Love on the Vine

by Roxanne Smith

  Kay joined him in the car a few minutes later. He looked over his shoulder as he backed out of his parking spot. “We need to get our story straight.”

  A few seconds ticked by. “I think my story is fine, thanks.”

  He realized then the power she had over him. “Look, I couldn’t get caught trying to break into the Capital Acres office. I didn’t clear the search with Cappy Don. And another thing, Merit is going to question us separately if Pattie goes through with her threat to rat us out. We’ll both look guilty if the accounts don’t match up. You might have rank, but I’ve got seniority and a clean bill of conduct. Weren’t you involved in a shoot-out on your last job?”

  He could feel the heat from her stare. “It wasn’t a shoot-out. Two shots were fired, none from my gun. And I saved lives. When have you ever done that?”

  “Plenty of times.” He jerked the car into drive. “I’ll explain everything.” He paused, weighed his words, and spoke carefully. “Over dinner.”

  Kay scoffed. “You’ve already signed the death warrant on my reputation. Even if Pattie says nothing, Rowan will. That kiss is going to end up on the office news blotter, one way or another. Now, I have to buy my answers?”

  “That’s not—”

  “That’s exactly what your invitation is. Pay to play.”

  Oliver sighed. He should know by now nothing with Kay would come easy. “I don’t know the reach of Free Leaf. I’d rather not discuss sensitive information in a company car. You can meet me at Lucy’s downtown if you want details. Or don’t.”

  He wanted a chance to explain, but he wasn’t going to dangle bait. Once she had the whole story, he didn’t doubt she’d be willing to help out. But as long as she was suspicious of him and his motives, he had something to fear.

  She could go straight to Merit, or even Easton, and his entire investigation would come to an abrupt end. Not only would he lose his fake job, he’d put Free Leaf Concepts on alert, and make it nearly impossible for his team to plant another mole within the company. Grimly, he realized he’d put both their reputations on the line.

  Chapter 5

  Oliver shifted uneasily in his chair and checked his watch again. He kept his gaze locked on the restaurant’s entrance, willing Kay to appear in the doorway, look his way, smile and wave. Okay, so the smile and the friendly greeting were a lot to hope for. She was pissed off and had a right to be.

  The waiter came by and dropped off Oliver’s second beer. He threw down a ten. “Basket of fries?”

  “You got it.” Then he was gone, Oliver’s empty beer bottle neatly swept from the table. As he departed, Oliver’s stare landed on an all-too-familiar figure ducking into the restaurant. He groaned audibly as Molly caught his eye and waved, an impish grin on her wide dimpled face.

  She was cute, in her way. Not petite or blond like Kay, but pleasantly round in the places that mattered. Straight shoulder-length auburn hair caught the lights overhead and glinted red. She was whip-smart, beyond average. Beyond him, even, despite his keen memory and penchant for acting a part. Her personality had once been equally pleasant, before their ill-fated dalliance. If she was smiling, it didn’t mean anything good for Oliver.

  “To what do I owe this distinctly unfortunate displeasure?” He hoped she’d state her business and boogie on out of here before Kay showed up.

  “Kay’s not coming.” Molly had gone for brisk, but she was unable to hide the fine sprinkling of glee on the words. The fries arrived, and she didn’t hesitate to dig in. She plucked one from the top of the pile, bit off the tip, and swung it like a miniature baton in time to her voice. “She has a date elsewhere tonight.”

  Oliver frowned. “You’re tracking her?” He didn’t recall that being part of the plan.

  Molly smiled grimly and bit the fry in half. “That would be illegal. Just you, Oli. In fact, Cappy Don and I tracked your GPS coordinates all afternoon. We didn’t need to follow Kay to know she was with you. Where else would she be while you snooped around Capital Acres?”

  He sat back, tipped his beer into his mouth. Well, shit. He’d figured on having some time to sort things out before coming clean with the captain. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We were left unattended. Besides, Cappy Don mentioned bringing Kay into the fold. She’s not like Roscoe, who didn’t care what I did as long as his coffee wasn’t lukewarm. I’m good, but she might be better. I took a chance. How do you know Kay isn’t coming?”

  Molly shrugged. “Some street surveillance. I pinged you at a bar and managed some very basic math, after what happened today. I’m guessing you want to explain the details of our investigation before she tries to fire you again. I kept an eye on Kay’s place, but she didn’t head this way.” Molly stared at him, waiting. She wanted him to guess.

  He didn’t feel like playing games tonight. He set his bottle down with a thud. “Well? Where’d she go?”

  With obvious disappointment, Molly exhaled heavily. “Neve Harper’s place. They left together on foot a short time later. I came here. Wanted to catch you before you gave up and went home, because it’s the most delicious fun I’ve had in ages. When’s the last time Oliver Pierce got stood up?”

  He sat forward and glared at Molly. Her bright round russet-colored eyes twinkled. The giveaway was a small dimple that appeared on one cheek, a minute detail a stranger wouldn’t have noticed. Reading faces was easy, as long as Oliver had a baseline. He struggled with Kay, because none of her reactions were genuine. She wore a mask and hid her feelings behind a stark blank wall. But he knew Molly. He had all of her twitches and tweaks memorized. She wasn’t surprised by his anger, which meant she was intentionally pushing buttons. He didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of hitting her mark, but she’d made a potentially major error.

  “You should’ve followed them. Kay’s record might be clean, but let’s not forget she has some close ties pretty high up on the social ladder. And a job she’s not exactly qualified for. I tipped more of our hand than Cappy Don maybe wanted me to, but Kay and Neve could’ve been on their way to meet someone important. Someone tied to Free Leaf’s illegal operations.”

  Molly rolled her eyes, unfazed, and signaled for the waiter. She waited for him to pass by and duck his head quickly to take her order. “I’ll have one of those,” she said sweetly, with a nod toward Oliver’s sweating beer bottle. He moved along, and Molly’s amused gaze moved to Oliver’s face. “Kay Bing is clean, my dear. Squeaky fucking clean. Don’t ask questions, because as long as it’s not evidence I need to present in court, my methods of obtaining information can run a little on the fuzzy side of the law. I’m a hacker, so I hacked. There’s nothing. No off-the-grid e-mail accounts, no P.O. Boxes, no mailing addresses registered to other names, no out-of-state documentation, no aliases. From college onward, everything Kay has been and done is well and thoroughly documented in the system. She pays her taxes, her vehicle registration is up to date, and she’s a registered Democrat. Craziest thing I uncovered are regular visits to a firing range, and several legally obtained firearms. She is exactly who she appears to be, Oli.”

  Except Oliver knew she wasn’t. “The breakup with the carpenter in Red Hill, that’s all we’ve got to explain the drastic change in her personality?”

  Molly’s expression turned pitying. Oliver realized with some alarm that it was genuine, and Molly wasn’t teasing anymore. She cocked her head to one side. “Oli, come on. You and I both know the kinks in her attitude are irrelevant to the investigation. It doesn’t matter why she changed. It was a profiling mistake, nothing more.”

  “That’s not true. If she were being coerced to work for Free Leaf—”

  “But she’s not.”

  They sat together in strained silence until Molly’s beer arrived. The waiter gave them a quick questioning glance, then moved on without a word.

  Molly chugged her beer and came away breathless. Her face screwed up into a grimace. “Gah, this stuff is bitter.” She stuck h
er tongue out, then pegged Oliver with a different kind of look—the kind that made him uncomfortable before words even emerged from her mouth. She had a knack for that kind of thing. He also remembered she had a knack for reading the bottom line of a situation. The kind of girl who’d never had a problem coming up with a quirky tagline for a twelve-page report.

  “I can see how you’d get hung up on a girl like that, even from thirty yards away. She’s cute as a cottontail. Petite, but there’s nothing boyish in how those little hips of hers swing as she walks. But you have to open your eyes. Kay is not the investigation. She’s a piece of it. A piece we either move around or use to our purposes. So it’s always been.”

  Oliver swallowed and peered hard at Molly. “You think I’m compromised?”

  “I damn sure do.”

  He bit down on an unnecessarily rude reply. “You’ve talked to Cappy Don about this?”

  Molly inhaled deeply and studied the table’s surface. A black-painted fingernail filed nearly to a claw-like point trailed across her napkin coaster. “To a degree. I didn’t—”

  “You can get a little more specific, surely.” Compromised agents were removed from cases. His heart galloped in his chest like a runaway stallion, and right now all that mattered was knowing just how far he’d fallen. Wasn’t a long drop. His career had been dangling from a string when he’d joined the captain’s task force.

  She looked up, fixed an unyielding gaze onto his. “You let Kay get a bead on you. You can argue she’s clever and sharper than Roscoe, but she shouldn’t be sharper than you. Cap asked you to bring her in because he’s convinced you’re going to fuck up everything if you keep trying to get around Kay. She’s like a wall, and you’re not trying hard enough to find a way through, even though there are doors to open and windows to climb through. You’re distracted, and she’s the reason. Better to have her working at your side toward a common goal than keep her rooted into the opposition. Cap took a huge risk. If I had found any dirt on Kay, not a lick of it would be any good in court. But we didn’t have time to wait it out. If you were anyone else, Oli—anyone—he’d pull you.”

  He sat back and crossed his arms. He might look defensive, but he was only trying to keep his stomach from plummeting to the floor. “Goddamn, Molly. That’s what you’re calling to a degree? Should I even ask what you didn’t mention to Cap?”

  A hurt look flitted across Molly’s face, there and gone like a shadow. “I have my suspicions.”

  He laughed humorlessly. It came out a dry croak. “You’ve already thrown the gut punch, darling. Go for the kill.”

  She shrugged, but it was forced. “I think deep down, you’re worried Kay is still hung up on Finn Welk.”

  The concept didn’t register at first. Oliver swirled the words around his head, the way he might an expensive Bordeaux, letting them breathe and settle. He licked his lips. “You’re jealous.” He nodded to himself and took a slug of warm beer. “Now, shit’s making sense.”

  Leave it to him to say the exact wrong thing. A flush of red spread up from Molly’s collar. She stiffened, and her gaze changed, like soft caramel turning hard and brittle. She snorted, a soft laugh, but anger simmered below the surface, just intense enough for Oliver to feel the heat.

  “I’m not here as your ex-girlfriend.” She bit off the words as if they tasted foul. “I’m here as your teammate, someone relying on our guy in the field to pull this entire investigation through a very tiny window of possible success. You screwed me over, Oli. You played me. Yeah, I’m bitter about it. You were shit. But I am not the one making this personal.”

  “Neither am I,” Oliver replied, with force.

  Molly snorted again. “I call bullshit. I know you, even if you wish I didn’t. Kay’s new attitude bothers you, because if she were happy and bubbly, it’d mean she was free. Available. But she’s closed off, and it’s making you crazy. You’ve made this about her.”

  Sudden weariness swooped in and stole the indignation right out from under him. Oliver glanced around the fairly popular establishment. A couple in a dark corner were practically having sex against the wall, vaguely moving in rhythm to soft music playing overhead. Two women sat together at a table in the window, heads bent together, talking furiously as if they couldn’t get the words out fast enough. Their table was littered with drink napkins. He’d switch places with any one of them right now.

  Oliver tried one last time. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Cappy Don is the one who suggested I get to the bottom of Kay’s issues, so she wouldn’t become a problem. Cap said—”

  “Cappy Don is old, and sitting behind a desk allows him to be idealistic. Players in the field don’t have that luxury. Does that spiel sound familiar? Because it should. Guess who said it first.”

  Oliver swallowed hard, knowing he wore a flush to match Molly’s.

  “You, Oli,” she continued. “You said that, back when you weren’t complacent enough to hang this investigation on Cap’s idealistic methods. He solves cases, but you solve them faster. Isn’t that why you joined our team to begin with? Why you fight to take point every chance you get, put yourself out in front of his instructions? In the field, you can make your own calls nine times out of ten. Cap has always had flowery means, and you’ve always known better than to take it for practical advice.” Molly glared at him, and he felt it down to his bones. She’d exposed a raw nerve. She slid from her chair, and finished her beer in one quick, savage drink, as if she were tossing back a shot of whiskey. She gave him a wry smile, but it’d take a blind imbecile to miss the hurt lying beneath it. “Just keep in mind I adore cake and would love an invite to the wedding.”

  * * * *

  Neve was her usual charming self as Kay practically dragged her down the dark mid-town streets. Duke was out of town, visiting a specialist with his retired show dog, Hannah, a massive Great Dane, whose age was starting to get the better of her. Neve was always a little raw when Duke left town.

  “What if he doesn’t come back?” It made twice she’d begged the question. “If I were him, going through the shit storm I’m currently serving him, I wouldn’t come back. Hell, he’s got Hannah. He could book a flight to the Bahamas and send a postcard with no thanks scrawled on the back. That’s what I’d do.”

  Kay’s head was narrowly surviving a traffic jam of epic proportions. Nonetheless, she tried her best to assuage her mentor’s insecurities. “You know, it would help if you’d quit dragging him around by the nose. You guys were all set to move in together, and you bailed. You said yes when he proposed but refuse to set a date. Honestly, I’m as confused as he is. You’re crazy about him.” She grimaced at her pathetic pep talk. “Sorry, I should be more supportive. This new job has me totally distracted.”

  Neve shrugged and glanced around. “All the best jobs get into your head sooner or later. I don’t recognize this street. Where the hell are you taking me?”

  “To meet a friend of mine.”

  “At nine on a Tuesday night?”

  Kay sighed. “I might be in some trouble.”

  Neve was silent as a blessing the rest of the way. It gave Kay time to rehearse in her head. She was going to sound like a delusional freak no matter how she explained the situation, and she couldn’t pick and choose the advice on this one. She needed it all; the mean and the sweet, the hard and the soft. If Seraphina and Neve came together of one mind on the issue, Kay would have a definitive course of action to pursue.

  Her neediness was like a puncture wound to her bubble of self-esteem. She was grown. She was talented and driven. She should know what to do. But anymore, she didn’t trust herself to do the right thing. Until she figured out how to recalibrate her internal compass, the best she could do was rely on other intelligent, driven women to point her in the right direction.

  Neve’s patience finally bottomed out. “Okay, seriously, we’re done if you don’t throw me a bone, princess.”

  “We’re here,” Ka
y announced. She swung her flashiest smile over her shoulder. A goofy touch or an unexpected joke always took the edge off Neve’s sharp attitude. Indeed, Neve smiled. Facetiously, maybe, but it counted.

  A few minutes later, they were standing at Seraphina’s door. Seraphina wore a slightly miffed expression that was as good as a dropped jaw as far as Kay was concerned. “Hi,” Kay warbled, her bright smile still pushing the limits of her cheeks. “I know it’s late but I need your help.”

  Seraphina’s pale blue eyes widened. “Yeah, of course.” She stepped back and allowed them to enter. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Harper,” she added as Neve swept by.

  “Call me Neve. I hear you signed on with Grant Gallagher. He’s a real dick. My only real competition, but a dick nonetheless.”

  Seraphina smiled serenely. “Then I’m not sure why you two aren’t the best of friends.”

  Kay’s eyebrows shot to the sky of their own volition.

  “The pretty flower has thorns,” Neve murmured, tossing a lock of wavy chestnut brown hair over her shoulder. “You know, I want to be offended, but my reputation for being an asshole not only rivals Grant’s, it supersedes it. My downfall is that I enjoy snarky people. They make me laugh. And I’m guessing you think I have something to do with Kay’s sudden lack of cajones, and commend you for being a good friend. The first one is free, but the next one will cost you.” She smiled kindly, as if she hadn’t just uttered a threat to verbally shred Seraphina into pieces.

  Kay stepped between them and cupped Seraphina’s elbow. “She’s good for it, Sera. I’ve seen the carnage firsthand. And no, Neve hasn’t been prodding the open wound that is my shattered self-confidence.”

  Seraphina arched a fox-red brow. “My skin only looks delicate, Kay, but thanks for worrying about me. However, as long as you’re sure you aren’t being mistreated, I suppose we can call a truce.”

  Neve leaned into Kay’s shoulder and lowered her voice, but kept her amused gaze on Seraphina. “Can I keep her?”