“I didn’t do anything! Call your cat off!” He screamed into the night, his head turning from side to side, his eyes bulging in the near darkness. “I don’t know who you are!” He glanced down at the massive tiger, a true impossibility for South Beach on a Tuesday night. The cat seemed to smile.
“Oh, my! Oh my!” Tina ran into the diner’s break room and immediately switched the channel on the old television set. It was one of those ancient 13” models that actually needed a human hand to touch the dial to change the channels, and there wasn’t a remote at all.
“Hey!” Sinclair yelled, part of her sandwich falling from her mouth. “I was watching that! I hardly ever get my break when my soap is on!”
Tina turned her tiny frame and motioned with her hand for Sinclair to come closer to the television. “You won’t believe this!”
“Move and I’ll be able to see and believe.” She said with a roll of her eyes.
Tina grabbed one of the plastic chairs and yanked it backwards to the little table Sinclair sat at. Tina was her friend, but her timing was always lousy.
“Look!” She screeched and pointed at the screen.
A man was being led away by handcuffs he was screaming at the policemen, then straight at the camera that he had seen a tiger. A tiger had pinned him a top a fence. The scene cut to chuckling anchors, a man with phony looking brown hair and a petite blonde who looked like Barbie.
Sinclair rubbed the back of her neck nervously. So she hadn’t been crazy after all. The anchor team went on to say that this was the fourth such tiger sighting in the past month for South Palm Beach. Neither plastic person seemed to take it seriously.
Tina looked at Sinclair with sharp eyes. “If you had of reported seeing a tiger it would have been five sightings.”
“Yeah.” Sinclair replied absently. She shook her head and stood, taking her half eaten lunch to the waste basket. “Doesn’t matter. Probably some rich jerks pet that has gotten loose.” She checked her hair and makeup in the tiny mirror by the door. Her face looked rounder today than normal. Her whole person felt rounder today. It was hard to truly keep up her spirits concerning herself when she had recently needed to request a size 14 uniform and turn in her size 12. Large bosomed and basically big boned, her mother had told her at an early age that she was doomed from birth. She would never be thin, or lithe, or petite, blah blah blah. So she had set out on a mission from the onset of puberty: if she was condemned to an ugly body, then she would at least have a pretty face and good hair.
Sinclair smiled wistfully at her reflection. Her waxed and perfectly shaped dyed eyebrows lifted slightly at the movement. She dug her red lipstick from the pocket of her apron and applied a liberal amount to her full lips before grabbing a napkin and blotting the excess away. Her curled hair was still holding up well in her up do. Hopefully it would for the rest of the day, considering who she had to meet after work.
“You look great, kid.” Tina sighed as she dug through her purse. Tina was the opposite of Sinclair in every physical way. She was short with straight limp brown hair, a size four, and never under any circumstances, wore makeup. She was Sinclair’s roommate and had recently did her the biggest favor of her life.
Sinclair squared her shoulders and smoothed her hands along the pink fabric of her old fashioned waitress dress. She smiled at Tina.
“The show must go on.”
She heard Tina yell after her that it wasn’t a show, not their circus, and definitely not their monkey’s.
Niall looked at the fax with a tilt of his head as the paper came slowly from the machine. He sighed with discontent, his dark eyes squinting at the image. He yanked it from the paper tray and scowled. Another Palm Beach bounty. He wanted out of Palm Beach! He wanted to either go home, or go somewhere cool where the air was thinner. Somewhere often covered with white. The view in Palm Beach was gorgeous. Ocean everywhere, and bikinis on model lookalikes, but he was bored. He was bored with the hustle and bored with the pretense.
“Whatcha got?” Jerry asked as he walked into the crammed office. Three desks, three filing cabinets, and a sizeable house tree next to a beat up sofa had been crammed into a space which had been meant for a loft apartment. They could see the beach from where they were and the rent reflected it. The kitchenette came in handy though.
Jerry kicked his chair away from his desk with a booted heel, his hands full with two donuts and a capped Styrofoam coffee cup. He plopped his sizeable bulk into the chair and took a massive bite out of one of the donuts, sending sprinkles everywhere. Jerry was another reason Niall needed to leave. He was ok as far as bosses go, but he was disorganized and infuriatingly messy. Niall needed order. As much order as he could get.
“It’s another bounty. Female, 5’6”, age 24.”
Jerry motioned for him to hand the paper over. Niall grimaced as Jerry licked his fingers before taking the paper.
“Sheila Sinclair Makenzie.” He raised his eyebrows. “What the hell kind of name is that?”
Niall shrugged miserably.
“Not a bad looker. A little heavy for my taste.”
Niall made a face and pushed his head back from his shoulders. Why should Jerry care about size? He shook his head as Jerry tossed the paper across his desk.
“You take this one. It’s low level, failure to appear on a larceny charge. Jumped bail.”
“I don’t want it. You know I’m trying to get out of here.”
Jerry narrowed his eyes and took another slow bite of donut, this time making it disappear entirely. “You said you would stick around until we found a replacement and were caught up.”
“Yeah, I did, but as far as I can see, I’m the only one trying to accomplish that!”
Jerry started on the next donut, his eyes still on Niall. His mustache and goatee now collecting white powder. Niall shuddered.
“Whatever. I’ll take care of it.” Niall muttered and left the office.
Sinclair walked down the sidewalk her eyes pinned to the cruiser approaching. She held her breath, but kept walking without breaking stride. Hesitation would draw attention. She didn’t turn her head as the cruiser slipped past her continuing up 53rd. Once again she had escaped notice. Sinclair knew that probably wouldn’t last forever.
It had been stupid to miss her court date. It had been stupid to take the rap for Joseph. It had been his problem that night, not hers. She had been arrested for breaking and entering. Joseph had made his speedy escape on foot. Love could make a person do strange things, but here was the real clincher; did she even love him? Lately it was a big fat no. And then there was the problem of who Joseph was attempting to steal from. One just doesn’t break into the multi-million dollar home of Enrique Arrays and expect to not get caught. Especially when the thief had once had the trust of Enrique Arrays. Sinclair shuddered. Enrique knew she didn’t actually break into the house, he wanted to meet with her so she would spill the beans on Joseph’s whereabouts. Could she actually do it? Did she dare not? She wasn’t entirely sure where Joseph was! Her life wouldn’t be worth two cents if she didn’t attempt to help Enrique.
Niall stared up at the white stucco and glass house. It was a sprawling structure that exuded a definite message: “Hey, I’m rich! I’m filthy stinking rotten rich!”
Niall didn’t like this job and he hadn’t even started it properly. This was another prime example of why he needed to get away from Florida. He was a human bounty hunter by day (and occasionally night) but he was also a hitman for the paranormal nasties that roamed the state, Palm Beach in particular. He just needed to make enough money to get home, or wherever. That was his only goal. His particular talents were desirable to the nasties of the area. After all, who wouldn’t want a hitman/bounty hunter who could become a tiger?
Niall sighed and walked up the wide multi leveled steps to the front door. Arrays had promised there would be someone coming who would have information concerning the guy the hit was on. He had promised a quick and easy job.
The
round face of an impossibly large man stared at Niall impassively as he was ushered into the stark living room. It reminded him of the scene from Scarface when Tony first meets Frank. The living room was almost entirely white with white leather furniture sitting around the cavernous sparsely decorated room. The entire eastern wall was glass with a fine view of the ocean just past South Ocean Boulevard. Niall wondered if Array’s neighbors knew he was a Cuban drug lord. He was positive they didn’t realize he was a werewolf.
The gorilla looking man left Niall without a word. Niall sat on the edge of one of the couches and waited. He heard voices, low and indistinct, just before Enrique himself appeared with the gorilla close behind him. He grinned easily and extended a hand to Niall. A thick gold chain bracelet peeked out from under the cuff of his deep plum shirt and Niall saw the sparkle of diamond from his pinky ring.
“Mr. Amrit, thank you for coming.” His voice was cultured and only carried a light lilting and hesitation to give clue as to his origins. He sat on the opposite end of the couch and gave Niall an amused expression. “You’re a little taller than I expected.”
“Why’s that?”
Enrique shrugged, accepting a glass tumbler from his gorilla. “You’re Indian, correct?”
And there it was, another bigamous assumption. “My father was from India, yes, but not my mother.”
“Ah.” His cognac colored eyes twinkled. “I guess you wonder why I wish to hire you instead of handling this myself.”
“No, I understand perfectly well.”
He tilted his head. “How so?”
“Distance. You want to keep your…hands clean.”
Enrique laughed boisterously. “My human clients would expect that, yes.”
“So, who is the guy?”
Enrique snapped his fingers. The gorilla brought a paper from his jacket pocket, folded in three’s, and handed it to Niall. He unfolded it and stared at the still shot from a security camera. The man was tall and gangly with light colored hair. He was looking straight at the camera smiling.
“Arrogant.” Niall said quietly.
“You have no idea.” Enrique replied, his lips tight. “He worked for me as a grounds keeper.”
“That’s how he knew how to get in?”
“Yes. He punched one number wrong on the alarm key pad. You see,” He said leaning forward and clasping his hands over his knees. “He had disabled six of the security cameras on the ground floor. This one was left up for my benefit.”
Niall folded the paper again. He tapped it lightly on his thigh. “Why didn’t you show this to the police?”
“The police arrested someone, but it was the wrong someone. I allowed it because she will help us find Joseph Overman and retrieve my belongings that he still has in his possession. One of which is of great importance.”
“And this person is?”
“His girlfriend.”
A doorbell chimed softly. Enrique smiled coldly. “And here she is now.”
Sinclair eyed the large man who opened the door with a wary queasy kind of feeling in her stomach. She couldn’t recall ever seeing a man quite that blank in the face.
Maybe he’s slow. She thought, but didn’t really believe it. Her flats clicked slightly on the shiny floor, and she clutched her oversized bag tightly by the straps. She hoped the deep fried grease smell that clung to her uniform and work shoes didn’t escape the bag. She had applied a liberal amount of the body spray which she always carried with her to mask the same smell on her skin.
The man led her into a rather modern spacious living room, and she was surprised to see another man already sitting with Enrique. She had only met Enrique once, when Joseph still worked for him and she had come to pick him up, and once again she was struck by how handsome he was. The man on the couch with him had very tan skin, but it looked natural, like he was born with it, instead of achieving the hue from laying around on the beach. His near black eyes widened slightly as she walked in the room.
He’s probably surprised I’m not pencil thin with blonde hair. She thought ruefully. Her red lips turned down in a slight frown.
“Please, Sinclair, sit anywhere you like.”
Sinclair sat primly on the edge of an armless upholstered chair, grateful her dirty uniform was no longer on her body.
Niall couldn’t believe his good fortune. The woman, his final bounty, was seated less than ten feet from him, and she was connected with the final paranormal job he would do in this infernal place. She looked nervous, but he supposed she had every reason to be. He liked the way her obviously dyed deep red hair was curled and pinned up. Jerry would have rethought his previous assessment. She was overweight, but not in a grotesque way. She carried it well. It reminded Niall of some of the vintage pinup calendar girls he had seen in an antiques shop. The women were drawn according to what was socially beautiful for their time, and it wasn’t the photo shopped silicone infused image of beauty currently warping young minds.
“Niall, this is Sinclair. Sinclair, please meet Niall; he’ll be working with you on what I’ve requested.”
Sinclair moved her green eyes nervously to Niall. She didn’t want to work with anyone! She was only supposed to be there to give Enrique all the information she had on Joseph, that’s it!
“Uh…I didn’t realize I would be “working” on anything.” She made quotation marks in the air, her voice low and unsure. Niall could smell fear coming off of her and he supposed Enrique could as well. His slow spreading smile confirmed it. His kind loved fear. It worked like an aphrodisiac for someone like him.
“I’m sorry you misunderstood. You will lead Niall to Joseph, work with him in whatever capacity he desires, then when Joseph has been brought to me…” He shrugged casually. “I’ll dismiss charges against you.”
“And the bail money my mother posted? I mean she put her house up.”
“She will be more than compensated for her trouble.”
Sinclair glanced at Niall again. He almost felt sorry for her. She was trapped; damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. She nodded slowly.
“Alright.”
Enrique clapped his hands together once. “Wonderful!” He stood and handed Niall an envelope sized manila envelope. It was thick and barely able to contain what was inside. Niall looked inside and forced his eyes to not widen. He had no idea how much cash was in there, but it was more than enough to get him back home. In style.
“That’s half of your retainer and money you may need for expenses.” Enrique waved his hand carelessly. “You’ll receive the rest of the retainer when I have Joseph Nash Overman standing in front of me, and I have what he took from me back.”
Niall nodded and stood as well. He could see the woman slowly rise, unsure of what she should do.
“Do I…” Her voice trailed off.
Enrique smiled. “You will stay with Niall until I’m satisfied with the outcome.”
Under normal circumstances Niall would have vehemently protested such an arrangement, but this wasn’t normal circumstances, and having his bounty by his side was just killing two birds with one stone.
Sinclair nodded once and rested her green eyed stare on Niall. He stared back impassively.
“Let’s go.”
Sinclair felt her stomach tighten. What a mess!
The warm air had a salty taste as she licked her lips. It was something she had never quite gotten used to living in Palm Beach. What had she been thinking coming here anyway? It had been two years previous, a trip on a whim. Sinclair had learned a hard lesson: never think an internet romance will ever be as good in person as the lies promised over Wi-Fi.
“Where’s your vehicle?”
“Down the street.”
Sinclair followed Niall in silence. He had a look about him she couldn’t quite name. He wasn’t overly tall, 5’10” maybe, and his frame was muscular enough but lithe. He moved with a silent feline grace which she found rather sexy. Sinclair closed her eyes on the thought. This was no time to indu
lge in romantic fantasies over strangers.
When Niall walked faster as they approached a black Suburban, it all made sense. Law enforcement. He had the look and attitude of someone in law enforcement.
Niall waited patiently for her to catch up, and held the passenger door open for her before slamming it shut behind her. Sinclair looked nervously at the police scanner mounted just below a CB radio. A blue light that could be shoved onto the dash was thrown carelessly on the floor board.
Niall sighed and twisted slightly in his seat to look at her. Sinclair darted her eyes to him before staring straight ahead.
“You know there’s a bounty out for you, right?”
Sinclair worked her mouth before speaking. “You’re a cop right?”
“No, I’m a bounty hunter.”
Her eyes darted back and stayed fixed in a sidelong glare.
“So this was a setup?”
“No. Enrique wasn’t lying.” Niall shoved the key in the ignition and started the truck. “This was coincidence.”
“How fortuitous for you.” She said and fixed her gaze back on the windshield.
The grin that ran across Niall’s lips was both unexpected and out of character. He liked this woman. He had no idea why, but there was something there that made him want to know more. Dangerous.
“Let’s get something to eat, and you can tell me all about Joseph Overman.”
Sinclair looked at her hands clasped loosely in her lap. “I didn’t rob Enrique.”
“You were just there to drive the getaway car.” Niall replied dryly.
“No…I mean yes…but I didn’t know that’s what it was. He just said he needed to take care of something for Mr. Arrays.”
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 18
