Chapter Fourteen
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
T he French bistro was buzzing with the Friday-night crowd when Haisley arrived the following evening. She scanned the upscale space full of dark wood, mirrors, white subway tile, and Louis XIV touches that gave the restaurant a Parisian feel until her gaze landed on Gracelyn, who practically glowed as she read a menu at the corner table.
“Hey, you.” Haisley sat and pulled her friend into a hug. “Sorry I’m late. I got held up at the office.”
Waiting to hear from Nash again about the case, hoping he’d wander in before quitting time. But he’d been a no-call, no-show.
What was he doing tonight? Haisley wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Instead, she pasted on a smile and did her best to be present with her friend, who looked like she had big news to spill.
“No worries.” Gracelyn smiled. “I just got here myself. Busy day.”
The petite brunette looked rosy, sated, and sublimely happy. Haisley had a suspicion Gracelyn’s job wasn’t the only thing keeping her occupied. “And what about your nights? Looks like you met someone special.”
Gracelyn’s blush deepened. “Those are busy, too…if you know what I mean. I’ve been seeing Kane Preston since New Year’s Eve.”
Haisley’s jaw almost dropped. He was the last person she would have thought her friend would go for. “Wait. Kane Preston, the loner with the beard who works with Nash and Ethan and?—”
“Yes. We got together on New Year’s Eve, after almost everyone else left. We’ve been inseparable since. He’s…everything I never thought I’d want in a guy, but he’s amazing.”
Haisley’s chest squeezed with longing as memories of those first giddy, lust-fueled days with Nash resurfaced. She couldn’t help but remember all the ways they’d indulged their hunger for each other while they’d laughed and talked…and she’d fallen ridiculously hard. Then one day, everything had become complicated, and her life had turned upside down.
Gracelyn waved a hand in front of her face. “Hey, you okay? Where’d you go just now?”
“Sorry.” Haisley forced a tight smile. “Wow, I’m…shocked. I don’t know Kane well, but he seems like a decent guy.”
“He really is. You know I’ve always been attracted to cerebral men, right?”
“You mean nerds.”
“Smart individuals,” Gracelyn corrected with a grin. “But Kane is not only brilliant, he also happens to be hot, muscled, tatted, amazing in bed… He’s, like, the perfect package.”
“Well, if you’re happy, I’m happy for you.”
Gracelyn frowned. “I know that expression. You have reservations. You’re worried I’m getting in too deep too fast.”
Sometimes Haisley was startled by how well her friends knew her.
“If I’m being honest, yeah.” She grabbed the water a waiter set in front of her. Once the fifty-something man said he’d be back to take their order, she focused again on Gracelyn. “Look, I want you to be happy. You deserve the best guy out there.”
“But?”
“But…it can be messy to get tangled up with one of these operatives. You should guard your heart until you know where you stand.”
“Like you did? How did that end up for you?” Gracelyn shook her head. “I don’t want to play games. Kane and I haven’t talked future or made any promises, but I want to be upfront about how I’m feeling. How will I ever know if it’s mutual unless one of us puts ourselves out there?”
Haisley opened her mouth to argue, then snapped it shut. Was that her problem with Nash, too much between them unspoken? Feelings seemed like a giant, room-swallowing elephant they both ignored. Or maybe that was just her. Maybe she was projecting her emotions onto him. Maybe he didn’t feel a damn thing. She was too chicken to find out.
Gracelyn’s expression softened as she sighed. “I know you. I know what happened. I know you got hurt, just like I know you still love him.”
“I don’t want to get into this.”
“Too bad. You need to. Did you ever tell him why you left?”
Haisley winced. “No.”
“How is anything supposed to work out if you don’t level with him?”
“He gave up on me, Gracie. Whatever he felt is gone.”
“It didn’t look like that on New Year’s Eve.”
“That was tequila, and things have changed. What would be the point of telling him I love him now, when he’s so clearly moved on?”
“Because that’s not clear. And you need to get this off your chest. Put the ball in his court. Make him think.”
“Charli did that once upon a time with Daniel, and look how that isn’t working out.”
“Apples to oranges. Nash is hardly Daniel.”
“Thank god.”
“You never thought he was good enough for Charli.”
“Because he’s not. Rat bastard.”
“What I’m trying to say is, we’re all different people in different situations. Just because it might not work out for them doesn’t mean it can’t for me. Or for you…”
Haisley shifted in her seat, hot discomfort prickling her skin. She was being a coward; she knew that. Was it possible that, all this time, Nash had been harboring feelings, too? That he’d been reluctant to tell her and risk his heart?
The thought tilted her world on its axis. Her head spun.
“But even if Nash has moved on—which I don’t think he has—wouldn’t you rather know instead of angsting about it?”
“You…might be onto something. I have to think. But this conversation isn’t about me. Tell me all about Kane. What’s going on?”
“Besides the fact he makes me laugh and he’s upped my orgasm quotient by about a million?” Gracelyn flashed her a lopsided smile, complete with dimples.
By the time they left the bistro, Haisley was cautiously optimistic for her friend. But when it came to Nash, she was still reeling. What if she was missing out on something deeper with him, something that could make her profoundly happy, all because she was too afraid to risk her heart again?
As she pulled away from the restaurant to head home, her phone rang. Seeing Nash’s name on her display made her heart leap and race. Did he want to see her tonight?
“Hey.” She tried to sound casual, not like she was freaking out. Not like she was eager to lay eyes—and anything else she could—on him. Definitely not like she was on the verge of blurting I love you . “What’s up?”
“Did you get the chance to talk to Benedict this afternoon?”
So he didn’t want to see her. Yes, she’d asked for professionalism…but she still felt let down.
“No. He was in another shitty mood. About four, he tore out of his office, marched down the hall, and yelled at Mila. Then he screamed some more at a few of the accounting folks. He kept tearing through the office like a tornado before he unloaded his temper on me about negative press from some independent journalist on YouTube before he slammed out of the office. Mila crept out a few minutes later, looking shaken, and left, too. I doubt she went home.” At least Haisley wouldn’t have if she’d been Benedict’s wife.
“Any chance anyone is still at the office?”
“There’s always a chance, but I doubt it. Most of those people… When five o’clock rolls around, they blaze a path to the parking lot. What’s going on?”
“I need to search your boss’s office.”
“Tonight?”
“I don’t think this can wait. Ethan intercepted a new communication on the laptop he swiped. Apparently, someone wasn’t aware that Yuslav quit his job because they sent him an urgent message. It’s encoded, but between Ethan and my brother, they figured out the cipher. Whoever reached out says they have another buyer, and they need fresh product—fast. The request was for someone younger than usual.”
“Younger than sixteen?” That made Haisley sick. “Ugh. You’re right; we can’t waste a moment.”
“My bosses will be pissed that I’m going behind their backs, but I have to take the investigation where it leads me. I’ll fill them in once I’m sure this is the right path, but I think we have to give Benedict a hard look.”
“He’s looking awfully suspicious.”
“It’s possible he’s guilty. Plausible, even. You said yourself this is an inside job. He personally hired Yuslav to manage the mall. His sudden resignation seems to have pissed your boss way the hell off and sent him scrambling to find a replacement.”
“But we have to acknowledge that he could be scrambling simply because replacing any employee with mall-management experience will be difficult, not to mention time-consuming and costly.” She wasn’t defending Benedict as much as she was playing devil’s advocate.
“True, but he could also be worried that his partner in crime got exposed and is now hanging in the wind with his dick flapping around.”
“You’re right. So…let’s try to figure out what’s up with my boss.”
“There’s no ‘we.’ You’re not going.”
Is that what he thought? “How are you going to get into the office without me?”
“You’re going to give me your key.”
“And send you to rifle through Benedict’s things alone? That’s what you think?”
“I’m not bringing you, Haisley. That’s final. This could be dangerous.”
“Life is dangerous. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow.”
“There aren’t that many buses in Lafayette,” he pointed out.
“You know what I mean. Besides, if we’re caught, I’m your get-out-of-jail-free card. I can say that I needed something I’d left in the office, but I was too afraid to come alone after dark… If you’re caught without me, no one will ask questions. They’ll just haul you off to jail.”
“I won’t get caught.”
“You don’t know that. Besides, I’ve been in Benedict’s lair a few times. I have a sense of his organization system and where he might hide things. It will take me less time to find anything implicating, which means less time to get caught. You’re taking me with you.”
Nash sighed in defeat. “You’re a pain in my ass, Rowe.”
“Does logic hurt your posterior, Scott?”
“No. But you clearly need yours spanked red.”
Haisley clenched, memories of all the pleasurable times he’d warmed her cheeks with his bare palm—slowly, steadily, inexorably heating her up and making her drip with need for him. But that was a long time ago. “Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“I didn’t ask you to. We’re supposed to be working together. Benedict said so. Should I meet you there?”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “No. I don’t want your car captured on the lot’s cameras. I don’t want him having any way to connect you in case he realizes someone searched his office.”
Yeah, she’d rather not be harangued by her asshole of a boss, either. “So what’s the plan?”
“Oh, you’re going to let me come up with that part?”
“If you’re dispensing sarcasm, that’s lame. You better bring your A-game, because I’m damn good at it.”
“Vixen.” He sighed. “I’ll pick you up in twenty. Wear head-to-toe black.”
“So I blend in better when all the lights are off?”
“And because you look hot in black. Bye.”
Haisley tried not to smile. “I’ve moved since I had that apartment way back when. Don’t you need my address, hotshot?”
Nash laughed. “No.”
Dead air told her he’d ended their call. That sexy bastard had already figured out where she lived? Because he’d been curious? Because he was a control freak? Or…because she mattered to him?
The unanswered questions spun in her brain as she tossed on some dark yoga pants, a black turtleneck, and matching tennis shoes. She shoved her hair into a messy bun and tucked it under a black cap she’d bought on a ski trip to Colorado a few winters past.
Ten minutes later, Nash pulled up on his motorcycle and tossed her a helmet. Wordlessly, she climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
As he took off into the darkening night, she resisted the urge to lay her cheek on the wide, muscled expanse of his back. She hadn’t touched Nash since New Year’s Eve. She hadn’t cooled down since then, either. Being this close to him thickened her desire and sent her self-control reeling.
Ten minutes later, he parked in the lot of a twenty-four-hour greasy spoon down the street from her office and helped her off before locking away their helmets. “Let’s go.”
“How are we approaching? There are only two doors in and out of the building and?—”
“There are three. We’re using the service entrance. I scoped it out the first day, looking for the building’s weaknesses and escape points. Once we’ve gone up the freight elevator, you can get us inside your office door. Thank god this is an historic building, and no one wanted to sully tradition by installing electronic card readers that would leave a digital trail of your visit.”
Haisley pulled her keyring from her pocket. “Lead the way.”
As they neared the building, he lifted his finger to his lips to indicate silence, then guided her toward a side entrance she’d never noticed. Then again, she’d never been to the building’s loading dock.
Outside, an elderly black man waited under a dim light, flipping a coin in a rickety old chair.
“Hey, Zeph,” Nash called.
The older man rose. “Door’s open, like you asked.”
“You’re a hero.” Nash slid him fifty bucks. “As promised.”
“Just doing my bit. Hope you find what you’re looking for. You’ve got an hour. Then I have to lock up.”
“We’ll be out of here in half that.” Nash clapped his shoulder. “You have my number if you see anyone coming.”
“I do, and I’m watching.” The old man nodded her way. “Miss.”
She smiled. “Thanks. We appreciate you.”
He tipped his cap to her as they slid inside the building and headed through the section that had been cordoned off as a warehouse. Through another door, one she’d bet was usually locked after hours, Nash emerged into the building’s main lobby. He plastered himself against the wall, then settled his arm in front of her to press her flat, too. “Cameras are here and here.” He pointed with a whisper. “We’re in a dead zone. Zeph has a friend in security who’s going to reboot the system, including the cameras. It should take two minutes. We’ll have to be on the elevator by then.”
“Got it.”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a pair of leather gloves. He handed her a purple latex pair, like she’d seen in a doctor’s office. “Put those on and listen to me. No matter what happens, you follow my instructions. Do you understand? If I tell you to hide, you hide. If I tell you to run, you run. No questions asked.”
“Nash…”
“Nope. Agree now or I’m taking your office key and sending you outside to spend an hour with Zeph. Your choice.”
She loved how protective he was, and she even had an appreciation for his bossy side. Not that she would tell him. Who knew if he was cautious because she mattered to him…or because he didn’t want to clean up her blood and guts?
She rolled her eyes. “Do I need your permission to breathe, too?”
“This is no joke.”
“Yes, your highness.”
“Keep with the attitude, and I’ll?—”
Nash’s phone buzzed in the otherwise silent lobby. He read it, then scanned the room.
“You’ll what?”
“Later.” He gestured her to follow. “We’re on the clock. Let’s go.”
He hailed the elevator. Together, they crashed inside it with just under a minute to spare. Thankfully, the people helping Nash had not only killed the cameras in the lobby, they’d cut off the lights inside the car, too.
God, she loved to see him at work. He was methodical, thorough, and seemingly thought of everything. It was surprisingly sexy. Maybe because that was the way he functioned in bed, too.
When they reached the floor of Benedict Land Development’s office, she inserted the key and let them in.
Surprisingly, the floor wasn’t totally dark. More than a few computers were rolling through their screen-saver sequences while ambient lights shone from the faux industrial ceiling. Neither of them bothered with more than a glance at her desk. Instead, they tiptoed down the hall, past the executive suites.
Mila’s door was closed and locked. Haisley wondered if she’d gone home to the man who had yelled at her or if she’d decided she’d had enough and found someplace else to spend her weekend. If Haisley knew the woman better, she would have reached out and offered her a spare bedroom as a kindness to someone going through a rough patch…but Mila might find that weird. Besides, her boss wouldn’t appreciate her trying to come between him and his wife.
At the end of the hall, she stopped and whispered, “You know I don’t have a key to the boss’s office, right?”
Nash nodded. “I would have been shocked if you did. But this door I can handle.”
He withdrew something from his pocket, stuck it in the lock, and started jimmying it. In less than thirty seconds, he was pushing the door wide open and, gun in hand, sweeping the office. “Clear. Come in.”
She did, carefully closing the door behind her. “Do we dare turn on the lights?”
Nash shook his head. “He doesn’t have cameras installed anywhere on this floor. I looked. But I don’t know if he has any other sensors, and I wouldn’t want to tip off the janitorial staff if they happen to see something. Hold this.”
When he handed her a flashlight, she took it with a scowl. “And do what?”
“Tell me where you think we should start looking.”
For the next ten minutes, they searched his desk drawers, his filing cabinet, and a credenza in which he kept various plaques and trophies he’d collected over the years. Nothing jumped out at Haisley as being suspicious. “It’s hard to find something when you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
Nash nodded. “There’s a reason his door is always closed, and he locks it the minute he leaves. It’s possible he’s merely private, but…”
“He could be hiding something, too. If he’s involved, what would he keep here?”
“If he was smart, nothing. But Benedict clearly thinks he’s better than everyone else, so it wouldn’t surprise me if his cockiness makes him sloppy. We’re looking for ledgers, receipts, notes…anything that would tie him to Yuslav beyond the employee-employer relationship.”
“I have an idea.” Haisley didn’t wait for Nash to follow her to the back of the room since she had the flashlight.
“Tell me.”
“When I tried to talk to Benedict earlier this afternoon, I knocked on his door and poked my head in. I noticed him fiddling with something on these bookshelves.” She gestured to the massive, wall-to-wall unit behind his desk. “Here on the right.”
She fished around and found a humidor. When she lifted it from the shelf and shined the light on it, she found it padlocked. “Damn it. He was either looking in or putting something into this… Everything happened so fast, but?—”
“Hand it to me.”
She did, watching as he set the fancy wooden box on her boss’s pretentiously large desk. “What are you going to do?”
He pulled another pick out of the little kit in his pocket. “It would be easier to just break the lock, but he’d know someone was onto him. So picking this sucker it is.”
“Won’t it take a while to— Okay, that was fast,” she murmured as he lifted the lid. When she flashed the light on the interior, she was surprised as hell. “That’s not a cigar.”
“Nope.” He lifted the Glock out of the humidor and checked it out. “Loaded. He’s ready for action.”
That terrified her. “Does he intend to defend himself or go postal on the office?”
“Or something else entirely. And what do we have here? His passport, valid and in his name, along with a wad of cash—at least ten grand in hundred dollar bills.”
“Is that, like, his go-stash?”
“Or a nefarious, hiding-shit-from-his-wife stash. Maybe this will give us the answer.” Nash pulled a phone from the box’s interior.
Haisley frowned. “That’s not his usual phone.”
“Your boss having a burner phone doesn’t automatically make him guilty…but it looks suspicious as fuck.” Nash tapped a button, and the screen flickered to life, prompting him for a passcode. “Damn it. Any ideas?”
“Mila’s birthday?” She rattled off the date.
Nash tried the numbers. “Nope. We don’t have time to stand here and guess. And I don’t want to lock us out of the device. I’m taking this with me. My brother will get it pried open easy.”
“Are you insane? What if Benedict comes back for it before Monday?”
“You got a better idea?”
She didn’t. “If you get it back to me by Sunday night, I’ll come in early Monday morning and try to sneak it in before he arrives.”
He shook his head and shoved the device in his pocket. “We’ll have to lock Benedict’s office door behind us, and you won’t be able to get in without me. I’ll take care of it. What else is in here?”
Did he really think she was going to let that slide? “You’re cutting me out.”
“I’m keeping you out of the danger as much as possible.”
“But—”
“I already didn’t want you here, where you might be implicated if something goes south. But I’m not involving you any deeper. You’re going to be a good girl and give me your office key so I can repeat this tomorrow—alone.”
“The hell I am.”
He turned to her, the kind of displeasure all over his face that used to make her shiver. “What is it you don’t understand? I’m trying to protect you.”
“I didn’t ask you to. And if you get caught with my key, I’m out of a job. So stop shoving me out of the way.”
“What? I respect you too much for that. Baby, you’re smart, and you keep me on my toes. If it weren’t for the bad guys and all the women disappearing, if we were holed up in a war room trying to solve this shit, there are few people I’d rather have helping me than you. But you understand that being fired for helping me is way better than what will happen if you’re caught by the bad guys? You’ll be dead—or worse. This is my job . No. Fuck it. That’s not the only reason. I didn’t have you in my life for two goddamn years. Do you think I’m going to risk you when I’ve only had you back for a handful of days?”
Haisley gaped, her heart suddenly chugging. Did Nash mean that the way it sounded? Romantically? Like he’d never gotten over her? “Nash, I?—”
“Shh.” The sound was soft, but he zipped a hard palm between them. He whipped his phone from his pocket, his face tightening as he scanned the illuminated screen, then cursed under his breath as he arranged everything but Benedict’s hidden phone back into the humidor. “Put the box back. Someone’s coming.”