Hot as Hell

by HelenKay Dimon

  “She better be.”

  “I’ll make sure of it.” And that was a promise he intended to keep. The only reason he wasn’t hovering around outside the exercise studio right now was because Gray showed up.

  “At the very least, I’m surprised you’re not watching the aerobics class.” Gray’s eyebrows lifted as if he was contemplating the idea of a workout. “I’m kind of shocked I’m not in there. Ladies in tiny outfits. Sounds good to me.”

  Noah nodded in a moment of male understanding. Oh, he had tried to weasel his way in for a peek at Lexy in her workout shorts. Even sat on the mats and tried to blend into the background, but then that bouncy instructor Marie spotted him and kicked him out.

  “The resort has some dumb-ass no-visitors rule about the classes. You think I’d miss an opportunity to see Lexy dance around otherwise?”

  “Show some respect.” Gray looked out the glass doors as a few women walked by.

  “I respect every single part of your sister.”

  “Shame you couldn’t convince her to take a two-week stay at a place that serves food.” Gray strained so his gaze could follow a younger woman as she walked out of sight.

  “I’d give every dime in my bank account for a hot dog about now.”

  “The owner insists that crap is good for you.” Not that Noah ever planned to eat any of it.

  “The hell with that.” Gray dropped the spoon in the crystal bowl. The clanking sound echoed in the empty room.

  “Blame your sister.”

  “Why should I? This is all your fault.”

  Noah coughed over a mouthful of beer. “How do you figure?”

  “Stop being an ass and tell Alexa whatever she needs to know about your past.” Plates crashed against each other as Gray set his empty one back on the stack.

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “Of course it is. You’re just making it hard.” Gray dragged out a chair and sat down at the nearest table. “You know what your problem is?”

  “Lexy?”

  Gray motioned to Noah to take a seat. “Your ego.”

  Noah thought about cracking his beer bottle over Gray’s head, but decided that would be a waste of a perfectly good beverage. He only had four left, after all.

  “How do you figure my head is the problem?”

  “It’s this cover thing you have going on.”

  Noah could not remember a time when Gray did not side with him on a personal issue. This was a first, and not a welcome one. “My background is irrelevant to my engagement to your sister.”

  “The one that’s over?”

  “It. Is. Not. Over.” He was getting tired of pointing that fact out to everyone. Repetition must not be working because no one seemed to believe him.

  “If your work and personal history are so unimportant, then there’s no problem to talk with her about them.”

  “You’re much more logical in San Diego.” In Utah, Gray sounded like Lexy, which, in this case and by Noah’s way of thinking, was not a good thing.

  Gray leaned his elbows on the table and exhaled. “Look, I get that you’re not proud of everything that came before her. About who you were in the past.”

  “There’s an understatement.”

  “Get over it. You are who you are today.”

  Finally someone agreed with him. “That’s my point. The man I am right now is what matters.”

  Gray laughed. “Don’t try to talk in circles. I’ve known you too long to fall for that shit. This is a simple problem. You want my sister, then spill it. You want to lose her and sleep alone while someone else wins her over, keep with your current strategy.”

  A wave of pain washed over him. Every cell inside Noah fought against the idea of Lexy with someone else.

  Disclosing the sordid details of his life did not sit well with him, either. He learned a long time ago to keep secrets. He grew up in a family where disagreements meant punches and broken bones. Where black eyes and his mother’s tears were common. Lexy knew part of that. He had skipped over the worst when he had seen a mixture of sadness and pity in her eyes. He never wanted to see that look again.

  The rest she knew only as lines from his résumé. His time in the military and later with DIA depended on his discretion and ability to separate his private persona from the one that carried a gun. He did not want to be that person or have anyone associate him with that person. Certainly not Lexy.

  He could protect her, and would, but he packed the dangerous and violent side away a long time ago. Dragging all of that history out now could only cause trouble. Trouble for his former bosses and trouble for anyone who tried to care about him.

  “I’ll think about it,” he mumbled.

  “She just wants to feel included.”

  “I said okay.”

  “She’s lived with secrets a long time. I don’t think she wants more.”

  “Do you not know that you should shut up when you win an argument?” The deficiency appeared to run in the family.

  The tension at the corners of Gray’s mouth eased. “I was talking about my parents.”

  “Now there’s an interesting duo.” Many words described his future in-laws. Interesting was the least offensive. Despite that, he liked the older couple. They were smart and loved their kids, even though they saddled them with strange baggage.

  “Scary is the word you’re looking for.” Gray stared at something on the other side of the door.

  Noah wanted to turn around, but he refrained. “But harmless.”

  “Tell that to the squirrel my father chased around the golf course with a club a few years back.”

  Noah had heard the animal-stalking story more as a country-club rumor than as a fact. From what he could tell, the meds calmed some of his future father-in-law’s rougher edges. If that ever wasn’t the case, he would act then. Until that time, he did what he could to help with the family’s hoarding issues and ignore the rest.

  “About Lexy—”

  Noah decided to end the man-to-man chat before one of them got killed. “Since when do you know so much about women?”

  “Oh, hell.” Gray dropped back in his chair. “I don’t know a damn thing about women other than they’re utterly indecipherable.”

  “Your sister is a woman, you know.”

  “Her I get.” Gray’s eyes narrowed. “And I’d like to get that one.”

  “Who?”

  Gray hitched his chin toward the door. “The one at the door.”

  This time Noah did look. Part of him wanted to smile, but the other part—the part where he groaned in frustration—won out.

  “That, is Detective Ellen Sommerville. Petite and scary as hell.”

  The detective picked that minute to look in the door. There was no hiding now. The woman was on the prowl and he looked like the target. Again.

  Gray’s mouth broke into a smile. “Cute.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I’m a fan of dark curly hair. And…well, I can’t quite see what’s under that uniform, but it looks promising.”

  The desert air had melted his friend’s brain cells. Noah decided that was the only explanation. “She carries a gun.”

  “That’s not a turnoff.”

  “A big gun.”

  “Keep talking. What else?”

  The detective opened the door with enough force to make it bounce against the inside wall.

  “Damn, she’s hot,” Gray said with more than a little awe in his voice.

  “Did I mention that she knows how to use that weapon strapped to her side?”

  “That’s a bit more problematic, but still workable.”

  “And she thinks I killed a guy.” Since the detective was only a few feet away, Noah whispered that last part.

  Gray’s smile faded. “Oh, that Detective Sommerville.”

  “Yes, that Detective Sommerville,” she said. “That would be me.”

  Playing the role of the perfect gentleman, Gray rose to his feet and held out his
hand. Even wore his best hunting-for-a-willing-woman smile. “I’m Gray. Alexa’s brother.”

  The detective stared at the outstretched palm for a second before joining in the handshake. “I thought she went by Lexy.”

  Gray shrugged. “She answers to both.”

  “But Lexy fits her better,” Noah said.

  “I heard you were coming.” The detective glanced around. “Isn’t someone supposed to be with you.”

  “Dex. He’ll be here in a few hours.”

  The detective reached for her notepad with her free hand. “Dex?”

  “Is that why you’re here? To interview more people who didn’t have anything to do with the murder?” Noah asked without standing up. He figured he and the good detective had gotten past the false friendship stage.

  “Actually, yes.” She broke the contact with Gray. “I was hoping Mr. Stuart—”

  “Call me Gray.”

  “—brought the missing documents with him.”

  Noah knew the exact moment Gray realized his flirting was not working. Happened about a second after the temperature in the room dropped and the smile froze on his face. The fact the detective’s hand moved to the top of her gun played a role as well.

  “Excuse me?” Gray asked.

  “Documents mysteriously disappeared from the crime scene.” The detective scowled at Noah before continuing. “I assumed you were running an extra set over for all of us to review.”

  Gray’s mouth dropped open. “Do you not have fax machines in Utah?”

  If the detective got the joke, she wasn’t letting on. “Did you or did you not bring the documents, Mr. Stuart?”

  “I didn’t know I was supposed to bring anything.”

  “Because you weren’t,” Noah mumbled.

  “I came here because I was worried about my sister. I heard she was being questioned by you. That’s a new thing in her life.”

  The detective nodded. “It’s my job to talk to everyone associated with Mr. Henderson’s murder.”

  “I wanted to see if Alexa and Noah needed anything.” Gray held up his hands. “That’s it. Promise.”

  “They seem to be doing fine without you. Mr. Paxton has done quite a job of protecting your sister’s interests.”

  Gray tried another smile. “Better not use those words around Alexa.”

  When his friend’s flirting failed, Noah decided to turn the conversation away from Henderson and the paperwork, which was now in the safe in his room. “Where’s your partner?”

  “With your girlfriend.”

  That got Noah up and out of his chair. “Where?”

  “Are you worried about Ms. Stuart being interviewed without you for some reason?”

  Hell, yeah. “Lexy can take care of herself.”

  The detective smiled. “Interesting.”

  “What’s so interesting?” Gray asked.

  “You gentlemen. Never seen two guys go from flirting to angry so fast. Usually the gun turns men off. Seems to have had the opposite effect on your friend here.” The detective nodded in Gray’s general direction when she said that.

  No way. Noah refused to agree. “I was not flirting.”

  “I’m naturally friendly,” Gray muttered.

  “I’m sure you are.”

  “Was there something you wanted, detective?” Noah asked.

  “No, I have everything I need at the moment.”

  Noah guessed the detective was so satisfied because she and her partner managed to get Lexy alone. Something Noah vowed would not happen again.

  “I’ll leave you two to your meal.” The detective left the room with a smile as wide as the doorway.

  “Still think she’s cute?” Noah asked once they were alone again.

  “Cute, but dangerous.”

  “I’m not touching that.”

  “Think we should find Alexa?”

  Noah exhaled as he stood up. “Yeah, with my luck she’s convinced the other detective I killed Henderson by now.”

  Gray cuffed Noah on the shoulder. “You’re the one who proposed.”

  “Marriage seemed like such a good idea a few months ago.”

  “If you say so.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I did not know the man.” Lexy explained her relationship to Henderson one more time for Detective Lindsay. Since there was no relationship, she thought the conversation would be short and she could move on to her postworkout shower without delay.

  Detective Lindsay had other ideas.

  He stood in the middle of the aerobics studio with his back to the locker-room door, blocking her access to her bag. The fact Marie hovered around, pretending to put away mats after the class, did not help the conversation go any faster. With her bright orange leotard and tight butt, she functioned like a bright flashing light to Detective Lindsay. He would ask a question, then his attention would wander to the annoying blonde.

  “Maybe you’d prefer to question Marie for a few hours.” Days, weeks, months. Whatever it took to get him away from her was fine with Lexy.

  The detective stopped drooling and started frowning. “I need to talk about the papers we found in your room.”

  The workout sucked the stress right out of her. This guy rammed it all back in. “I thought the documents went missing.”

  “We’ll get to those in a second.”

  That’s what she was afraid of.

  He tapped his pen against his notepad. “I’m talking about the ones that did not mysteriously disappear. The ones we picked up at the crime scene and have been reviewing.”

  The idea of Detectives Lindsay and Sommerville sitting in a room, reading over her private information, and chatting about the contents made all the nerves in her head swell and thump. “I’m going to need those back.”

  “No.”

  He could be a little less emphatic about it. “Excuse me?”

  “I guess I should say that you shouldn’t count on a return happening any time soon.”

  “That doesn’t sound very promising.”

  “The problem is the content of those documents. Some of them reference Henderson.” He did not bother to hide his smile. “Of course, you know that.”

  Well, damn. Noah stole her files. He just didn’t steal all of the files. For the first time she regretted that he was not more thorough in his pick-and-grab.

  She tried to search her memory and reconstruct every piece of information she brought with her to the resort. She knew, in general, what was missing from the load in Noah’s safe. Some forms. Paperwork Henderson filled out for Dex’s training program. Notes from her investigations into his background. Minor bio stuff. Nothing about the break-in or Scanlon or Noah’s ties to either. At least she hoped that was true.

  “Ms. Stuart?”

  “Yes?”

  “Do you have an explanation?”

  Not one she felt comfortable sharing. “What exactly are you asking me?”

  “I’m giving you an opportunity to explain why Mr. Henderson’s name was all over the papers in your room.”

  “It is?”

  “That surprises you?”

  “I brought work with me from home. I didn’t say I had the time to do any of it or to know what was in it.”

  “Sounds convenient.”

  In her view, nothing about Henderson had been convenient so far. The man had caused her only trouble since she first read his name on the list of potential suspects she developed. On one level, the idea of his death horrified her. She felt awful for him and for anyone who cared about him.

  On another level, she wondered if Henderson’s life choices made his death inevitable. She was convinced the Scanlon thefts tied back to him. If so, he put Noah in danger. For that reason, summoning up huge amounts of sympathy for Henderson was tough.

  The detective cleared his throat to get her attention. “Did you have a personal relationship with the deceased, Ms. Stuart?”

  A sharp crashing sound saved Lexy from answering. Marie swore as the
hand weights she was holding rolled across the hardwood floor.

  Detective Lindsay was by her side in a second. “Are you okay, ma’am?”

  Marie waved a hand in front of her face. “I’m just a bit nervous, what with everything happening around the resort lately.”

  The other woman did not look the least bit frazzled in Lexy’s opinion. Seemed more like a case of extreme overacting. But Lexy appreciated the show, since Marie’s little scene took the attention off her documents and Henderson and Henderson’s name in her documents.

  Lexy gave the other woman credit. She had her wounded-girl act down. Lexy watched in the mirror behind Marie as the other woman curled her shoulders, actually made her body look smaller and more vulnerable. She morphed from attacking viper to wounded angel without any steps in between.

  That men did not see through this silliness…well, it just proved women were the more intelligent sex. A pretty woman cried and an otherwise smart male turned all protective and gooey. It was kind of embarrassing, really.

  “Our security guard was killed in her room.” Marie stole a quick peek at Lexy, then went back to her fake trembling.

  This woman was good.

  Lexy noticed how the other woman managed to point the blame even as she worked up some tears. Now that was an impressive skill. For whatever reason, Marie’s agenda included making Lexy the bad guy. But Lexy saw right through her. She added liar to Marie’s list of roles. Right up there with aerobics instructor, adulterer, and skank.

  “You’re standing in a room with a guy with a gun,” Lexy said in an effort to point out the obvious. “What are you supposed to be afraid of right now?”

  The detective shot Lexy a chilling scowl as he huddled closer to Marie’s shrinking form.

  Marie’s look was more telling. Her carefully crafted pretty-girl face crumbled, leaving behind only nastiness. Not a surprise to Lexy. She knew whatever lurked behind all that silicone and Lycra was not good. Not good at all.

  Lexy almost felt sorry for Tate and certainly pitied Marie’s clueless husband. There were probably more unsuspecting male victims spread all across Utah. Lexy just hoped they didn’t show up at the resort. The drama quotient was already too high.