Chapter Twelve #2
So what if this one time I didn't follow the rules? Who would it hurt? It was cookies. Cookies.
It wasn't until she smiled at me that I remembered how wound tight she was most of the time. Lily was a champ at putting on a brave face, mostly for her son, but underneath she was strained. Scared. Until I knew why, I couldn't fix that, but I could make her smile.
I wanted to see that look on her face more often, the line gone from between her brows, her eyes bright and happy. I wanted to be the one who made it happen.
That thought dragged me right down into the gutter as an image flashed in my mind of Lily naked, her smooth, tawny skin and cloud of soft curls spread before me, that same bright, happy smile curving her lips.
Fucking hell, I could make her smile like that all night if I got her in bed. I could find all new smiles, new ways to make her eyes shine…
“Can you really teach my mom to make cookies?” Adam asked from beside me. A wave of guilt washed away my lustful thoughts of naked Lily.
Christ, I was sitting next to her kid and imagining fucking her. Maybe Deputy Dave was right, and I was a bad influence. My phone rang in my pocket. I slid it out to see Cooper's name.
I'd call when I was back in the cottage. Silencing the phone, I looked down at Adam. “I absolutely can teach your mom to bake cookies.”
“How did you learn? Did your mom teach you?”
“It's not just moms who know how to make cookies, bud.
I have a friend, Annabelle. She bakes the most amazing desserts you've ever seen.
She has one that's three kinds of cake layered together, filled with peanut butter and covered with chocolate. She taught me how to make cookies because I kept eating all of hers.”
Adam nodded. “Smart of her.”
“She's a smart girl,” I agreed. I looked up to see the deputy smiling with satisfaction and Lily's eyes avoiding mine. I'd think about that later. I stood, picking up my plate, and looked down at Adam. “Get your plate and bring it to the sink?”
He popped up and grabbed his stuff, dutifully following me into the kitchen. Behind me, Lily muttered under her breath, “For you, he clears the table.” The second his plate hit the sink, Adam took off for the stairs, eager to avoid anything else to do with the dishes.
As expected, Dave didn't do shit to help clean up from dinner. He stood, patted his stomach, thanked Lily for the meal and excused himself to the bathroom.
I would've bet a hundred bucks the bathroom wasn't his only goal. With the rest of us occupied in the kitchen, he thought he was safe for another search. I ignored him, helping Lily clear the dishes and wash up. I could check the camera feeds later.
“You don't have to help with this,” Lily said.
“I can wash a few dishes, Lily. You cooked. And as bad as your cookies were, the meatloaf was great. So were the potatoes. What did you put in them?”
“Oh, shredded cheddar and roasted garlic.”
“They were good,” I said again. Good was an understatement. The rich garlic and sharp bite of cheddar had been way better than just good. I was already hoping I could cadge some leftovers for the cottage.
“You don't have to teach me how to make cookies,” she said hesitantly. “I know you're here to work and—”
“I can teach you to make cookies, Lily. It's not a big deal.”
“Okay. I can use all the help I can get if you really don't mind.”
Deputy Dave ducked his head back in the kitchen. “I got a call, Lily. Gotta go. Thanks for dinner. Next time I'll take you out.”
Not if I had anything to say about it.
Dave let himself out as I wondered where that thought had come from. First, I was going to teach her to bake cookies, now I wanted to scare off her potential dates. I needed to get my head together.
Nothing would do that better than talking to my older brother. Drying the inside of the last pot, I set it on the counter. “I've got to head out. I need to return that phone call.”
“Oh, okay. Wait one sec.” As I'd hoped, she'd packed a generous serving of potatoes and meatloaf in a plastic storage container. “Just in case you get hungry,” she said, pushing it into my hands.
“Thanks, Lily. I'll see you tomorrow.”
The cruiser was gone when I made the short walk from the main house to the cottage. A quick scan of the security footage from Trey's office confirmed that Deputy Dave had taken advantage of our distraction to search the office closet again. Again, he'd come up with nothing.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and called Cooper back. “What do you have?” he said when he answered. “What's up with the widow?”
“I don't know,” I said. “She's looking for something. I have the house wired, and I've seen her searching. Whatever it is she hasn't found it yet.”
I filled Cooper in on the situation with the deputy, the break-ins, and my growing certainty that Lily knew nothing of her husband's business, that, if anything, she was a victim. Cooper barked a laugh that wasn't a laugh.
“I saw the way you looked at her picture, Knox. Don't let your dick cloud your brain.”
“Coop, her kid is here, okay? She's a client and her husband just died.” Almost a year ago, but still too soon. Her recent widowhood was the least of the reasons I should stay away from Lily Spencer. I didn't need Cooper to tell me that.
“Whatever. I've seen how you are. You don't say a fucking thing and women fall in your lap. Don't let this woman distract you. Evers has nothing and the clock is ticking. We need to know what Trey Spencer was into. You have no idea what the widow is looking for?”
“No clue.”
A long pause. I could practically hear Cooper thinking over the phone. Finally, he said, “I take it back. If you get the widow in bed, she'll trust you enough to tell you what she's looking for. Find out that way.”
A wave of revulsion hit me at the thought. “You want me to be the honey trap? Fuck that. I won't do that to Lily.”
“She's not 'Lily', she's the target. And since when are you too good to fuck for information?”
“Fuck off. She's not just the target, she's the client. I don't know what's up your ass, but you're being a dick. The woman lost her husband, she's alone up here with a little kid, and she's scared. I'm not going to make it worse.”
“She's probably as guilty as her fucking husband.
I went through the files you sent and ran them against the bank records we found.
Based on the money, he was wrapped up in all of Dad's shit, running a lot of it after Dad disappeared.
I don't know how they hooked up, but if he was that deep with Dad, he was in with Tsepov, and the widow was right there the whole time. Transport, arms, these fucking adoptions. This is a goddamn mess, Knox.”
Adam flashed in my mind and my stomach went tight. Lily loved her son. If Trey and my Dad set up his adoption or brokered the surrogate, what would that mean to Lily? What would she have been willing to do to keep her child?
I didn't need to ask.
Anything.
Lily would do anything for Adam.
I'd been in the business long enough to know that most criminals didn't think they were the bad guys. There was always a reason, a lie they told themselves to make it okay.
Protecting the son she loved might justify almost anything to Lily. Everyone has a line. I didn't know Lily well enough to guess where she'd draw hers, especially with Adam at stake.
Annoyed with Cooper, with his insinuations and my own uncertainty, I said, “Back the fuck off, okay? I know what my job is. I'll let you know as soon as I find something.”
I hung up on Cooper and took up my usual position at the desk, watching the cameras on two monitors while I searched through the files I'd taken from Trey's laptop on the other.
After Adam was in bed, Lily went straight to the closet in the master bedroom. I expected her to take off her clothes and get ready for bed. I was about to shut off the monitor when she walked past her things and stopped in the other half, still full of Trey’s belongings.
She opened a drawer, rifled through and closed it, then moved on to the next. Searching again. What the hell was she looking for? I needed to know.
If she was trying to find whatever it was that Tsepov wanted, then she and Adam were in danger.
Time passed, and her search grew increasingly desperate.
Her jaw set and her eyes scared, she checked his pockets, looked inside his shoes, and still came up with nothing.
I could feel her fear through the cameras.
Lily should have been a puzzle to solve, nothing more than a target of our investigation. At best a client and at worst a criminal. Nothing to me either way.
When the hell did it get complicated? I wanted to walk up there and demand that she let me help. Demand she tell me the truth so I could fix whatever was wrong and take the fear from her eyes.
I sat watching as she stood and walked back to her side of the closet, dragging her feet, her shoulders slumped forward.
My finger hovered over the button that would turn off the camera but didn't fall.
She reached for the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head, her lace bound breasts bouncing as she tossed her T-shirt into the laundry bin.
The navy-blue lace bra wasn't particularly seductive. It shouldn't have been. I wanted to peel the straps down her shoulders and—
She hooked her thumbs in the sides of her jeans and pushed them down her hips, kicking them toward the hamper, leaving her standing there wearing nothing but the lace bra and a very brief matching thong. Her ass in that thong was a work of art, full and round, begging for my hands.
I stared a heartbeat longer than I should have. When her fingers went to the clasp at the back of her bra, I squeezed my eyes shut and slammed my finger down on the key to disengage the camera.
It shouldn't have been that hard.
Shouldn't have been, but it was. There was nothing I wanted more than to watch Lily peel off that bra, to see her standing there naked, just for me.
Not going to happen, I told myself. Forget about getting your hands on Lily Spencer.
That wasn't going to happen either.