s because I am t
“OK. Mr. Delamere, the company is called Total Solutions.”
“Well, that is an ominous name if ever I heard one,” Sam said easily.
“Yeah.” She rested her head on his chest. “But I think you are looking in the wrong place if you think Mrs. Delamere has anything to do with this.”
“You would be surprised how often it turns out to be the wife…or the husband. I am not being sexist. Which is why I am so grateful I am a shifter, and my mate is one too. There will never be any cause for us to think the other is being unfaithful.”
“Wait, you think Mrs. Delamere set me up because she thinks I’m having an affair with her husband?” She shook her head again. “No way.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“And how did she get the necklace into my apartment?” Lia asked.
“That is what I aim to find out. Now, write down all the details. Do you have a key for your old apartment?”
“You’re going there?” she asked, fetching a pen and paper.
“I am going everywhere.” He began to wash the dishes, while Lia wrote down every single last detail that she thought might help him. It wasn’t much, but once it was done, she felt a small amount of relief. She included his routine, including his lunch and power-nap time. Just in case Sam needed to sneak into the office and look at the safe.
A problem shared, her bear reminded her.
Is a problem halved, Lia ended. As she glanced back at Sam, she decided it was time to let her defenses down around him. Completely down. She wanted to be naked to his eyes, in every possible way.
Chapter Eight – Sam
After a night in her arms, all he wanted was a day in her arms. Yes, given a choice, Sam Spencer would abandon all other things in his life and stay in bed with his mate.
However, duty called and so he dragged himself out of bed, and out of her house before he changed his mind.
“I’ll call you later,” Sam told his new love, after kissing her repeatedly in the hallway of her small house. “And when I come back tonight, I want to see that suitcase in another room. There is no way I’m going to let you leave Bear Creek.”
“And I thought I was the bossy-pants,” Lia told him, clinging to him. He inhaled her scent, letting it linger over his taste buds. A stirring in his pants told him it was time to let her go and walk away before he lost his self-control. It would take only one momentary slip for him to take hold of her hand and drag her back to bed.
“I hope by this evening to have some news for you.”
“About Mr. Delamere?” Lia asked, her voice uncertain.
“Yes, I have some errands to run this morning, but this afternoon I plan to go over there and see if he’ll hire me for the job.”
“What job?” Lia asked.
“Tracking you down.” He cocked his head and grinned. “I am a private investigator.”
“Wait, that is too risky,” Lia said.
“No, it’s perfect, if I’m on the inside, I get access to all he knows, or thinks he knows, and I also get to keep tabs on his men.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me.”
“I do trust you, I’m just beginning to wish I hadn’t told you any of this. That way I would only have myself to worry about.” Lia wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t care what happens to me, but I can’t bear the thought of you getting hurt.”
“But if something happens to you, then I will be hurt.” He needed her to understand that they were in this together. “Think of how you would feel if our roles were reversed.”
Lia nodded reluctantly, and then moved closer to him, standing on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Promise me you will be careful.”
“I will,” he promised.
Leaving Lia was one of the toughest things he had ever done. It felt as if his soul was tethered to hers, and the further he moved away from her, the more stretched it became until he feared it would snap and he would lose her. That he could not bear. Lia was the woman he had waited for all of his life.
That was why he had to get this mess sorted out. Mentally rearranging his day, he drove home, where he showered and changed before checking his messages. There were a couple. Two inquiries about new cases, one from an ongoing case, a husband who thought his wife was having an affair. What he called his bread and butter cases. The last message was from Lenny Grimes, asking for any information on his sister.
He quickly returned the calls, giving what updates he could, and arranging appointments for the two new cases. Once that was done, he sat down with a cup of hot coffee and opened up his laptop. Research time.
Over the next hour, he learned all he could about Total Solutions, and its CEO, Martin Delamere. Sam followed thread after thread, until he eventually had to drop down into the dark web, not a place he liked to go. However, it appeared Total Solutions had a shady side to it that he might be able to use as leverage to help get Lia off their radar. Blackmail was not the cleanest way to get Mr. Delamere off Lia’s back, but if all else failed it might be their only option.
By the time he’d finished, his opinion that Total Solutions was shady had been realigned. They were into some seriously dark business practices, which included money laundering using Bitcoins, the currency of the dark web.
And Lia was caught up in the middle of all this. He doubted she had a clue as to what went on behind the scenes. In fact, the more he dug around, the more certain Sam became that even Mr. Delamere was not in on half the stuff that Total Solutions dabbled in. It appeared Mr. Delamere was merely a respectable face at the front of a very disrespectful company.
Closing his laptop, Sam formulated a plan. He still needed to infiltrate the company, and the investigation into Lia was his best way in, for all the reasons he had explained to Lia. However, he was going to have to be very careful where he followed the trail to. Before this was over, he was certain he was going to have to make a decision. A decision that was not going to be easy.
Either simply get Lia off the hook, or bring down the whole corporation. Not an easy task alone.
But for Lia, he would do it. For Lia, he would do anything, even if it meant risking his own life.
Sam got back in his car and drove to the building used as the headquarters for Total Solutions. He was going to have to bluff his way inside. Normally, he had more planning time, and would form a ruse that could be backed up with business cards and a fake website and social media. There had been no time for anything like that and so he was simply going to have to use his silver tongue.
I wonder if Lia thinks I have a silver tongue, he mused as he drove. That single thought conjured up an image of her lying naked on the bed. His cock hardened, as it always did when she slipped into his daydreams. Damn, why hadn’t he simply stayed in bed with her today?
Because she needs us, his bear told him firmly. Get your head back in the game.
His bear was right, and so he spent the long drive formulating a plan and using his smart phone on hands-free to launch it. He acted quickly, and so by the time he pulled up in the parking lot of Total Solutions, he had a clear idea of how he was going to get inside to see Mr. Delamere.
Getting out of his car, he went around back and opened the trunk. He took out a tool bag and pinned a badge to his lapel. Then he took one look around, checking that there was no one suspicious, before crossing to the building.
Ignoring the elevator, he took the stairs, up to level seven, where the offices of Total Solutions were situated. Pushing the door open, he sauntered inside and stood leaning up against the desk of the receptionist who was talking on the phone while typing. She eyed Sam with some appreciation, and a smile crossed his lips.
The thing about Sam Spencer was that he was tall. Really tall, and if he smiled just right, he made most women’s and some men’s hearts flutter. Why? Because as tall as he was, his face was kind, unthreatening. When he spoke, people got the feeling he was a friend, and he was not going to rip them off.
Most of the time that was true, and he had a conscience as far and wide as the sky. He was a man of honor and would never knowingly trash someone’s life, unless they deserved it.
“How can I help you?” Penny asked, as soon as she stopped talking into the earpiece on her headpiece. Her hands had paused, poised over the keyboard, at the moment she set eyes on him.
He smiled, his blue eyes soft, his blond hair neither short not long, but ruffled in a schoolboy-like way, all helping to give him the look of a mischievous angel. “By letting me fetch you a coffee. I bet no one does that for you, Penny.”
Her smile faded a little, and her eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”
He looked offended. “I meant it, Penny. My mom used to work at a reception desk like this.” He patted the desk and looked at it with the appreciation a man gives a hand-carved piece of furniture, only this desk was made out of molded plastic and cheap wood with a thin veneer. “She used to come home, feet aching, and seriously demoralized.” He gave her a sympathetic smile. “She used to say it was as if she were invisible. People only saw her if they needed to ask a question, and even then they never truly appreciated her.”
Penny’s eyes misted over. He had described her life exactly. He had shown empathy, which a person on a reception desk rarely experienced. Sam was not going to spoil it by telling Penny he hadn’t learned these small details from his mom. The insight into the life of a receptionist had come from a client, a sweet lady who had hired him some years ago.
Just like Lia, he stored all the information he gleaned from his clients; it was what made him so successful. He listened and learned about people, their wants and desires, their foibles and their habits.
Successful? his bear chuckled. So successful we still live in a rented apartment, and sometimes have to scrape the rent together.
Success is not always about money, Sam reminded his bear.
Indeed it is not, his bear agreed sagely.
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