CHAPTER EIGHT
“Why?” Melissa sounded suspicious.
Sloane had put off this call to her friend, knowing Mel would have a fit when Sloane rescinded their Monday meet-up with Perk.
“Do I have to have a reason?” Sloane returned, chewing on her lip.
“Of course you do,” Melissa reprimanded, using her “school voice”. It was times like these that Sloane wished Mel was a pushover, which she definitely was not.
Sloane quickly figured it would be best to keep things close to the truth. “Fine. Perk has a new job working undercover, and he’s not supposed to make any public appearances until his case is solved.”
There . That ought to satisfy her curious friend.
“Well, that sucks,” Melissa grunted, accepting the offered facts. “So now I’m supposed to wait patiently for an indefinite amount of time to see who’s got my bestie all jazzed up?”
“I’m not jazzed,” Sloane answered with a giggle. A giggle . But…that definitely wasn’t true.
Hadn’t she been staring at her phone all day, anxiously waiting for a call from Perk since the school curriculum ended four hours ago?
She knew, pragmatically, he’d have to debrief with his “parents”, Smalley and Tertia, before contacting her, but seriously? A lot of time had passed since she’d begun looking at the clock, and that’s why she’d ended up calling Mel. She needed a voice of sanity right now to make her stop perseverating over one intriguing, dark-haired male who might be taking up too much room in her brain.
“Try again, Sloane,” Melissa countered. “I know you, and waiting extra-long for this date is probably killing you.”
“You’ve got that right,” Sloane acquiesced with a groan. “I was looking forward to seeing Perk on Monday, followed by, hopefully, a whole bunch of get-togethers after that to determine whether or not I’m crazy, or if I really do feel an intense attraction to him.”
“That’s a no-brainer,” Melissa responded. “But wait. You mean you can’t even see the man in private?” she asked.
“Well, I probably can,” Sloane responded hesitantly. “But if I see him without my wing-woman, a table, and food running interference between us, I might do something stupid like jump his bones. And then…” She had to spew her doubts. “…what if he’s just messing around? What if I let down my guard and do… things with him, contemplating an actual relationship, but he’s only in it for the fun? What if after he gets what he wants, he walks away?”
She could almost see Melissa waving her hand around in dismissal. “Then he walks away. But you can’t let that stop you from exploring things, hon, because none of us know the future. If we didn’t take chances, we’d all be trapped in our living rooms, huddled under blankets reading books.”
“Which doesn’t sound bad right about now,” Sloane grumbled.
Melissa ignored her and went on. “He’d be an idiot to toss you aside for any number of reasons.”
This ought to be good. “Okay. Shoot.”
“One, you’re the best thing that will ever happen to him, hands down. And two, if he disses you like that, you’ll kick his sorry ass and he’ll wish he never messed with you.”
“Yeah. Those things are comforting. Not,” Sloane huffed. She’d been hoping for something more in the lines of “words of wisdom”. But WTF?
“If I can’t get what I want, you actually think I should resort to physical violence?” Sloane asked incredulously.
“Mmm, maybe just a broken nose, or something that’ll make him not so pretty for his next unsuspecting victim.”
Sloane barked out a laugh. “So, you’ve already got him painted as a villain, and I haven’t even had my first date yet.”
“Hey. Don’t blame me. You’re the one who’s putting negative vibes all over this.”
“I—"
Is that what she was doing?
Dammit. She probably was. And just because, in the past, she’d been burnt, her mother had been burnt, her sisters had both been burnt, it still didn’t mean…
Yeah . Sloane guessed it did. She was already bracing for a letdown before things with Perk had even gotten off the ground.
“Well, shit,” Sloane grumbled. “Have I…? Have you…? This is a pattern with me, isn’t it,” she stated. “You’ve seen me do this before. Kill a relationship before it can bite me first?”
“Uh, duh,” Mel responded. “I mean seriously, you haven’t dated in five years, so you haven’t done it recently. But that last guy… What was his name?”
“Hal,” Sloane supplied with a whine in her voice she couldn’t suppress.
“Right. Very cute, very respectable Hal, who mentioned that he’d been divorced twice. Then, before he had an opportunity to even talk more about it, you ditched his fine ass.”
“Well…he did say twice,” Sloane defended.
“And? That automatically makes him a risk?”
“Umm…” Sloane didn’t know the answer to that. All she knew was that it had caused alarm bells to go off in her gut.
“Okay, Sloane. Riddle me this. What if Perk’s been divorced twice? Will you shut him out before getting to know him?”
Thinking about it, Sloane doubted Perk had even undergone one divorce in his life, but what did she know? She hadn’t asked. They’d spent their entire time together talking about their respective offices, jobs, and Perk’s teammates and friends. She knew very little about him, including where he lived, even though her office clearly had that info. Sloane smacked herself in the forehead and bit down on her lower lip. How could she not have asked him a few simple questions? She was an idiot.
“Crap. I actually don’t know anything about Perk, Melissa,” Sloane wailed into the phone.
She hadn’t used her Bureau position to research him. Although she could have. But that’s just not the way she operated with her personal life. “He could have five exes for all I know, or he might be a serial dater who likes adding notches to his bedpost.”
Although he had mentioned that his love life to this point had been filled with women using him as arm-candy, and that he was attracted to Sloane because he perceived she was looking past his pretty face to the man beneath. That had to be a positive, right?
“Are you making your lip bleed, Slo?” Melissa scolded.
“Uh, maybe.” Sloane extracted in incisor from her tender flesh. “But you know what?” Sloane interjected, suddenly pumped to dig deeper into exactly who Perk was.
“What?” Melissa questioned; her tone mimicking Sloan’s upbeat one.
“I’m going to ask him if he has any exes. And I’m going to question him on all kinds of other stuff as well.”
“You’re…going to communicate?” Melissa’s voice cracked in astonishment.
“Yup. Is that a surprise?” Sloane snapped back.
“Honey, it certainly is. It’s never been your initial modus operandi with guys before. Shit. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this Perk guy could be it for you.”
A small thrill moved through Sloane’s body, but… “Back off, Mel. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she warned. “I’m only upping my involvement by a single notch here.”
“Well, I—”
“And on that note,” Sloane interrupted, “I think it’s time we changed the subject.”
“Okay. Fine. But the only other thing on my mind is…” Melissa sighed loudly. “I’ve been trying to avoid asking because it’s tough dealing with you as Agent Vessers, but…has the FBI found anything yet regarding Kaelyn?”
Sloane needed to tread softly. There were details she wasn’t authorized to share, Perk being one of them. “Here’s what I can tell you,” she allowed. “We’ve got a computer expert looking into the theft thing to see if they can find a trail. And we’ve been narrowing the field of possible suspects by interviewing all those who’ve had money stolen to see if they have a person or persons of interest in common.”
“And?” Melissa probed.
“And, it turns out, that pool is pretty large, so it’s going to take time to go through each and every mutual acquaintance.” Which she hoped Smalley and Tertia were doing with Perk right now, so that he wouldn’t have to try and befriend every single freaking person in Waterston High to get answers.
“Well, I need you guys to solve this fast, and find Kaelyn,” Melissa rejoindered worriedly. “The longer she’s missing…”
“I know,” Sloane soothed. “But try to stay positive, okay?”
“Okay,” Melissa sighed again, and this time Sloane could commiserate.
“Great,” Sloane praised her friend for her deep well of patience. “Now tell me about your day. Did anything fun or interesting happen?” Sloane dug. Her priority was to take Mel’s mind off the missing girl, but she really wanted to see if Perk—even undercover—had made an impact on her discerning friend.
“Meh. Same old, same old, except…”
“Yeah?” Sloane encouraged.
“We did have a new student arrive at school today.”
“Oh, really?” Sloane tried to act nonchalant. “Is that unusual?”
“Not in itself, but this guy… Whoo-boy. Let’s just say the girls are going to swarm all over him and give him a run for his money.”
“That cute, huh?” Sloane tamped down the odd surge of jealousy that shot through her.
“Uh, hell yes. He’s freaking gorgeous; all thick dark hair and bright blue eyes. Not that it’s appropriate for me to notice, but I’m not dead,” she laughed.
Okay. That was enough. She didn’t want Melissa thinking about Perk any more than the woman had to for her job. “Yeah. But you know it’s probably not exactly PC for you to be commenting about him.”
“Hah. Since when have you become a party pooper?” Melissa returned. “You know I’d never cross any lines where inappropriateness is concerned, but again, I have eyes in my head, and recognizing this kid’s beauty is like appreciating a piece of fine art. I can look, but I’ll one-hundred percent never touch.”
“I get it.” Sloane didn’t want to make a big deal out of this because it would look odd, so she simply moved the conversation to a neutral subject. “Are we still on for our standing dinner date Thursday night?”
“You bet,” Melissa answered with enthusiasm. “I wouldn’t miss it, especially since I’ll want deets on what info your man gives over to you when you question him about his life. My money is on him being open and honest, because seriously, Slo? he wouldn’t have gotten this far with you if he didn’t have something pretty awesome going for him.”
“Maybe it’s just his boyish good looks that have gotten under my skin,” Sloane joked.
“Not a chance. This guy has wiggled his way in deeper than that, and you know it.”
“Which scares the shit out of me,” Sloane agreed. “And now, I gotta go before I lose my courage and don’t call him.”
“You’ve got this, hon,” Melissa was her best cheerleader. “Bye, bye”
“Bye.”
Sloane hung up and looked at her phone like it was a snake. Did she dare do this?
Before she could list all the pros and cons of that action, her phone rang.
Perk.
“Hi,” she answered as casually as possible.
“What’s wrong?” Perk immediately jumped all over her single syllable greeting.
“Wha…? Why would anything be wrong?” Sloane countered sharply, instantly on the defensive.
“Uh, uh. Don’t deflect,” Perk chastised. “I hear it in your voice. You’re stressed. Does this have anything to do with me not contacting you right away after I left school?”
Sloane blinked at the accusation. “No. No. Of course not. I figured you’d be debriefing with your handlers and your team, then you’d call me as soon as you were free.”
Perk actually chuckled. “Well, you’re mostly right. But you can add eating an excellent meal that Tertia concocted, and me sucking up my homework to that list. If I hadn’t done that stack of teacher-related-busywork right away, I would have procrastinated all night.”
“Good call, then,” Sloane agreed, feeling relief that he hadn’t been ignoring her for any real reason. But suddenly she became tongue-tied and silence reigned between them until—
“So, what’s actually wrong?” It seemed Perk wasn’t going to give up.
“Well, I was just talking to Melissa, and—”
“Dammit. Don’t tell me,” Perk interrupted with a long, pained groan. “She didn’t buy my student act.”
“Oh, no,” Sloane was quick to reassure him. “She bought it, alright. It’s just that…” Sloane decided to reveal what else Mel had said. “…she actually thought you were hot, and said that the girls in school were going to be all over you.”
Perk snorted. “Oh really? I’m sure the very professional woman I met today didn’t use the word ‘hot’ when referring to a student.”
“Okay. You got me,” Sloane rephrased things. “She said you were like a piece of fine art; that she could look and appreciate, but not touch.”
This time Perk let out a howl of laughter, then spoke again when he finally managed to calm down.
“I’m flattered. By her attention and over the attention she thinks I’ll be getting from the female student body. But Sloane, even if those high school girls weren’t jail-bait, I’m currently interested in only one woman. And that’s you.”
Wow. Perk’s first thought had been to reassure her, and what a way to do it. He was putting her before the nubile young things he’d meet, and at least for the present, every other female out there. That was a new one for Sloane.
“Uh, thanks?” she managed.
He didn’t call her on her hesitation. “Now, with all that being said, you’re still circumnavigating my original question,” Perk prodded. “What’s wrong?”
“Fine,” Sloane grumbled. “I’ll tell you. I was chatting with Melissa, and realized I don’t know anything about you.”
“Uh, Sloane?” Perk responded.
“Yeah?”
“We’ve talked for hours. You know me.”
“No. I know about your work and your friends, but nothing else.”
“Well, here’s where I’m going out on a limb,” Perk cautioned. “I’m sure you must have done a deep dive into my background before you agreed to ‘see’ me as a friend; even an innocuous get-together like we had planned.”
“Nope. Not even close,” Sloane countered. “Which goes to show you that you don’t know anything about me , either. Because if you did, you understand that I don’t use company resources to look into potential…friends.”
“Friends, huh?” he responded with a chuckle. “I’m glad you’ve finally put me in that category, but Sloane, don’t think I’m not angling for an upgrade from there.”
Sloane snorted.
Perk continued. “Okay. Color me wrong on the whole background-check thing,” he said somewhat bemusedly. “And now that that’s off the table, I’ll share whatever you need. I’m an open book, and all you have to do is ask. I’ll answer any questions you have.”
Well shit. Did Sloane really want their somewhat playful conversation to devolve into an interrogation? Right now? The answer to that was easy. No. She knew she was being chicken-shit, but putting things off would be easier.
“Listen, Perk. I—”
“No. Stop right there. You brought this up, Sloane, and I can hear it’s important to you, so don’t lose your courage now. What is it you want to know?”
Sloane dragged in a deep breath and the most pertinent question at the forefront of her gray matter spewed out.
“Have you ever been married?”
Sloane held her breath, but there was no hesitation on Perk’s part.
“No. Not even close. The longest relationship I had lasted no more than two months. I hope that helps with whatever you’re thinking. And just in the guise of fairness, what about you? Have you ever tied the knot in the past?”
Sloane felt like she’d been hit with a sledgehammer.
She hadn’t expected Perk to send the inquiry back to her.
Now she’d have to find a way to answer him.