Tom narrowed his gaze. “I don’t want to ruin your evening.”
“You’re not ruining anything.” Except my composure. “Seriously. We’ll go in. Say hello, have some booze and food, then get out. Easy.”
Then again, given her nosy, snarky siblings, maybe not quite so easy, but still.
“We could always do it tomorrow,” he said, giving her one final out.
“Nah. We’ve been waiting forever for something to break on this case. I hate to waste a viable lead now.” She glanced over and caught his tense expression, his clenched fists, and her irritation grew. If she was willing to do this and face the threat of Rockford ridicule for bringing him to their family dinner, then dammit, no way was he backing out now. “What’s the matter? You chicken to meet the rest of my clan?”
“No.” He gave her a sharp glance then focused his attention out the passenger-side window. “I’m just not really dressed for a party, that’s all.”
“You look fine.” And by fine, I mean mouth-wateringly fine. From his long-sleeved charcoal-gray T-shirt outlining his cut torso to the shadow of dark stubble defining his chiseled jaw, he looked good enough to eat. “Really. You look great.”
“Thanks.” His deep voice grew softer as his gaze drifted to her once more. Her skin tingled beneath his deliberate perusal. “You look beautiful, as always.”
Beautiful? He thinks I’m beautiful?
Liv’s cheeks heated. “Uh, thanks.”
They pulled up in front of Blake’s modern-style, Summerlin two-story home about twenty minutes later. Judging by the number of cars lining both sides of the street, the party was in full swing. She maneuvered the SUV into a spot about a block and a half from the house then got out and popped the back so Tom could grab her gift.
Side by side, they walked up the quiet, tree-lined street, a slight breeze ruffling their hair.
Tom glanced around at the vast array of cars and frowned. “I thought you said this was a family thing.”
“It is.”
“So you’re related to half of Vegas?”
“Close enough.” She laughed and bumped his arm with her shoulder. Tonight things felt so easy with him, so natural. Hard to believe he might be the same two-timing asshole who’d put her family’s livelihood at risk. The thought, along with her conflicting feelings, was unnerving. They walked up the front sidewalk to the door, and she rang the bell then whispered, “Just follow my lead, and for God’s sake don’t wander off with any of them alone. Understand?”
He raised an inquisitive brow but nodded. “Yes, boss.”
“And cut the ‘boss’ crap while we’re here.”
“Okay, Liv.”
“Okay, Tom.”
Blake opened the front door, thankfully hiding his surprise at finding her here with Tom. “About time you got here.”
“Sorry, running a bit late. You remember Tom, right?” She gave her oldest brother a warning look and pushed inside, tugging Tom by the arm behind her. “We can’t stay long, but I wanted to drop off my gift and say my congrats to the lucky couple.”
“Right.” Blake’s flat stare said he wasn’t buying it for a minute. Luckily, he turned his attention to Tom without questioning her further. “I know what my sister takes, but can I get you something to drink, Tom?”
“Pale ale if you have it.”
“Coming right up. Make yourself at home.” Blake turned to Liv, his tone tight. “May I see you in the kitchen a moment, sis?”
“Not yet.” She pulled Tom closer as people swarmed around them with plates piled high with food, all laughing and carrying on and openly gawking at Liv and her new date. She cleared her throat. “I want to introduce Tom around first.”
“Right. Sure. Okay.” Blake gave her a look that screamed liar-liar-pants-on-fire. Henry, who perched on her brother’s shoulder, swished his tail quickly as if in agreement. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back with your drinks.”
Which was big bro code for “you will tell me what the hell is going on when I get back.”
Liv led Tom to a relatively deserted corner of the open living room and took the gift from his hands. “I’m going to put this on the table then say hello to my sister and her fiancé. I’ll be right back.”
He nodded and took a seat in a folding chair against the wall, looking bored and out of place. She felt bad about abandoning him, but damn. She needed to get this done so she could get him the hell out of there before her family asked all sorts of embarrassing questions. Questions she wasn’t prepared to answer.
As she made her way toward the corner of the room where Laura and Mike stood near a precarious pile of engagement gifts that looked ready to topple at any moment, Jace stepped up beside her.
“I see you have your suspicious employee under intimate surveillance.” He glanced back toward where she’d left Tom, a mischievous glint in his eye.
She leveled him with a look. “Intimate surveillance? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Showing up at the family party with him. It’s almost like a date.”
“It is not a date.” She studied Jace’s face, but it was as blank as a poker player’s. “Why, did you find something out about him?”
“No. Nothing. Like I said before, it’s probably just your imagination.” Jace leaned in and whispered playfully. “But feel free to interrogate him with your whips and handcuffs.”
Liv swatted at him. “I do not have whips and handcuffs, and this is not a date. He has a lead on the necklace heist, and I want in on it. Had no choice but to stop here with him first.”
“Whatever you say.” Jace took off toward the kitchen, and Liv continued toward Laura and Mike. Jace was good at digging up dirt on people. If he hadn’t found anything on Tom, maybe he wasn’t a bad guy after all.
Liv added her box to the pile of presents, sliding it between two other presents like a wonky game of Jenga, then embraced her sister tightly.
“I’m so happy for you.” She squeezed Laura hard, then did the same to her fiancé, Mike. “You guys are going to be so happy together.”
“Thanks.” Laura raised on tiptoe to peer around Liv. “Who’s the hot guy you brought?”
“What?” Liv fiddled with her pearl necklace. “No one.”
“Huh.” Laura said. “Looks like someone to me. Just your type too—tall, dark, and yummy.”
“Yummy?” Mike scrunched his nose at his wife-to-be. “Please tell me you didn’t talk about me like that before we got together.”
“You love it and you know it.” Laura kissed him on the cheek then pinched his butt. “And for your information, my type is more brainiac then brawn.”
“Good to know.”
“Yeah?”
They kissed again, more heatedly this time, and Liv looked away, suddenly feeling as isolated as the man she’d left stranded back in the corner. “Hey, guys. I’m really sorry to do this, but I’ve got to work tonight, so—”
“Whatever you have to do can wait.” Blake came up behind her and handed her a glass of white wine. Laura and Mike stopped kissing, and now three pairs of curious eyes watched her.
“Actually, it can’t.” She gulped her chardonnay and searched for a way out of the debacle. “We got a lead on the robbery.”
“It’s Sunday night, for Christ’s sake.” Blake scowled, his famous Hurt glare in full force. “Take a break for once.”
“Yes.” Laura grabbed Liv’s free hand, her tone pleading. “Please stay for at least a little while, sis. Seems like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
She did want to stay, she missed her family, but then there were her career obligations, which now included catching the people who had stolen the necklace and exposing a traitor. “I can’t. Tom’s waiting on me so we can go investigate and—”
“Huh. Really?” Mike hiked his chin toward the area where she’d left her nondate waiting. “Because it looks like he’s having a fine time to me.”
Liv followed his line of vision to where Tom now sto
od, bottle in hand, talking and laughing with her brothers, Garrett and Logan.
Damn.
So much for following orders. Maybe she should’ve insisted he keep calling her “boss” after all.
Tom rocked back on his heels and spotted Liv across the room, not that he’d ever really lost track of her. Whenever she was around, it was like there was this strange cord drawing them together and making him hyperaware of everything about her—the lemon, floral scent of her shampoo, the velvet softness of her skin, the fullness of her pink lips.
Jesus.
He coughed to clear the sudden constriction in his throat and did his best to concentrate on whatever it was her brothers were saying, even as she made a beeline for him. She didn’t look pleased. Not at all. So yeah, she’d told him to stay put in the corner, like a naughty puppy, but then her brothers had come over and taken him under their wing, and what the hell was he supposed to do about that?
“Penis van Lesbian!” Logan doubled over laughing, Garrett snorted and shook his head, and Tom smiled benignly, having no idea what the hell was happening but not wanting to look like he wasn’t totally paying attention. Because he was. Just not to these guys.
“Seriously?” Liv stopped next to Logan, hands on her hips and expression disgruntled. “Are you still telling that old Dick van Dyke joke? You boys have got to get some new material.” She stepped closer to Tom, and his heart rate kicked up a notch as she took hold of his forearm. “May I speak to you a second?”
“Uh, sure.” He mumbled something to her brothers, who both gave him a sympathetic look, then followed her back to the still-deserted corner where he’d started the evening. “What?”
“I told you to stay here, that’s what.” She glared at her brothers then back at him. “Which part of that didn’t you understand?”
“They started talking to me. You want me to be rude?”
“I want you to do what I tell you to do.”
“I thought we moved past the whole boss–employee thing earlier.”
“In name only.” She clenched her jaw. “I’m still in charge.”
“Is that so.” He inched closer, an odd mix of annoyance and lust bubbling inside him. She was the most exasperating, irritating, thoroughly bewitching woman he’d ever met. “What happened to the whole ‘we’re partners’ bullshit? Seems that flew out the window the minute I didn’t trip over my own feet to do your will, Princess.”
“I. Am. Not. A. Princess.”
The fury sparkling in her sea-green eyes made his cock twitch in anticipation.
Goddamn, she’s magnificent.
“Honey!” An attractive older woman with shoulder-length white hair rushed over and pulled Liv into a hug. Tom stepped back and took a long swig of his cold ale, hoping to regain some control. “I’m so glad you came tonight. We need to sit down and have a talk.”
“I missed you too, Mom.” Liv glanced over at Tom, her cheeks still flushed a lovely pink from their encounter. An older gentleman also joined them, his dark good looks and height marking him as the Rockford patriarch before introductions were even made. “Tom, these are my parents, Pearl and Noah Rockford.”
“Nice to meet you, Tom.” Noah gave him a firm handshake.
“What a handsome specimen you are.” Pearl snatched him into a tight hug before he even realized where things were going. “How long have you and my daughter been seeing each other?”
“Oh, no,” he and Liv both said in unison.
“It’s not like that at all, Mom.” Liv waved her hands. “Tom works for me at the office. He’s one of our new guards.”
“Oh.” Noah gave him a little wink. “Office romance then.”
Tom opened his mouth to answer but never got the chance because Liv took his arm once more and steered him back toward the front door.
“Actually, we have work to do tonight, so we were just leaving,” she said.
“But you haven’t even eaten yet,” Pearl called behind them.
Liv grabbed a handful of veggies off a passing tray and held them up. “Satisfied?”
“No. You still owe me a conversation, young lady.”
“Next time, Mom, I promise.” She took Tom’s hand and pulled him out the door, giving only a brief, vague wave to the people in the house as they left. “See everybody later.”
Once outside, she let him go, and Tom couldn’t seem to help missing the way their fingers had laced together briefly. In fact, there were a lot of other body parts he’d like to lace together with hers.
Shit.
They walked back to her SUV, and she climbed back into the driver’s seat, started the engine, then they pulled away from the curb in silence. Liv hadn’t looked at him since they’d left Blake’s house, and Tom wasn’t sure that was a bad thing. For the life of him, he couldn’t seem to control his reactions around her. And in his line of work, that spelled disaster.
“Where are we going?” she finally said, her voice as pinched as her expression.
He almost wished she’d stayed silent. Tom rubbed his eyes and focused out the window at the passing suburban scenery. “To 18B, in the art district.”
“Okay.” She tapped the name into her onboard GPS then sat back with a sigh. “Are you sure they’re open on a Sunday night?”
“They are for me.”
“What the hell does that mean?” She glanced over at him. “What exactly is this lead?”
“There’s an art fence I know who works out of one of the studios down there. I figure if our thieves have a taste for expensive things like necklaces, chances are they probably dabble in art heists too. If that’s the case, she’ll be in the know.”
“She, huh?” Liv gave him some serious side-eye, and Tom couldn’t quell the rush of male satisfaction bursting like fireworks inside him. Perhaps his little princess was jealous after all.
“Yeah. Her name’s Nikki Randall. We used to go out.” The lie rolled off his tongue more easily than he expected. Which was good, considering his thoughts were jumbled worse than a jacked-up Rubik’s cube. Honestly, he’d never really dated Nikki, though they had met once or twice on different jobs. He only hoped she remembered him tonight.
Half an hour later, they pulled up outside a block of buildings covered in neon lights and abstract graffiti. Tom got out and walked around the SUV to wait for Liv. She slid out, the skirt of her red dress hiking up her thighs enough to give him quite a show before she smoothed it back into place just above her knees. Too bad. She had legs that made a man want to beg for more, beg to have them wrapped around his waist or his head or…
Christ.
This had to stop.
Tom took her elbow and led her through the throngs of tourists and locals toward a gallery on the next corner. With all the people milling about, he moved a bit closer to her, his protective instincts on high alert given her appearance. She looked like a high-class wet dream in that expensive dress, and every man in a one-mile radius seemed to take notice. Sure, Liv could handle herself in a fight, as he knew all too well, but the alpha male in him demanded he keep things from ever getting that far.
“This is it.” He held the door to the gallery for Liv then followed her inside. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim interior, but when they did, he saw walls covered with abstract paintings a la Jackson Pollack on crack. His nose stung with the smell of oil paint and turpentine from the nearby attached artists’ studios. He glanced around at the other patrons but saw no sign of Nikki.
“May I help you?” a sultry voice said from behind them.
Tom turned slowly to face the sleek brunette hovering nearby. Yep, same old Nikki. Long black hair, killer red lips, same suave confidence that oozed sex and wicked promise. “Hey, Nikki.”
“Tom!” Nikki stepped forward and air-kissed both of his cheeks. “How’ve you been, darling? I’ve missed your gorgeousness around here.”
“I’m fine, thanks.”
Liv stood back and watched them, her nose wrinkled as if she
had stepped in something icky. Tom took her hand and pulled her close to his side. “Nikki, this is Olivia Rockford. Liv, Nikki Randall.”
“Pleasure.” Liv’s tone said the exact opposite. She held out a hand.
“I’m sure.” Nikki ignored the offered handshake and instead turned away, walking over to a nearby sculpture in the middle of the hall. “What can I do for you, Tom dear?”
Liv tensed beside him at the not-so-subtle slight, and Tom stifled a grin. The idea this delectable creature was envious of his former lover, even if it was a lie, made warmth suffuse his chest and spread outward through his limbs. Smiling, he pulled the pictures from his pocket. “I was wondering if you’d seen these guys around.”
He handed Nikki the grainy surveillance photos of the thieves from the alleyway and also a small Internet photo of Cody Brooks.
Nikki flipped through them and frowned then handed them back. “Only the last guy. He comes in here sometimes for the new exhibits. His name is Jon Malcom. Usually brings a friend of his along too, a man named Bill Remington.”
Right. So it seemed Cody Brooks had yet another alias. Jon Malcom. Good to know. He exchanged a glance with Liv then made a mental note to share the new information with Brandon tomorrow before tucking the photos back into his jeans pocket. Then he slipped his arm around Liv’s waist again, just because it felt so damned good to touch her and he didn’t want to stop, not yet anyway. Besides, this was all part of his cover, his job.
That’s the excuse he was going with, anyway.
More tourists entered, and Nikki drifted off in hopes of making a sale while Liv and Tom headed back out to the SUV.
“Well, that was interesting,” she said, sliding in behind the wheel once more.
“Yeah, Nikki is never boring.”
“I bet.” She started the engine and pulled out into traffic. “So, you two dated, huh?”
Tom looked over at her, so lovely in the moonlight. “Jealous?”
“Just curious, that’s all.” They stopped at a red light, and she met his gaze, a small smile playing on her full lips. “She doesn’t seem like your type.”
“Yeah?” He chuckled. “And what’s my type?”
Wicked Deception (The Rockford Security Series Book 5) Page 9