Lewis Security

by Glenna Sinclair

  If I ran and got away, he would be in a world of trouble. Pax would hold him responsible. The judge would hold Pax responsible. What would happen after that? Would the agency fold? Would Dylan lose his job?

  What does that matter? I asked myself with a sneer. He’s an ass and Pax is an overbearing jerk. They don’t mean anything. Their lives are nothing. I only wished I could believe it.

  I wasn’t the person I needed to be, doing the work I did. I wasn’t cold or heartless, even though I wished I could be. Life would be so much easier.

  I went to the drawer and fished out the bag. There it was. All I needed, right there. My way out. I could be Amy Monahan and go to Paris. Or I could be Laura Vincent and fly to Rome. Maybe Jessica Chambers would go to Tokyo. I flipped through the many identities I’d used over the years and told myself it would be as easy as choosing one and leaving, leaving forever. There was nothing left for me. Even my parents were God only knew where, living their lives, leaving me to mine. I wouldn’t be leaving anything behind but a safe deposit box under yet another name, full of stolen jewels. Wouldn’t that drive the authorities crazy, wondering what I had done with the jewels after stealing them. Not to mention the client, who would go out of his mind. He could search for the rest of his life and never find them. I had made sure of that.

  I loved that idea. I sat on the bed and imagined the nameless, faceless person who had probably killed Erich losing their mind without the jewels. They’d wonder what I could’ve done with them. Maybe they’d hire somebody to find out where Vienna Worth could’ve stashed millions of dollars of diamonds and emeralds. Little did they know Vienna Worth wasn’t a real person. Just like my other personas. And they’d go crazy with obsession, always wondering, always searching while I lived out the rest of my life on a beach somewhere.

  Yes, it was a nice thought. I wished more than anything I could go through with it. Somewhere along the line, I had lost my nerve. I should’ve run first thing, right away, before my conscience could have the chance to stop me.

  What the hell was I supposed to do if I didn’t run? Go to jail? The idea turned my stomach.

  Then, it hit me. A way to get what I wanted.

  ***

  “You look nice.” Dylan’s eyes traveled up and down the length of my body when I walked down the hall, into the kitchen. He was waiting for me there with a cup of coffee in his hands. He had been nice enough to pour a cup for me, too.

  “Thank you. I believe in dressing well when I go to the police station.” I was wearing a black wrap dress and gold sandals, with my hair up in a twist. Nothing all that special, but nicer than the yoga pants and t-shirts I’d been wearing around the house all week. Dylan smirked as I took a sip of my coffee. “Mmm, this is good. Thank you.”

  “Sure.” He looked wary, though. Time to thaw things out again.

  “I’m sorry. Really, I am. I should’ve been nicer last night. You were so nice to me, you know, so I should’ve been nice, too.”

  “I understand. You were freaked out.”

  “Was. Am, still, a little.” I leaned against the counter with my coffee. It wasn’t in my nature to be vulnerable, but if there was anybody I could relax with, it was him. “I mean, it isn’t every day you find out somebody you know what probably murdered, and it was probably your fault.”

  “Hey.” He came to me, then stopped short of touching me. He leaned against the counter, instead. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t make him do the things he did.”

  “But he trusted me to do what I said I would do. I didn’t. I held back and went to the cops and now he’s dead.”

  “You don’t know why he’s dead.”

  “Come on, Dylan.” I looked him straight in the eye. “We both know why he’s dead. I appreciate you being nice, but let’s call it what it is, huh?” I finished the coffee. “It’s hard enough without lying to myself.”

  “Okay. We’ll do it your way. Your client probably had him killed. Maybe he even let it slip that you got picked up. Who knows? They got scared and decided to get rid of him.”

  “I hate myself so much.”

  “I understand, but you don’t have to.” My hands were on either side of me, gripping the countertop. I felt one of his hands graze one of mine. “You don’t have to.”

  “Thank you.” I dared look up at him again, and I could’ve sworn I heard my heart skip a beat. Oh, this is inconvenient.

  ***

  Just like we did before, we turned heads at the police station. Or it might have been just me. They weren’t used to seeing a girl dressed well, carrying herself with her chin up. I would be damned if any of them would see me looking as scared as I felt inside.

  Ricardo was waiting for us in his office—he gave me a small smile when we stepped inside. “How’s your week been?” he asked as we sat.

  I gave him an arch smile as I leaned back and crossed my legs. “Like a week at the spa, only without the seaweed wraps.” Dylan snorted quietly beside me. Somehow, we had become allies. I decided I didn’t hate it—in fact, I needed him. I only had to keep reminding myself I did to keep from lashing out at him when I felt uncomfortable or frustrated.

  “I’ll have to tell Pax to stock you up with seaweed, then.” He smiled more fully. It was a kind smile. So he felt sorry for me. That would work in my favor, for sure.

  “I know about Erich,” I murmured. “Do you know yet what killed him?”

  He shook his head. “Not entirely. There was a blow to his head, but that could’ve happened if he fell somehow. They found his body on the pilings, in the water.”

  I cringed at the thought. Dylan’s hand brushed mine, just the way it had back in the kitchen. It was reassuring and even comforting, but the way Ricardo glanced down at our hands reminded me to keep things professional at least in front of him.

  “How well did you know him?” he asked.

  “Not very well.”

  “How did the two of you meet?”

  “Through a mutual connection. You know I can’t give you the name, of course.”

  “Of course. It’s no secret there’s a widespread underworld in the city. If it weren’t for you giving his name to Dylan, and Dylan giving it to Pax, we would never have connected the two of you at all.”

  “I’m glad you did. I’m glad to know what happened, even if I hate knowing that it did. I guess I need to know.”

  “I guess you do, even though we still—”

  “You still don’t know for sure how he died. I’ve heard that already.”

  He nodded slowly. “All right. Let’s say your client killed him. How could we find out who that client is?”

  I shrugged, and my eyes drifted down to the floor. I could hardly stand looking at him, with that kind yet condescending expression on his face. I knew he was trying to be nice, the way everybody was trying to be nice to me, but I knew he didn’t mean it. He had a job to do. “I already told Dylan. Erich was a professional, even though it seems silly to call him that. He always kept his word—he never gave away a client’s name.”

  “How did the client find your apartment, then? Didn’t you assume it was that client who broke in?”

  “That was my assumption, yes. I don’t know why they did or how they found me. Maybe they staked the house out and watched me. They might have followed me, or hired somebody to follow me. I couldn’t say. But if they could pay a hundred grand for my services, they could afford to find me.”

  “Have you ever had a problem like this before?”

  I shook my head. “Never. I don’t know them, they don’t know me. Then again, I never had a job like this before. Things usually go a lot more smoothly.”

  “What did you do with the jewels you stole? You never did tell us when you first came in. It’s a question my bosses keep asking, and I keep holding them off—but barely.” He looked and sounded pained. I felt sorry for him, of course. I wasn’t a monster.

  “They’re safe. Don’t worry about them.”

  “When will we get
them? I mean, we can’t go forward with the case unless we get them.”

  Like I didn’t know that. The jewels were my trump card. I could confess to the robbery and provide details of the job, but until the jewels were returned, there was no honest-to-God proof that I had committed the robbery. I sure didn’t leave any fingerprints. Nobody saw me that I was aware of.

  I folded my hands in my lap. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that. And I finally figured out how you and I can help each other.”

  His eyebrows shot up, and Dylan snorted beside me. “This oughta be good,” Ricardo smirked.

  “I think you’ll like it.”

  “All right. Talk.”

  “That’s exactly what I’ll do,” I replied smoothly. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know, or as much as I possibly can. I’ll even give you the jewels to do with what you see fit. As long as I can make a deal to keep me out of jail when it’s all over.”

  Chapter Twelve – Dylan

  It would be great if she would ever tell me what she was planning to do before she did it.

  Ricardo’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me? You’re trying to make a deal now?”

  I looked at her, just as surprised as he was. She had a set of balls bigger than any I had ever seen, and she was as cool as anything when she smiled back at him. “That’s right.”

  “Don’t lawyers usually do things like this?”

  “Oh, I know I’ll have to contact a lawyer to make things official and all, but I wanted to run it past you first. I figured you could contact the DA’s office and see what they think. I don’t want to waste a bunch of billable hours for nothing, you know.”

  He shook his head in amazement. “You really thought this out, huh?”

  “I don’t have much else to do, have I?” She glanced at me, then focused on him again. Gone was the sobbing, shaking girl she was less than twelve hours before that. She was right back in the driver’s seat, where she wanted to be.

  Ricardo wasn’t so easy to push around, though. He sat back in his chair with his fingers tented under his chin. He watched her through narrowed eyes. “I know I shouldn’t bite on this, but I’m just too damned intrigued.”

  It was my jaw’s turn to drop. “You’re serious?”

  “Hell, yes. Without a little help, there’s no way we can work this out. All the secrecy?” He leaned forward and tapped his fingers on the desk to emphasize his point. “But if the client knows who she is, we might be able to draw them out. They’re who we really want, especially if we find out this Erich character was murdered because of this job.”

  I could only shrug it off. “I can’t tell you how to do your job.”

  “No, but your job might have gotten a little more complicated. You’ll actually have to keep a closer eye on this one.” He laughed. “I don’t envy you.”

  I wouldn’t, either, if I were him.

  ***

  “Could you maybe, just once, tell me what you’re planning? Just once?”

  “Why? You would only try to talk me out of it.” We walked side-by-side out the door and down the steps to the sidewalk. It was a muggy day, nasty, and most of the people crisscrossing back and forth looked sweaty and frizzy and miserable. Vienna looked cool and fresh. She stood out in so many ways.

  “I’m tired of looking like a smacked ass when you throw a surprise like that at me, is all.”

  “I’m sorry,” she pouted. “I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop from now on.”

  “I could do without the sarcasm, too.”

  “I’ll make a note of that.” She was feeling pretty damn full of herself. We reached the Jeep, where I hesitated before opening the door for her.

  “Do you really think this is gonna work?” I waited for an answer. She wasn’t going to sidestep me.

  Finally, she lifted her head and looked me in the eye. “I do, because I’m not the big fish. The client is. They’re the one who killed Erich. I didn’t kill anybody—and if I hand over the jewels, it’s like I didn’t steal anything at all. Right?”

  “But you broke into the old man’s house.”

  “Which can be pleaded down in a deal with the DA’s office. I’ve already thought this out, trust me.” She reached up and put her hands on my shoulders. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Says you.” I worried about her, honestly. She thought she had everything under control and nobody could tell her otherwise. Her buddy Erich probably thought he had everything under control, too. Look what happened to him. When I thought about her floating along the pilings the way he did before the cops fished him out of the water, it made my blood run cold. Knowing how serious a situation we were in only made the need to protect her that much stronger.

  “Come on,” I muttered as I opened the door. “I wanna stop by the office to pick up my mail before we go back to the house.”

  “Ooh, I get to see where you work?”

  “You’ve already seen where I work. At the safe house. The office is just where I stop by every once in a while.” She was in a good mood, flirty and feisty. Because she was getting her way. She was like a little kid who just got a treat. I couldn’t even bring myself to be irritated with her, not when her eyes sparkled the way they did when she was happy.

  “You might wanna bring the charm down a notch when we get to the office,” I warned her as we crossed the bridge into Brooklyn.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean you don’t need to charm the shit out of everybody at headquarters. Pax keeps things pretty serious in the office.”

  “Got it.” She frowned and folded her arms. “I’m very serious.” I only shook my head and kept driving. Inside, I wondered what they would think of her. She wasn’t the usual client. She wasn’t in danger because she was innocent. It was her guilt that put her where she was, and I doubted anybody I worked with would feel even a little bit of sympathy for her. I only hoped they would be civil—they didn’t have to welcome her with open arms, but it would be nice if they were professional. I told myself they were all professionals, otherwise Pax would never have hired them.

  Lydia greeted me with a wide smile—a smile that faded a little when she saw who I walked in with. “Hello, stranger. You’ve been missed around here. I never even got the chance to ask how your vacation went.”

  Oh, right. Vacation. It seemed like years had passed since then. “It was great, thanks. You’re right, I never stopped in after I got back. I was called onto a new case right away.”

  “So I see.” Our office manager smiled at Vienna, and her eyes were at least kind behind her cat’s eye glasses. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Worth.”

  “Likewise.” Vienna extended a hand to shake, and the two of them smiled warmly. So far, so good.

  “I’m just here to pick up the mail and check in on things around the office,” I announced. Lydia handed me a pile of envelopes.

  “You get your mail sent here?” Vienna asked.

  Lydia cut me off. “It’s so they have somewhere to pick it up when they’re away on a case. Either they come get it, or somebody can take it to them. Otherwise, it just piles up in the mailbox.”

  “That makes sense. You all think of everything, don’t you?”

  That was just the sort of thing Lydia loved to hear. It wasn’t often that somebody stroked her ego—the office manager tended to fade into the background. Her job wasn’t flashy the way mine was. “If it wasn’t for Lydia, we’d all fall apart,” I said. Lydia just about burst with happiness. So the visit was worth it if only for that reason.

  “I’d love to see what else you have going on here, if that’s okay.” Vienna looked at the two of us. “I mean, if you can’t give away state secrets, I totally understand that.”

  I shrugged, glancing at Lydia. “I don’t think it would be a big deal. Is Pax in?”

  She nodded. “In his office. I would check it with him first.” I didn’t need any reminded of that. Suddenly, bringing her with me was a very bad idea. He wouldn’t be happy
.

  “Come on. There are some things we should talk over with him, anyway.” It would be better if I could frame the visit that way, like I wanted to check that he knew about Erich, that sort of thing. I knocked at his office door.

  “Come in.” When he saw me, then Vienna, his eyebrows went up. “What a surprise. To what do I owe it?”

  “I thought we’d get out and get a little air today,” I smirked. “You know we went to see Ricardo. He doesn’t do anything with any of us without checking it with you.”

  “You’re right—I was gonna be there, too, but I got busy around here. We have two new cases as of this morning.” My knee-jerk reaction was to be jealous of whoever got the new cases, but I realized I was fine where I was. For the first time, I was glad things shook out the way they did.

  We sat down across from him in the laughably small chairs—none of us were exactly little guys, so I wondered why he kept such small chairs in his office. Vienna, on the other hand, perched in it like a Queen on her throne. I wondered again how she always managed to come off perfectly graceful, like she fit in anywhere. Probably something she’d needed to learn in order to do her job well.

  “You didn’t hear about the deal our client is trying to make with the DA, I’m guessing.” I threw a glance her way out of the corner of my eye.

  “Oh, that’s not true. I heard all about it.” He looked at her with grudging admiration. “Do you really think the DA will go for it?”

  “I figured it was worth a shot,” she smiled. She was a lot more closed-off with him than she was with Ricardo, with whom she was almost playful. Pax she treated with respect, maybe even a little fear.

  “Well, good luck with that. Do you think you have information about Erich and the client that could help the case?”

  “I’m more than willing to do whatever you think is best to draw the client out, if that’s what you mean. I’ll do anything. Whatever it takes.” And I believed her, too. Maybe it was the way she set her jaw so firmly, like she was daring him to tell her she couldn’t do it.