Twenty Times Tempted: A Sexy Contemporary Romance Collection

by Petrova, Em

  “Hmmm…that didn’t seem as sinister as it seems right now,” Nick said as they reached the car. He suddenly grabbed Lisa and kissed her until she was breathless, her heart pounding against his chest, the look of surprise having given way to a drowsy expression that he was able to bring to them. But then he suddenly drew her away from the car, and she stumbled as he leaned over the windshield.

  “What’s this?” he demanded. Lisa joined him. The Snack King parking was a bit dim, and anybody might have taped the note to the windshield. The note was in soft khaki cardboard piece a square foot and written in blue felt pen. They read the short note:

  “Stay away from Lisa or there will be an accident. I’m serious. She’s mine.”

  Below the words was something red and wet, like blood. But Nick, when he sniffed it, thought it was wet paint.

  “Oh my God! What’s … who would do that?” Lisa gasped.

  Nick frowned, looking around. It would be a waste of time to ask if anyone had seen the person who dropped the note. People parked and left. Others came out of the Snack King, got into their cars and drove away, and the parking attendant only worked during the day.

  “Nick! This is scary…creepy! Makes no sense. What kind of a freak does this?”

  “Hmmm. Do you think Kayla is playing games? Maybe she’s really a psycho.”

  “Why would Kayla say ‘Lisa is mine’? Does that make sense? Nick, I think it’s time to check on Detective Ray again. This makes my skin crawl.” She shivered.

  Nick made an attempt at a laugh, but his laugh was half-hearted. “No, somebody’s trying to be funny. I want to catch them and show them what I’m made of. If I involve the cops, it means I won’t be able to whoop their ass when I catch them. I’ll hire a private detective. A guy who tails my car but doesn’t stop me, and then leaves stupid notes on my windshield.”

  “Nick! I would feel safer with the police involved, honey. We don’t know whom we are dealing with. Somehow I don’t think Kayla would defy the cops like this after she was told to stay away.”

  “She could be crazy enough…who knows? Lisa, let me handle this my way. This idiot thinks he – or she – can just scare me enough to leave you. It’s personal. It’s a challenge, and I’m ready for it. And calling the cops means I can’t pull their teeth out when I get hold of them, you understand?”

  Lisa threw up her hands and rolled her eyes. “I don’t think it’s the time to display your manly abilities,” she said. “I really think…”

  “I’m serious, Lisa. This clown doesn’t scare me in the least. I’ll look up a private…”

  “If you say so,” she shrugged. “Why don’t you hire Vic and Jade, my best friends, seeing that you are determined to hire some investigator anyway?”

  “The friends you told me just opened an investigative firm? Doesn’t that make them amateurs? What experience do they have?”

  “We’ll find out, won’t we? They probably can handle this freak. He’s no hardened criminal, just a practical joker. What I don’t understand is this coincidence and the timing factor…first Kayla with the phone calls and then the Jeep last night and this creepy note.”

  “Got me there. Makes you wonder if Kayla’s behind it, and yet I don’t see Kayla going that far, especially after the cops scared the hell out of her. Well, let’s get home then. Watch out for dark-blue Jeeps on our tail!”

  “Shut up! I’ve had enough of this affair to last me a month.”

  “OK, tomorrow we visit the new Sherlock Holmes or Poirot or Detective Derrick and his sister.”

  They got into the car and drove off towards Nick’s place.

  “You were lucky to get a place near the sea and the beach, but I can’t even enjoy it tonight. I’m scared we might be followed.”

  June 2016

  The office window banged shut with a sound that woke Vic up with a sudden movement of his head and eyes. He stared wildly around and realized quickly that he was in the office, behind his new desk and that his sister, Jade, was laughing at him. Jade had her own desk near the door. As Vic said, they couldn’t afford to rent two rooms!

  “Maybe you should carry your bed to the office, Vic,” she said, and laughed again.

  “Or maybe we should turn that window into an alarm clock, seeing that it wakes me up faster than my morning alarm,” Vic suggested.

  “But the alarm clock knows when to go off, while the window knows not when to keep still,” Jade pointed out. “Suppose a client turns up while you are asleep? They’d lose confidence or trust - or whatever it is clients have in their service-providers - pretty fast.”

  “I’ll have to fix that window so it doesn’t bang shut again,” Vic said, moving over to the window. “Do you know what a lovely view of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Long Beach you are missing, Jade? Your seat should face the window.”

  “And turn my back on the door? We have to be always ready for that moment when our first client will walk in...always ready.”

  Vic stared at his sister. She had a light-brown skin and short braided hair, about two inches long with a few colored strings in it and black-framed glasses.

  “Your patience is amazing, Jade. That’s a good thing. We’ve been here for two weeks and not even a lost person has come to ask us the way to another office. Maybe we should advertise our presence and availability more, or, as I’ve been thinking lately, close shop and sell the desks and computers.”

  “That will make us enough money for three days’ lunch, I suppose,” Jade said sarcastically. “We gave out over two thousand business cards about our services, and I feel that word of mouth will get around, given a little time. My only worry...”

  “You actually have a worry?” Vic made a mock look of amazement.

  “My only worry,” Jade went on as if he had not spoken, “is whether we have the skills for this.”

  “Skills?” Vic spread his hands in a dramatic way. “What more can one ask for when it comes to skills? You are a newly-made computer genius...”

  “Without the geekiness there-of,” she finished.

  “Without the geekiness there-of, and I’m a living combination of James Bond and Sherlock Holmes!”

  “Oh God!” Jade threw up her hands and laid her head on the desk in torrents of laughter. After about forty seconds of helpless laughter, she wiped tears from her eyes. “You have a future in comedy if this detective thing doesn’t work out, Vic. I am sure of that.”

  “If you have no faith in me, why did you agree to join me then?” Vic demanded. “Didn’t I spend six weeks at the Next Level Boot Camp? Our training involved everything from self-defense, firearm use, physical fitness, tracking devices, explosives, car chases, camouflage...I think we graduated from camp as semi-ninjas! You should try it.” He waved at the certificate and police permit hanging on the wall, which he had received after the Next Level Boot Camp training.

  “I wanted to save you from trouble, Vic,” Jade said earnestly. “Besides, I just finished college, I have no job as yet, and I may as well be here than stay home. Besides, you must admit that six weeks’ training will never turn you into a James Bond.”

  “Very disappointing. I was imagining that my kid sister wants to work with me and considers me her role model.”

  “I have many role models, and you are lucky to make the cut. You are number twenty-two on my list of thirty role models. Isn’t that good enough?”

  “Twenty-two,” Vic said. “Do you mind if I ask for the names of the first five role models?”

  “If I tell you that I’m afraid I will have to kill you,” Jade said. “Do you think it’s okay now to tell Mom and Dad about our new accomplishments? We are now practising investigators.”

  “Manhunters,” Vic corrected, opening the flask and pouring out some coffee. “Imagine telling them that we are living up to our family name and have decided to open a detective agency to trace missing persons. No, we can’t tell them. We have not secured our first case, we have not successfully located our first missing pe
rson. I imagine Dad would laugh at us and Mom would think we are crazy.”

  They had been operating for two weeks, reporting to work every day. Their father wanted to visit the office as soon as possible, but Vic had so far managed to stall him. As far as Mr Hunter was concerned, they were operating an IT business. “Partly true, because your computer genius will come in handy when we get fully operational,” Vic had said. “That story will pass for now. Dad is only concerned that I have dropped my freelance writing for a new kind of thing when my greatest strength lies in reporting, or so he thinks.”

  They had waited each day, full of anticipation the first three days, waiting for their first client. Three days had turned into two weeks and it was now Thursday morning, half past eight. Vic had began to worry that the money he had saved might run out, and he and Jade were too proud to go running back to their parents for more money. Jade might, but Vic had a job that he dropped to open this agency after he read in a book that a detective made $100,000 in one case! Vic was making an average of $1,200 a week editing books online and writing eight weekly articles for online newspapers and magazines, boosted by the fact that he had won two literary competitions.

  “You were right, Jade,” Vic said now. “We can’t just throw in the towel and say we gave up. Maybe we didn’t give out enough cards to announce our precious business model. It is also extremely important that people understand that we are looking for missing persons, period, not chasing criminals!”

  “You made that very clear on the door,” Jade said.

  Vic, although he knew what was on the door of this office they had opened on East Ocean Boulevard, Long Beach, walked out and opened the door. Subconsciously he wanted to see what kind of impression it made on a new client arriving at the office.

  “HUNTER DETECTIVE AGENCY

  Dedicated to tracing missing persons.”

  “It’s very impressive,” somebody spoke as she passed along the corridor. The corridor was built like a long balcony, with all the office doors opening out on to it. From this ninth storey balcony of this twelve-storey building the sparkling sea was very clear. The speaker was Kate, a tall white lady who acted as a secretary in the next office, a real estate office. “Makes me want to get lost so you can find me.”

  “Do I detect a slight tone of sarcasm?” Vic demanded, pausing the movement of his right hand that had been about to convey the cup of tea to his lips while his left hand remained in his pocket in what he hoped conveyed an overall image of confidence.

  “Oh no, dear,” Kate said with a bright smile. “Your sister will agree with me: most girls would wish they were lost so you could find them.”

  “That is very interesting information...I’ll ask her,” Vic said and entered the office as Kate walked on.

  “I agree with her,” Jade, who had been hearing every word from her desk, said. “Somebody who sees you for the first time or for the first few days would think you are very handsome, before your irritating personality comes shining through.”

  They both laughed. But Vic held up one dramatic hand. “We shouldn’t be laughing when our dream agency is yet to find success and when it seems like we are on our way to starving.”

  It was then that Lisa and Nick came in.

  “Wow, Lisa!” Jade exclaimed as she jumped to her feet and walked towards the new arrivals. She hugged Lisa. “I didn’t think you got the description right when we met last week. “And who is your handsome companion? Sorry, I reserve hugs for proven friends,” she told Nick apologetically.

  Lisa hugged Nick. “Nick, Jade, this is my boyfriend and fiancé in the making, Nick Banks.”

  “No wonder Lisa’s gone crazy. You are almost as handsome as I am, Mr Banks,” Vic said, shaking hands heartily with Nick, and the girls laughed.

  “They would be in comedy if they weren’t amateur detectives,” Lisa explained to Nick with a wink.

  “Look at the credentials on the wall and apologize for the word ‘amateur’, Lisa,” Vic pointed at the Next Level Boot Camp credentials hanging on the wall, and Jade burst into laughter.

  “I’m sorry,” Jade gasped. “I respect your Next Level course, Vic, but I can’t help laughing all the same.”

  Vic said: “I’m thinking and hoping that you saw the writing on the door and thus are our first clients.”

  “First clients!” Lisa seemed surprised. “Haven’t you guys been active for at least two weeks? I got word of it from Jade and I was to visit you soon, but then something came up…”

  “How rude of us. Please sit down,” Vic waved to the seats on the other side of his desk. “You really mean this is business, and not just a casual friendly visit?”

  “You can consider it as both,” Lisa said. “We are your first clients and we are here to visit you too.”

  “Lucky break for us, Vic,” Jade said. “At least our abilities will be tested through our friends. I’d hate for a total stranger to be the one to prove that we can’t be detectives after all.”

  “Your attitude is fantastic, Jade,” Vic said as he sat. Then he smiled at Nick and Lisa. “My secretary and I would be honored to have you as our first clients,” Vic said. “We...”

  “Secretary!” Jade snapped. “We were partners last time I checked, Vic. I will not be...”

  “Sorry, Jade...yes, my partner.”

  “This should be an easy case,” Lisa said. “So never mind the fact that you have almost zero experience.”

  Nick’s cell phone rang, and he pressed the receive button. “Hello, Sam. Lisa and I will be back by noon. You guys can handle things out there in the meantime. Send me a spreadsheet of all the morning’s orders by noon. See you then.”

  He hung up. “The guys at the warehouse office are like headless chicken in our absence,” he explained. “Has Lisa told you we are operating the new L.A. branch of Fruity Delight Juice Concentrate?”

  “Not yet,” Jade said. “But the name explains the business. So where do you get the fruit concentrate?”

  “We import it, and the good news is we can’t import enough to cover all the orders in time. The demand is much higher than the supply, and in business that’s a good thing.”

  “Good thing for the seller, not the buyer,” Vic said. “So, let’s hear this…”

  “Just a minute. This is priceless,” Lisa jumped to her feet and walked over to the manila certificate on the wall. She read:

  “This is to certify that Victor Hunter has graduated with honors from the Next Level Boot Camp after six weeks of training in martial arts, physical fitness, firearm use, basic defense skills, safety precautions instruction, explosives defusion, fire fighting, first aid training, basic detection skills, etc.”

  “Sounds okay...I mean you are better than the average person in these things.”

  “And if you’ll allow me to boast a little, I think I have the brains for the job,” Vic added.

  Jade coughed meaningfully, and Lisa laughed. “You two are funny,” she said. “OK, let’s see if you can handle the big league or if you are in over your heads.”

  Vic frowned. “I think I’m thirty, right, Jade? And you, Jade, my baby sister, are twenty-four.”

  “Babies are twenty-four months old, not years, Vic,” Jade said. “Suppose you allow our clients to get a word in now.”

  “I will be brief,” Nick said, glancing at his watch. It was eighteen past nine. The two had driven over to the Hunters’ office instead of reporting at the warehouse office this morning. “It all began…three days ago, Lisa? The day before the day before yesterday. She began to get calls from my ex, Kayla, at the office. Apparently Kayla has never gotten over me and wants Lisa to back off and leave her man alone. In her deluded mind I’m still her man, even though it was a short-lived mistake that I regret. It got a bit scary and creepy when Kayla somehow found Lisa’s home number and called her there, and stopped just short of threatening her, scaring her enough to run to the cops.”

  “Hmmm, so the case has been to the cops already,” Vic said
with a trace of disappointment. “Are we supposed to work side by side with the cops?”

  “The rest of the story will explain that,” Lisa said. “Actually, Nick and I are ready to work with you side by side, but we have the office and warehouse to run, so our time is limited. Besides, new amateur detectives as you may be, you could be better than us at this thing. I recorded a statement and met this cool detective, Ray of LAPD. They promised to trace and record all calls made to the office or to my residential telephone. The mystery was solved anyway, and Kayla got a visit from Ray or somebody else and was told complaints had been made and charges could be pressed, and I imagine that was a scary experience for her.”

  “So do I,” Vic agreed. “Is there more to this seemingly open and shut case?”

  Nick told them about the Jeep chase and the cardboard note on the windshield, and why he preferred a detective to the cops.

  “So we have some puzzles with no answers yet,” Vic said. “You are wondering if Kayla would be crazy enough to defy a police warning and risk being charged by continuing her stalking and weird behavior to the point of tailing your car. But then the note…which I wish you had brought over to us, seems to be from somebody who wants you, Nick, to keep away from Lisa.”

  “Exactly.”

  Vic sighed. “A nice little mystery, huh? Just what do you intend to do to this persistent pest when you get hold of him or her? Anything criminal?”

  “I’ll do what will seem right at the time,” Nick said. “But seriously, Vic. You and Jade could be lacking on the equipment side. There are so many things a well-equipped detective, or the cops, can do that you cannot. Can you tail cars, trace calls, plant bugs, install cameras?”

  “You’d be surprised at what we can do, Nick, but yes, we have limitations. But, hey, you came to us! We are ready to take the challenge. Too bad you don’t have this Jeep’s number. And what can I do with the cardboard threat? I’m not equipped to lift finger prints.”

  “See? We could be in the wrong office.”