by Tara Randel
“Right now? I guess not. How about other teams? Intellectual pursuits?” He grinned. “I could see you on the debate team.”
She wished. If she’d had the nerve to join back then, she would have loved to debate. Fear had taken precedence.
“I wasn’t really involved in many team endeavors. Mostly stayed to myself.”
“Why?”
She took another sip to stall. Why indeed? Lacked confidence, she supposed. Without parents or anyone to encourage her, it was hard to work up the nerve to join in.
“I didn’t really have a lot of support. My parents are college professors. Really busy.”
He tilted his head, but thankfully didn’t say a word.
“I suppose now that I’ve run the course, next time I’ll know what to expect.”
“Next time?”
She cringed. Had she overstepped? “That is, if the team will have me?”
“Are you kidding? We’ll take any soul willing to run through muck and then hoist back a beer.” He frowned. “You will have a celebratory beer, won’t you?”
Would she? She didn’t drink. Never saw the appeal. “I suppose.”
“That’s the spirit. Let’s go get some food.” Dante turned and started toward the smoking grills and clusters of chatting people.
Her stomach growled, and for the first time since her clumsy descent of the climbing wall, she felt better.
“Dante. Wait.”
He turned. Walked back to her.
“Thank you. For pushing me to come today. Even though I might have cost you bragging rights, I had fun.”
He threw an arm over her shoulders, leaned in and spoke into her ear. “Then it was a good day.”
She turned a fraction. His face was so close to hers. She held her breath. Waiting, for what, she wasn’t sure. This close, the dark blue of his eyes mesmerized her. She couldn’t have moved if she wanted to.
She felt him go still. His warm breath brushed her cheek, yet he continued to stare down at her. Seeing what? she wondered. Then, just as quickly as the moment began, it ended when he moved away.
He smiled. Hitched his shoulder and she fell into step beside him.
Before long she was enjoying a tasty barbecue beef sandwich, the bold spices exploding with flavor in her mouth. She sipped a cold beer like her teammates—again, not her thing—and switched to bottled water. Found herself involved in conversation not involving the job and realized, I’m part of a team.
The reality shook her. Made her wonder why she’d shied away, especially once she was on her own and away from her parents’ negativity. Old habits? Fear she’d mess up and hear her parents’ voices in her head saying, I told you so? Suddenly she looked at her coworkers in a new light. She had friends, she realized. Strange, but wondrous at the same time.
“I thought I saw you on the course,” a male voice said over her shoulder. She turned. Tom Bailey was there, surprise etched on his face.
“Tom. Hi.” She waved. “It was a last-minute thing.”
“How’d you do?”
She held her arms out at her sides. “I’m in one piece.”
He chuckled. His warm eyes met hers. “Want another drink?”
She checked her water bottle. “I’m good.”
“Have you eaten?”
She nodded.
“How about getting away from this crowd?”
She blinked.
“It’s hard to talk over all the conversations.”
“Okay.” She joined him as he headed a few feet away and found a quiet bench far enough from the noise but still in sight of her teammates.
“I was hoping you would have run with me,” he said.
“For another PD? I don’t think that’s how it’s done.”
Tom chuckled, a pleasant sound. “No, I suppose not. Guess I was being selfish.”
“How’s that?”
They glanced over the scene before them: police officers enjoying the spring day, the mild temperatures and a time of relaxation away from the demands of the job.
“I was hoping you’d like to go out with me sometime.”
Her mind went blank. He was asking her on a date?
“Tom. I don’t know what to say.”
“How about yes?”
It had been a while since she’d been out with a guy. Work kept her busy and now she was focused on the promotion. Then there was Dante’s blue eyes...
“Tom, I have to turn you down.”
She glimpsed embarrassment in his eyes and, hating that she put it there, quickly laid her hand on his. “Not because I don’t like you. I’m getting ready to go undercover and I don’t know when I’ll be free.”
His face brightened. “But you’d think about it? After?”
Would she? She looked back at the crowd. Dante stood talking to a tall, leggy blonde, probably his type of woman, and decided, Why not?
“Sure. If you don’t mind waiting?”
“No. I mean, it’ll give me time to plan something fantastic.”
She chuckled. “Dinner and a movie is fine.”
“Not for you.”
She smiled at him. He was handsome, with round cheeks, nice green eyes, sandy-blond hair. All in all pleasant, but nothing to get her heart racing like when she was with Dante. The few occasions she’d spent with Tom, they’d had a decent conversation. No witty banter, but still...nice. So why wasn’t her tummy doing somersaults at the thought of dating him? Her heart not pounding out an excited rhythm?
“Listen,” she said, troubled by the direction of her thoughts. She’d said yes about going out with Tom and had meant it. “I should get back.”
“Sure. Okay.” They rejoined the crowd. “Call me when your assignment is over.”
“I will,” she said, watching as he walked backward, waving goodbye.
“What was that all about?” Dante asked as he sauntered over to her side.
“Tom asked me out on a date.”
Dante glanced in the direction of Tom’s path and back to her. “Told you he was an admirer.”
“I suppose.”
“Tell him we have an op coming up?”
“Yes. He was cool about it.”
Dante raised a brow.
“What?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem like your type.”
“I have a type?”
“Everyone has a type.”
Hers seemed to be Dante, she realized. A depressing thought because she was no competition for the leggy blonde.
“Look, who I go out with shouldn’t be of any interest to you,” she said with a little starch in her tone.
“Are you kidding? Monday you become my wife.”
Her heart shivered. “For the op. Not real life.”
“Still...”
“Leave it alone, Dante. Let’s enjoy the day.”
“Sure.” He glanced over at the blonde he’d been chatting up. “I’m going out for drinks later, anyway.”
“Great. Have fun.”
He scowled at her. “I will.”
She stood her ground. Waited for him to leave.
He stared back, then finally shook off his mood. “Go home and get some shut-eye,” he suggested before walking off. “We’re setting up house bright and early Monday morning.”
CHAPTER FOUR
RISING AT DAWN to get his five-mile run in for the morning, Dante had taken a quick shower afterward. Now, with a mug of aromatic, freshly brewed coffee at his elbow, he scanned the computer screen after signing into the videoconference call with his brothers.
Since his siblings were scattered along the eastern seaboard—Derrick in DC, Deke in Atlanta and Dylan on the other coast of Florida—this was the most efficient way to meet at an agreed upon time and carry on a conversation. All accounted f
or, they could discuss their mother before he left the house to pick up Eloise and start their undercover married life.
His pulse kicked up, but he ignored it.
“Hey, guys. I’m starting my undercover assignment today. I’m on the clock,” he said in lieu of hello.
“Dangerous, Pretty Boy?”
Derrick always managed to annoy him. You’d think he would be used to it by now.
“Shouldn’t be. Auto theft ring.”
“Are you on it alone?” Deke asked.
“No. New partner.” Whom he didn’t want to discuss with his older brothers. “But we’re together to talk about Mom.”
Dante took this time to look over each brothers’ face before they got into the family discussion. They all sported dark hair and varying shadows of blue eyes, carrying the olive-skinned coloring of their mother. Derrick resembled their father more than the others, with his blue eyes a lighter shade just like the man they’d all loved. Daryl Matthews had doled out wisdom, laughed liked there was no tomorrow and touched each son in a deep and lasting way. For Dante, he and his father had shared a love of cars and motors. It led to building a sense of trust with his dad that he’d never shared with anyone else. They’d spent hours hunched under the hood of one make or another, taking apart engines and reassembling them, only to make the cars faster, much to their mother’s chagrin. But if his father could be remembered for one trait equally and above measure with all his sons, it was the listening and abiding love of a father.
“Let’s get to it,” Dylan said, taking the lead since he was the one with the limited intel on their mother and her new beau.
“Who is this man?” Deke asked, wasting no time in getting right to the heart of business. Studious and more logical than the other Matthews boys, his reserved nature served him well in forensics.
“That’s the problem. I don’t know.”
“You don’t know, or you don’t want to know,” Derrick, always outspoken, threw into the mix.
Dylan frowned. He’d been protective of the entire Matthews clan for as long as Dante could remember. “I want to know, but she’s giving me the runaround.”
“Which you should be used to,” Derrick said, then slurped from a mug.
Dante tried a different angle. “Has Kady learned anything?”
“She overheard Mom on the phone making a lunch date for tomorrow. Once she learns the location, I’ll stop by to pick up an order.”
“If the place has takeout,” Deke pointed out.
“Yeah. If it doesn’t, I’ll take Kady there for an impromptu lunch. One way or another, I plan on meeting her date.”
“Whatever you do,” Derrick warned in his oldest-brother tone, “don’t scare him off.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Dude, you get all serious and scary on people. This guy isn’t a perp, so tread lightly.”
“I think I know how to handle an interrogation.”
“See,” Derrick said after a chuckle. “You view this as work. It’s life. Go easy.”
“Life?” Dante snorted. “When did you become so Zen?”
“The minute I learned my mother was interested in a man who isn’t our father.”
“May he rest in peace,” Deke said in a low voice.
They all went silent for a beat.
Dante swallowed, his throat tight as he thought of the larger-than-life man who had affected all their lives.
Derrick, the troublemaker of the tribe, held up a silver coin in the small square of video space. “Let’s flip to see who leads this mission.”
Dante groaned. “Really? The coin toss?”
“It’s tradition,” Derrick countered, a slick smile on his lips.
“And not necessary,” Deke chimed in. “Dylan is right there. Let him take the lead.”
“That’s not how we do things.”
Since they were kids, the boys had always used a coin toss to determine which brother would be responsible for a task. Clean the pool. Coin toss. Cover for the brother who slipped out of the house late at night? Coin toss. The latest had been the last time they were all together at a family wedding when their mother had requested that one of her sons accompany her to a florist convention. Dylan, needing an excuse to tag along to solve a case, lost the toss, but ended up winning the girl.
Derrick deftly rolled the coin between his fingers. “C’mon, guys.”
“I know how this ends.” Dylan shook his head, his bluish-gray eyes glittering.
It was frequently suggested that Derrick cheated, but Dante had yet to uncover the truth. Mostly out of self-preservation. His oldest brother could make his life miserable, since he had lots of dirt from when Dante was growing up and was not the least bit shy about using it.
“Let’s forgo the toss this time,” Dylan said. “Deke’s right. I’m here, so I’ll take the lead. As soon as I get an identification on this guy, I’ll have a local PI I’ve worked with do a background check.”
“You’ll fill us in right away?” Deke asked.
“Yes.”
On the screen, Dante watched Derrick rubbing his palms together in glee. “I see an intervention in our future.”
“Not so fast,” Dante warned. “This is Mom we’re talking about.”
The brothers all paused, identical expressions of exasperation on their faces. Jasmine Matthews would not be happy her boys were spying on her, even with altruistic motives.
Deke glanced at his watch. “Guys, I have to run. Text or call when you get a lead.”
They said their goodbyes and Deke signed off.
“What’s up with him?” Dante asked. He hadn’t spoken to Deke in a while, but it was clear he was preoccupied.
“Court case,” Derrick simply said, the one brother who kept tabs on everyone, whether they liked it or not.
“I need to get going, as well,” Dylan said. “Talk to you soon.”
After a moment, Dante and Derrick were the only brothers left.
“Tell me, who’s your partner?” Derrick’s tell-me-everything, I’m-your-buddy tone didn’t fool Dante.
Shoot. Dante was hoping none of his brothers would pick up on the fact that he’d quickly changed the subject when asked about his assignment. “Another detective in the department.”
“Who has a name?”
“Of course.”
Seconds ticked away.
“I can do this all day,” Derrick finally said, then took another sip from his mug. If anything, working for the FBI had taught his brother patience.
Dante let out a tight breath. “Eloise Archer.”
Derrick swallowed. Considered. “Eloise. Hmm. That’s a decidedly female name.”
“Because she’s a female.”
“And her role is?”
“Undercover wife.”
“Huh.” Derrick paused, his eyes twinkling with mirth. “This is new for you.”
Dante reined in his impatience. “And your point?”
Suddenly the humor was gone and Derrick was all business. “You’re going to be in a very intimate situation. Living under the same roof. Pretending to be in love. It can be easy to cross the line.”
“I think I can handle a fake temporary marriage.”
“But you’ve always gone undercover alone.”
“And your point is?”
Derrick’s expression didn’t waver. “Look, bro, you tend to live for the assignment. Throw yourself in 100 percent, all of the time.”
“That’s not crossing the line.”
“No, but it can happen.”
Was he saying...? “You crossed the line on an op?”
Derrick went uncharacteristically quiet for a taut moment. “I didn’t cross the line,” he said, “but the temptation was there. I ruined a good working relationship. A friendship. There’s
no coming back if one or both of your emotions get tangled up.”
His brother thought he’d endanger the op by falling for Eloise? The old anger flared. “Eloise and I are coworkers. End of story. There is nothing to worry about.”
Derrick pinned him with a steely look, the same look his father had sent him on more than one occasion, which made Dante squirm. “Make sure it stays that way.” Just as quickly, Derrick’s facial muscles relaxed. “What’s she like?”
“Smart. Methodical. Focused.”
“Right, right.” Derrick gulped his drink and then asked almost offhandedly, “Pretty?”
“Asks the serial dater.”
“Hey, I’m not ready to settle down.”
As long as Derrick’s first love was out there, somewhere, Dante doubted he ever would.
“So...”
Eloise was attractive. Not in the conventional sense, Dante had to admit, but who cared about convention? Pretty, even when she was buttoned up in her work wardrobe. Which got Dante to wondering, what would she dress like when it was just the two of them, a newly married couple moving into a new neighborhood?
Derrick coughed.
“Yeah,” Dante answered. “In an understated kind of way.”
“Interesting.” He paused a beat. “Single?”
Finally, he’d had it up to his eyebrows with all the questions. “What does that matter?”
“Going back to my original warning. Don’t be reckless and cross the line.”
Dante ran a hand over the back of his neck. He loved his brothers, but he’d show Derrick, and the others, that he could carry out this op without any emotional collateral. “Anything else?”
“You seem a bit put out there, Pretty Boy.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Derrick shot him a know-it-all grin, then he was gone.
“Yeah, what do you know?” Dante asked the empty screen. He closed the lid of his laptop and rose, returning to his last-minute packing.
Crossing the line indeed.
As per the op details he and Eloise had laid out, he was to pick her up at her apartment at eleven. They’d place the boxes with their clothes and personal items in the bed of the truck they’d use during the investigation and arrive at the rental house together. Just a pair of newlyweds ready to start life. With any luck, some of the neighbors would be around, although it was a workday. Still, there were always a few nosy types who managed to spread the word of any activity through the grapevine. By dinnertime, he and Eloise should be the talk of Orchard Street.