Chapter 5
Chapter Five
SAGE
The administrative part of what kept Alpha Omega Investigations running had been so backlogged and in such disarray when I started that it was shocking they were still in business.
In the days I’d been there, I’d managed to get payment on several old cases that had been closed months before my arrival as well as update the filing system and move everything online for better efficiency.
I was in the middle of updating the group calendar for the entire team when a knock sounded on my open door.
“Hey gorgeous. You’re lookin’ as beautiful as always,” Bryce called out, pulling me from my task.
Over the week, I’d gotten to know all the guys I worked with relatively well, but out of all of them, I’d grown closest to Bryce.
Easy-going and openly friendly, he was my second favorite person after Roxanne at Alpha Omega.
In his way, he’d taken me under his wing and showed me the ropes, and by “his way,” I meant he was a shameless flirt.
It was all perfectly harmless and innocent, but where Xander couldn’t open his mouth without being a prick, Bryce couldn’t speak to the opposite sex without flirting.
“Your charm is wasted on me, pretty boy,” I teased in return, enjoying the easy rapport he and I had formed.
He placed a hand over his heart and shot me a wounded look. “That kills, babe. It really does.”
I rolled my eyes at his dramatics and leaned back in my chair. “You stop by for a reason, or do you just like to distract me from my work?”
“As much fun as distracting a beauty like you is, I’m here to let you know the staff meeting’s about to start.”
“Thanks, Bry. I’ll be right there.”
Moving out of my office, I headed into the breakroom where I’d stashed the awesome birthday cake I picked up that morning from the cutesy little baker in town.
I might have worked at a place surrounded by men who took alpha to an extreme, but I was still a girl, and as one of the only two women on staff, I took it upon myself to find out everyone’s birthday and made the decision that staff meetings would also be celebrations for whoever’s birthday fell during that week, and today we’d be celebrating West with a pretty cake.
Grabbing a stack of paper plates and some plastic utensils, I made my way to the conference room where almost everyone had gathered and presented the box with a flourish. “Ta-da!”
My enthusiastic call was met with nine looks of confusion and one of excitement. Of course, the excitement came from Roxanne, who I’d already told what the box contained.
“What exactly are you ta-da-ing?” Marco asked, the corner of his mouth tugging up in a sexy smirk. “An ugly pink box?”
I shot him a fake scowl and declared, “It’s not an ugly pink box. It’s cute. And it’s what’s inside the box I’m ta-da-ing.” I set the box down and flipped open the lid, pulling out the cake.
“Is that a birthday cake?” Hunter asked in confusion.
“Yep. West’s birthday was a couple days ago, so I got a cake,” I answered as I began cutting the round white cake with dark green piping into equal slices.
Linc looked at me from where he sat at the head of the table. “Uh, sweetheart, we aren’t really a birthday celebratin’ kinda crew.”
“Wrong. You didn’t used to be the birthday celebrating kind of crew. Now you are because Rox and I like it, and more importantly, we want cake.”
“Rox has been here for years, and she’s never complained,” he informed me.
I quit slicing and braced my hands on my hips while giving my boss a look that dared him to screw with me. “Yeah, well now she’s got another member of the sisterhood at her back, and we like cake. So suck it up, buttercup.” I turned to West and shot him a smile, cheering, “Happy Birthday, West!”
The birthday boy hit me with a hot smile that made my knees quiver. Jeez, all these men were something else. “Thanks, honey.”
“Oh, hell yeah!” Cord exclaimed, coming into the conference room and moving toward the pieces of cake I’d already plated. “Is that from Sugar and Spice? That bakery’s the shit.”
“That it is. Marble cake with a coffee-infused, chocolate ganache filling.”
Hunter spoke up again. “Damn, even I have to admit that sounds good.” He looked to me and winked. “This birthday thing might not be so bad after all. Just a heads-up, mine’s in April.”
I returned his wink. “Already have it on my calendar, handsome.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Xander grunted from the other end of the table. “Can we stop talkin’ about birthdays and maybe do some goddamn work?”
I did my best to shoot fireballs from my eyes as I stomped over and dropped a plate in front of him with a loud plop. “Oh, for crying out loud, quit whining and eat your damn cake.”
He looked at the cake like it personally offended him before turning that same expression to me and grumbling, “I don’t eat cake.”
“Then sit there and stare at it. But do it quietly so your pissy mood doesn’t bother the rest of us.”
“Holy shit.” At Marco’s humor-filled voice, my attention shifted and I noticed everyone staring at us in shock. “She’s really not scared of him in the slightest, is she?”
“My girl’s tough,” Roxanne added with pride in her voice and a mouth full of cake.
I rolled my eyes and took one of the empty seats around the long conference table. “I grew up surrounded by rough bikers until I was sixteen. To most folks, my dad and all his buddies looked terrifying. Not much scares me.” I glanced back to Xander. “Especially jerkoffs who don’t have any manners.”
Xander’s full, gorgeous lips parted to issue an insult in return when Linc spoke up and shut the ensuing fight down. “All right, enough. Can you two return to your corners so we can get shit done without any bloodshed?”
As hard as it was, I managed to bite my tongue and keep quiet as Linc asked for the lowdown from each guy on the cases they were working.
After a while I started to get a little bored, and my mind began to drift, turning to one of the fantasies I’d created over the past few days.
In this one, Xander was standing in the middle of the street with a look of terror on his face as I mowed him down with my car.
I vaguely heard the sound of Linc’s voice over Fantasy Sage’s diabolical laughter as he said, “Call came in yesterday. Wife wants to set up a track-and-trap for her husband. Who’s up next?”
At the muttered grumblings around the table, I forced myself out of the daydream and tuned back in to the conversation.
“Jesus, not another one,” West complained.
“What’s a track-and-trap?” I asked, looking around the table with curiosity.
It was Bryce who answered. “Spouse comes in, suspectin’ their partner of cheating, and wants us to catch ’em in the act.”
I instantly perked up, sitting straighter in my seat. “That sounds awesome.”
“It’s not,” another one of the guys, Dalton, cut in. “Usually means we spend days stakin’ out, which is boring as hell. Then, if we get a shot, takin’ pictures of the target in the act, which means we’re stuck watchin’, and that shit’s almost always gross as hell or twisted as fuck.”
My nose scrunched at the thought of seeing something gross or twisted, but I wasn’t that easily deterred. Turning back to Linc, I asked, “Well, what if I do this one?”
He looked at me with bemusement marring his handsome face. “You wanna take pictures of people fuckin’?”
I felt my top lip curl. “Hey, I’m all about live and let live, in all the forms that that comes in, but that’d be a hard no on taking pics of people pre/mid/and post coital.
What I’m suggesting is me being the bait?
I go in wearing a wire or something, honey trap the cheating SOB, if he is in fact a cheating SOB, that way you guys get what you need for the wife.
Then I’ll make up some excuse to bail out before sex can even enter the equation.
It’s a win-win,” I finished enthusiastically, my excitement growing the more I thought about it.
“And if your excuse doesn’t work?”
I looked to Trent who’d just spoken, and declared, “It’ll work.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
Pinching my face into an expression of pain, I placed my hands low on my belly and whined, “Oh god, I just started my period. It feels like someone’s tap dancing on my uterus.” Trent’s face scrunched up in revulsion while the rest of the guys groaned.
“Works every time,” Roxanne muttered from beside me, lifting her hand so I could give her a high-five.
“And,” I continued, “if that doesn’t work, I could just happen to eat some bad shellfish beforehand. No dude can keep it stiff with a woman making retching sounds from the bathroom.”
Linc looked at me in deep contemplation for several seconds. “You know, that could actually work.”
“Jesus,” Xander barked at the same time I let out an eager squeak and bounced in my chair.
“You can’t be fuckin’ serious right now.
She’s totally green. Hell, she’s not even licensed.
” His attention turned to me, those black eyes narrowing menacingly.
“This isn’t a game, little girl. I’m tellin’ you now, whatever bullshit you cooked up in your head based on what you’ve seen on TV is way off base.
This shit can be dangerous. It takes skill, patience, and concentration. ”
I narrowed my eyes right back, placing my palms on the table and leaning in. “If I can work here for five days and not murder you, I can do anything.”
“She’s got you there, brother,” Bryce teased, making the other guys laugh.
“I can do this,” I said, turning my focus back to Linc. “I’m good under pressure, I can take direction, and I don’t get flustered easily.”
“You know, this’ll all be for nothin’ if she can’t catch the mark’s eye,” Xander said, giving me a snide look from across the table.
“I’ve got a vagina, so I’m already in,” I said dryly. “Lie to yourself all you want, but for most guys, that’s all it takes. Add in a pushup bra, and it’s over.”
“Anyone else got a problem with sendin’ Sage in as a honey trap?
” Linc asked the table. As I suspected, no one but Xander had an issue.
“Then it’s settled. I’ll make the call and set up a meeting for next week so we can get the ball rollin’.
” I glanced back across the table and sneered, flipping Xander the bird as discreetly as possible for good measure.
Suck on that, douche nozzle.
But Linc wasn’t done. “Hunter, Xander, I want you to take Sage’s back on this one. We’ll discuss the details next week after we meet with the client.”
Well shit.