Coming In Hot Box Set

by Gina Kincade

  “I don’t even know if Todd is the source of those drugs,” she repeated for the third time. “My friend Amber reminded me that he knew my locker combination, but so could a lot of other people. I’ve worked at Lynx since it opened and I never changed it. It isn’t exactly Fort Knox. I’m sure Mike, the head of security, will confirm that.”

  They didn’t like her answer. Carter gave her a steely-eyed glare. “We can charge you right now for possession. We have more than enough evidence to put you away for a very long time. And even if Calen McLachlan’s fancy lawyers manage to keep you out of jail, there’s still a drug charge on your record. What hospital will hire you after that?”

  Andie did her best to remain impassive, but the shock of the threat hit her like a physical blow. They had been looking into her since she made her statement, obviously searching for some sort of weakness to twist to their advantage.

  Amber was right. Going to the cops had been a bad idea.

  “I haven’t done anything wrong,” she said hoarsely. “And I’m not going to let you push me into a dangerous situation. I may have nothing, but I’m not some nobody you can use however you want. I have never witnessed Todd using or selling drugs.”

  “Then why did you give us his name in your statement?”

  “To prove someone other than me knows my combination, and he’s probably one of many. Now I’d like to leave unless I’m under arrest. Am I under arrest?”

  Carter and the chubby Hispanic man exchanged a glance. She held her breath, waiting for the bomb to drop, but at that moment an attractive ice-blonde walked into the room.

  The stranger was wearing a skirt suit so sharp it could cut her, but it was the briefcase and assorted accessories that identified her as a lawyer—a very successful one.

  “My client is done speaking with you,” the woman said before smiling brightly at Andie. “I’m Delaney. I was sent by my employer Mr. McLachlan. Carter, Hernandez,” she said, acknowledging each with a brief nod.

  “We’re still deciding if we’re going to charge her or not, Mizz Delaney,” the male detective said.

  The Mizz was drawn out with irritating emphasis. Clearly, all these people knew each other.

  “And?” The lawyer drawled in the same tone.

  Carter stared at Andie, making her dig her nails into her own thigh under the table. She would not squirm in front of this woman.

  “She can go,” Carter said eventually. “But don’t leave town.”

  Andie bit her tongue as the lawyer waved her to the door. She wanted to swear a blue streak and tell the bastards off, but she didn’t. There might not be an expensive lawyer to hide behind the next time she saw the detectives.

  God, please don’t let there be a next time.

  “Delaney,” the female detective said, acknowledging the lawyer as they headed for the door.

  “A pleasure, as always, Carter,” Delaney said before stepping out and closing the door behind her.

  “Thank you,” Andie said, following the lawyer out to the parking lot. The sun beat down on her skin like a laser, but it was a welcome change. With luck, it would melt the block of ice that had grown in her stomach during her interrogation. “Thank God you finally got here. It was freaking scary in there.”

  “It was meant to be,” Delaney said with a laugh. “And I apologize for the delay. I was in San Francisco when I got the call. I was on the next flight.”

  Wow. “Oh, thank you for coming all this way,” Andie said weakly.

  Delaney smiled her toothpaste commercial smile. “Not a problem. It’s a trip I make frequently for Mr. McLachlan. And I agree those particular detectives can be pretty intimidating, but they’re not bad compared to some others in that building. Carter’s a ball-buster, but she’s basically honest and does her job well. Hernandez would get nowhere without her.”

  Andie tightened her grip on her purse. “Was she being honest about having enough evidence to charge me with possession?”

  “Technically, yes,” Delaney acknowledged with a small inclination of her head. “But it wouldn’t stick if Mr. McLachlan backs you, and Mike Ward testifies others had access to your locker. That combined with your clean record and the fact you graduated at the top of your physician’s assistant program speaks to your character. I could have gotten the charges thrown out like that,” she said with a snap.

  “You must be good,” Andie murmured, unnerved to find a stranger knew so much about her again.

  Delaney reached a shiny black car, a Lexus of some type, and paused. She peeked at her sideways from under thick blonde lashes. “I’m one of many excellent lawyers Mr. McLachlan employs, but when it comes to this kind of thing I am the best. Which is why Eric Tam practically prostrated himself to make sure I would get to you as soon as I could instead of the lawyer on call. Now that I’ve seen you I know why.”

  Andie stared at her. “Err, why?”

  Delaney gave her a knowing smile. “I recognize you. I’ve worked with Eric a few times as part of my job. He keeps a picture of you in his medical bag. Has it with him at all times. I asked him about it once. He clammed up and refused to talk about it. But his reaction told me plenty—enough to stop angling for a date with the man.”

  Holy crap! Eric turned down a date with this perfectly-coiffed Nordic goddess? Was it really because of her? Had he been pining for her the whole time they were apart?

  “I need to sit down,” she said, leaning on the car for support.

  Delaney laughed and pushed a button on her keychain, opening the doors to the car remotely. “Get in. I’ll drop you off at your place.”

  Andie climbed into the car, still feeling a little shellshocked. “I’m staying with a friend,” she mumbled, giving her the address.

  She sat quietly digesting what Delaney had told her. Eric kept a picture of her with him…but he’d dropped out of her life with barely a murmur.

  Her lips compressed. How dare he show up back in her life after all this time! If he had really been missing her, the ass could have called her sometime in the last two years. True, she hadn’t made it easy for him by ignoring his messages in the beginning, but if he’d explained why he had to leave in the first place, she wouldn’t have been so hard on him. He could have tried a little harder.

  His text could have explained about the rehab. Blinking she glanced up to find they were near the hotel Eric mentioned at the police station.

  She twisted in the passenger seat. “I’ve changed my mind. Can you drop me off at the Caislean 21?”

  The blonde lawyer smirked. “Isn’t that where the good doctor always stays?”

  “Yes.”

  “Going to run into his arms and ride off into the sunset?” Delaney’s smile was cynically amused.

  Andie sat up straighter in the passenger seat, her hands fisting. “Actually, I’m going to kick him in the nut sack.”

  Chapter Ten

  Eric walked into the security office of Lynx with his medical kit, blood dotting his sleeve in an ominous pattern.

  “Hey, can I change in here?” he asked Trey. He kept an extra shirt in his kit.

  Trey gestured for him to go ahead while checking something on the video monitor in front of him. “Girl all stitched up?”

  “Yes, she’s fine. Just a clumsy drunk. She’s part of a bachelorette party.”

  “She tell you why she wouldn’t go the hospital?”

  “No insurance. But as long as she didn’t bleed out before I got here, I have no problem patching her up. What are you looking at?”

  “New camera feeds. Got some in a few of the panels over the bar, installed from this floor. Mike didn’t even have to wait till the place was closed to install them. Man’s got skills…”

  That was the second best news he’d had all day. The best had been getting Emma Delaney’s text telling him Andie was released with no charges.

  “Are you zeroing in on Todd Kent as a suspect?”

  “One of them, yes. But he’s not the only name on the list.�
�� Trey turned as Eric pulled out his spare shirt and started to change. “So I hear you went to see Andie. She okay?”

  “As well as can be expected,” he said, tugging on his shirt. “She got pulled in for questioning by the cops, but Delaney got her out.”

  Trey leaned back. “I heard. But I meant was she okay seeing your sorry ass again? It was rough for her when you left.”

  Eric stopped with his shirt half-open. “Did she tell you that?”

  Trey huffed. “No man. I have eyes. On occasion I’ve been known to use them.”

  A heat flash of embarrassment ran over his skin. “So you knew about us back then?”

  “You weren’t that slick. Andie was obviously in love with someone. Wasn’t hard to figure out who with…or where you went when the two of you would disappear. You’re lucky the storeroom wasn’t wired. We use it to store cleaning supplies now. No couch.”

  Oh, shit.

  Trey laughed at him. “You should see your face right now.”

  Eric blinked several times. “Why didn’t you fire her?”

  Trey shrugged. “It didn’t get in the way of her job. She only messed around when on break or off the clock. Some of the other waitresses have done far worse in those VIP rooms. Anything too public and I have to let them go, but I try to give them a warning first. Good help is hard to find. Especially when looking hot is a requirement.”

  The manager was stretching the truth on that last part. Girls dropped in all the time trying to get an application to waitress at Lynx. It was the place to work, but Eric guessed certain allowances had to be made for a bit of bad behavior now and again in this town.

  What happens in Vegas… “Sorry,” he muttered.

  “I’d say no problem, but it kind was for a while after you left, for her. I know why you did it. Calen let something slip about your little problem a while back. I’m guessing you didn’t tell Andie, though, or she wouldn’t have taken you leaving so personally.”

  Eric sat on the couch, his hands in his lap. “She wouldn’t let me explain after I got out of rehab.”

  “You should have had the balls to tell her sooner.”

  He groaned. “I know. I regret nothing more. Did you say anything to her?”

  Had Andie known about his addiction before he told her?

  Trey shook his head. “No, man. I found out way after and she already seemed better. Soon after she started dating Todd K. They seemed like an okay couple. No drama until recently.”

  Maybe they had no drama, but he doubted Andie and the bartender shared the passion and chemistry he had with her. This afternoon was proof their connection was still as potent as it ever was.

  “You gonna nut up and sweep her off her feet this time?”

  Trey did have a way with words. “Yes.”

  “Thought so when you showed up. Don’t fuck it up this time.”

  Eric was tempted to laugh. “I had no idea you were so invested in Andie’s happiness.”

  That had to be it. He and Trey weren’t close.

  “She’s a good kid,” he said philosophically. “This town doesn’t do happy-ever-after for real very often. I’d like to see one happen for her. It’s not like she wasn’t preparing for one. The only missing ingredient was you coming back here.”

  Eric frowned. “What do you mean she was preparing?”

  “You do know what Andie got her degree in right?”

  Eric shrugged. “Hotel management or something? She was applying to a couple of different programs when I left. I never found out where she ended up.”

  Trey was genuinely amused now—a rare grin lighting his face. “She’s a PA. Or she will be once she lands a job.”

  “A personal assistant?” Did people get degrees for that? He’d always thought it was something people fell into, but maybe an Associate degree in business would help.

  The other man shook his head. “Nope. The other kind. A physician’s assistant. Just like in the TV show about the concierge doctor. I think she was getting ready to work for you—once you got off your sorry ass and came back for her that is.”

  Eric’s head snapped up. It felt as if someone had just hit him with a brick. Then he exhaled in a whoosh. “That is literally the best news I have ever heard!”

  Andie had chosen a career that would enable her to work at his side. And he needed a PA at this very moment!

  Was it a simple coincidence? Had Andie liked the idea of helping a doctor in the field or was it as Trey described? Had she devoted two years of her life to a field of study in the hopes of someday working close to him?

  It took rigorous study to become a PA. Holding down a full-time job on top of that must have taken discipline and strength of will.

  I can’t let her lose it.

  A drug charge, even the suspicion of association with illegal drugs, would complicate all her future job prospects. All of her work would be flushed down the drain. They had to find out who planted those drugs in her locker and permanently clear her from this cloud of suspicion.

  “Can I help you monitor the cameras?” he asked, feeling pressed to do something.

  “I am on the live feed. Mike took the backlog of the normal security feeds to the company apartment. He’s hoping someone slipped up in the past.”

  “Must be like a needle in a haystack.”

  Trey humphed. “Worse. It’s a needle in a stack of sweaty writhing bodies, some of whom bring their own needles in with them. Catching an actual deal going down is going to be hard when the cameras have captured plenty of recreational drug use over time. It’s the kind of normal shit that happens in clubs. Viva Las Vegas and all that shit.”

  “So I just sit and wait?”

  Trey shrugged. “You want me to comp you some drinks?”

  “Hell, no.”

  Calen would have let a drink or two pass. It was a club after all. But staying away from the poker tables required vigilance. Eric couldn’t afford to deliberately weaken his will-power.

  “Then I guess you sit and wait,” Trey said, giving him the side-eye.

  Trying to hide his frustration, he sat on the couch, taking out his laptop. He pulled out the financial prospectus for his new company, but couldn’t focus on it.

  It would be too late to go see Andie after he was done here and he didn’t have her new number. He’d given her his before he left the police station, but had been too flustered to ask for hers. Dammit, that had been stupid.

  “Could you stop doing that?”

  “Doing what?” he asked, belatedly realizing he was tapping the keyboard rather loudly. “Oh, sorry.”

  Trey smirked and reached over to the desk phone. “I’m calling Suzie. She’s a nurse who does the weekend shift here. Once she gets here, you can go.”

  He sighed in relief. “Thanks, Trey,” he said, his whole body relaxing.

  For the next half-hour he counted the minutes until the nurse came to relieve him. Then he was out the door like he’d been shot out of a cannon.

  Chapter Eleven

  Andie uncrossed her arms and sank deeper into the couch, fingering the fine cloth underneath her. She had been sitting in the lobby of the Caislean 21 for over an hour and was starting to feel stupid.

  Across the hall the security guard walked past her, giving her a hard glance. He’d been doing that a lot since she came in and realized Eric wasn’t there. He was at the club working and probably wouldn’t arrive till dawn. But she had no cash for a cab and was too stubborn to get up and leave. Not to mention, the bus didn’t stop anywhere near here.

  The Caislean 21 only had twenty-one guest suites. It was incredibly exclusive.

  Eric must be doing pretty well to stay here. The hotel frequently turned away celebrities…

  She stared at her hands self-consciously, feeling distinctly out of place in the chic interior of the lobby.

  “Drink?”

  Andie blinked, startled to find a man holding a tray next to her. There was an ornately finished glass holding a golden brown d
rink.

  “Is that—”

  “A sidecar,” he finished. “Calen thought you would like it.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she searched the lobby for the imposing figure of her boss.

  Former boss—who apparently knows my drink preferences. Sidecars were what she always drank after her shift ended at the club.

  “It’s okay. Calen went upstairs. His wife needed him.”

  “Oh.” She stared at the man holding out the drink. He was young, a few years shy of thirty, and very handsome.

  “Our bartender does a good job on these, I promise.”

  The stranger must work for the hotel, she decided, tentatively reaching out to take the drink. When she did he gave her a big grin.

  “I’m waiting for someone,” she explained, wondering if he was going to hit on her. He looked a bit familiar. From the club?

  “I know,” the stranger said, continuing to give her a bright charming smile. “And I decided to give him a little break by liquoring you up first.”

  “What?”

  “The person you’re waiting for is in for it,” the man laughed. “Calen suggested you might be here to say thank you for a favor, but I know that look on your face. It’s the same one my sister gets when her husband is about to be read the riot act. I thought I’d help the poor shmuck out with a little liquid relaxer.”

  Andie narrowed her eyes, but the man continued to smile until she almost felt like smiling back. Slowly she lifted it to her lips and took a sip.

  “If you need another, let me know.”

  With that, the stranger left her sitting there alone and confused. But she finished the cocktail. A good sidecar was not in her budget these days. Who knew when she’d be able to afford one again? She continued to study the now-empty glass until a uniformed waitress came and brought her a second one. Then she drank that one too.

  “Wake up.”

  Andie started when someone shook her. The brown-haired man was bending over her. He stood back and gestured with a tilt of his head.

  Eric was hurrying past the lobby and climbing into the elevator. The door closed before she got to her feet.