Twenty Times Tempted: A Sexy Contemporary Romance Collection

by Petrova, Em

  “Sure, babe. Just some unpleasant growing-up memories when my parents passed away, before I joined campus for my degree. But there are some happy moments within. It all began thirteen years ago when I lost my parents to a car accident.”

  “Tell me about it,” Lisa said, her arms around him.

  Nick narrated his story.

  “After all these events, I enrolled at the Marymount University here in Long Beach, where you also used to study. I attended classes between 2011 and 2014.”

  June 2016

  Nick and Lisa had left for the office after the four of them had had a quick lunch at noon, and Vic and Jade had just settled back in their office when Gina, a plump white lady in her late forties and square glasses, visited their office. There was a look of exhaustion in her eyes and Vic could see the shadows of her lower eyelids. “Somebody passed a card to me a week ago with this address and description of your services, and I thought...” she sighed. “It’s my son...he’s missing. I thought why not try you, seeing that the police have proved to be as helpless as a bunch of snowmen?”

  Vic glanced at Jade. Could they handle two cases at once? They had taken on Nick and Lisa’s case that morning!

  “Just call me Gina,” Gina said firmly. “If we are to do this thing, we don’t need formalities standing in our way.” She rummaged in her handbag and pulled out a notebook and a photo.

  “This is my son,” she said as she handed the photo of a young man, white with raven-black hair, leaning against a 2011 purple Chrysler stretch limo. “A bit of a spoilt kid, I’m afraid...likes to ride around with a chauffeur, and only drives his smaller car when he has his own private business, I suppose, and when he doesn’t want Johnson to know his whereabouts. Johnson is the chauffeur.”

  The white mansion beyond the car gave an impression of a wealthy residence.

  “Please tell me more about him,” Vic said as he placed the photo on the desk and Jade sat in the next chair near Vic’s desk, facing Gina and holding a notebook and a pen.

  “Richard disappeared on the 30th of May, and has been missing for ten days, seeing that it is now ninth of June,” Gina began. “That day he didn’t use Johnson’s services. He just drove away through the gate and that was the last time we saw him. The car was found parked near a pharmacy off Gladys Avenue, not so far from here in fact.”

  “Yes, that’s not far from here...let’s see, we are on East Ocean Boulevard, not so far from Long Beach Museum of Art, and if you branch off through Cherry Avenue you can find your way there. But I suppose the police have already questioned the people at the pharmacy?”

  “The people at the pharmacy are livid!” Gina grimaced. “There is one fire-spitting woman there named Sharon who read me the riot act face-to-face and continued it over the phone about how my son had no right parking his car outside her pharmacy and then disappearing so that the police could start troubling her. She thinks they probably suspect her of kidnapping him, considering the kind of questions they were asking her in spite of her assuring them again and again that she had never sold any drugs to anyone named Rich or Richard...his friends nicknamed him Rich, I guess in appreciation of the whole limo thing.”

  “I think the police also understand that if the people at the pharmacy had anything to do with his disappearance they would have gotten rid of his car,” Vic said, frowning. “The last place he parked his car would be bound to arouse a lot of interest.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Gina said, nodding. “Promise me to keep thinking like that and we shall find Rich.”

  “You are showing a slight sign of brilliance, Vic,” Jade agreed. “I think spending time with me is paying off.”

  Gina and Vic laughed.

  “There is more,” Gina said. “I don’t know if Sharon and company will even let you into the pharmacy once you mention Rich. They would throw you out fast enough to make your head spin. Most of Rich’s close friends have been questioned, and no one seems to have a clue as to what happened. No one even seems to recall any extraordinary or weird thing that may have happened prior to his disappearance, or any telltale words he may have spoken. It’s a blank! They have promised to keep looking, and I haven’t heard from them in seven days. The last time I called the station a detective curtly told me they had over two thousand missing persons on their list, and the only thing I can do is wait and keep my eyes open. He even told me they even had a list of lost dogs and cats and the owners were serial callers. ‘We try to give missing humans priority, but the owners of lost cats and dogs think they deserve a lot more attention than they are getting, and it takes some doing to make it clear to them that there are organizations that can handle lost pets better than the police,’ he said, before I reminded him that we were talking about my son and not a lost dog or cat!”

  “I’m so sorry about that,” Jade said, her arm on Gina’s shoulder. “We’ll do the best we can,” she said, her eyes meeting Vic’s with a look of bewilderment. What could they do that the police had not?

  Gina sobbed for forty-five seconds while Jade comforted her, and Vic was glad he had her as a partner. He was sure he couldn’t have been nearly as comforting as his sister was. “I’ll give you something I did not pass over to the police...his notebook. I felt that it was private and not of much use anyway. Just some notes, and he kept no diary. Here are also the addresses of his two closest friends. The police already spoke to them, but they may have something to say that they didn’t tell the officers. But I did call one of them two days ago, a close friend of Rich and a neighbor of ours: his name is Ian. He told me Rich had not mentioned anything extraordinary except that he had drank more than he usually did the last two days before he went missing, but the only thing I noticed was that he came home so late, but luckily had his own key and didn’t have to wake anybody up. And something else...” she frowned, hesitating.

  “Yes? What else?” Vic pressed.

  She sighed. “Rich had his difficult times. By the way he’s twenty-two. When he was eighteen he attacked a friend with a broken bottle after an argument and almost injured him, but his friends intervened. A year earlier he had attacked a high school teacher with a sledge hammer that he probably got from a construction site within the school and somehow smuggled it into the class. Needless to say we had to get him a new school!”

  Great, Vic thought as he racked his brain for something parent-friendly to say. I’m now going to be tracking down a man who might welcome me with a weapon if I find him!

  “I guess he had some teenage issues going on and will probably shake his head whenever he remembers the things he did,” he said.

  “I hope so,” Gina brightened. “Sometimes he gets so quiet especially when upset that he worries me, but we’ve not had any serious anger issues for three years.”

  Vic, with Jade peering over his shoulder, was reading the notebook.

  There were about twenty-four written pages, but there seemed to be nothing of interest inside the notebook. On the last page were two addresses and the words:

  “I’m addicted to fruit salad. And I’m addicted to you.”

  “Addresses...could they be his friends? One Long Beach, CA address and one Red Valley, Palm Beach, Florida address. The words ‘C. B. Crew’ next to the addresses. Have you tried to contact any one of these people?” Vic asked, feeling a surge of excitement. Things were really coming alive in this office.

  “I have not. I also wondered about those names, but I happen to know Brad as a college classmate of Rich who has visited our home a few times, and the boy is okay. This Alicia girl I do not know, and I don’t know if she’s in college here in L.A. or if he’s even met her, seeing that in these days of instant internet connection you don’t have to meet physically to be friends.”

  “Yes, Red Valley in Palm Beach, Florida...I believe Palm Beach county is located somewhere north of Miami in Florida. This Red Valley can’t be as big a place as Miami or Tampa city or Orlando, the bigger cities out there...Red Valley is probably a small tow
n. But why not start with the L.A. address? These might be closer friends of his than anyone knows, people he keeps in touch with, and they even seem to refer to themselves as the C. B. Crew, whatever that stands for. I’m wondering about the words New Year’s Party...hmmm. Plans for December? Or maybe they met at the last new year’s bash or something?”

  “I forgot to ask something important,” Gina said. “Your rates! I am ready to cover the expenses too. My son must be found, and I feel that the police are not doing much, or not as fast as I want them to.”

  Vic smiled. “I was so focused on this new case I forgot we are in business! What can we charge, Jade?”

  Jade frowned. “You have not even decided what you want to charge? You must be one of those ‘plan as you go’ people, Vic.”

  “More like ‘go as you plan’ person,” Vic smiled. He turned to Gina. “I found that the average rates by private investigators mostly around here are sixty to over a hundred dollars per hour plus expenses, but I’m full of kindness and will not charge you per hour, even though you seem wealthy.”

  Gina laughed. “Don’t let Rich’s limo fool you, but I’m no church mouse either. Can we have a daily or weekly rate with a time limit?”

  “That’s clever, especially the limit part. Shall we say four hundred per day with a two-week limit by which the case should be concluded but either party can choose to call it off at any time, and all expenses catered for by client?”

  “I can call it off for financial reasons, but I don’t see why you would want to call it off,” Gina made a gesture to show that she indeed did not understand.

  “With us being so new in this business, I want to be covered in case I feel that I have stepped out of my league,” Vic explained.

  “Okay, done. Here’s three day’s settlement, and one thousand in expenses. Please update me every day at six P.M. on progress or if something new or weird comes up. And I think that the notebook may come in handy and may give you an angle the police do not have.”

  “In fact, we shall start with the addresses in the notebook before we even check on those two friends the police questioned, who I’m not sure can tell us anything they didn’t tell the police. But you never know.”

  Jade gave Gina a receipt and Gina wrote down her address and her phone number.

  “What course was Rich taking and what college was that?” Jade asked.

  “Good question!” Vic said. “We might learn more from his college buddies than from anybody else, depending on whether the two names have any bearing in the case of his disappearance. For all we know he just innocently wrote down two addresses of good friends of his, but who are close enough to be referred to as ‘crew’, something he either wrote light-heartedly or a name they refer to themselves by. At least we know Brad was his friend. Alicia makes me wonder though, as she lives so far away...but we’ll soon find out. Maybe Brad knows her.”

  “The new year’s party connection? He might have been planning to invite them for new year’s party with no sinister motive,” Jade pointed out. “But it’s only June and New Year’s is so far away!”

  “You have a point there, although it will have to be a killer of a party to get somebody flying all the way from Red Valley, assuming that we are talking about the next new year’s day and the writer of the names was not just recalling good old times,” Vic agreed. “But I must say that the word ‘eve’ is conspicuously missing here. New Year’s Eve. Do you recall where Rich was on the thirty-first of Dec and first of January, Gina?”

  “First, to answer Jade’s question, it was a small college nearby, Long Beach Academy of Arts and Design. He feels drawn towards theater and acting. As for New Year’s Day, I have no idea. He drove off on the thirty-first and was not seen until the morning of second except for making one or two phone calls...I guess I should have been more keen, but that’s Rich for you. He has several friends and he can spend one or two nights away. I will try to find out from my husband if he remembers anything odd or specific about those two days. I could also ask two of his friends and call you by tomorrow. Well, I’ll be going now, and trust me nothing is too minor to call Gina about.” She shook hands and headed for the door.

  “That’s it, Jade!” Vic said as the door closed behind Gina. “We are in business! Scary, isn’t it? Two cases on our hands!”

  ***

  1814 West 23rd Street was a one-storey house with brownish tiles, they noticed as Vic parked the purple Jeep Patriot that his father had bought in 2012 and gifted to Vic in 2015, a year ago. Paul Hunter had been uncomfortable with the fact that he had promised his son a car since Vic was twenty as he joined college, and Vic had been driving a Ford Fit that Jade was now using.

  “I’m a man of my word, even ten years later,” his Dad had said over the phone. “Son, the car is waiting for you. You drive your own car but you’ve always admired that Jeep, I know.”

  “Can I come over before you change your mind, Dad?” Vic had hung up and rushed home to collect the Jeep.

  Vic parked outside the house.

  “It’s twenty-six past four,” Jade said, “But we aren’t too early. My keen eye has seen some movement behind the curtains.”

  Vic pressed a switch near the door, and it was opened almost immediately by a rather plump woman who seemed to be in her forties and had long black hair that fell below her shoulders.

  “Well?”

  “Ma’am…we would like to speak to Brad Scott. I think this is the right address.”

  “Don’t say you are also from the police!” she said curtly.

  “Police, Ma’am?” Vic glanced at Jade, raising his eyebrows. “Perhaps we should introduce...”

  “I think it’s bad enough that Brad has been pestered enough by the police without being troubled with more enquiries!” she interrupted with a snap. “I want to be alone, and I’ve just sent away two of my best friends because I have a headache. Are you friends of Brad?”

  “Mrs. Scott, the mother to one of Brad’s friends...”

  “Rich? Have they found him? Brad has been raving about the fact that Rich is missing, and it’s really gone to his head. He has really taken Rich’s disappearance hard. Can’t the police do their job?”

  “What’s happened to Brad?” Vic asked with concern.

  “I’m just tired of explaining that Brad was not with Rich when Rich disappeared and has not been in touch with Rich and is very worried about Rich, and no one has the right to keep pestering Brad or even me about it!”

  “Mom, please stop. Just close the door,” a girl’s voice said and a girl of about sixteen with hair just like her mother’s appeared at the door, pulling Brad’s mother away back into the house. “Please go away,” she said to Vic and Jade. “We want to be alone. My brother has been pestered enough by cops about Rich. We don’t need more questions.” To prove that they wanted to be alone indeed, she banged the door shut in their faces.

  “I guess I would act like that too, if I was being pestered about a missing friend of mine as if I had something to do with their disappearance,” Vic said sympathetically. “Let’s get out of here.”

  As he drove away, Jade spoke: “Do you think Rich could be in danger? Kidnapped perhaps?” Jade wondered.

  Vic frowned. “I’m sure the police have considered that angle, but what kind of kidnapper does not demand for money? I guess the police have also considered the fact that he could have run away. After all he drove away from home, leaving the chauffeur behind, and parked the car by himself.”

  “You are thinking faster than me, Vic, but that’s only because I’ve not had a late afternoon snack. And be careful…remember we have two cases to handle, not one.”

  Vic said: “Over time I have come to realize that nothing stimulates the mind like a cup of coffee inside the Snack King. Let’s discuss this over a snack at the Snack King.” He turned the Jeep towards South Leland Street and drove towards the Snack King, a place they loved.

  Freddie their waiter friend was all smiles as he met them
at the door. “If I had the power to feed you two on the house you know I would,” he grinned as he shook hands and made a mock bow. “Jade and I had a lovely date two weeks ago. I recommend table fifteen.” And again he made a mock bow as he smartly waved towards table fifteen near a window.

  Vic laughed. “Jade sure keeps secrets.”

  “Listen to me, Freddie,” Jade said sternly as she sat down, “I don’t like some of your half-baked jokes. Figure out which ones I like and tell only those ones. From now on, all your jokes must go through Vic for review.”

  “You date the wrong guys, Jade,” Freddie said. “You remind me of a girl named Lisa Coleman.”

  Vic froze. “What do you know about Lisa?” he demanded. “Which wrong guys does she date?”

  Jade coughed meaningfully. “This I have to hear.”

  Freddie shook his head. “Just kidding. I just thought she should date me instead. She’s your friend, anyway, Jade. You guys used to frequent this place some time back.”

  “Freddie, Jade and I have some business to discuss. Do you mind taking the orders after which you will take yourself out of earshot?”

  “Oh, family matters!” Freddie nodded solemnly.

  “A cup of my usual coffee will do, Freddie. Make it something between icy and hot.”

  “For some reason my mind has been occupied by the thought of a good old vanilla milkshake for the last two hours,” Jade said, and Freddie grinned and briskly walked away to get their orders.

  “No wonder you couldn’t concentrate on the case,” Vic said, but raised his hand in a placating gesture as Jade prepared to protest. “Know what? I need to ask Lisa which weird men she came to this place with.”

  “You mean except that Alex guy who was stalking her back in 2014, the one she mentioned? I believe he met her inside here or something like that.”

  Vic nodded. “Maybe that’s the guy Freddie is thinking of.” He dialed her number. “Hi Lisa.”