Disorderly Conduct (The Anna Albertini Files Book 1)

by Rebecca Zanetti

  Going undercover was for the birds. I closed my eyes and concentrated on quieting the noise in my head.

  “Anna?” The voice was soft and came from far away.

  I jerked awake, instantly surrounded by flutes and a frog. Ah, crap. Blinking, I turned to see Randy Taylor’s blonde friend in the doorway, wearing the standard spa uniform. “I’m Anna.”

  She smiled. “I’m Cheryl. Would you like to follow me?”

  Last time I’d followed somebody out of the Zen lounge, I’d ended up naked and waxed. “Sure.” Gingerly holding my robe together, I stood and followed her, passing Tessa just heading in.

  She limped; her knuckles white as she clutched her robe together. “I’m going to freaking kill you,” she hissed in my ear as she staggered into the lounge.

  I snorted and followed Cheryl; my mood lifted. Now that was funny. She led me into a quiet room with a pedicure chair, and I gingerly sat, plopping my feet in the warmly delicious water. I groaned. “I could use a good joint right now.”

  Cheryl chuckled and took her chair, leaning over to scrub an exfoliant over my calves. “Just relax. I heard you yelling a little while ago, and now you’re fine.” She looked up, her eyes dancing. “I know it’s a pain, but think how happy your boyfriend will be.”

  I let the water soothe me. She’d given me the perfect opening. “Yeah, no kidding. Do you have a boyfriend?”

  “I do.” She ducked her head to splash water over my leg. “We’ve been dating for six months.”

  “He’s a good guy?” I asked. How could I ask about drugs? About Melvin’s possible connection to Aiden?

  “Yeah.” She wiped off her chin. “How about you?”

  I swallowed as an idea hit me. Just how much did she know? “Um, yeah. I’m dating Aiden Devlin. He’s one of the Lordes.”

  She blinked. “No kidding? You’re dating a Lordes Defender?”

  My heart kicked it up, and I forced myself to stay calm. “You’ve heard of Aiden?”

  Pink dusted her cheeks. “Yeah. I mean, I’ve been to a couple of parties out at their apartment complex. He’s so hot, but I thought he was dating a redhead.”

  Jealousy, totally unwarranted and unwanted, shot through me. “Nope. Not anymore. Just me.” I bit my lip, my brain clicking rapidly. “Is your boyfriend a Lorde?”

  She chuckled. “He wishes. But no, he’s just done some business with them.”

  “Oh.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “The drugs?”

  She stiffened and moved to my other leg. “A Lordes old lady wouldn’t ask that question.”

  Crap. I sucked at this and was losing her. “I know.” Drowning in my own stupidity, I let her pull my foot out to dry. “It’s just that Aiden is pissed and took away my pot, and of course, nobody else will give me any. I knew about you and Randy, and I just thought…” Man, I was full of it. Seriously full of it.

  “Oh.” She filed my toenails. “I guess that makes sense, but I’d hate to get Randy in trouble with the Lordes. Those guys don’t mess around.”

  Suddenly, I kind of felt like a jerk. She seemed really nice. “Forget it.” Plus, what kind of latitude did I have as a prosecutor? It was okay to investigate, but at some point, it was the police’s job and not mine. “I’m sorry to have made you uncomfortable.”

  She shrugged. “You obviously know what we do here for the Lordes. I could get you a couple of joints out of the stash, but you can’t tell your old man.”

  The idea of Aiden as an old man was ridiculous, but I’d watched Sons of Anarchy and knew all the lingo. All right. Some of the lingo. “Not in a million years.” Just how involved was Aiden in this drug business? Did he have a drug problem, or was he in it for the money? What did the spa do for the Lordes? There wasn’t a cool way to ask. Although, since she’d used the word ‘stash,’ they must be selling drugs out of the new spa?

  She continued the pedicure, and I picked out bright pink polish. What the heck was I going to do with two joints? It was illegal to possess them, but how could I tell her no now? She finished up, and I went to take a shower in the large locker room. There were two joints in my locker when I opened it for my bag, in which I’d tossed jeans and a T-shirt earlier.

  Feeling like a criminal, I shoved the marijuana in my purse and put on makeup, meeting Tessa in the lobby. We paid, and I took her to dinner at a local pizza shop, letting her snipe at me about the Brazilian she hadn’t intended to have. By the end of dinner, we were both laughing, although the pot in my purse created a cloud of doubt around me.

  Finally, she dropped me at my car, and I headed home. I’d turn the drugs over to Nick the next day and report everything I had learned. He’d promised to help me with Aiden, and I believed him.

  Sighing, my head and privates aching, I parked and walked toward my door, stopping short at seeing a large form sprawled on my porch swing.

  I gulped.

  “Hi, Angel,” Aiden said, his sapphire colored eyes layering through the soft dusk, his voice low and husky with a hint of pissed. “Rumor has it my old lady had a Brazilian today. Wanna show me?”

  Chapter 15

  My lungs stopped working. They didn’t hitch, and they didn’t stutter. They just up and froze. So did my feet. I stared at him across the stone walkway, acutely aware of the absence of distance between us. My girlhood fantasies about Aiden Devlin hadn’t prepared me for the reality of his focus as a man. He was predatory and did nothing to hide it.

  For the first time, I saw him clearly. And I didn’t know a thing about him. Not really. “You’re trespassing,” I said.

  His smile was slow and sure. “Turnabout, fair play, and all o’ that.”

  I shivered, and my gaze caught on his mouth. Tingles pricked inside my chest and right down to my abdomen. Butterfly wings of both intrigue and warning. “Rumors fly fast. Are the Lordes running drugs out of the Tranquility Spa?”

  He didn’t so much as twitch. “If we were, you’d never find the proof.”

  That wasn’t informative in the slightest. Since he was obviously irritated with me, I wasn’t sure how to read into his bravado. Or maybe he was being perfectly honest. “I find it interesting that you’ve already been called with information about your old lady.” Man, I hoped I was using the biker gang lingo correctly. “Especially since there’s an obvious drug connection between the spa and the Lordes.”

  “If it were obvious, I’d be in handcuffs,” he rumbled easily. “When somebody asks questions about my boys, claiming to be mine, then anybody with half a brain would give me a call. The chick at the spa has more than half a brain, even if her man doesn’t. Now. We gonna talk about you being mine?”

  The archaic language ticked me off. Completely. I told myself that nothing inside me went a little bit gooey and warm at the possessive claim. Nope. I was not that woman and the caveman act didn’t work with me. Regardless of his hard-cut jaw and way too tough-guy body. My slightly quickened breath and weakened knees had everything to do with the disintegrating weather conditions and not the biker defender. Geez. I needed to talk to the shrink again, because lying to other people was understandable. Lying to myself was a huge mistake.

  Thunder cracked in the distance, and I jumped. The clouds would be rolling in soon, and as if in warning, the air began to cool. Kicking myself into gear, I strode down the path, up my stairs, and to my door. “I’m investigating a case, Aiden.” I unlocked the door, barely sounding breathless. “If you don’t like it, then start cooperating with me.”

  I didn’t hear him move. One second I had the key in the lock, and the next, I was flipped around and pressed against the door, a giant of a man towering over me.

  My head snapped back, and I looked up, meeting his gaze directly, even though my heart thundered. “This is not cooperating.” For some reason, I’d always had the ability to think and feel two different things, and often my mouth had a mind of its own, which came in handy when my body was rioting like this. “Back up.”

  He moved in. Both hands fl
attened on the door, and he leaned down, his angled jaw close to mine. “I don’t give a warning twice, Angel. Step off of my case.” The Irish was out full force in his deep voice this time. Intriguing and definitely sexy.

  I’m not sure what a Lordes Defender expected when giving a threat, or an order, but he wasn’t going to get it. I levered up on my toes and leaned in closer, my nose nearly touching his. His pupils dilated, and I enjoyed the surprise there. “I’m trying to help you, and if you don’t knock it off, I’ll stop.” Then I planted both hands on his very hard chest. “You don’t want me for an enemy.” I pushed.

  To my surprise, he stepped back. Then he studied me, his gaze probing and oh-so-damn blue. “You don’t know me anymore.”

  The words, although they’d been said by my sisters as well as myself, still pierced with a truth that shattered the make-believe world I’d created years ago about him. Starring him. “You don’t know me, either,” I whispered. “I don’t need saving now. You do.”

  “You keep investigating this case, and you will need saving,” he said evenly, the Irish lilt disappearing again.

  “From you?”

  “No.” He exhaled, frustration drawing his brows together as he ducked his head and studied his boots. “How can I get through to you?”

  I held up a hand. “I get it. You want me to stay away from you.” Even though he was barely more than a stranger now, the idea still hurt.

  His head snapped up. “Oh, baby. I’d like you to get as close as you can to me. Just drop your investigation. Let somebody else take those chances, and you stay safe.” Those eyes deepened along with his voice, which now held the low seduction of an Irish brogue. Full and thick with promises of stormy nights and raw passion.

  Warmth spread through me like a heated port. There was nothing sexier than a bad boy bent on seduction, and I knew it. “I’m sure sleeping with the prosecutor would help your case. Nice try.” My voice remained shockingly steady.

  His cheek creased. “Who said anything about sex?”

  “Sweetheart,” I murmured, “I’ve dreamed of sex with you since I was sixteen years old.”

  He blinked.

  Yeah. I’d learned early on that the truth, the real truth, was often more surprising than the best crafted lie. “Same with Dean Winchester, who also doesn’t exist in real life.” My imagination didn’t keep me warm at night, but it was still a heck of a lot better than reality, apparently.

  “Oh, I exist.” Aiden stepped in again, his hand clasping my waist and resting heavily on my hip. He smelled of leather and man, and the warmth he brought covered me head to toe. His hold was gentle but his strength obvious, and my breath shallowed out.

  Touching him, being this close to him, was a mistake beyond simple words. But something in me, maybe the whole of me, didn’t care. I should have. I know it. But finally, after all of these years, Aiden Devlin was close enough to kiss.

  As if reading my mind, he drew even closer. “I’ve thought a lot about that kiss the other day. You?”

  I lifted my head to meet his gaze. “Yeah. I think you should’ve asked first.” My voice was throaty. Husky. My chest felt heavy, my breasts alive.

  This was a new feeling. Completely.

  Challenge crossed his high cheekbones, as obvious as an oncoming storm over the mountains. And his drawl. Well, now. That was all male. “I see. Can I kiss you now?” His lips were close enough that his minty breath brushed my mouth.

  I’d never backed down from a challenge my entire life. Yet finally, a threat of caution ticked through me. Oh, not enough. But I did hesitate, and the wind brushed my hair across my chin to fall back to my shoulders. “Yes.” Then I held my breath, expecting him to move.

  He didn’t. Not at first.

  His lids lowered to half-mast, and his gaze ran leisurely across my face. The wind blew in from the side, against us, but I couldn’t move.

  His hand slid down the door and then cupped my jaw, his palm warm and calloused. “I wondered about you. Through the years,” he rumbled.

  I breathed out, the nerves in my torso, just beneath my skin, all but vibrating. His thumb brushed across my bottom lip; his touch soft. His chin lifted just a fraction as he watched his finger on my mouth, his eyes flaring, his shoulders squared and blocking the rising moon. “Aiden,” I whispered, wanting him with a depth that should’ve scared me.

  “Yeah,” he said, as if talking to himself.

  I jerked my head, dislodging his hand, and then levered up and took his mouth in a kiss, my hands curling over his broad shoulders and into his T-shirt.

  He drew air in, from my mouth. His broad hands on my back pressed me up and closer to him.

  Then he took over, going deeper. My eyelids shut as sensations rippled through me, so hard and fast and deep I stopped thinking. Gravity pulled me down, and he lifted me back up, kissing me deeper, all but surrounding me with male power and strength.

  He shoved me back against the door, one hand planting next to my head, his mouth driving against mine in a way that was all pleasure.

  I forgot that Aiden Devlin was kissing me and just felt. Hot and needy and somehow powerful. So many feelings rioted through me, and I chased each one. He moved against me, his mouth dropping to my neck to place hot kisses along my throat and then farther down, his lips warm along my collarbone and lower.

  The second he hit upper breast, I gasped, my eyelids flying open.

  More. I wanted more. I grasped his jaw and jerked him back up to me, and he kissed me hard.

  We both panted when he drew back, his eyes dark pools of blue. “You gonna ask me in?” he rumbled.

  I blinked. Kissing Aiden on my porch was one thing, asking him inside for the night another. A big thing. Not just because he was a defendant out on bond. I was in over my head, big time, and I was smart enough to know it. When had that ever stopped me?

  I took a deep breath, not sure what was about to come out of my mouth. My phone buzzed, and I tugged it out of my back pocket, my gaze still trapped by his. “Albertini,” I said, my voice beyond husky.

  “Did you go to the spa to see Cheryl?” Nick Basanelli’s voice held an urgency that drew me up short.

  Aiden’s expression smoothed out, but he didn’t move away from me.

  I gulped. “Yeah, why?”

  “Because I’m looking at a dead kid we just identified as Randy Taylor,” Nick muttered. “I’m on the dike road off Tamarack Lake. You’d better come down here.” He clicked off.

  I froze in place, the phone still held to my ear.

  Aiden eyed me, wiping my lip-gloss off his bottom lip with his thumb. “I take it I’m not staying the night.”

  I shivered. Had I gotten Randy Taylor killed? Was Aiden a murderer? The dike road was only a couple of miles around the lake from my bungalow. There was no way Aiden dropped a body and then showed up on my porch to kiss me, right? Emotion clutched me, and I plastered both hands against his chest, the phone still in one. Then I shoved. “Did you kill Randy?” If he did, I was in danger, and right now, I didn’t care. This was too much. All of it. Way too much.

  Aiden straightened to his full height, and all lazy lust disappeared from his eyes, sharpening the blue so brilliantly they cut. “What are you talking about?”

  “Randy Taylor is dead down by the dike road. Two miles from here.” I punctuated each word with a smack of my phone against his chest. “Did you kill him?”

  Aiden’s brows drew down. “No.”

  “Did the Lordes?” I snapped.

  His face lost all expression and somehow hardened at the same time. “I have to go.” He turned and strode down the steps and across the walk, moving quickly past my car toward the road.

  My mouth gaped open, and my chest hurt. Bad. He’d walked? Seriously? He reached the end of the drive and disappeared behind a couple of trees. The roar of a motorcycle engine pierced the night, a flash of taillights pierced the darkness, and then he was gone.

  I hadn’t seen his bike, but I hadn�
��t been looking.

  Why had he hidden it? The wind whipped up, snapping into me, and the chill that shook me had nothing to do with the weather.

  Chapter 16

  It was the first crime scene I’d visited where I hadn’t been shot at, and it looked just like the ones on television. Red and blue lights flashed from different emergency vehicles, shining through sweeping tree branches, yellow tape cordoned off the area, and techs milled around, searching for evidence. It had taken me a little while to attach the top to my car, so I’d probably missed a lot of the activity. Detective Pierce snapped orders near the water’s edge where two uniformed officers tripped over the rocks to finish setting up a white tent that glowed eerily in the dark.

  As if even the sky feared Pierce, it waited until the tent was in place before opening up with a crash of thunder and a pummeling of rain. He caught sight of me where I’d pulled my car over at the beginning of the dike road, where many people usually fished or swam, and I swear, even from that distance, his gaze narrowed.

  I lifted my hand through the rain as if in a wave, but he didn’t return the gesture.

  Nick came around the tent, said something to Pierce, and then headed my way. His shorter hair was mussy from the rain, and his whiskered jaw gave him the look of a pirate. He wore long athletic-type sweats, a matching sweatshirt, and tennis shoes. Basanelli after-hours wasn’t bad to look at. The rain smashed my hair to my face, and I pushed it away, trying not to shiver. He reached me, already shrugging out of the dark blue zip-up sweatshirt to reveal a tight gray T-shirt. “Where were you when I called?” He threw the sweatshirt over my shoulders.

  “Home.” With Aiden, my mouth still tingling from his. I shook my head and tried to hand the thick material back, noticing Detective Pierce still watching us.

  “Jesus.” Nick shoved my arm through one sleeve, and I let him, not wanting the cop to see us struggle.