But now Shorty was dead, after meeting with her. And Tony was putting even more pressure on her to legitimize herself again quickly in the community’s eyes, before it was too late. She sighed, closed her eyes, and tipped her head back. Her hair was down from its ponytail and flowed behind her. It felt good, tugging ever so slightly on her scalp.
She startled when she felt Max’s hands on her head, but she didn’t open her eyes. She didn’t dare move. Whatever Max was up to, she was along for the ride, a willing participant. Max ran her hand through Dubs’s hair, stopping when her hand was cupping the back of Dubs’s head. Max pulled her forward a few inches and kissed her. Dubs opened her eyes, just long enough to make sure it was real.
Max’s lips were soft and full. Dubs tried to deepen the kiss. She reached out to grasp any part of Max she could reach, but Max broke the kiss and pulled away. She gently stroked Dubs’s cheek and moved back to the bed, where she had been sitting while they talked.
“What did you do that for, and what the hell did you stop for? I demand you get back over here,” Dubs said. That was the best and worst kiss she had ever had.
“You looked like you needed it, I guess,” Max said.
“And what if that didn’t help?” Dubs asked. “What if I need more of the same treatment? What if I need extended dosing? I think I’m addicted. You wield a powerful weapon and you were not careful with it. Now look what you’ve done.”
“I think you’ll survive,” Max said.
Dubs could be wrong, but she looked a little flushed too. “If you aren’t going to kiss me again,” Dubs said, “I’m coming over there to kiss you.”
She hopped up and headed for Max. There wasn’t anywhere for Max to go in the small room, and Dubs landed in her lap, forcing Max to either catch her or let her fall on the floor. In the process, Dubs got the upper hand and tipped Max off balance, forcing her on her back on the bed.
Max didn’t seem willing to give up easily. She rolled them both over so she was straddling Dubs’s waist. She pinned Dubs’s hands over her head and leaned over her. Dubs could see the desire in Max’s eyes, and Dubs couldn’t remember ever being more turned on. Max was sexy, and powerful, but in her own Max kind of way was letting Dubs guide things.
“You got me where we both want me,” Dubs said. “You started this, Pretty Girl. You going to finish it?”
Max hesitated. As suddenly as it all began, Max let go of Dubs’s wrists and climbed off the bed. “We shouldn’t be doing this. I’ve got work to do downstairs,” she said.
“Hey.” She sat up and tried to get to Max, who wouldn’t even look at her. Dubs wrapped her arms around Max’s torso and noticed, yet again, that Max was hiding an impressive amount of muscle on her thin frame. “Don’t run out of here. We can pretend none of that just happened if you want, but we still have to get in the same bed tonight, just like every night.”
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” Max said.
“Seriously?” Sometimes women could be idiots.
“It seemed like the right thing to offer,” Max said.
“Chivalry isn’t dead after all,” Dubs said. “Now turn around and talk to me. I’m getting myself in trouble with free access to your stomach.”
“I never told you to go exploring,” Max said. She turned around and Dubs was happy to see she was smiling.
Dubs kissed her. She didn’t prolong it, even though she was tempted.
“What was that for?” Max asked.
“A teaser for when you decide to pick up where you left off,” Dubs said.
“You’re awfully confident that will happen.”
“What can I say? I’m an optimist. Now let’s go downstairs and get back to work. I must be an invaluable asset, otherwise people wouldn’t be trying so hard to kill me all the time.” Dubs wished there were a less true statement, at least the part about people trying to kill her. She didn’t know how much of an asset she was. Or wanted to be. Everything was muddled now.
Max took her hand and gave it a squeeze. Dubs intertwined their fingers. Max pulled their two hands to her mouth, and kissed the top of Dubs’s hand then let their hands fall free. They headed out the door and back to work.
Chapter Fourteen
Max wanted to get as much space from Dubs as possible. It was difficult to do in the office, however, since she kept having to ask her questions. She was pretty sure Dubs was enjoying the fact that she was avoiding her. She had no idea what had possessed her to kiss her, and her lips still tingled. It was both irritating and exciting.
Lola was the only other person in the office. She was sitting with Dubs, and Max could hear them talking about babies.
“Has she signed all the paperwork?” Dubs asked.
“We met with the lawyer to get that process going,” Lola said. “I didn’t realize how complicated it is. I thought she just handed over the kid at the hospital and we went from there. Holt is making me do it all the right way. I guess a pregnancy test on your doorstep in the middle of the night and a note saying you don’t want the kid isn’t binding in court. Who knew?”
“Is the father on board with giving the kid up?” Dubs asked.
“I think he’s already signed the papers,” Lola said. “Tiffany won’t let me meet him though. She said he doesn’t want anything to do with the process. It’s kinda weird, but whatever he wants, I guess. It’s so strange to think this little baby can hear us now, and we’re talking about his biological parents not wanting him or her.”
“Good thing you do,” Dubs said. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“No,” Lola said. “Tiffany knows. But she said she won’t tell me until all the papers are signed and I’m sure this is what I want. She’s sort of an ass. Took me a while to see that.”
“Cheating on you didn’t give it away?” Dubs asked.
“I’m a slow learner,” Lola said.
Max couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t avoid Dubs forever, and truth be told, she didn’t really want to. On top of that, she wanted to hear more about the baby. Lola was one of her closest friends, and it wasn’t fair that Dubs was getting all the juicy bits of news while she was stuck across the room pretending not to be listening. She headed over to the two of them.
“Do you have a crib? Names picked out?” Max asked. “You’re going to have a whole office full of really excited, probably overly involved, aunts and uncles. You’re prepared for that, right?”
“I don’t have anything,” Lola said. She looked a little stressed. “I don’t know the first thing about kids, actually. I keep looking at these websites online that say I need all this stuff, but the kid is going to weigh less than a watermelon. How much stuff can it really need?”
“Oh, honey,” Dubs said. “Didn’t we talk about this already? Should I start listing the things you need?”
“Please don’t,” Lola said.
“Just make sure you have a car seat to get home from the hospital,” Dubs said. “A good friend of mine had a baby before I got locked up. He said you can’t leave the hospital without one.”
“I guess that means I need a car too,” Lola said.
“You want me to hook you up?” Dubs said.
“No,” Lola and Max said simultaneously, laughing.
“Hey, it was a joke.” She looked a little defensive.
“So how do I pick a car seat? Or a crib? Just walk in the store and tell them I need one?” Lola asked.
“Definitely not,” Max said. “There are safety standards and stuff with those things, right? I’m pretty sure it’s situations like this that the Internet was invented for. Come over here. I’ll get you set up.”
Holt and Moose walked into the office as Max was reminding Lola of all the intricacies of using a computer. As smart as she was, she didn’t really understand technology, which was a constant source of amusement, and frustration, to Max.
Dubs greeted Moose warmly, but only nodded hello to Holt. Max had noticed Dubs had warmed quickly to everyone in t
he office except Holt. She wasn’t unfriendly, or adversarial, toward her, but she seemed to go out of her way to keep her distance. Holt was the closest thing to a prison warden here, so perhaps Dubs resented that. And Holt hadn’t exactly rolled out the welcome mat when Dubs arrived.
“Fighting the electronic beast again, Lola?” Moose called across the room.
“Max said it will teach me about car seats,” Lola shouted back.
“What is there to learn?” Moose said. “It’s a seat. It goes in the car. The kid goes in the seat. Done.”
“I hope you never have children,” Holt said, putting her arm around Moose’s shoulders.
“I’ll be a great dad,” Moose said. “But apparently someone else will have to do the shopping.”
“And we all know who wants that job,” Lola said.
Moose blushed a deep crimson. He suddenly had something important to take care of in Holt’s office. Their laughter followed him through the door.
“What was that all about?” Dubs asked.
“Jose has had the hots for him since high school,” Lola said. “But he’s too chicken to do anything about it. So we all tease both of them, mostly Moose, mercilessly. I guess one of them will eventually do something about it.”
“Is Moose into Jose?” Dubs asked.
“You know, I have no idea,” Lola said. “I don’t know what or who Moose is into. He’s never shot us down with our teasing, or told Jose to stop. And I’ve never seen him with a significant other of any kind. I guess I always assumed they would end up together eventually. Maybe Holt knows.”
“That reaction seemed to say a lot,” Dubs said. “I would blush like that if you teased me about M—”
Max shot Dubs a cease and desist look, and she took the hint.
“I just meant I wouldn’t blush like that if I didn’t like someone. That’s all I was trying to say.”
Lola looked at her funny, but let it go.
“Max,” Holt said, coming over to join them. “Have you had any luck getting phone numbers off Shorty’s cell phone? Do you need help, Lola? You’re going to be at that a while if you only use your index finger to type.”
“I got this under control, H.”
“Of course. That’s totally obvious, now that I’m closer,” Holt said.
“I do have a list,” Max said. “I identified all the numbers except one. That one is a prepaid burner. It was purchased four months ago from the Walmart across town. He got calls once every couple weeks, sometimes less often. He never made outgoing calls. It’s consistent with how he described his relationship with the contact he had with the group. He said he thought the person he talked to wasn’t close to the main group, but he could have been lying, or not well informed.”
“It’s worth running down,” Holt said. “I want you to stay here and run that number against some of the other leads we’ve developed. See if it comes up in contact with Marcos, or the Escalade. See what Isabelle has gotten from wading through the financial side of things. That money has to be flowing in and out of somewhere. Start piecing together a larger map of this if you can. I want all the little puzzle pieces on one giant grid. We need to find our first corner and start building from there. Maybe it’s Shorty, or maybe this phone number. Hell, maybe it was that Escalade, or that bomb.”
“Have you heard anything from the government about the bomb?” Dubs asked.
Max saw Holt’s look of confusion.
“Sorry, the police. Have you heard anything from the police about what they found from analyzing the bomb?”
“Nothing yet. And I know what you meant by government. I was trying to figure out what camp you put me in. This has to be hard for you.”
“Nobody’s killed me yet,” Dubs said. “And you can’t say they aren’t trying.”
“I told you before,” Holt said, “you’re part of my team as long as you’re here and playing straight. I protect my own.”
“I heard you,” Dubs said.
Max knew hearing was different from believing, even after Holt had saved them both from getting shot.
“Go see if Moose is ready to come out of hiding. The two of you should take a trip to Walmart and see if you can find video of someone buying that phone. They probably paid with cash, but you might recognize the buyer. And maybe we’ll get phenomenally lucky and they paid with a credit card or had to show their ID for some reason. Stranger things have happened.”
“You coming, Pretty Girl?” Dubs asked.
“I’ve got some chores for Max here,” Holt said. “You’ll have to do without her for a few hours. Moose is good company. I promise.”
“Significantly less hot though,” Dubs said.
Max glared at her and Dubs seemed to like it, which annoyed Max even more.
“I’m sure Moose will appreciate your assessment,” Holt said.
Dubs went to get Moose and they headed off on their errand. Max watched Dubs’s ass all the way out the door, which Dubs turned around and caught her doing. She smiled knowingly as she leaned back in the door to wave good-bye. She was so damned disarming Max didn’t even really mind getting caught. She was pretty sure Dubs had been walking slowly and with a little extra sway for her benefit anyway. It would have been rude not to notice.
“Hope you weren’t trying not to get caught,” Holt said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Max said, embarrassed Holt had seen her looking at Dubs’s ass. She shouldn’t be surprised though. Holt noticed everything.
“Uh huh,” Holt said. “Let’s just hope you’re more subtle if you ever do undercover work. Or need to lie convincingly to someone on a job.”
“I did just fine undercover as a car thief pretending not to be a car thief. We almost got caught before she could get the car unlocked, but we improvised by pretending to be a horny couple using the parking lot to make out. We were very convincing, I’ll have you know,” Max said. She didn’t think that should really count. Kissing Dubs wasn’t that much of a challenge. The hard undercover work Holt was talking about was probably going to be something like pretending to be an important tech power player when she was really just a poor, nerdy kid.
Holt raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything.
“I feel like I handled that okay,” Max said. “But overall, how do you know if you’re doing a good job in the field?”
“You catch the guy you’re chasing, then you did a good job,” Holt said.
Max was stunned into silence. She expected some words of wisdom, not that boiled down, plain white rice explanation. “That seems kind of simple, boss,” Max said.
“It is,” Holt said. “If I had a team I didn’t trust, I would give more caveats and explanation. But I trust everyone here to go after the guys we chase the right way. Therefore, if you catch the guy you’re chasing, job well done. Simple as that. I’ll amend, since you’re new to this. Don’t cut corners, don’t compromise your ethics, watch the backs of the people you work with.”
It was amazing that Max used to be terrified of Holt. Sure, she had a temper that made the Incredible Hulk look reasonable and mild mannered, but she was just so…Holt. She was hard not to like.
“How are you doing with watching Dubs? Aside from her backside, that is? You clearly have that well handled.”
“It’s fine, I guess,” Max said. “Hard to keep up with the computer work I’d like to be doing. Seems like there’s a lot to do in the world outside this office.”
“Now you know why I refuse to give up my time on the streets,” Holt said. “I don’t want to spend all my time buried under paperwork, although Isabelle would prefer that, I think.”
“I don’t feel like I’m doing a good job,” Max said. She felt relieved saying it out loud. She was worried she was letting Holt down, and now at least she could voice those fears directly to the one person whose approval or disapproval mattered most to her. “And certainly by the definition you just gave, I’m not. No bad guys yet.”
“Yet is the
key word there, Max,” Holt said. “Why don’t you think you’re doing a good job?”
“I let Dubs convince me to go to the beach, then she gets far enough away that I can’t hear anything she’s saying as she chats with an old friend. My first meeting with a potential informant, he’s dead. You had to save us, or who knows, I might be dead, or Dubs might. Then a bomb shows up on our doorstep, and I can’t help but think that’s my fault. I haven’t figured out how yet, but I will.”
“Do you think Dubs is playing us?” Holt asked.
“I don’t know,” Max said. Saying it stung, but it was the truth. She really wanted to believe Dubs was one hundred percent on their side and being honest with them, especially her, but she wasn’t sure. That fact, maybe more than anything else, is what stopped her from taking things further earlier. “Something’s bothering her. I don’t know what it is. She’s been getting a lot of text messages that agitate her. She says they’re from her dad, but I’m not sure I believe her.”
“It’s good you’re aware of that,” Holt said. “As far as the conversation with her friend at the beach, I took the cuffs off you two. You can’t be by her side at all times. Would it have been ideal to hear what they talked about? Of course. But you have to build trust, which it seems like you’re doing. And who knows if he would have talked to her if you were there. I can’t imagine we’re real popular among her close friends.”
That made Max feel marginally better. All of this was so new to her she didn’t feel like she had an accurate barometer by which to judge her performance.
“As for the shooting,” Holt said. “You did exactly what I would want you to in that situation. You saw something that put you on guard, you got your charges, and you sought shelter. You were heading for the alley, correct?”
Max nodded. She’d registered the Escalade and van approaching, and she just knew they needed to get out of there. She remembered grabbing Dubs and pulling her with her. She was pretty sure she got Shorty too, but she wasn’t sure.
Pedal to the Metal Page 11
