Coming In Hot Box Set

by Gina Kincade

Calen raised a brow. He gestured to the baggie. “This isn’t recreational use. This number of pills can only mean one thing—she’s dealing.”

  Eric’s mouth opened, but it took him a minute before he found his voice. “I don’t believe it. Given her family history, she wouldn’t go near this kind of shit.”

  His boss’s expression grew even more suspicious. Calen could read people very well, and Eric wondered how long he could maintain the fiction that his interest in this was purely out of concern for a friend.

  “And what history is that?” Calen asked in a neutral tone. “Andie doesn’t even have an emergency contact on file.”

  Crap. Trust Andie not to have confided in anyone. And how could she not have an emergency contact? She had a ton of friends. Didn’t she have anyone she could count on?

  Eric took a deep breath. He was violating a confidence, something she had told him during a late night pillow talk session. But he didn’t have a choice.

  “Look she wouldn’t want this spread around, but Andie told me her mom was a junkie. The woman would get clean and then slip over and over again. Andie spent her childhood bouncing around different relatives’ houses and the occasional foster home.”

  He leaned forward. “She was careful to downplay it, but it really affected her. Andie was on her own from the age of sixteen, a firsthand witness to how drugs can wreck someone. She was determined to finish school and pursue a career.”

  “That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t deal to make some extra cash,” Calen pointed out. “I pay well, but college is expensive.”

  Eric wasn’t convinced. “It just doesn’t seem like her. This job was putting her through school. It pays more than any other place on the strip. I don’t think she’d jeopardize her place here doing something illegal.”

  Despite his reputation, Calen was an exceptional employer. Eric was proof that the man took care of his staff. Calen passed a hand over his hair roughly. He looked tired. “The stuff was found in her locker. Drug affiliation of any kind is grounds for dismissal. It’s in the contract every single member of my staff signs. My hands are tied unless we can prove these belong to someone else.”

  Mike coughed, and finally decided to weigh in. “I think there’s some room for doubt. Andie’s worked here for years and except for her ‘friendship’ with this ass, she’s basically a good kid.”

  Calen huffed a laugh. “I know she’s a nice girl. We’ve never had an issue before according to the manager. She’s a high earner tip-wise, but it’s up to the police to clear her. And honestly, I don’t see that happening. Not if they think they can track this back to someone bigger.”

  “You’ve turned her over to the police?” Eric choked out.

  Calen’s mouth turned down. “Not yet. But I don’t think we have a choice. The local cops have been in touch with all the nightspots on the strip. There’s an alert asking for any information on Drek. Someone is coming by in an hour to pick this shit up.”

  “So they don’t know about Andie’s involvement yet? Couldn’t we just withhold the information for a day or two? Long enough to find out who this stuff really belongs to?” he asked.

  Mike winced. “What do you want us to tell them? We know who the dealer is but we’re giving her a few days to clear her name?”

  Eric sat up straighter. “She didn’t do this. And you’re going to clear Andie.”

  “Me?” Mike asked.

  “Yes!” Eric turned to Calen. “I know you aren’t convinced Andie is innocent, but I am. Which means you still have someone—most likely another member of the staff—who is dealing this shit behind your back. That person must know where the security cams are located, since you haven’t mentioned catching anyone in the act.”

  Calen and Mike exchanged another glance.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Eric asked. “You haven’t caught anyone dealing. Not even Andie. And she’s probably all over the footage serving drinks and doing her job. All you have is this bag, which could have come from anyone.”

  “There was only one possible interaction where she may have slipped a patron something extra along with their drink, but the camera angle’s off,” Calen said. “It could have been an extra napkin for all we know. But the staff lockers have unique combinations. She already told us she hasn’t shared hers with anyone else.”

  “Another person could have found her combination out easily enough,” Mike pointed out. “All they had to do was watch her open it. Most people aren’t suspicious enough to keep their locks covered when they put in their combination.”

  Eric leaned forward. “So you confronted her with this?” he asked for confirmation.

  Mike nodded. “I called her into the office last night, right after we finished the inspection. I put her on immediate probation while we sorted this out and told her not to talk to any of the staff on the way out.”

  “Does she even know she’s fired yet?”

  “She has to know it’s coming. The rules are clear. Zero tolerance.”

  “Will you at least agree to keep her name out of it when they come to pick up the drugs?”

  “No.” Calen’s face could have been carved from stone, but he must have seen the dismay in Eric’s expression because after a moment he softened. “Look, I have a zero tolerance policy for a reason. I don’t need to give the cops a reason to be more interested in me or my business than they already are. The best I can do is tell them there’s a strong possibility the stuff was dumped in Andie’s locker by someone else.”

  Of course. Calen’s family ties to the Irish mob made him an automatic suspect in just about every crime the authorities couldn’t solve. His resolve to keep everything above board was the only reason he didn’t have law enforcement riding his ass twenty-four seven.

  “That’s good enough for now,” Eric replied, injecting his voice with as much gratitude as he could while still hoping for another concession. “But I still think we need to keep investigating other suspects. You said you wanted to get ahead of this. Finding the stuff in Andie’s locker isn’t an open and shut case. It’s too easy.”

  Mike grumbled something that might have been some sort of agreement, but Calen steepled his hands and appeared to be thinking it over.

  “What exactly did you tell the police when you called them?” Eric asked, turning to Mike.

  “Just that we found some of the stuff they were asking about. Nothing else,” he said.

  Eric tried not to appear too hopeful, but Calen rolled his eyes at him anyway. “We say we found it in the bathroom, behind one of the toilet tanks. Meanwhile, we look into it some more. But I can’t give Andie her job back. Not until she’s cleared.” He stopped to point at Mike. “Get on that. I trust you more than the cops to handle this.”

  Well, that hardly needed saying. With few exceptions, Calen kept a high wall of lawyers between him and most members of law enforcement.

  “Maia and the baby are waiting for me at the Caislean 21,” Calen added, naming the boutique hotel his friends, the Tyler brothers, had opened off the strip. “We’ll be staying there until this is resolved.”

  Eric stood up to follow his boss to the door. “I’m there too. And thank you again for keeping an open mind. I’m sure Mike will be able to clear Andie. She is a good person.”

  Calen gave him another narrow-eyed glance and gestured for him to join him to the hallway. “Look I appreciate you watching out for a friend, but I don’t want you here if it’s going to threaten your sobriety,” he said bluntly.

  “I haven’t gambled in years,” he protested.

  “And you haven’t been back to this town in all that time. You haven’t been tested.” Calen put a hand on his arm. “I don’t want you here if it’s going to set you back. You’re a grown man and I’m not going to tell you what to do. But please think about leaving if you start to feel the itch to place a bet.”

  “Trust me, gambling is the furthest thing from my mind.”

  “Just promise me you’ll go home if being here st
arts pushing your buttons. Mike will watch out for Andie. And if he vouches for her and continues to believe she’s innocent, then so will I.”

  Eric inhaled and nodded. “I appreciate that, but I really am in a good place right now. I don’t think my being here is going to be a problem. I should have come back sooner.”

  If he had, then he’d know where Andie was right now. Maybe none of this would have happened.

  Calen nodded before leaving. Eric watched him go, feeling he had done the best he could for Andie so far. As long as Calen was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, then she’d have a real chance of getting out of this.

  Turning back to the security office, he offered to help Mike in whatever way he needed.

  “Just stock up on your overdose drugs and be here tonight,” Mike said. “I’m assigning some of our off-site security personnel to go over this camera footage and flag whatever is suspicious.”

  “I will,” he agreed. “Do you have any idea where Andie might have gone? Her neighbor said she moved out last week before all of this happened.”

  Mike pursed his lip, looking at him from under surprisingly thick lashes. “She might have moved in with her boyfriend.”

  An actual punch to the gut couldn’t have surprised him more.

  “Oh.”

  It’s been forever. Of course, she’s moved on. He cleared his throat. “Do you have a name for him? An address maybe?”

  “Yeah, but there’s not much point heading out there now with rush hour traffic starting. He’ll be in for his shift at eight.”

  “His shift?”

  “Todd’s a bartender.”

  “Okay. Was he around a few years ago?” The name rang a bell. He thought he remembered a bartender named Todd. A handsome guy with brown hair. Popular with the ladies.

  “Yeah, he was around. You would probably recognize him if you saw him. Used to be a swimmer. Has a few tats.”

  It didn’t sound like the guy he remembered. The guy he was thinking of didn’t have any visible tats, but that could have changed since he was here last. “I want to talk to him.”

  “You can, but only after I talk to him. If this is an investigation, we have to treat him as a suspect. Although honestly, we’ve never had an issue with him either. He’s one of the reliable barkeeps. He used to work at the Caislean in Manhattan.”

  Crap. That meant he’d been vetted. “Still, there’s other people to consider. Some of them have records,” he said.

  Calen was a big believer in giving people second chances. Mike scoured their backgrounds to pick only those deserving of one. But maybe one of the bad guys had slipped past him.

  “I’m getting a list together,” Mike said when there was a knock at the door.

  Two uniformed cops entered the room. “Hello. Are you Mike Ward?” one of them asked.

  “Yes, come in. Eric, why don’t you head out to your hotel and take a nap. It’s going to be a long night.”

  Reluctant to go now that the police had shown up, he stood slowly. Mike shot him an exasperated glare and Eric excused himself, trusting him to do as Calen promised and leave Andie’s name out of this.

  He detoured to the bathroom on his way out, wanting to splash some cold water on his face before getting back into his hot car.

  The black marble floor of the men’s room partially camouflaged the pant leg sticking out from one of the stalls. Eric blinked several times until his brain caught up and he realized the leg wasn’t just lying there floating unattached in space. It was connected to a body.

  Eric rushed to open the stall door. A young man dressed all in black was lying on the floor, pale and unmoving.

  Chapter Four

  Andie didn’t notice the coffee mug being held in front of her at first. Wiping the tears from her eyes she squinted at Amber.

  “Sorry, I’m such a mess. I just can’t believe this is happening. Two weeks ago everything was great. I was about to graduate, I had a boyfriend who wasn’t a lying, cheating asshole, and I made bank at the hottest club on the strip. Now I have no boyfriend, no job, and I lost my apartment cause my roommate stiffed me on three month’s rent.”

  Her friend winced. “You forgot the possible drug charges.”

  Her stomach roiled. “Oh God. Do you think they’ll report me to the cops?”

  “I don’t think they have a choice,” Amber said, sipping at her own mug. “Do you want me to ask Mike when I go in?”

  Amber was also a waitress at Lynx. She wasn’t a close friend, but she did owe Andie her job. The younger woman had been good friends with Mirna, one of Andie’s cousins. They had both grown up in Las Vegas, but Amber had a rougher time of it than Andie. She had gotten kicked out of her house as a teenager for being gay, and had bounced around friend’s houses or in shelters.

  Technically, Amber hadn’t been old enough to work at Lynx when she applied. All the staff had to be over twenty-one, but she had gotten a fake ID somewhere. She asked Andie to put in a good word for her with the hiring manager, which she had done. It had been a small gesture on her part, but she was still grateful—enough to give Andie a place to crash since her roommate had bailed on her.

  It was a good sign that she was willing to talk to Mike. She had gone through some bad shit at the hands of the men in her family, and Mike was an intimidating motherfucker until you got to know him. Andie was a bit nervous around him, but he had obviously earned her friend’s trust.

  Andie leaned back on the beat-up couch. It was an alley discard, but as street couches went she’d slept on worse. “Thank you, but if they’re going to the cops then I should do something now, right? Like go talk to them.”

  Her friend held her mug closer. “In my experience, going to the cops and expecting them to help you is a bad idea. Maybe getting out of town for a while would be better.”

  Andie rubbed her face. “And run away? I get what you mean about the cops, I really do, but if the shit is about to hit the fan maybe I should get out in front of this.”

  Amber raised a brow. “You think the cops are going to believe you when you tell them the drugs just showed up in your locker?”

  “I hope so. I mean what else can I tell them? I don’t have a record, and I have a degree now. Or at least I will when I pay my last outstanding library fine. That has to count for something, right?”

  Amber didn’t look convinced. “It would be better still to give them someone else to suspect.”

  Andie’s brow creased. “Like who?”

  “Like Todd, the shithead you caught banging another girl in the bathroom,” she said, crossing her arms. “He was pissed when you broke up with him wasn’t he? He would totally do something vindictive like this to get back at you.”

  Is she serious?

  “They weren’t technically banging. Not yet.” She tapped her nails against the coffee mug. “You don’t think he’d do something like that? Todd’s not into drugs. He still swims like fifty laps a day. I’ve never seen him do anything stronger than shots. He’s one of those my-body-is-a-temple douchebags.”

  Amber nodded, “Just because he likes to exercise doesn’t mean he’s not selling shit or isn’t above some sort of petty revenge. Doesn’t he have your locker combination? Cause I think I saw him opening it once.”

  Andie drank more coffee. “Did you? I don’t know anymore. I don’t think I gave it to him, but I never changed it from the default one Mike gave me, even though he told me I could. I guess I should have. But even so, I’m not sure Todd is the one who did this. He wants to get back together. He’s still texting me, trying to convince me what I saw in the bathroom was totally innocent.”

  “And you buy that? You already suspected him of hooking up with other girls. Why else were you dropping in on your nights off?”

  Andie stared down into her mug as if contained all the answers. “I was trying to catch him cheating,” she admitted. When she finally had, she’d broken up with him right away. But it was long overdue.

  Todd had jerked
her around for so long about so many different things—where they ate, what she wore, who she talked to. She wasn't a doormat, however, and she tried to call him on his shit when it came up. But Todd had this knack for convincing her she was the one in the wrong. He was so skilled at it, her thoughts had grown so muddled, she had started to doubt her right to question him.

  There was a word for that. Gaslighting. She’d written a paper on it in college, and felt like a fool when she realized she had been experiencing it for months—albeit in a less extreme form.

  I’m done with those fucking head games. Maybe she should give the police his name. He could be out for revenge.

  “I’ll think about mentioning him.” If he hadn’t done it, she was doing him a major disservice. He may have been a crappy boyfriend, but he wasn’t a criminal.

  “Think hard,” Amber said, pointing at her. “You have to look out for yourself, cause in my experience no one else will.” She put down her mug and checked the time on her phone. “I should jump in the shower and get ready for work.”

  Andie winced.

  “Sorry.” Amber wrinkled her nose. “I’m sure you’ll get your job back. Or better yet, you can start searching for jobs in nursing.”

  “I’m trained as a physician’s assistant. It’s not exactly the same.”

  “Well, it’s medical. Maybe getting fired will turn out to be a good thing. You can throw yourself into finding something in your field now.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Andie said, trying to sound more optimistic than she felt. She didn’t mention how badly depleted her bank account was. That would seriously hamper any sort of job search.

  And if I get charged with a drug-related offense it all goes away. She’d never be able to get a job working in medicine. “I’m going to get dressed too. I think I have to go to the police station. Now.”

  There was an urgency building in her. She had to make sure she wasn’t going to go down for something she didn’t do.

  Andie left at the same time as Amber, but the drive that sent her to the police station to file a report dissipated the longer she waited to speak to an officer.