“What do you need to buy here?” I asked, nervous. Places like this made me feel out of my element, clumsy. Like walking by the beautiful things would somehow soil them, and I’d be on the hook for thousands of dollars.
“A few basic changes of clothes,” Corbin said. “Plus whatever you like.”
I swallowed. I appreciated his generosity, but I had no way to reciprocate. “Oh. I’m good,” I said. “But thanks.”
He looked at me, then nodded. “I understand. But why don’t you look at the purses while I try on some jeans?”
In fact, I had been eyeing the bags from halfway across the store. It wasn’t that they were my style, but the display made me want them even though I had nothing that would match.
I played with the purses for a bit. Corbin had disappeared. On my way back to the men’s section, I paused to admire a case of glittering baubles. Even though I was trying not to make eye contact with any of the staff, a stunning saleswoman opened the case and pulled out the white ceramic watch I’d been drooling over.
“Let me see your arm,” she said. She had the slightest Russian accent. She smiled, and though I’d never considered myself as bi-curious, I found myself wondering what it would be like to kiss her cherry red lips. Not in a sexual way. She was just so perfect.
I held my arm out obediently, and she strapped the watch on my wrist.
“Oh, it’s too big,” she said with a little pout. “We can take out links. It suits you.”
I shook my head. “It’s not in my budget.”
She winked. “Every woman should have something beautiful. Even if it’s just a dream.”
“I like it,” Corbin said. I looked at him and had to do a double take. He was wearing new jeans and a textured blue button-down shirt that made his eyes even more arresting than usual. He also had several garment bags that he held casually over his shoulder and hooked on two fingers.
“Thanks,” I said, blushing. I thrust my arm at the saleswoman, intending for her to take back the watch.
But apparently she hadn’t been hired simply because she was stunning. She pinched the band a bit so that it fit snugly on my wrist, and holding it in place, she turned my hand over.
“If we remove two links, it will fit perfectly. It’s beautiful on her,” she said. “Perfect for her skin tone. It’s an automatic, but not bulky like so many of them are.”
Corbin, miraculously—or blindly—only had eyes for me. “Take it off,” he said.
The woman undid the watchband and set it on a black cushion. Corbin handed her a credit card. “We’re going to breakfast, but we’ll be back in an hour for it. I assume the band can be adjusted in that time?”
“Of course.” She accepted his credit card, and I noticed the corner of her lips twitch, and her attention returned briefly to Corbin again.
I was completely flabbergasted by the purchase, but I couldn’t say anything until she walked away. But once she was partially out of earshot, I opened my mouth to say—I wasn’t sure what I planned to say. And I stood there, gaping, for a few moments.
Corbin stooped a little to kiss me. Not a casual peck, either, but the kind that made mothers cover their children’s eyes. The kind that made my breath hitch in my chest.
He might have kissed me all day except the garment bags over his shoulder shifted, and he had to straighten to stop them from smacking into the jewelry case.
“Thank you for allowing me to buy you the watch,” Corbin said… as he signed the receipt. Sneaky, but I wasn’t about to argue in front of the saleswoman. I caught her checking Corbin out, her golden eyes flitting down his body.
I couldn’t blame her.
“That’s a very nice shirt,” she said as she took the signed receipt.
“Thanks.” Corbin put his arm around my shoulders and pressed a ticklish kiss just below my ear. “Are you in the mood for a full breakfast? Or coffee and a pastry?”
“Anything, so long as it’s not a diner,” I said.
When we got outside, I was ready to give him an earful, but he walked so quickly to the SUV that I had to hurry to keep up.
But once we were inside, he had nowhere to go. “Please don’t do that,” I said. “It makes me uncomfortable.”
Corbin had been in the middle of backing out of the space. He put the truck into park. “Mildly uncomfortable or sick-to-your-stomach uncomfortable? Are you embarrassed, or do you think you’re going to cry about this later?”
“Well… I’m not going to cry about it.”
“Are you thinking about breaking up with me?”
“What? No!”
“Good. I would hate for us to break up because you don’t like how I spend my money,” he said. He glanced into the rear-view mirror and continued to back out.
I stared at him, trying to figure out how he had turned things around that way. “The only solution is for me not to come shopping with you,” I said.
“Then you’d better not look in the bags,” he said with a smirk. “I’ve shopped for you before. When I see something nice that I think you’ll like, I’ll buy it for you.”
“God help me if we ever disagree on anything huge,” I murmured.
“Hey, you know your safe word,” Corbin said.
We ended up eating in the restaurant of a very fancy hotel. I was surprised they let me in with my non-designer jeans and my faded, pilling sweater. Whatever clothes Corbin had bought for me remained in their bags. Despite all his swagger, he must have known not to press his luck too much at the moment.
After we ordered, I looked Corbin in the eye. “Thank you,” I said. “It’s your money, and I won’t tell you how to spend it.”
“You’re welcome. Know that I’ve shown a lot of restraint. I’d prefer to spoil you, and maybe one day you’ll let me. Thank you for being gracious.”
“Maybe,” I murmured, though I had no intentions of letting him do so. “Now that we’re both full of happy feelings and gratitude, I have a question.”
Corbin raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”
“That bookie who ended up dead. Did you have… anything to do with that?” I picked up the glass of fresh-pressed orange juice that the server had brought upon our arrival, and I guzzled half of it.
Corbin frowned. “I don’t know. I’d have to ask Jennifer for the details, but she’s more of a pacifist. She’d say she’s an opportunist. So I doubt it.”
That made me frown, too. “You had no idea what Jennifer was doing?”
He shook his head. “There wasn’t any way for me to communicate from where I was. I told you before I left that it would be difficult to get in touch. It turned out that things were much more complicated than expected. At three weeks in, I saw how things were going and I took the risk of getting a short message to her. Four words: Take care of Audrey. It was all that mattered to me.”
I blinked. That explained the timing. “I… I had thought you were back then. I thought you just didn’t want to see me. I wish she had sat me down and told me what was going on.”
“Ah.” Corbin looked slightly uncomfortable. “I’m sorry. She didn’t talk to you because I didn’t instruct her to. My message was to take care of you. I call it a message, but it was an order. If I had told her to explain things to you, she would have, but in the absence of saying that—”
“I get it,” I said.
He reached across the table and caught my hand. “Audrey, I really am sorry about how things happened. When I saw you yesterday afternoon, you looked at me as if I were a stranger to you. It was one of the worst moments of my life. You can believe I’ll never do anything to risk us getting to that point again.”
“Except buying me expensive watches,” I said lightly.
“Watches?” Corbin grinned. “It’s only one so far. Happy to hear you’re ready for a second one.” He stroked the back of my hand, and tingles ran along my skin, making me shiver.
Then the server brought our breakfasts, and Corbin released my hand, much to my dismay. I hoped my timi
ng as a waitress was better than that.
I watched as he added milk to his coffee and swirled it with a gleaming, tiny spoon. His hands were so large and masculine that he should have been clumsy. Of course I knew very well that he was not.
“What happens next with Henry?” I asked. “I’m tired of his threats.”
Corbin looked up sharply, and the hand that had been bringing the coffee to his lips froze in place, midway between the table and his mouth.
“He threatened to hurt you?”
“Me? Well, vaguely. ‘You could end up hurt or worse.’ Things like that.”
Corbin carefully returned the cup to its saucer. “Go on.”
“Actually, I don’t think it was anything but scare tactics. To get me to give you up. He never actually tried to hurt me. On the other hand, he said things would get difficult for Rob, and they have.”
With a troubled nod, Corbin encouraged me to continue.
“He keeps messing with Rob’s hours, giving him crappy assignments,” I said. “Dad is kicking Henry out of the company, so I guess he won’t be able to do that much longer.”
“Henry presents a unique challenge,” Corbin said finally. “He has more connections than I ever would have guessed. I haven’t heard the latest since my return, though I’ll remedy that today.”
“I really wish he would disappear,” I mumbled. Then, realizing what I had said, I blanched. “I don’t mean that,” I added quickly.
Corbin’s eyes saddened a degree. “I know what you meant. Give me a week,” Corbin said.
“For what?”
“To come up with something that solves our Henry problem in a way that doesn’t make you squeamish or make me come out of retirement after only several days. In the meantime, stay away from him.”
“That should be easy.”
“I mean it. Don’t engage him on any level.” He finished his coffee and pushed the empty cup aside.
After breakfast, Corbin returned to the store for the watch. I stayed in the truck. When he handed me the box with the watch inside, I caressed the smooth, slightly plush top for a moment before opening it.
It really was gorgeous. I didn’t anticipate wearing it much, but Corbin was looking at me expectantly, so I put it on.
“It suits you,” Corbin said. He indicated the back seat with a jerk of his head. “I bought you a lightweight cashmere sweater to replace the one you’re wearing. Black. Useful.”
“Ah, pooh,” I said.
“I didn’t catch that.” But he was grinning.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I hope it will keep you warm when I’m not around.”
I jerked straight, startled. “Where are you going?”
“I meant when we’re apart. I’m not going anywhere. Audrey. I’m here. I’m with you. Ok?”
I nodded, and my heartbeat slowly returned to normal.
Corbin had some things to take care of now that he was back in town, so he dropped me off at home. I spent the rest of the morning doing laundry and starting to pack up my things. I managed to get two appointments to view apartments in the afternoon.
The first one was even worse than the place I’d moved out of. I wouldn’t have thought it possible.
The second apartment was on the top floor of a three-story walkup. It had skylights and beautiful hardwood floors. The kitchen was small, but the bedroom made up for it. Plenty of windows overlooked the stately trees outside. Once spring was in full swing, it would be gorgeous. It smelled like paint because it was currently being renovated.
“There will be new appliances and an updated bathroom,” the landlord said. I liked her. She was friendly, and the other tenants had waved at her when we’d entered.
“Everything should be finished in about two weeks,” she said. “Are you interested?”
I loved it immediately, even without the updates. The rent was a bit out of my current price range, but starting back at Stroop Finders was a guaranteed salary bump.
As I was filling out the application, my phone rang. It was Rob. He hung up before it went to voicemail.
After the landlord and I parted ways in front of the building, I called Rob back.
“Do you know where I am?” he asked. He sounded pissed… and nervous.
Before I even had a chance to play the guessing game, he answered. “I’m standing outside a biker bar. Yee-haw!”
“Uh-oh?” Rob was the last person I expected in one of those places. “Tell me you didn’t get a biker princess knocked up or something.”
“Henry sent me out here. Alone. To grab the enforcer of one of the outlaw gangs.”
Cold fear chilled me. Henry had found a way to make things worse for Rob. “You don’t have to do it!”
“I do. Henry’s lawyers are fighting Dad. It’s been two months since Dad started the paperwork to split his share of the business, and Henry’s lawyers think they can prove intent. They’re saying Dad’s health problems have left him feebleminded, and they want him to agree to an evaluation. If I don’t do this, I’m fired. According to the contract, if I get fired for just cause, I lose my share.”
The icy chill creeping down my spine grew colder as I thought about the large check I had just written. Security deposit and two months’ rent. It would clean me out. If Dad didn’t get control of Stroop Finders, I couldn’t work there. I suddenly hoped I failed the background investigation so the check would be ripped up.
“It gets better,” Rob said. I heard the rumble of a motorcycle through Rob’s phone, and he was quiet until it passed. “It’s a snipe.”
I felt my car keys slipping from my fingers a moment too late. I mechanically stooped to pick them up.
Sniping was generally trouble. If the bail bondsman had already contracted another bounty hunter, it was bad form to sneak in and do that capture unless the work was farmed out. Depending who the contracted hunter was, it could be a fast way to the emergency room.
Henry sending Rob there alone was… cruelly insane. And brilliant. If Rob refused to go, then on paper, it made Rob look bad. This, in conjunction with all the bullshit cases Henry had been giving him… Rob would look like a low-volume employee, bringing in well under the company average.
“Henry’s going to claim you’ve been slacking all this time,” I realized.
“And he’ll say he’s cleaning house,” Rob said glumly. “That’s my guess.”
I got into my car and banged my head against the headrest. I stared up at the roof, though I didn’t actually see it. Corbin had asked me to stay away from Henry. He’d told me to give him a week.
But Corbin didn’t even have a plan yet. Of course I trusted him, but we didn’t have a week.
However, we did have half a plan. Those cameras had been in Henry’s house for several days. There might be something there.
But first I had to convince Rob not to go in that bar. He’d probably called me because he wanted me to talk him out of it. I was happy to oblige.
“Leave,” I told Rob. “Take a sick day. Make it official so Henry can’t use it against you. Then this evening you’ll call Henry. Ask him to meet you to talk.”
“A sick day,” Rob said, mulling over the idea. Relief permeated his voice. Rob wasn’t a coward, but one man sniping someone else’s bounty in an outlaw biker bar? Might as well send him in the middle of an active war zone. It was a suicide mission.
“We’re gonna get dirt on Henry,” I said. “Today. I’ll meet you at home and we’ll figure out a strategy.” Although I sounded confident, I was anything but. This was a gamble, and it was the only option we had.
~~~
I parked my car at the edge of the strip mall parking lot, then walked the mile toward Henry’s neighborhood. There hadn’t been a lot of time to get ready, but I was wearing the wig, and I had a flashlight and the adaptor to read the videos via USB. Unfortunately, I’d realized too late that I would need a computer.
It was late afternoon, almost evening. Not ideal for sneaking i
nto houses—even half an hour later would have been better—but it was the best Rob could get Henry to agree to.
I’d left too damn early, I realized. Walking a mile didn’t take nearly as long as I had thought it would.
I sent Rob a text when I arrived anyway, hoping he’d tell me Henry had left early. No luck there.
So I circled closer and found a place to hide in a very small wooded area. It was close enough to Henry’s street that I’d at least be able to see him driving across the sleepy intersection.
My phone vibrated with a call. It was Corbin.
I considered ignoring him. I could easily call him back when I was finished. Because there was no way I could lie to him.
I answered at the last moment. “Hi.” Christ, I sounded guilty.
“You’re not at home, and you’re not working today,” Corbin said. He didn’t want me to lie to him, so he hadn’t asked a direct question.
That made me smile. “Maybe a little mystery will stop our relationship from becoming boring?”
“Where are you?” Corbin demanded.
“Uh…” I twisted around, trying to remember the name of this street. “Fairview Pines Terrace.”
There was a pause. “You’re at Henry’s house?”
“Technically, no,” I said slowly. “Near his house, but not at it. Why do you know the streets in this neighborhood, anyway?”
Corbin hung up.
Well, it could have gone worse, I supposed.
Five minutes later, I saw Henry’s sedan crossing the intersection. I sent Rob a text telling him Henry was on the way and to let me know when he arrived.
Rob texted back. In other words, the plan hasn’t changed. He softened the words with a smiley.
I started to respond, to defend myself. Used to be that staking out a place alone for six, eight hours was a matter of course for me. Not that I didn’t avoid it when at all possible. I hoped my jitters were because it was personal this time and not because I’d turned into a wimp.
Seduced by a Dangerous Man Page 13
