We help Frank up, making sure we’re supporting him on either side, moving slowly up the stairs.
“I’m fine. Really,” Frank tells me. “It’s just a spasm. It’ll pass.” He seems to be doing well, but there’s no way he’s going to be able to finish the rest of the day. More than half the truck still needs to be unloaded. I’m contemplating leaving Frank up here in the apartment while I go and start hauling boxes myself. However, there’s a good-looking creeper who gives me the shivers down there. And a super-gorgeous hunk who kissed me, a perfect stranger who somehow knows my name, which should scare the hell out of me, but for some reason doesn’t. I think it prudent to stay where I am for the moment and catch my breath. Thank goodness, Frank’s sons are on their way and can finish up and take their dad home to rest.
“You look better,” I say as I direct Frank to the chair that he and his moving partner, Sam, brought up earlier.
“Miss Dayton, I don’t want to interfere, but let me just say that I’m glad you have a man looking after you. Luis Hernandez is not a good man. Perhaps now that he knows you have a boyfriend, he won’t bother you,” Frank says, his expression filled with concern. “I have a daughter, and if Luis looked at my Rita like he looked at you, I would send her away until he forgot she existed.”
Well, that’s not good! The creeper dude really is creepy, and now I’m living in the apartment building right next to his place of business. Not to mention that hot guy downstairs who knows my name and blindsided me with a kiss isn’t my boyfriend. I’ll just have to avoid the garage.
The hospital clinic is in the other direction, and I work long hours. Chances are that this is just a fluky day. I say this to myself to calm down. I was nervous enough taking this job and leaving my family back home. Mom and Dad were ten minutes away, and my little place was adorable with the best grandma, not mine, but the sweetest old lady as my neighbor. We would have afternoon tea every Sunday afternoon. Gladys’s family was spread throughout the country, and they always made time to visit. But Sunday at four was teatime, and it was sacred.
Gladys was the one who convinced me to take this job. “You’re wasting away in this little town,” she said. “You need an adventure. Every woman needs to spread her wings and fly.”
I admit, I was too comfortable. Work was the same day in and day out. I was doing more clerical work than I wanted because I was more tech savvy than my middle-aged colleagues who wanted nothing to do with computers. They’d been working for Dr. Sturgin since he opened the clinic, and I was the youngest on staff.
Still, it was hard to leave my family. I have the best parents. Mom has dropped to part-time hours and works as a bookkeeper for several small companies in town. She’s always freelanced because she didn’t want to miss any family milestones. When my brother, Greg, was in the finals for relay, Mom was waiting for him at the finish line. When my sister, Sara, was dancing on stage, Mom and Dad were in the front row watching with Greg and me. And they were absolutely there when I graduated from university to see me walk across the stage.
We’re a close family. Mom calls every day, Sara and I have video chats weekly, and Greg is either at Mom and Dad’s or at Sara’s to catch up.
Gladys told me that life should be savored. To enjoy the noise because it tells a story, the silence because it tells another. Spicy, salty, sweet, or anything in between, taste it, then decide if it’s something you like. “Nothing worse than an opinion without experience. How do you know unless you experience it?” she would say.
“I know I hate the drill at the dentist and don’t look forward to that,” I would joke with her.
“You know that because you experienced it,” Gladys would counter with a smile.
A loud rap on the door pulls me back to the here and now and the situation at hand, primarily getting my couch off the sidewalk and into my place. My hot fake boyfriend and another man who looks very much like Frank come through to join us.
“Pop, you doing all right?” the young man asks Frank. He extends a hand to me. “Thank you for taking care of him. He’s stubborn and didn’t tell us he was going to take a job on his own. I’m Saverio, and my brother Nino is downstairs waiting for me.” He gives Sam a stern look. “You were supposed to keep us in the loop if he took on too much.” He puts his hands on his hips.
“Frank said it was just boxes. He tricked us both,” Sam replies, crossing his arms.
“I’m not useless,” Frank exclaims, letting out a frustrated breath.
“No, you’re not. You’ve got the best people skills around, Dad. That’s why we want you talking to clients and getting them ready to move. Leave the heavy lifting to us,” Saverio says.
“But this pretty lady had to move in today, and you were already committed. She has no family here. What was I supposed to do?” Frank counters, trying to get up with his son’s assistance. “If this were Rita, I would want someone to step in and get her settled.”
My heart melts. Frank took this job based on my conversation with him before I left home. He went out of his way for me.
“You tell me. If we need to hire, we’ll do that,” Saverio tells his father. “Please, Pop, don’t do this again. You took ten years off my life today.”
“You’re exaggerating. Maybe only five.” Frank holds up five fingers with a glint in his eyes.
Saverio finally cracks a smile. “Sam’s taking you home in my car. Nino and I are going to finish up and meet you back at home. Heads up, Mom is pissed.”
“Sam, we have to stop for flowers. I can’t have my Giuseppina mad at me.” Frank waves at me and makes his way out the door.
“I’m going to get started with Nino. It’ll take us a couple of hours.” Saverio starts to head out when Mr. Handsome stops him.
“Can you hold off for a minute? I need to speak with Chloe for a moment,” he says. Saverio nods and tells him he’ll wait for him to come down.
Suddenly, the apartment seems small.
“Miss Dayton, I’m Detective Damian Locke. I’m afraid we have a situation, and that situation just became more complicated with Luis Hernandez and his obvious attraction to you.”
“Situation?”
Detective Locke comes closer and looks out the window to the alley and mechanic shop adjacent. “We were supposed to have this apartment for our sting, Miss Dayton. We were working with the landlord when the superintendent rented it out to you. The men you met downstairs are not good people. We’ve been casing their establishments for months and finally caught a break. Luis Hernandez is a dangerous drug dealer and the head of a gang in Colorado called Los Asesinos.”
As Detective Locke relays his information, I can feel my jaw drop. “But…I checked this neighborhood out. It’s a good area. That’s why I chose it.” I’m not irresponsible. I’ve done my homework. This is the nicest affordable area that’s closest to work.
“It is, and normally, you could come and go as you please and you would be none the wiser about Luis or his crimes. Unfortunately, he’s taken a shine to you, Chloe, and that’s not good.” When Damian calls me by my first name, warmth spreads through me.
“A shine?” I ask stupidly. I noticed the way Luis looked me over. I know I’m pretty, but nothing special. There are a million pretty girls in the world.
“We have two major issues. One is the fact that we need this apartment for a stakeout and to gather the evidence we need to take these men off the streets. The other is that you can’t just disappear without tipping these guys off, now that Luis knows you exist. They’re smart, and if they move on, we’ll have to start over. In the meantime, kids are dying because of the drugs they’re dealing. It gets worse. The drugs are hyperaddictive and powerful enough to cause death,” Damian tells me as I drop into the chair.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, glancing up at his face.
“We’re going to need your help. I’ll do my best to keep you out of it and let you live your life as if I’m not here, but I’m going to need you to be my pretend girlfriend and let me live here with you.”
I’m speechless. “Girlfriend?” I finally manage to get the word past my lips.
“Fiancée might be better. You don’t look like you’d live with a guy unless you had a ring on your finger.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s your decision. But a word of warning: Luis isn’t going to go down easy, and right now, he’s looking to make you his property. I’m not sure you want to know what’s happened to his former ‘girlfriends.’ If I’m here, he knows you’ve got a man. It’ll deter him from getting closer, and I’ll be here to keep you safe if he persists, and I can do my job and keep my inside man safe. What do you say?”
“How do I know you’re not some psycho?” I can’t let his incredibly handsome face cloud my judgment. Who cares if he has thick sandy brown hair that my fingers itch to run through? And really, hazel eyes are common, except for the gold specks that glimmer when he looks at me. Still, he could be anyone.
“You’re smart to ask.” He flips his badge out for me to inspect. “If you decide to help us out, arrangements will be made to inform you on all you need to know. I can’t tell you more unless you’re willing to assist.”
“How long?”
“As long as it takes. What do you say, Chloe? Will you be my fake fiancée?” he asks with a charming lopsided grin that causes flutters in my belly.
My head is screaming get the hell out of here, but my mouth seems to have a will of its own. “I’ll help.”
He takes my hand and pulls me to my feet. “We need to get used to being around each other, and I need to bring over a bunch of my things to make it look like we’re cohabitating. I’m going to tell Saverio to unload the rest of the truck. I’ll be back later this afternoon. Our captain is going to need to talk to you. Maybe we can arrange that for tomorrow.”
I nod, not trusting my voice.
He pulls out his phone and punches in a number. “Change of plans, man. I’m bringing Chloe in tomorrow, and I’ll fill you in.” His conversation is brief, and immediately after he disconnects, he tells me, “Don’t go back downstairs if you can avoid it. I’ll bring dinner.”
And poof! He’s gone.