Her breath caught. Such a simple statement, and if it came from almost anybody else she would have taken it at face value. But that wasn’t what this was.
She knew it. Noah knew it.
This was it. Her chance to move forward on whatever was going on between them, or just … not.
“I…”
Dating a guy you’re working with. You did that before; remember how it turned out?
But Anton wasn’t Noah. Noah wasn’t Anton.
“I think I can do that,” she said softly. It was amazing how remarkably calm her voice was, considering that she had butterflies the size of sparrows flying through her belly.
“Excellent. I’ll see you two after work.”
The call disconnected and she blew out a breath and leaned back in her chair, staring at the monitor without seeing anything.
Maybe it wasn’t a smart idea to get involved with somebody she worked with, especially considering he was her boss, but Trinity had spent too much of her life worrying about the right thing.
Anton had seemed like the right kind of guy. He had looked like the right kind of guy; he had acted like the right kind of guy.
Look where all of that had landed.
Look where he had landed.
An image of Noah’s eyes, those dark, beautiful blue eyes, flashed through her mind. She thought of the way he’d taken the time to talk with Micah, how Noah had sat beside a grieving man … the way he’d looked at her when she kissed his cheek. Then the way he’d touched her right before he kissed her.
Maybe it wasn’t the smart thing to do.
But it damn well felt right … for once.
It felt more right than anything in her life had ever felt.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Now, Leslie … I don’t know exactly what you expect me to do,” Noah said, fighting hard not to let any sign of temper show in his voice.
It was hard, though. He’d let her calls go to voice mail throughout the day, but in retrospect maybe he should have just called her up and gotten it over with instead of putting it off until he was done working.
All Leslie had done was get madder and madder, and now here she was, glaring at him over the bed of his truck. She’d been waiting for him when he got back to the shop and he’d felt the dread rush through him the second he’d seen her car.
“I want you to come out and do the damn work, Noah! That’s your job, ain’t it?” She shoved her hair back, face flushed, one thin hand clutched into in a fist so tight her knuckles were white.
“I’d be happy to, once a deposit is made. I can take a check, cash or credit card.”
“I’ll pay once the work is fucking done, just like I always have.” She skimmed a look around the shop, her gaze bouncing off the shelves, his truck, before landing on him for the briefest moment. “We’ve never had a problem doing it that way before.”
“Actually we have. You never paid what you owed me on the last job.” The mention of that had her getting redder and she opened her mouth, but he cut her off. “I wrote that debt off, but I’m not doing it again. If you want me to do any more work for you, ever, there will be a deposit made, up front, and monthly payments. That’s just how it is.”
She glared daggers at him.
He bit back a sigh. She wasn’t going to let this go without it getting ugly.
Bad things come in threes.
The thought hit him out of the blue, and although he wasn’t superstitious by nature, he couldn’t help think of that old belief. First the body found out at Trinity’s. Then Lee’s death. Half the town was buzzing around like a bunch of angry hornets and it looked like Leslie was definitely in that camp.
“I don’t have the money right now,” she said, her voice unsteady.
What a surprise. He looked away, reaching into the truck bed for his tools. “I’d be happy to come back and do another estimate—to figure out what is absolutely necessary and what could be put off for a few more months.”
“I need it all done,” she said, her voice practically shaking. “I want to sell the damn house and get out of this place. But I can’t do that until that shit is fixed. I don’t know how to do any of that, Noah.…”
Her voice shifted, lowered to a husky pitch as she circled around the truck, her lashes sweeping down over her eyes. “Look. I’m sorry about the money. You don’t know what it’s like. Mike up and left me broke. Took all the money we had in the bank, left the place such a mess. I’m all alone out there. The hole in the hall, he did that one night when he was mad at me. I thought he’d hit me.…” She darted Noah a look out from under her lashes.
Noah knew, as sure as he was standing there, that she was working him. As much as he hated it, it was even having some effect, too. Guilt nipped at him, but this was the same thing she’d done last time, manipulated him into doing a job without paying anything up front and then, after paying maybe two hundred bucks, she’d just stopped paying. He wouldn’t see another red cent out of her on that debt and he’d accepted that, but he wasn’t going to have her manipulate him like this again.
Mentally squaring his shoulders, he put a few feet between them before he turned back to face her. Keeping the table between them, he said softly, “Leslie, I sympathize with your situation. But I can’t work for free.”
She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything the door to the office opened and Micah came running out.
Saved by Rocketboy, Noah thought, relief crashing into him. Maybe he should buy the kid a cape.
Trinity appeared a moment later. “Micah, boy, if you don’t get back here and clean up that mess, you and I are going to go a round.”
Micah stopped in his tracks, all but vibrating as his eyes locked on Noah. “Mr. Noah!”
“Hey, Rocketboy,” he said, smiling at Micah. Then Noah shifted his attention back to Leslie. “Once you decide what you want to do, call the office during business hours. Leave the information with Trinity. She’ll make sure it gets to me. If I need to revise the estimate, I will. Or—”
“I don’t want the fucking estimate revised.”
Any ounce of sympathy he might have felt fizzled and died. Slanting a look at Trinity, he said, “Take Micah back in the office, please.”
Fury danced across her face, but she nodded, her features tight and blank.
Once the door shut behind her, he looked over at Leslie.
“You’re going to watch how you speak on my property, Leslie. Especially when there’s a child around. Otherwise, we won’t do business again. Ever.” He waited a moment, let those words sink in. “Are we clear on that?”
“Damn it, Noah, I just need to get that work done. I can’t pay you two hundred dollars right now. I don’t have it.”
He sighed. “You have enough money to go party down at Belterra come payday, Leslie. If you got the money for that, then you can find a way to pay for the repairs you need at the house. If you’re not willing to do that, then you don’t need them that bad.”
Her face went red. “You son of a bitch. It’s no business of yours if I go gamble.”
“No. It’s not. I don’t really care how you spend your money … but if you want to stand there and hand me a sob story about how you can’t pay me for the work you want done, after I just wrote off a debt of more than eight hundred dollars, and I know for a fact you’re out there gambling on a regular basis—I was sitting behind you in the diner last week when you were talking about how you just won two grand, by the way—if you’re going to do that, and then hand me a sob story, don’t expect me to completely buy the sob story.” He grabbed the toolbox and headed toward the office. “You need to head out. I’ve got to close the doors and nobody is allowed in this area without me.”
“I’m not done talking to you.”
“That’s too bad, Leslie. I am done discussing business matters at this point. I explained the payment terms I’m willing to accept. You can either work with them or not—it doesn’t concern me. But it’s something we’
ll discuss during business hours.” He looked at the big clock hanging on the western wall. “It’s now after business hours.”
She curled her lip at him. “You can shove your business hours up your fucking ass, Preach. How’s that for a decision?”
He sighed and watched as she spun around on her heel, storming out of the work area. Once she’d cleared the doors, he didn’t waste any time closing them, though. He wouldn’t put it past her to come back and lay into him again. He didn’t know why she was so determined to take her mad out on him today, but he definitely wasn’t in the mood to put up with it.
* * *
“Who was that woman?”
Trinity leaned against the door and told herself she didn’t need to go there and lay into the bitch.
Blowing out a breath, Trinity looked over at Micah. “Somebody who knows Mr. Noah, baby.”
“She sounded mad.”
“Uh-huh.” She ruffled his hair. “Next time, you better listen to me, young man, understand? Mr. Noah has stuff in the back that’s dangerous and you can’t go out there without me or him with you.”
“But I heard his truck. He would have been with me.” Micah stared at her, all big eyes and innocence.
“Nice try, no luck.” Shaking her head, she pushed off the door and gestured to the room that had become Micah’s little kingdom. “Go pick up your toys. We’ll head out for pizza whenever Mr. Noah is ready only if you’re done picking up.”
Micah’s shoulders slumped and he dragged every step of the way. Once he hit the door, he paused and looked over at her. “Mama, what’s fucking mean?”
She closed her eyes. This is just one of those things a parent has to handle, Trinity, she reminded herself. The same way she’d had to explain why two lions had been wrestling at the zoo a few months back. Yeah. Wrestling. Opening her eyes, she met Micah’s gaze. “It’s a bad, ugly word. A grown-up one, and one you shouldn’t say.”
“Then why’d that lady say it?”
“Because she’s mad. You’re not in trouble this time because you didn’t know, but if I ever hear you say it again you’ll be in trouble. You don’t use that kind of language.”
“It’s a cussword, isn’t it? Like the ones you fuss at Grandpa about using around me? Like when you said the s word in the shower?”
“Yes.” Arching a brow, she pointed a finger. “Now get to work or it’s bread and water tonight instead of pizza.”
He laughed and disappeared inside the room. Somehow, she didn’t think he was intimidated by her threat, but judging by the sounds coming from beyond the door, he was making an attempt to set the room to rights. That was good enough.
She settled down behind the desk and got to work on doing the same thing—setting her area to rights, filing the rest of the invoices, stacking up the checks that needed to be deposited. Noah actually had a decent chunk of change come in this week, along with a couple of notes: Sorry, Preach, I’d totally forgotten about this. I can’t send the entire sum right now, Noah, but I’ll get this caught up as soon as I can. Why didn’t you let me know I was so far behind?…, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Two people had actually paid in full and her eyes had all but popped when she saw those checks.
Maybe she should make him pay her a collection fee.
Smiling a little, she tucked them inside the envelope but didn’t seal it. The man needed to be aware of just how much money he was owed. Maybe he could actually afford full-time if he’d keep up on his accounts better than this. Of course, she didn’t want full-time, couldn’t do it.
Shifting her attention to the computer, she saved the files she’d been working on and sent one last e-mail to him for his approval. She’d have to finish it up next week. There … all done, she thought. Now, pizza.
As she was reaching to get her purse from the drawer, the front door opened.
Her belly sank. The detective, with those cold blue eyes and his grim face. She didn’t like that man. Not one bit. The day had been so chaotic, she’d forgotten about him. Glancing at the clock, she said, “I was just getting ready to leave. I’d half-forgotten you were coming by.”
“I’m running a little behind,” he said, shutting the door behind him. The professional smile on his face did nothing to reassure her.
Dread curdled in her gut as she put her purse back down. She might need to speak with him for whatever reasons, but she definitely didn’t want to. The man seemed determined to dislike her.
He crossed the floor, glancing around the small office. “This shouldn’t take…” He paused, his gaze landing on something across the room. His eyes narrowed. Sharpened. “Where did you get that?”
She blinked and looked at the desk, uncertain as to what he was talking about. “Get what?”
“Do you realize that’s evidence in an open investigation?”
Trinity shook her head. “No. I don’t realize it, because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you need to come to the station, Ms. Ewing. You can call Ali from there to come get your son,” Jeb said, dropping one hand to his waist.
“I will not come to the station,” Trinity snapped, shoving back and planting her hands on the desk. “You haven’t even said what in the hell you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about—”
The door to the back swung open and Noah came through.
Silence fell, heavy and weighted, as he paused there, looking from her to Jeb and then back to her. A sigh drifted from Noah and he hung his tool belt on a nearby hook. A grimace twisted his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest. Somehow, that simple motion made him look bigger, and he stared at Jeb for a long moment, a muscle pulsing in his cheek. Then he shifted his attention to her, his gaze softening a fraction. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, it’s just peachy,” Trinity bit off, her belly tightening into knots. She was so damn tired of all of this. So tired. “Except this clown seems to think he can haul me down to the police station for no reason.”
Tension, heavy and static, rippled among the three of them. One second ticked away, then another. Jeb said softly, “Ms. Ewing, there’s no reason to make this any more difficult than you have to. Now come with me. I’m sure Noah won’t mind watching your son—”
“Actually, I think before you do anything, you should explain just why you’re hassling her,” Noah said, his voice soft, almost gentle. But the look on his face was icy and his gaze cut into Jeb like glass. Noah took one step toward Jeb.
“I’m not hassling her.” Jeb didn’t even look at Noah. “I’m doing my job, Noah. Please let me do it.”
Trinity glared at him. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me just what we’re supposed to clear up.”
“That.” He lifted a hand and pointed.
Trinity followed the direction of his hand and still confused, still fuming, stared at the phone Noah had left on the corner of his desk that morning. She stared at it a full minute without even realizing what she was staring at. Then, abruptly, she dropped back into the chair and started to laugh. “You want to question somebody over the phone?”
“This isn’t a laughing matter, Ms. Ewing.” He gave Noah an unreadable look. “Come with me now or I’ll have to arrest you.”
“On what grounds?” She stopped laughing abruptly. Propping her elbow on the arm of the chair, she met his gaze dead-on. “You’d have to have a warrant, and if you think about it for five seconds you’d realize you probably don’t even have probable cause. This isn’t my business. I don’t own this place and I don’t work over there. This is my work area. Now if you saw that phone in my possession, you’d have more of an argument, but you’ll have a harder time with this.” She gave him a narrow smile. “I’ll have a lawyer here, a damn good one, who’ll have you twisting in so many directions, you can’t even see straight. When I’m done, I’ll look into a harassment suit against you. It may not go anywhere, but it will sure as hell cost the city time and money. I can afford it.�
� Well … my father can. She was feeling pissy enough to do it, too. “Does the city really want to go to that trouble? All over a phone somebody else brought into a place where I work?”
“You’re pushing just a little too far, Ms. Ewing,” he said, his voice low and full of warning. “Somebody else brought it, huh? That’s fine. You call your fancy lawyer and we’ll clear it up at the station.”
Noah took a step forward. “I really don’t know what the problem is here, Jeb, but she says one thing, clear as day, and you don’t hear it. She didn’t bring it here. I did.”
* * *
“You brought the phone in here?” Disbelief colored his words as Jeb shifted his attention to Noah.
“Yeah.” He crossed his arms over his chest and pointed out, “You might have missed it, but the sign on the door says: Benningfield and Son. This is my place. Not hers. That desk over there? That’s where I do my work. She doesn’t sit there. She wasn’t sitting there when you came in, either.” He took a few steps forward and watched Jeb rock back on his heels. “Matter of fact, you know that’s where I tend to work because you’re in here often enough. No reason for my office assistant to be messing with work plans, really.”
“Well.” Jeb nodded. “That changes things.”
Noah watched as everything about Jeb’s demeanor underwent a slow, subtle change. Two seconds ago, he’d stood there, one hand resting on his gun, his eyes hard and unyielding, and everything about him had said, Stay the hell out of my way.
He almost looked like a different man now.
No wonder she became so tense whenever Jeb was mentioned. The cop seemed to have it out for her. The very thought was enough to fill Noah with disgust. Narrowing his eyes, he watched as the tension surrounding Jeb continued to drain away.
Completely unaware of the direction of Noah’s thoughts, Jeb reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked to be a plastic bag. He gingerly slid the phone inside. “I’m going to have to take it with me. It was Lee Brevard’s, I do believe. Can you tell me why you have it, Noah?”
Deeper Than Need: A Secrets & Shadows Novel Page 19