by ERIN BEDFORD
Moving over to where I stood, his hands caught mine where I was buttoning my shirt, making them tingle pleasantly. “It’s not that I don’t care about what happens. It’s more that I’m not sure I want to know.”
“Why not?”
A small smile curled his lips. “Because that might mean I have to stop seeing you, and I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.”
“Oh.” My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. “Well, I’m happy you’re not bothered by it, because I’m not ready to stop seeing you either.” I stumbled over my words, my face red and my heart pounding like a drum.
“In fact,” - Michael’s fingers traced the line of my shirt, still unbuttoned and exposing my bra - “I was hoping to see a bit more of you.”
I giggled nervously and then remembered Mandy and how stressed out she sounded. I moved away from Michael’s finger before it could touch my bare skin, because we all knew my self-control was not that good.
“Don’t you want to?” Michael arched a brow, his eyes on me.
Shaking my head, I gave him a weak smile. “No, it’s not that. I’d love to show you more of me, but I am supposed to be here to catch a thief, and so far, I haven’t done anything toward finding him or her. So as much as I want to, I can’t.” Even as I said it, my ovaries were crying out in dismay.
Michael’s expression smoothed out and he inclined his head. “I understand. Your duties come before pleasure. I can admire that.”
“You can?” I pressed my knuckles to the sides of my face, a bit apprehensive about turning him down.
“Yes, of course. I’m not some human that can’t control himself.” Michael snickered.
I threw myself at him in a stupid moment, which ended with me face first on the bed and a body full of tingles. Laughing at myself, I rolled over and stared up at Michael. “Well, I guess I’m done for the day, just let me crawl up in this bed and hide until my mortification passes.”
“I’d offer you a hand up …” Michael trailed off, staring at his hand and then chuckled. “Well, we’d be back to square one.”
“Yeah,” I sighed and fell back on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, I realized something. “You know, I have no idea where to start to look for this guy. Mandy said they thought it was an inside job, but there are so many employees here. It could be anyone.”
Michael leaned over the bed so that I could see him. “Perhaps you should start by asking around.” He turned his head and glanced around the room. “These rooms seem pretty well kept. I would think that it would be pretty hard for anyone to come in here and steal your valuables.”
“Not unless you have a special key,” I told him. “It’s all electronic. Though, I suppose there are ways to copy them. Not that I expect anyone in Blessed Falls to be that computer savvy.”
“Then you must ask around. Find out who has access to the rooms or to the device that makes those keys.”
I sat up on the bed and stood. “That’s a good idea actually. Need to get a list of potentials, then go from there. Thank you.” I offered Michael a grateful smile. “I’d kiss you, but you know …”
Michael smirked. “I know.”
Slipping on my heels, I finished buttoning my shirt and headed for the door. Before I got there, Michael called out to me.
“Yes?” I turned to look back at him.
Michael waited in the archway of the bedroom, his eyes intently on me. “I wasn’t just talking about sex, you know. I do want to see more of you. Outside of the bedroom.”
My nose crinkled up. “You mean, like a date.”
His lips tipped up at my words. “Yes, like a date. I would like to date you. All of us would.”
“You’ve already talked about it with the others?” My mouth dropped open slightly. I didn’t think they didn’t talk about me amongst themselves. I mean, they’re guys. Guys talk. But I didn’t think they talked about that kind of stuff.
“Yes.” Michael moved across the room, his gaze still focused on me. “Gabriel mentioned you took him to a buffet last night, and there was an interesting altercation with some females. He got the impression that you don’t quite feel a hundred percent with us, and we wish to change that.”
“You do?”
Michael nodded. “Yes, there’s a reason we have lingered around you.”
“Obviously.” I rolled my eyes. “I can see you and others can’t, and now the whole ‘being able to touch you’ thing.”
Shaking his head, Michael chuckled. “No, it’s not that at all. Okay, so partially it is. We were drawn to you before we knew you could see us. Before we knew we could touch you. Taste you. Care for you.” His eyes filled with an emotion I couldn’t describe. “We don’t want you to think that we are only around you because we have no other options.”
“Aren’t you though?” I asked, hating myself for being so insecure. “I’m not really that remarkable, despite everything else.”
“You’re wrong,” Michael told me, his voice low and hypnotizing. “You’re the most remarkable human I’ve ever met. And I’ve met my fair share.”
Licking my lips, I breathed, “That’s good to know.”
“And now you do.” Michael leaned forward, his lips brushing mine. When I opened my eyes, Michael was gone, and my lips buzzed in his wake.
11
With my lips still buzzing from Michael’s kiss, I started toward the lobby. If there was anywhere to start asking questions, that’d be it.
I hung around in the lobby, watching people check in to the resort and some checking out. The manager came out a few times and gave me the evil eyes, before heading to a door marked ‘Private.’
Know how I said the lobby was the best place to ask questions? I’d been wrong. So totally wrong. Who hung out in the lobby? Nobody, that’s who. Everyone was either enjoying the spa or working in the employee only areas.
One of those things I wasn’t supposed to do, but the other … I eyeballed a woman coming out of one of the employee only rooms. From the peek I got in as she exited, it looked like some kind of changing room. Maybe I could get some real answers if I pretended to be one of them? Maybe being a guest wasn’t the answer, but being an employee was!
Suddenly excited about my new plan, my eyes darted around as I hustled over to the door. I slipped inside and let out a breath. Empty. Great.
My eyes took in the lockers lining the wall and relaxed. Just what I needed. Now, I needed to find someone’s uniform I could borrow. I tried a bunch of the lockers, but most of them were locked. I finally found one that hadn’t been shut all the way and did a little happy dance.
“What are you doing?” Lucifer asked, making me jump and spin around.
I glanced around the room quickly before pointing a finger at Lucifer. “Don’t do that! I’m in a very precarious position. If anyone catches me, my cover will be blown. Mandy will be devastated, and I’ll have no more money coming in from the PD.”
Lucifer held his hands up in front of him. “My apologies. I was not aware you were preoccupied.”
“Well, I am. Now shush. I’m trying to steal stuff.” I turned away from him and to the open locker. I pulled out a white and blue uniform, the same kind as the cleaning ladies. Score.
I started to take my clothes off to put the new ones on when Lucifer said, “I’m not an expert on women’s clothing, but I don’t believe that is your size.”
Frowning, I glanced down at the tag. Extra-Large. It would drown me, but I didn’t really have many options. It’d have to do.
“I’ll make do,” I told him as I shimmied into the dress. Zipping it up, it hung around me like a circus tent. Well, crap. This wasn’t going to work.
Looking up from my predicament, I saw Lucifer holding his hand in a fist against his mouth, obviously trying not to laugh. “Stop laughing. It’s not that funny.”
“It is actually.”
“No,” I snapped. “It’s not.”
I growled and slapped at the uniform. For once in my life, I wished for lar
ger hips. Since no one was granting wishes today, I searched around for something to tie around my waist. Digging back into ‘Marty’s’ locker, I almost cried out when I found an apron bundled at the bottom of the locker.
Quickly wrapping it around my waist, I tied it tight, having to wrap the ties around me twice to shorten the string. Looking over myself in the locker room mirror, I frowned. Still not great but better. My eyes caught a white-ish stain near the bottom, and I grimaced. Don’t think about it. It’s just mayo. Just mayo.
“How do I look?” I asked Lucifer. “Like a maid, right?”
Lucifer shrugged a shoulder. “I suppose, but I thought you were supposed to wear high heels and those thigh high stockings. You know, with the feather duster.” He grinned, tucking his hands into his pockets.
Snorting, I moved past him. “Of course, you’d think of the porno version. I forgot who I was talking to.” I pushed out of the locker room and headed toward where I saw the other women go, Lucifer hot on my heels which I hadn’t changed out of. Hopefully, nobody noticed them. I didn’t see many real-life maids wearing high heels. I could imagine the blisters already.
The room was dimly lit with a few caged areas. Rows of shelves were stacked with cleaning products and those little toiletries they put in your room. I glanced around and grabbed a handful shoving them into my apron pocket.
“Real smooth.”
I shot a glare at Lucifer but didn’t reply. Voices were coming from deeper in the room. It sounded like they were having a meeting of some sort.
“Hey, you new?” a brunette woman smoking a cigarette asked as she came up beside me.
Hiding my shaking hands, I nodded. “Yes, just started. I hate to admit it, but I’m kind of lost. They told me to come in here to get set up, but I lost my shadow.”
“Oh, yeah.” The woman nodded as if she knew exactly what I was talking about. “Just keep going. Their handing out assignments now so you’re just in time.”
“Oh great,” I answered, clasping my hands in front of me. I lingered for a second and then started toward the talking.
“I’m Abigail by the way.” The smoking women held out her hand to me, and I shook it quickly. “But you can call me Abby. Everyone does, whether I like it or not.”
“Uh, okay, Abigail.” I cleared my throat and shot a look at Lucifer who seemed way too amused by the whole situation. “I’m Patty.”
Abigail snorted. “Of course, you are.”
We finally arrived at the back of a group of about two dozen women all dressed like Abigail and me. An older woman in a suit stood at the front of the group with a clipboard barking out orders.
“That’s Crystal, the housekeeping manager,” Abigail whispered to me. “She’s a real bitch.”
I nodded stiffly and tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible but failed when Crystal caught sight of me.
Pointing a finger at me, she shouted, “You!”
“Me?” I glanced around as if there was someone else behind me.
“Yeah, you. Who are you?”
I blanched and then cleared my throat. “I’m Patty.”
Crystal looked down at her clipboard and then back to me, shaking her head. “I don’t have a Patty. What are you doing here?”
My hands started to sweat as panic set in. My eyes darted around the room, all the other maids were staring straight at me. “I’m … I’m new. Just started today.”
“No, you didn’t. I haven’t hired any new people,” Crystal snapped back as if daring me to prove her wrong. I so wished I could slink out the back, but I couldn’t. I had to just go with it.
“You didn’t. Riley, I mean, Mr. Parks did.” I faked a blush, hoping they thought maybe I was a piece of eye candy Riley hired behind her back.
There was a hushed silence for a moment before all their eyes turned to Crystal, whose face had turned to hard stone. If she had super powers, I was sure in that moment she would have shot a death laser through my chest.
Thankfully, all she did was cluck her tongue and growl. “Of course, he did, the spineless cunt.” She let out a heavy breath before pointing toward another one, this one with dark red hair piled on top of her head, a chipper smile on her face. “Okay, Patty, you’re with Rose. She’ll show you the ropes.”
“Okay,” I answered, letting out a breath. Lucky. Lucky. That could have gone so wrong for me.
Lucifer seemed to think so as well. “I smell something foul in here, and it’s not just the stain on your apron.” I discreetly flipped him off which only made him grin. “That Crystal woman seems a bit off.”
“You think,” I said without thinking, causing Abigail to look at me strangely. I quickly added, “Rose will be a good trainer?”
Abigail lifted a shoulder. “She’s as good as any. Not much up here though.” She pointed a long-painted nail at her forehead.
“Uh huh,” I mused before turning back to Crystal and her announcements. She went on a bit longer than I expected. I started to zone out, and then before I realized how much time had passed, Rose came bounding toward me with way too much energy in her step.
“Hi! I’m Rose. You must be Patty. I’m so excited to be your trainer. I love being a maid. Do you love being a maid? I think it’s got to be one of the best jobs in the world, don’t you?” She finally stopped to let me answer, her big hazel eyes blinking at me expectantly.
I glanced over at Abigail who rolled her eyes. Forcing a smile, I said, “Yeah. It’s pretty great. Hey, not to be a gossip, but what can you tell me about—”
“No time for talking!” Rose announced, her finger in the air like some kind of robot. “We have to get going, or we’ll get behind. Can’t have any of our guests sitting on a dirty toilet, now can we?” she asked me with a smile and a slight tilt of her head.
Could you say creepy? It was like she was some kind of Stepford wife or something. No one should be that excited about cleaning toilets. It was just unnatural.
I gave Abigail a helpless look, but she just chuckled and patted me on the shoulder. “Good luck.”
Rose grabbed my arm and dragged me over to where the carts were lined up. “You want to fill your cart every morning. Make sure you get enough supplies because having to come back will dock time off your schedule and put you behind.”
“We wouldn’t want that,” I muttered, but Rose caught it.
“Exactly!” The screeching end of her voice made me wince, and I knew I was going to need some pain medicine before the end of the day.
“So, we fill our carts for exactly what we need plus a little extra.” Her eyes darted to the side for a moment before leaning toward me. “There have been some guests with sticky fingers.”
This had my ears perking up. “Sticky fingers?”
“Shh!” Rose put her finger to her mouth, her eyes going wide. “We can’t talk about it, or Crystal will get upset. The manager already got onto her about missing inventory, so you must be diligent in making sure no one takes from your cart. Never leave it alone. Got it?” Her eyes were serious, the most serious I’d seen her so far.
I nodded my head numbly, my mind focused on what she had told me so far. So, guests were stealing toiletries and stuff like that. I thought about the mini shampoos in my pocket. Not surprising. Everyone did it. That and the robes. I knew I’d be taking mine with me the moment I left. Besides, it’d be charged to the city in any case.
Thankfully, Lucifer didn’t follow me on my first day of training. I had a hard enough time fitting in without his commentary to add to it. Rose talked enough for the lot of us as it was.
I followed Rose around for a while going from one room to another and thought about what I’d learned. The maids clearly feared Crystal. They didn’t want to upset her about more thefts. It made me wonder what other ones had occurred that the managers didn’t know about.
“Hey, Rose,” I asked as I cleaned the mirror in one of the bathrooms, “do people steal a lot here? Like more than just toiletries?”
Ro
se stood from where she was cleaning a toilet, something she had deemed me not ready to do yet. Thank God. “Um, I guess. Little things disappear all the time. Either stolen or misplaced.”
“Like what?” I asked, and the suspicious look she gave me made me add, “I just want to know if I should keep my purse in my car is all.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, no, nothing like that. It’s mostly, like, guests’ belongings and such. Sometimes stationery but nothing big.” She paused and then said, “Actually, there was this one incident a few weeks ago.” She moved past me and peeked out the bathroom door before coming back in and shutting it. “A guest had put some jewelry in the room safe. Some really expensive stuff. Nothing I could afford for sure,” Rose rambled on. “But anyway, it came up stolen!”
“No!” I gasped, putting my hand on my chest. “What happened?”
Rose shrugged. “No one knows. The police were involved and everything.”
“Did they ever catch them? The thief I mean.”
Rose shook her head sadly. “Not as far as I know, but they haven’t said anything else about it. So, we all assumed it was taken care of.”
“So, is that why Crystal is all upset with Mr. Parks?” I asked, trying not to prod too much.
Laughter billowed out of Rose. “Oh no. Well, I mean, yeah, they fought about it. Mr. Parks said it was one of us girls but none of us could have broken into that safe. Not without help.” She shook her head and then cleared her throat. “But anyway, that’s not why she doesn’t like Mr. Parks.”
“It’s not?”
“No,” she waved her toilet brush in the air, and I stepped back from her just in case of sprayage. “It’s because he cheated on her.”
“Really?” I gaped from real shock. The fact that anyone would want to date Riley was shocking enough, but two women did? Unbelievable.
“Yep. With one of her own cleaning girls.” Rose pressed her lips together in a grim line. “Well, anyway, she’s dating the security guy now. Has been for almost a year, but still, it’s obvious she hasn’t gotten over it. Though I think Ernie is way better for her anyway.”