“You plan to stay in the area for a long time?”
“Both our families are here, so, yes, we do.”
Rita smiled, her eyes moving from me to Sam and back again. And again she let her eyes move slowly over the length of me. I smiled my most charming smile, leaning toward her over the table.
“We both have very big families. Catholics, you know. And we’re planning a big family of our own.” I sat back again, squeezing Sam’s thigh. “Right, darling?”
Sam brushed my hand from her thigh, but she leaned close to me and rested her head on my shoulder briefly. “Of course, sweetie.”
Rita frowned briefly, her eyes falling to the paperwork in front of her.
“Well, I see here that we ran your credit. Unfortunately, your credit scores are a little low.”
I glanced at Sam. She was looking at me, a look of accusation on her face.
“I told you not to buy that truck. We couldn’t afford the payments.”
“It was a cool truck, babe.”
“A cool truck that damaged your credit.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I could feel Rita studying the two of us and could hear Dominic laughing in the earpiece that kept us connected. Sam suddenly leaned into me and kissed my cheek lightly.
“But I still love you,” she said in the softest voice.
She was good. For a second I almost forgot we were playing a part.
“Well,” Rita said, her eyes falling to our paperwork again, “I understand we aren’t the first bank you came to.”
“No. We went to several others and were turned down, or offered much less than we were asking for. But a friend mentioned that he’d gotten a loan through you.”
“Oh? Who was that?”
Dominic whispered a name in my ear and I repeated it. “Jack Wallace.”
“Yes, I remember Jack.” Rita’s eyes lit up at the mention of the name. She studied me again, but was suddenly distracted by Sam lifting her iPad. “Are we interrupting something?”
“Sorry,” Sam said, settling the tablet back on her lap. “My best friend was wondering how it was going, so I sent her a little picture. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” Rita said, but she turned sideways, away from Sam. “Let me take a look at these papers…”
“I’m going to run to the restroom,” Sam announced.
She stood, but I grabbed her arm before she could get away. We were supposed to be newlyweds, so it only seemed appropriate for me to ask for a kiss before she went away. I tugged her down toward me, brushing my lips lightly over hers. She hesitated, her hand coming to rest on my shoulder.
“Don’t be long,” I said.
That seemed to bring her back to herself. She glanced at Rita, and then nodded, walking quickly as she left the restaurant. I couldn’t help but watch her go.
“How long have you known each other?”
“Three years,” I said, letting the truth slip out before I thought about it. Three years I’d worked for Dragon, three years I’d come to the office nearly every day to find Sam already sitting at her desk, waiting for whatever the day might bring. Three years during which she snuck into my thoughts and refused to leave.
“You’re a cute couple.”
I focused on Rita, Dominic pushing me in my ear.
“We really want this house. I know our credit isn’t the best, but if I could do anything to convince you that we’re worth the risk…”
“There is something I can do for you. But it’s a little risky for me. If I got caught—”
“Anything you want, Rita.”
Her eyes drifted over me for a long second, and then she inclined her head.
“We have this program at the bank. If you’d pay double the closing costs, half now and half later, I could probably get you in on it. It would guarantee approval of your mortgage and help bring your credit rating up.”
“Really?”
She glanced around the room and leaned forward, speaking in a hard whisper. “I could get in trouble for this, but I like you, Bill. I’d like to help you.”
“I’d really appreciate it.”
“Great. So I’ll go ahead and push the paperwork through. When can you have the money?”
“I just need to make a call and I can have it in cash before our meeting’s over.”
She smiled a sweet smile. “Great.”
As she began to type, Dominic says in my ear: “Sam’s got her. She’s tethered her tablet to the loan officer’s laptop and she’s watching everything she’s doing. Unless you screw this up somehow, we’ve got this one in the bag.”
I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and pretended to make a call.
“If you could bring me that certified check…”
Rita looked up and winked at me. “Maybe we can have drinks later. Celebrate.”
“Sure. My wife and I are staying here at the hotel. Room 954.”
“I thought you said you lived in the area.”
“We do. But our lease was up on our apartment, so we put our things in storage and moved here temporarily. If we don’t find a place soon, we’ll have to live with her mother. And that…” I shuddered. “Not something I want to do.”
Her smile widened. “Well, we’ll get you into a house as quickly as possible.”
She continued to type. Then she scooted some papers in my direction.
“These explain the program. I want you to know everything you’re getting yourself into.”
“Of course.”
“After we get that check, I’ll go back to the office and print out the paperwork, and then I’ll bring it to you first thing in the morning.”
“Sounds good.”
Sam came back into the dining room just as Dominic announced in my ear that she’d emailed him proof of Rita hacking into the bank’s accounts and changing the credit report that was generated under our fake names. It did nothing to change Bill and Lucy’s federal credit rating, but it would be enough to get the bank to approve a loan that was much riskier than they thought it was.
Sam slipped into her chair and smiled at me, tucking her iPad back into its little case there on the table.
“Everything okay?”
“As I was telling your husband,” Rita said, “I think there’ll be no problem for you to get approval. I’ll be bringing the paperwork by in the morning and once it’s signed, you should have a preapproval your hands by the end of the week.”
“Awesome!” Sam turned into me, a bright smile on her beautiful face. “That’ll be wonderful, darling! We can finally get out of this place and move into a proper house. Our forever home.”
“Wonderful,” I said, leaning into her and stealing another soft kiss. She didn’t respond right away, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. I leaned closer and nibbled at her bottom lip briefly, drawing it into my mouth and capturing it between my teeth. She sighed against my lips, her breath sweet and warm, just as I’d always imagined it.
But then Dominic was there, clearing his throat, an envelope in his outstretched hand.
“Thanks, Dom,” I said, taking the envelope and then handing it over to Rita. She took it as Sam, thinking quickly, took a couple of discreet pictures with her iPad. Then Rita stood and gathered her things.
“I’ll call before I come by in the morning.”
“Looking forward to it,” I said.
She smiled, shaking my hand before turning to Sam and even Dominic. Then she was gone, humming softly under her breath.
The moment she disappeared, Dom and I were high fiving each other.
“This calls for a drink.”
“One,” Dominic said. “Then I need to get this stuff to Megan.”
“Sam?”
She shrugged. “I’ll take a glass of wine.”
“Wine? This demands champagne!”
I waved the waiter over and ordered their best bottle of Dom Pérignon. Sam’s eyebrows rose, but Dominic didn’t seem bothered. But he’d celebrated
these things with me before.
“You can’t celebrate with cheap wine,” I said, leaning close to her. “You were damn brilliant.”
“I was playing a part.”
“You played it really well.”
She blushed and that made me smile.
The champagne came, and I poured a glass for each of us. “Here’s to team work.”
“Here’s to an easy case,” Dominic said.
We paused, looking expectantly at Sam. She caught on after a second.
“Here’s to my first time in the field and to the hope that Megan never asks me to do this again.”
Dominic laughed, tapping his glass to hers, then mine, before downing the entire thing. Sam reached to tap my glass, but I moved it out of the way.
“You did an awesome job. I’ll only drink to the first part of that.”
Then I tapped her glass, watching another blush burn over her cheeks.
She took a long sip and set her glass down.
“I’m out of here.”
“Where are you going?”
“Away.” Her eyes fell on me for a long second, then she stood. “Have fun, gentlemen. I’m going to the spa to get a proper massage.”
“Good for you,” Dominic said, standing to offer her a hug. “Have fun.”
She glanced at me, but didn’t offer so much as a weak wave. She walked away, so beautiful to watch. I just wished she’d glance over her shoulder, give some indication that she didn’t think I was lower than scum. But she didn’t.
I picked up the bottle of champagne and poured myself another full glass and downed it before she was completely out the door.
“You did a good job, brother.”
“Yeah. I seduced a crook into doing what comes naturally.”
“You did what Megan asked you to do.”
I nodded. “I did that.”
Dominic swallowed the last of his champagne, then stood.
“You abandoning me, too?”
“Gotta get this stuff to Megan. Then I have a wife waiting for me at home.”
“Yeah, rub it in, brother.”
Dominic slapped my shoulder. “Go find some pretty girl and celebrate. That’s what you do.”
I watched him walk away, thinking about the women in my past. I’d never had a problem finding a pretty woman to warm my bed. I’d simply grown bored with anonymous sex. There was something about watching Megan fall apart after Luke left her at the altar that changed the way I looked at sex, love, and relationships. Knowing Megan changed a lot of my perceptions of the world.
A part of me wished I’d never met her.
I poured myself the last drops of the champagne and downed them in one gulp. I threw a few bills on the table and walked out, determined to find a louder, more exciting place to drown myself tonight. I was celebrating for goodness sakes!
Chapter 4
Sam
I couldn’t get away from Hayden fast enough. There was something about the way he kept looking at me that made my belly turn to liquid. I didn’t understand it and I didn’t want to try. He was a bully, a jerk who spent more time flirting with all the girls in the office—except me—than working. The only reason I agreed to do this was because of Megan. But it was typical of Hayden to think it was okay to kiss me like that. Not once, but twice!
I was so upset that I was walking too fast and not really looking to see where I was going. It was late afternoon, and cool enough for me to wish I’d brought a sweater. Christmas was two weeks away, so there were people everywhere, trying to get their shopping done before all the best gift ideas were completely sold out. I hadn’t even thought about shopping yet. Not that I had a lot of people to buy for. Megan and I always exchanged a gift or two. And I tried to buy something for everyone in the office, little trinkets I set on their desks Christmas Eve when we traditionally had a small office party. But my mother believed that the only person who should receive gifts on Christmas was Jesus, and our gift to him was attending church services on Christmas Day.
This year, Megan and I were flying to New York. We’d leave in less than a week. That would be my Christmas.
I was three blocks past the spa when I realized I’d gone too far. I turned around and ran right into a man who’d been walking close behind me.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, trying to move around him. He grabbed my arm and dragged me backward, pulling me into a space between two tall buildings. He shoved me up against a wall and tugged at my bag strap, trying to take it from me. I cried out as his nails scraped my shoulder and collarbone. I kicked out, trying to push him away. He had one of my arms pinned, and the other caught in a fruitless attempt to protect my bag. I got him good in the thigh, prompting him to let go of my bag and smack me with the back of his hand.
“You damn bitch! Just let go of it!”
But I couldn’t. I held on to it with everything I had. He tore at me with both hands, trying to yank it away, tearing Megan’s dress in the process. I kicked out again, but then he was gone, yanked away so quickly, so violently, that I fell forward a little with the momentum.
Hayden had come out of nowhere, still dressed in the suit that looked so awkward on his bulky frame. He had the would-be mugger on the ground, slamming his fists repeatedly into the guy’s face. I was so startled by the whole thing that all I could do was stand there and watch. But then it became pretty clear that the mugger had had enough.
“Hayden,” I said, touching his shoulder. He brushed me off, going in for another round of punches. “Hayden!” I grabbed his shoulder this time, tugging at him, pulling him back. He turned and looked at me, but it was a long second before he recognized me. Then he was holding my face, moving his palms over my jaw, his thumb smearing the blood leaking from a small cut on my lip.
“Are you okay?”
Before I could answer, he lifted the limp, torn piece of my dress that had been exposing the top of the pretty bra Megan let me have. I blushed, horrified that he was seeing me in such a state.
Hayden stood and helped me to my feet. He shrugged out of his suit jacket and wrapped it around me before slipping his arm around my waist and pulling me out of the narrow alleyway. The SUV was parked—if you could call the slanted, awkward position it was in parked—half a block away. People stared at us as he led me to it, helping me into the passenger seat. Then he ran around to the other side and quickly threw the car into gear, causing dozens of horns to blare at us angrily as he cut them off by pulling back into traffic.
I didn’t have a chance to ask where we were going, but I wasn’t surprised when he pulled back into the underground garage at the Galleria, parking near the elevator for the hotel. He guided me to the elevator and pushed the button for the ninth floor, taking me directly to the room that I, ironically enough, rented yesterday for the purpose of the undercover operation.
“You can clean up in the bathroom,” he said, pushing the door open and directing me inside with hands on my upper arms. I pulled away, not sure I could stand on my own, but determined to get away from his touch.
Once behind the locked bathroom door, I stared at myself in the mirror. I was no longer myself, but I was no longer the girl I’d seen in the mirror at Megan’s house, either. I was just this mousy girl with big, wide, frightened eyes.
I slipped out of Hayden’s jacket and looked at the state of Megan’s dress. It was torn in more than one place, the material laying in tatters along my breasts—revealing deep scratch marks the mugger had left behind—and up the length of one thigh. I didn’t remember the mugger touching the skirt, but there was a rip there that showed more flesh than the dress was ever meant to do.
I pulled the tattered material away from me, feeling violated. Abused. And the state of the dress was just a reminder of that. I needed it away from me.
My hands shook. I could hear Hayden walking around in the room. I could almost feel his stare at the closed door. I hated that he’d seen me this way, hated that he was the one who rescued me. The last thing I wa
nted was another reason for him to look down on me. Another reason for him to see me as weak.
I was overcome with this sense of filth. I felt dirty. I felt as though all the things my mother had ever said about the way other girls dressed—about the way I wanted to dress, the way I had dressed tonight—was true. That I’d brought this on myself somehow.
I showered, scrubbing my skin pink with the complementary bottle of body wash the hotel provided. And then I scrubbed again and again, my mind playing the scene over and over again. The look on Hayden’s face when he leaned over that man, beating him with a viciousness I’d never known him to be capable of…I was sick to my stomach with the memory of it. Not because I was afraid of Hayden, but because I’d been the reason he was in that position.
He tapped on my door, halfway through my shower, asking if I was okay.
Was I okay? I honestly didn’t know.
I stepped out of the shower, my eyes falling to the pile of clothes I’d left on the bathroom floor. I couldn’t bring myself to put them back on. But there was nothing else. I ended up slipping the bathrobe the hotel provided from its cubby under the sink, wrapping it around me like some sort of cocoon, grateful for the fact that it hid everything, covering me from neck to ankle.
Even then I couldn’t make myself go back out into the room. It wasn’t Hayden, exactly. It was…I didn’t know. But it took me several minutes to force myself to turn the doorknob.
“Come sit down,” Hayden said. “I ordered some tea. It should be here in a minute.”
“Tea?”
“Hot tea. My grandmother always said nothing can be so bad that tea can’t fix it.”
He was watching me, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room as though he didn’t know what to do with himself. His phone buzzed, but he ignored it. He’d stripped off his tie and pulled his shirt free of his pants, standing there so rumpled and casual that I could almost believe that this was just a normal day and we were just sharing a normal moment. But there was nothing normal about it. The look on his face, the concern and the uncertainty written in every line, made me feel things I didn’t want to feel.
And the idea of Hayden sipping a cup of tea—a delicate little tea cup in his big hands, his pinky raised properly—amused me.
HAYDEN (Dragon Security Book 5) Page 3
