Chapter 9
9
Mateo laughed as he followed MacLaine Sinclair through the streets of Annapolis. He couldn’t be more surprised than if Godzilla had popped up and stepped out in front of him. Not only was Lainey all woman, she was about the prettiest Southern lady he had ever met. Mateo didn’t think he’d ever had a woman give him such shy admiring glances before.
He’d already loved her accent before meeting her in person, and having her words drip sunshine on him while he worked on changing her tire had been staggering. Even her clumsiness was cute.
Down, boy.
She’s a target.
She’s done transfers for the Kraken.
She had a quarter of a million in gold to buy a house, obviously a payment from the Kraken.
As he followed the brunette in the flowery dress who was driving like a retiree from Boca Raton, Mateo was having a hard time imagining her in cahoots with the Kraken. A dupe, maybe? Maybe she didn’t know what was going on, but not a willing participant with a terrorist organization.
“Then explain the gold coins,” he muttered to himself.
He looked out his car window, waiting for Godzilla to pop out and answer his question. No such luck. When he didn’t get any answers, he went back to concentrating on the red Toyota in front of him.
Seriously? Could she drive any slower? She was three miles below the speed limit as they drove through Annapolis’ Historic District. They were almost to Church Circle when she took a right and started crawling down one street and then the next. Finally, she went down an alley and stopped. Mateo got out of the car and went up to hers, where she had rolled down her window.
“I’m good, Matt. Thanks for watching out for me.”
“What do you mean you’re good?” Mateo looked at where they were, and it was behind a tavern. “You can’t live here.”
She laughed. “Of course I don’t. We just passed where I live. Did you see that big brick building that took up the entire block?”
He nodded.
“That’s where I live. It used to be where a hospital was, now it’s a condominium. It has an underground garage, and you couldn’t get in, so I figured I’d go here and say my thanks now. I don’t suppose you’d let me bake you some scones, would you?”
He felt his eyebrows lift. “Scones?”
“Or maybe something with chocolate? Do you like chocolate?” she quickly asked. “Chocolate chip cookies?”
“I like chocolate,” he admitted. He remembered his mother’s chocotorta that she continued to make even after they came to America and she was working long hours.
“Then it’s a deal. When can we meet again so I can give you some cookies?”
It couldn’t be this easy, could it?
“I’ll let you bake me cookies on one condition.” He looked down into her hopeful blue eyes.
“What’s that?”
“You let me take you to dinner.”
“Uh-uh. I buy you dinner,” she said, shaking her head. Even just with the light of the moon, her hair still shined.
“Nope, you bake cookies. I buy dinner. Trust me, I’m getting the better end of the deal.” And he meant it. “I have to work late tomorrow and Friday. Will Saturday work?”
“That would be perfect.”
Mateo reached to pull his mobile out of his cargo shorts pocket, then cursed the chino pants he was wearing. He’d left his phone in his car.
“My phone is in my car. Let me give you the number, and you call it. That way, you’ll have mine, and I’ll have yours.”
She reached over and grabbed hers out of her purse. He rattled off his number and heard the faint sound of his cell phone ringing in his car.
“What do you like to eat?”
“I’m not particular. I just like food. So anyplace is fine.”
He liked her attitude and her smile.
“How about I pick you up at eighteen—six-thirty,” he quickly corrected himself.
“Eighteen six-thirty? That’s kind of an odd time.” She teased him gently. There was no snark involved. She was kind. Didn’t she understand what the Kraken did?
“I changed my mind to six-thirty. I’d like more time to get to know you. I can come pick you up.”
“Can we meet at the restaurant? I don’t really know you.”
Mateo smiled and nodded. “Smart.” Luckily, Gideon and Jada—but he was pretty sure it was Jada—had taken this into account. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a fake business card. “This is me. This is where I work. If you call this number and ask for Jada Harlow, she’s my boss, she can give you a reference. Would that work?”
He watched as a smile blossomed across Lainey’s face. “That would be great.”
“So, if I pass muster, you can call me, and I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.” He smiled in return.
He watched as her lips parted and her eyes drooped just a little.
“I’d like to get to know you better, too, Matt. It’s not often I meet a knight in shining armor.”
Mateo tensed and squeezed the back of his neck. “Don’t let me fool you. If I had armor, which I don’t, it would be dirty and dented.”
“That just means you’ve been through the fires. Shiny armor is for those boys who just graduated from the Naval Academy, and they never caught my attention. But let’s meet at the restaurant. I really don’t know you.”
Mateo squeezed his neck harder. He needed to get his shit sorted. He didn’t need her complimenting him, and him beginning to like her. She was a target. Everything pointed to her working for the Kraken. The same people who tried to kill Amber, Lachlan, and baby Iris. He backed away from her car.
“Well, I’ll see you on Saturday,” he promised. “I’ll call you to firm things up on Friday. Don’t forget to get that tire replaced as soon as possible.”
He watched as she frowned. “Is everything okay?”
“I just remembered, I’m Ken’s ride. I need to get back to Home Port.”
She grinned big. “Oh. Well then, I probably owe Ken some cookies too.”
“Nah, he’s already had more sweets than he needs. Don’t forget, I’ll call you on Friday. And be careful on that tire.”
“I will.”
Things had been looking up by the time Friday afternoon rolled around. Janice had left early because of a non-existent dentist’s appointment. The cryptocurrency transfer had been vetted and had gone through without her having to call the Grand Cayman Islands Bank like last time. And, she’d gotten all the ingredients for alfajores. She’d looked up the Argentine layer cookie that had dulce de leche in the middle and were then coated with a layer of chocolate. The only problem was she couldn’t figure out if she should go dark or milk chocolate, but with the sweet caramel center, which was kind of what dulce de leche was, she went dark chocolate. Now all she had to do was a trial run tonight, and hopefully work out the kinks so that tomorrow’s batch would be perfect!
“Lainey?” She looked up and saw Penny knocking on her open office door.
“Hi Penny, what’s up?” Lainey sat back in her chair and motioned for Penny to sit down at Janice’s vacant desk.
Penny shook her head. “I’ve got a problem.” She sat down on the corner of Lainey’s desk.
“How can I help?”
“Your mother is on hold, and it’s the third time she’s called in twenty minutes. This time, she’s being out-and-out ugly. You know the rules: we don’t transfer personal calls through the main switchboard to employees. That’s why we all have direct lines. I told her to call you directly, but she said she lost your number and demanded to be put through. I told her I would take a message. She wanted to talk to my supervisor, but I knew if I got Rita involved, you might get in trouble.”
Lainey wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.
“I think you need to take the call and get a handle on things before they escalate. I know you’ve never talked about your family, and now I see why.” Penny reached down and touched Lainey’s forearm. “After you talk to her, you tell me if there’s anything I can do to help. I know you’ve told me she can be a bit of a pill, but if you need a shoulder to cry on, I’m here. You know that don’t you?”
Lainey nodded. She would have said something, but she didn’t know what to say.
“I’ll go down and put her through to your number, okay?”
“Absolutely. I’m so sorry about this.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. We all have some wack-a-doodles in our family tree. I’ll tell you about my twin cousins sometime.”
Penny popped off her desk. “Just give me a minute. In the meantime, I’ll close your door to give you a bit of privacy.”
“Thanks,” Lainey said in a weak voice. As soon as the door was closed, she dropped her head down into her hands.
“Crap, Mom. Why are you doing this?”
She rubbed her temples, already feeling the start of a tension headache. She needed to stop with this. She no longer lived with her mother. Her mother couldn’t pull her strings, and she would not let her cause her physical pain.
Lainey jerked when the phone rang.
“Go time,” she muttered.
“Hello, Mother,” she said in a clipped tone of voice. “I’m working. Why are you calling me during my workday?”
“It’s an emergency,” her mother wailed. “I told that twit downstairs that I must speak to you immediately. I told her it was of utmost urgency.”
“Is someone sick? Is someone in the hospital?” They were the same questions she always asked when her mother said something was urgent.
“Of course not,” her mother sniffed. Once again, they were saying their same old tired lines. “If it was something like that, your brother Bartholomew would have called you. I would be at whoever’s bedside, ministering to them.”
Lainey rolled her eyes.
“So now that we’ve established this isn’t an emergency, tell me why you’re calling me during a workday.” She didn’t give a darn if her mother could hear the impatience in her tone.
“Bennett has decided that she needs to be on bedrest for the rest of her pregnancy.”
What the heck?
“I thought you said it wasn’t an emergency. What’s wrong with her? What did the doctor say?”
She might not like her sister much, but she loved her. Lainey calculated how much accrued vacation she had. She started up a search engine on her computer so she could check flights to Charleston.
“Her doctor said she was perfectly fine, but Bennett decided she needed to check into Charleston Place and Spa for the rest of her pregnancy. Daddy and I were able to get her a club suite for the duration.”
“What did you say?”
Lainey was appalled. That place cost an arm and a leg, not that her family couldn’t afford it, but still. “Bennett’s not due for another four months, Mom. What about the girls? Are they going with her?”
“Of course not. They’ll stay with the nanny.”
“But they’re only four and six, Bennett can’t leave them for so long.”
“It’s okay, they’ll visit her. The nanny will take care of them just fine. This will help them grow a backbone. That’s what she’s paid for. Francine did quite well for you children.”
Lainey shuddered just hearing Francine’s name. “But I thought Bennett fired the girl’s nanny.”
“That was two months ago. They found a darling girl last month. The girls love her. She’s from France. She just graduated from the Sorbonne. Bennett was lucky to get her.”
“Wonderful. So, Bennett is basically abdicating all responsibility for four months.”
Trey had always had a wandering eye. He’d even made a pass at her once. Bennett was going to leave him with some darling Parisian girl for four months? Just how stupid was her sister?
“That is exactly my point. I need you to come home and take your place by my side. I can’t possibly run these charity events without one of my daughters by my side. The whole situation is untenable.”
Lainey snorted.
“MacLaine, you need to stop that disgusting habit. You’re never going to catch any man of worth when you make such ugly noises. I suppose you’re still biting your bottom lip?”
“Yes, I am.”
“What size are you?”
“None of your business.”
Her mother sighed. “We’ll just have to have a seamstress come in to help tailor a wardrobe for you and put you on a diet. Please tell me you’re not wearing things from off the rack.”
Lainey covered her nose and mouth to stop from snorting again. This woman wasn’t for real, but after twenty-four years, she knew she was.
“Mother, I’m not coming back to Charleston. I have a job, and I can’t leave it.”
“And it’s not just charity lunch functions. There is also your Daddy’s and my fortieth wedding anniversary. I’ve already selected two eligible bachelors who will be perfect to escort you. And you can’t complain this time because I’ve given you a choice.”
Darn it, she’d forgotten about her parents’ anniversary.
“Mother, this isn’t a good time right now. I’ll call you back on Sunday.”
“Don’t you dare hang up on me, MacLaine Taylor Simpson, I must have answers, now!”
“My boss is giving me the evil eye for being on a personal call so long. I have to hang up. I’ll call you on Sunday, I promise.”
She could hear her mother squawking as she hung up.
Lainey called Penny and told her to do the same thing if she got a call from her mother again. Hang the fudgesicle up!