Number's Up

  I glanced over at Nic, who had been reaching for his gun. His hand stopped and moved up so that she could see he wasn’t reaching for it.

  “What do you want?” My voice sounded reasonably calm for someone who just screamed and shoved my only protection to the floor.

  “I was here trying to complete my promise, but this whole thing has been a FUBAR from start to finish.” The disgust was clear in her voice.

  “Sorry.” Wait? Did I just apologize to an assassin? I was pretty sure that was taking manners too far.

  She made a sound that I’m pretty sure was a muffled laugh. “That’s okay. Well, here’s your letter. Sorry I couldn’t give you the clandestine spy experience. It was supposed to appear out of nowhere, leaving you to wonder how. Nothing has gone the way it was supposed to. This town is… something else.”

  “The town?” Hmm, was it a character flaw that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut when faced with a gun? Because it seemed like a character flaw. One Lark shared. We were born to be best friends.

  “Do you know that the owner of the hotel personally checked in on Henry? Three times, right around the time of your meeting.” She threw an envelope at my feet. “I had to keep hiding in the bathroom because your meeting made our timeline so close. I had to get the job done before his meeting with the Fed.” The hand not holding the gun started emphasizing her words. Evidently, she was a hand talker. “I do not hide in bathrooms. Not for anything. Even money. Then brunch ended early. And you were late. Then you had a Fed with you.” She shook her head. “FUBAR.”

  I had no words. I don’t even want to know what I looked like as I tried to piece together that information. I just kept blinking like it was out of focus.

  “And before that was that stupid reporter and the cake. Who cares about some stupid boob cake? But no, she followed me all the way to the resort, dogging my steps because I might have witnessed the fiasco while thinking about buying a doughnut. I wasn’t even there, but she saw someone outside, and decided to follow me. Because I might have seen something. I was trying to get a doughnut because Henry had said they were so good. That you had told him you loved them. And who sells nuts in a bakery, anyway?”

  “They got married.” For the love of… I was pretty sure that question was rhetorical. Why did I answer it? Also, he told her to try the doughnut because I liked them. I was going to cry.

  “They got married? I guess that makes sense. A boob cake for a bachelor party.” She had been the witness.

  I shrugged. “The bakery and nut shop. It was two shops. Then the owners got married. Destroyed the wall on their wedding day.”

  The gun sank slightly as she thought about it. I thought. I mean, I couldn’t really see much behind the mask. “That is ridiculously romantic.”

  “Isn’t it? They have a photo behind the counter.” I sighed, because, well, even death didn’t stop it from being the most romantic story I had heard of in real life. Two people and businesses becoming one.

  “Is this really going on?” Nic asked, drawing both of our attentions. He sat on the floor, his abs holding him up as his hands were still in the air. Rock hard abs. He wasn’t even struggling.

  I bit my lip to not say anything snarky. Or overtly sexual.

  “He’s been holding that position for a while. He must have some nice abs.” The assassin ran her eyes over him appreciatively. Or what I guessed was appreciatively because, well, mask.

  “He does,” I confirmed, because maybe she wouldn’t kill us if she thought he was hot. A girl could hope.

  “Nice catch. He looks like a keeper. At least when there aren’t things behind him to trip on.” She started moving toward the back door. “Well, it’s been fun, but I’m done with this town and this assignment from hell. Enjoy your letter.”

  “Wait!” I couldn’t believe that I was going to ask this, but I had to know. “Why did Henry not just shoot himself?”

  She stopped and studied me. “You didn’t figure that out? It’s pretty easy to tell when someone kills themselves. Cops can find that evidence pretty quickly.” She looked at Nic, then shrugged. “And it’s hard to plant evidence if you’re dead. I killed both birds with one stone. Or bullet, in this case.”

  “He did it. For sure. He killed himself.” I knew that. Why did hearing her say it hurt more than when I first guessed?

  “I’m sorry. Read the letter. Maybe he explained it.” Then she was gone, melting into the dark like a shadow. Nic jumped up to follow her but came back a few minutes later without an assassin and frowning.

  “She’s a ninja,” I breathed.

  “She broke your backlight. She is not a ninja,” Nic muttered, giving me an unamused glare. “I can’t believe you were bonding with an admitted assassin.”

  “What? That story is romantic.” Don’t say it… don’t say it… “And she didn’t admit to being an assassin. She only said clandestine spy. That could mean anything.”

  I didn’t know his scowl could get worse. Maybe it was more of a glower? Glare? It was too angry for a frown. Maybe scowl was the right word.

  “I got downed by a couch pillow.” He was scowling even harder. “Why do you even have couch pillows? Who needs them? Everyone just jostles until they are out of their way. They aren't even used.”

  “They’re throw pillows,” I corrected. “And they’re pretty.” Not the point….

  “We could have died. Because of couch pillows.”

  He was kind of right. About the dying, at least. I decided it wasn’t worth trying to correct him on not calling them throw pillows.

  “She thinks you're sexy.” Distracting him with his own ego.

  He still had his eyes narrowed, but his mouth started to creep up. “And a catch,” he added.

  “Mmm, I don’t know.” I pretended to think about it. “I do admit sitting there for the whole conversation holding yourself up by your abs alone was sexy.” Not as sexy as his eyebrow thing, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

  He smiled at me, his eyes burning hot. I didn’t think he was thinking about the assassin anymore. I blushed but kept eye contact. I could do this.

  He started walking towards me slowly, prowling with a heat that I could feel even before he touched me. “Normally, I would go slow. Let you savor each moment, each contact.” His arms went around me and pulled me flush against his body. “But the girl in black was right. This town is hell on plans, and I have no intention of letting this moment go again.”

  He kissed me.

  Stars. I was pretty sure I was seeing stars. I grabbed him tighter and pulled until there was no space between us, chest to chest, hips to... well, I was going to call it his little gun for the moment. It would give him more temptation to let me see it. At some point his hand had fisted in my hair, yanking my head into the perfect position for his kiss.

  “Stand on the box…”

  Nic’s phone started blaring out a country song and we both broke away. He jumped over the couch cushion that was sitting in the center of the room to get to it where it had fallen during his landing. I collapsed into a heap on the couch, since my knees were still somewhere stuck in the mind-blowing kiss we just had.

  “Was that Something Bad?” I couldn’t stop staring at Nic. I didn’t see a country music fan. Cool.

  “Nic.” He answered the phone giving me a glare over the couch. “Yeah, Carrie. We made it.” He listened for a few seconds taking a seat on the other couch. “We found something, but we haven't opened it yet. Meet you back at the resort?” He nodded absently as he listened before hanging up.

  “Country music?”

  “It was Carrie. My boss.”

  “She picked it, or you made it her ringtone because they’re both Carrie’s?”

  “Umm, both?” He looked a little guilty.

  I thought about what I knew about him... and what I knew about Carrie Underwood songs. “You were using All-American Girl, weren’t you? And she made you change it?”

  He scowled. “You’re lucky that k
iss was amazing, or I would be rethinking this.”

  I snorted. “No, you wouldn’t.” I climbed over the obstacles to get to him, smiling my most seductive smile.

  “We need to go back to the resort,” He groaned as he watched me coming.

  I was pretty sure I nailed seductive based on the way his eyes watched every movement I made.

  “We will.” I slipped into his lap. “After I remind you what putting up with my sass gets you.”

  I’d changed my mind about the perks of bad boys.

  Chapter 18

  A few minutes later, we were back in my car driving to the resort with the envelope in hand. Well, Nic’s right hand. His right was wrapped around my left as he drove, rubbing soft, soothing circles on the back of my hand.

  Carrie met us in the parking lot, looking slightly annoyed.

  “Where have the two of you been?” She demanded as we got out of the car.

  Nic smiled, his eyes heating as he looked over at me.

  I blushed and distracted her by pointing to Nic’s hand. “Envelope.”

  She came over and grabbed it. “What’s in it?” She looked at both of us confused when she saw that it was still sealed.

  I shrugged. I had debated knowing. Debated opening it and finding out what Henry’s last message was to me. But I already had a pretty good idea of what he did, and even though I got that he did it for the love of his child, I couldn’t take any more tonight. I wanted to let the Feds deal with it. I was going to go get some sleep. Unfortunately alone, because leaving the Feds to deal with it meant Nic was going to have to stay there too. A yawn forced its way out. Maybe that wasn’t so unfortunate.

  “I don’t care.” And with that I walked past them, swinging an overnight bag over my shoulder as I went through the doors and to the desk where I was hoping someone would have a room key, as promised. It was freeing. Not caring. I had my answer. I was free. I had a new life, a new job, a new man… life was good. For the first time in years I didn’t listen for my heels, for the soothing tap. I didn’t need to.

  “I’ll talk with you tomorrow,” Nic yelled from behind me.

  I waved acceptance. “After nine. I have a massage.” I looked at the front desk girl, who had to be maybe eighteen, but I didn’t recognize her. “Do you have a key for Jennifer Ward?”

  She searched the desk without smiling and gave me a key with my name attached to it with a sticky note.

  “Here you go. If you go up the elevators to the fourth floor, it will be on your right.”

  “Got it. Thanks.”

  One elevator ride later I was in the room, which surprisingly looked very little like the room Henry had been murdered—I mean, the room Henry had been shot in. Since we were questioning if it was murder or not.

  I was having serious doubts. The plan was very elaborate, having multiple moving pieces, several of which went wrong. Why would he hire an assassin when he could have just… Okay, I admitted, I couldn’t think of another way to discredit Dan. On the other hand, I was pretty sure that if Frank was my son, I would have let him hang.

  Even the assassin had said everything went wrong. Definitely the sign of a plan that had too many moving parts. And maybe we were doing Henry a disservice assuming that he was the one in contact with the assassin. Maybe it was Frank in Henry’s email. But then why would he deny it later? Plus, his father was covering for him. Why kill him?

  It wasn’t a good night's sleep. On the other hand, the massage was wonderful, and by nine the next morning, I was feeling like a new person. One that had a new job that didn’t have a pending criminal charge looming over it. A new boss, who I was pretty sure I would get along with just fine. Lots of hours to do… stuff. Hmm, I would need to start thinking about a new hobby or two soon. When the text came in from Nic asking me to meet him in Kenneth’s office, I was no longer stressed. I was ready to put this behind me. Well, the case behind me.

  Nic was another story.

  I knocked on the door and Carrie let me in with a smile.

  “Jen. It’s so nice to see you again.”

  “Carrie,” I greeted. I didn’t know why she was so excited and, frankly, it made me a little suspicious. “How’s everything going?”

  “Great. Great. Please sit down.”

  Yep. Those are never good words. Those words are what people hear when they’re about to be let go. Or get upsetting news.

  I sat in the same chair I used last night, and Carrie took Kenneth’s.

  “So, the envelope you got last night did have evidence to link Donald as the source of the information on the companies, information he got by leveraging his family’s contacts and listening at meetings he wasn’t supposed to be at.” She waited to see if I had any questions.

  I didn’t. Should I? I thought about it. Nope. Not a one.

  “There was no mention of Frank, but since they attacked you we knew they both were in on it,” she continued. “We also talked with Charlotte this morning. She broke and told us that it was all a set-up. Henry was dying of pancreatic cancer and only had a few months to live, anyway. He figured this was an easier and a better option than letting the cancer take him. He had approached her after he learned about the cover-up and his cancer and they came up with this plan. She did it to help try and save Frank, too. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  I nodded. It hurt, but I was angry. And maybe a few other emotions, too. I would have to process it later. After everyone was gone, and I was alone.

  She shifted her weight, her gaze flitting away from me for a second before meeting my eyes again. “There was also an apology. Do you want to read it now? The letter is going into evidence. This might be the last time for a while.”

  I looked at the paper taunting me from inside the sealed evidence bag. Did I want to know what he said? No. I might regret it later, but no. I didn’t want to know. I wanted to let it go. “No. I’m good. I don’t want to read it.”

  “Nic told us of your run-in with the girl last night. Can you remember any more details?”

  “More than a trained professional like Nic? No. She was female. She was funny. She used military terms. She’s a ninja. Other than that, I have nothing. Not even a height or nationality. There was no accent. But that could be trained.” I was reaching, trying to be helpful and failing.

  She nodded, as if that was what she expected. “Well then, the cases are being closed. We will be gone by the end of the day.”

  “Nic?” Oops. That was too telling.

  Her smile took on a gloating lift at the question. “He’s staying. He’s taking vacation until his last day and then he will start his job here.”

  Well, then.

  “Thank you.” I didn’t really know what more to say, so I just stood to shake her hand before she slipped out the door, leaving me standing in Kenneth’s office, not knowing where to go. I guess it was time to check out. I opened the door, trying to figure out what I should do first. Cake? Or cleaning?

  “I have a promise to fulfill today and I’m hoping you could help me.” Nic’s voice came from my left, and I jumped when I looked to see him waiting by the door. I didn’t scream though, so I was willing to take it as progress.

  “A promise?” I echoed, a little confused. And distracted by his lips.

  “Yeah, I promised a beautiful girl I would help her clean her house. Do you think you might be able to help me keep it?” He had caught on to my fascination and his smile turned wicked.

  “Is that you asking to come home with me?” I can’t believe I just said it that way, but okay... okay, I could roll with it.

  “Umm, well, I mean, yes, but not in the way it sounded.” He blushed.

  I just did my best eyebrow lift. “You sure?” I looked him up and down. “I would have thought you would keep a more open mind.”

  “Open for anything,” he said with a smirk. Before wincing.

  “Yeah, that was bad.” I shook my head.

  “But you like me, anyway.”

  “Are you st
aying in Barrow Bay?” I licked my lips, suddenly extra nervous even though I knew the answer already. “You know, for good?”

  “Forever,” he whispered, his hand cupping my cheek and raising it up so that my eyes met his.

  “Those are some big words,” I whispered.

  “It’s only one word,” He corrected. “And I like challenges.”

  Fireworks. His kiss was like fireworks.

  I should have ruined my life earlier.

  Thank you for reading Number’s Up, book one of the Barrow Bay Mysteries.

  Lark and the Barrow Bay crew will be returning with the next installment coming in Fall 2019.

  Click here to receive updates about upcoming releases.

  Want to know how it started?

  Check out this free excerpt from Leg Up, book one of the Lark Davis Mysteries:

  Chapter 1 - Leg Up

  There was a severed leg on my porch.

  I would like to say I checked to confirm it was real, or gasped in horror, or called the police, or heck, even screamed. But nope. I stood there, my chin almost hitting my chest as I looked down at the leg in front of me. Thank goodness Hailey was with her father this week, so they could spend some time together before school was back in session at the end of the month. Good parents didn’t let their children see dead body parts. Plus, I didn’t have the money for that much therapy.

  I wouldn’t be here if I’d cleaned out my garage like I promised myself I would. If I had, I could’ve made it to my truck and driven away without even glancing at my front door. Could this be karma for not unpacking all my boxes? No, that was just silly. I was pretty sure karma for a messy garage wasn’t a dead body part.

  Thoughts like these were probably the reason I was going to hell.

  Checking my watch, I pushed some of my light brown hair out of my face and confirmed I would be late to teach my first riding lesson of the day. This was not the way to start my Tuesday. I looked back down. I was probably going to be late for a lot more than that. Sighing, I texted my morning clients and my working student to let them know I would try to arrive by noon.