Ree applied light makeup and fixed her auburn hair, slicking it to one side in a low side pony. Her uniform would be waiting at work, so she dressed in her interview outfit from the Cricket Creek job that was still packed in her overnight bag. She’d washed it and then thrown it back inside the bag with the rest of her clothes from the trip. The suitcase had never made it back into the closet, and the clothes never made it back into drawers. Turned out to be handy when this case popped up out of nowhere.
Not exactly out of nowhere. She’d half expected a call at some point asking if she’d like to join Quint. What she hadn’t anticipated was him showing up at her mother’s door. That had taken guts. It had shown his determination to work with her again on this case since he was willing to put himself in a situation where he wouldn’t be welcomed.
She buttoned her white blouse, thinking the high but fashionable collar might be a mistake in this heat. She’d try not to end up soaked with sweat before she walked inside the bar. The high-waisted forest green pants fit well enough to show off the long legs she’d worked hard to tone at the gym. The cuffs struck just above her ankles, and black spiked heels added a couple of inches to her decent height. No one would accuse her of towering over anyone, but with good heels she could almost look someone who was six feet tall square in the eyes.
“Ready or not, here I come,” she said as she joined Quint at the counter. He was in the exact spot where she last saw him, studying the screen.
He leaned back and turned to look at her. His eyes widened when he said, “Damn.”
“What?” She could feel the red blush crawling up her neck again at the way he looked at her with appreciation in his eyes.
“You look beautiful” was all he said.
“This is the same outfit I wore at the cabin that first day,” she reminded him.
“Then I was a jerk for not saying it when we first met,” he said.
“I think you were busy defending yourself from the demands I was placing on you,” she said with a half smile. She’d gone in like gangbusters on that first day.
Quint smirked. “Standing up for yourself is sexy.”
Well, now Ree really didn’t know what to say.
“I have to go. Did you find anything on there?” She motioned toward his laptop, needing to change the subject. His compliment didn’t change the fact that a wall had come up between them or the challenges they faced working with the other agents.
“She’s squeaky-clean so far,” he said. “But then, most criminals are good about hiding their activities.”
Quint closed the laptop and stood up. “I did get her daughter’s birthday, though. April twenty-fourth.”
“That helps,” Ree said. “Ready?”
“Always,” he said.
“Will you be coming in for a drink later?” she asked as they walked toward the door.
“I’ll skip it tonight since it’s your first shift,” he said.
“Okay.” She hid her disappointment. “I’ll text you when I know what time I should be done.”
Quint opened the door, and then held it for her as she walked past. She thanked him as she headed toward the elevator bank. There was something nice about chivalry not being dead. She pushed the elevator button and led the way toward HNC. The heat practically melted her, but at least her hair was off her neck. The collar turned out to be a bad idea even though Quint reassured her that she still looked beautiful as he turned her in at the door.
For show, he kissed her until her toes curled. A growing part of her wished those kisses meant something besides work. The logical side of her brain kicked in, reminding her that office romances had about as much of a chance of working out as spring flowers did of budding in December.
“See you back here when your shift is over,” he said, leaning his forehead against hers like he needed a minute to gather his thoughts after the kiss. A self-satisfied smirk upturned the corners of her lips. Thank the heavens she wasn’t the only one affected every time their lips touched.
“You two should be more careful or your agency might think something is really going on between you.” Nick Driver’s voice cut into the moment and his tone struck a nerve.
Quint pulled back and they both glanced around to make certain no one else heard the snide comment. Ree half expected Quint to speak up, but his jaw muscle clenched instead.
“Uncool,” Quint said low and under his breath. Nick kept walking, unfazed.
“Later it is,” she said to Quint, trying to pull his attention back to her before turning and walking in the door. She glanced back in time to see him standing there, arms folded.
Ree checked in with the shift manager, Julian, before getting her locker assignment and uniform. She changed in the back room and tucked her clothes and purse into the locker before securing it closed. The lock had one of those dials on it like a safe. She memorized her combination but was reassured the shift manager had a master key in the event Ree blanked out on what she’d been told.
Randy, the owner, had arranged for Ree to be Lola’s barback. She walked over to the bar where Lola was bent down and arranging something on a shelf behind the bar. Ree brought over a tray of clean glasses and cleared her throat on the approach so as not to surprise Lola.
“I’m not ready,” Lola said, her voice cracked.
“Okay, I’ll come back,” Ree said, turning with the heavy tray hoisted on her shoulder.
“Ree?” Lola glanced over but didn’t stand up. Her eyes were red and puffy, and it looked like she’d been crying. She squatted down and grabbed a roll of paper towels, pulling off one and blotting her eyes with it. “Don’t leave. I didn’t realize it was you.”
“I can give you a few minutes,” Ree said, hating that Lola was upset but secretly hoping this might be the in Ree needed to get the bartender to open up about her personal life. It was good for the investigation, but Ree also wanted to know if she could still trust her own instincts.
“No. No. Don’t be silly. That tray must weigh a hundred pounds.” Lola waved Ree in.
Ree set the tray down on the countertop. It was filled with highball glasses, and the tray of expensive crystal probably cost more than a month of Ree’s salary. “Where do these go?”
“Right here.” Lola pointed toward a shelf just under the lip of the bar and within easy reach.
“Are you okay?” Ree asked, scooting the tray down as she moved closer to Lola.
“Yes, but please don’t let Julian see me like this,” Lola pleaded, blotting her eyes again. “He doesn’t like anyone to bring drama to work.”
“Okay.” Ree was almost finished putting away the last of the glasses when Julian turned and headed toward them. She smiled and said out of the side of her mouth, “He’s coming over here.”
“That’s no good. He’ll fire me, and I need this job.” Lola said a couple of words in Spanish that Ree was pretty certain most sailors would understand.
“Julian, I have a question about something in my locker.” Ree artfully moved herself out from behind the bar and toward the back room. All she could do was buy Lola a little more time to pull herself together.
Julian took the bait, looking like he genuinely wanted to help. Of course, it probably didn’t hurt matters that Randy had personally hired her. Julian had to know he was out of his league with her. The fact that he seemed eager to help when he scowled at quite a few of the other employees told her that he treated Randy hires more nicely.
“I really couldn’t figure out if I’d closed and locked this correctly,” she said, feigning helplessness while stuffing down the frustration that she hadn’t been able to come up with anything better off the top of her head and on short notice.
Julian tried the metal handle that shifted up like her old high school locker. The one she never used because she went to a large high school that had A/B days, rendering the locker useless.
“It didn’t open, so looks like you’re good,” he said with what looked like a forced smile.
“Good. Thank you,” she said, figuring she needed to come up with another question or two in order to stall him. “How many people will we have on the floor tonight?”
“It’s Monday, so we can expect half the crowd we normally get. I scale down the number of employees accordingly so we don’t waste money,” Julian said. He seemed especially proud of his answer as his chest puffed out just a little bit when he spoke. It signaled that he took pride in his work, which was always a good thing. How would he react if he knew the girlfriend of one of the biggest area weapons runners worked behind his bar?
Would he care as long as she showed up for work and kept customers happy?
“That’s really smart,” she said, trying to play up to his ego.
It worked. He practically beamed. He also probably figured she’d be reporting back to Randy.
“Do I get another uniform or should I plan on washing this one every night?” she asked.
“You’ll get two,” he said.
“Okay, great.” An heir and a spare, she thought.
“Your size is popular, so the reason you have only one is because the other is on back order,” he said. “Let me know if you need a day off in between shifts in order to have time to do a wash.”
“I can take care of that easily,” she said before shifting her weight to one side. “I just want to say that I can’t thank you enough for this job. It means a lot to my family.”
Julian swatted empty air.
“You’ll be an asset to the company,” he said.
She highly doubted most barbacks were treated this well.
“As soon as an opening for waitress comes up, I want you to know I’ll be looking to you to possibly fill it,” he said. Now he really was laying it on thick.
“I don’t want to skip the line if someone else deserves it,” she quickly said.
“No trouble at all. It’ll go to the person best suited for the job,” he explained as someone yelled his name. He spun around. “I better go see what that’s about.”
“Of course,” she said, hoping she’d bought Lola enough time to dry her eyes and throw on a little makeup to cover the redness. She returned to her station to find Lola on her feet, wiping down the bar and whistling as she worked. If Ree didn’t know better, she would have no idea that Lola had been crouching behind the bar crying ten minutes ago.
“Thank you,” Lola said as Ree took her place, finishing putting away the last of the glasses.
“Anytime,” Ree said, and really meant it.
QUINT’S SPANISH WAS a little too rusty to decipher all of Lola’s emails, so he uploaded the contents of her hard drive to the case file on the database. There were linguistic specialists who could take it from there. Using Google’s translator, he was able to get the gist of anything that drew his eye. So far, Lola came out clean. There was also a computer specialist who would dissect everything else. It had taken Quint the better part of the night, but Ree’s text that the bar was about to close came just before midnight. She’d said it would take only fifteen minutes to finish breaking down since the night had been slow and everyone had pitched in to make closing go as smoothly as possible.
Nick Driver was still on Quint’s mind. He needed to be made aware of just how uncool the stunt he’d pulled was and how little a repeat would be tolerated. At the very least, it was unprofessional not to respond to Ree’s text and then show up at the door. Then there was the snide comment in front of the bar. Quint’s hands were tied on how to get the message across. He couldn’t confront the guy or shoot a note to Bjorn to complain. She was already on high alert when it came to Quint working in cooperation with another agency.
Quint would sit on it for a while and see if any ideas turned up. He also didn’t want to undermine Ree, who had agreed to be the go-between. By the time he exited his building and made the walk to HNC, Ree was standing out front with Lola.
“Hi, honey,” Ree said, walking over to him and rising up to give him a kiss. He dipped his head and met her halfway. The kiss caused his pulse to skyrocket. It was strange, because he was usually used to kissing a fellow agent by the time they worked together on a second assignment. This shouldn’t be any different. Driver’s earlier comment sat heavy on Quint.
“Hey,” he said, hearing the gravelly quality to his own voice. At least his reaction to her made the whole newlywed cover seem far more credible. He would leave it at that.
“We started to head home but decided to wait for you here in case you came from a different direction,” Ree said. She glanced over at Lola. “Thank you for sticking around with me.”
“No problem,” Lola said, checking her phone. “It’s what we do for each other, right?”
Ree’s smile could light a city block during a blackout.
A Lamborghini roared up on the road next to them. Lola caught Ree’s gaze. “Looks like my ride finally showed.”
“See you tomorrow?” Ree asked.
“Tuesday’s my night off,” Lola said, rushing toward the vehicle like her life depended on it. She climbed in the passenger seat and shot a quick smile at Ree, who waved.
“I’m worried about her,” Ree said as Quint linked their fingers. There was something right about holding Ree’s hand. It made him feel like his demons might stay at bay for a while.
“How was your first night?” He needed to redirect the conversation to something a newlywed would ask as he turned them toward their building and started the walk back.
“It was good. I didn’t make a lot of money, but it wasn’t busy. Lola trained me throughout the night and we fell into a good rhythm. Julian sent most everyone home early. He let me stay since I’m new,” she said.
“Makes sense,” he said as they fell in step together.
“Everything was wiped down half an hour before closing,” she said, leaning into him. The move was for show, but a small piece of him hoped it meant she’d forgiven him for how he’d acted toward her after the call with Bjorn.
“Sounds like it was a good way to get your feet wet before the weekend crowd hits,” he said.
“That’s why I don’t get a day off this week,” she said. “Julian thinks I’ll be better off learning over the next few days before business picks up.”
“I can’t imagine what a Friday or Saturday night looks like when Sunday was as crowded as it was,” he said as they reached the building.
“Apparently, the crowds start on Thursdays,” she said.
“Doesn’t anybody have to wake up early the next morning for work?” he mused.
“I guess not,” she said as they entered the glass elevators. Almost the minute she stepped inside the apartment, the shoes came off. She kicked them beside the door with a groan. “Heels are definitely harder on the feet than boots.”
“How do you wear those all night?” he asked.
“Practice, but that doesn’t mean it feels good,” she said, heading over to the sofa and plopping down in her work clothes. Her gaze flew to the boxes stacked neatly on the opposite side of the sofa. “My order came?”
“As promised,” he said.
“I’m way too tired to open those boxes tonight. It’ll give me something to do first thing in the morning,” she said.
“Do you want Coke or something stronger?” he asked.
“Stronger,” she said. “Definitely stronger.”
Quint poured her a glass of wine and opened a beer for himself. One drink wouldn’t hurt either one of them and after learning the DEA was on the case, Quint could use something to help him relax. He almost laughed out loud at the thought. A twelve-pack wouldn’t make a dent in how frustrated and stressed he was and had been all day. Having a drink with Ree was the best part of his night so far.