“Great idea, Grandfather.”
Vasilii held out his hand toward the door, and Louisa turned toward it. “You and Ivan should return to the lab and begin your search while I start the wheels in motion. Trust me, Louisa. You know I take things like this incredibly seriously, and the perpetrator will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
As she walked toward the lab with Ivan, who was chattering on about how it was likely nothing, and how they’d be laughing about it by lunchtime when they found the sample in a silly location, thoughts flashed through her mind at high speeds. She felt like Dr. Susan Wheeler in the old movie Coma. What if she had stumbled onto a conspiracy? She shook her head. Those were the rambling thoughts of someone who was paranoid. It was a missing sample, and Vasilii was taking steps to find the culprit. She had to have faith in the process.
Louisa pulled on her lab coat and hurried back inside her lab. She unlocked the refrigerator and made a show of looking at all the samples in there with Ivan, just in case Vasilii had been lying about the cameras not working. The failed sample was still there, tucked away at the back of one of the lower shelves. With security and bag search on the way out of the building, she couldn’t exactly smuggle it out. Plus, she didn’t have the means to dispose of it at home. She had to trust that nobody would realize what it was until she came back into the office after the weekend.
By then, she would have a plan.
* * *
“In two weeks, we’re going to be so busy we won’t know which side is up,” Cabe said over the loud music as he threw a twenty-kilo slam ball against the wall of his cousin’s gym in the Gaslamp district. The neighborhood would be the perfect spot for dinner after their end-of-week workout before he headed home for a quiet evening. Cabe had been threatening a big night, and Six was at risk of caving. He could always crash at Cabe’s for the night, but really, he just wanted to head home after a few drinks feeling pleasantly relaxed.
They’d decided to leave the office and head downtown, meet up with Cabe’s brother, Noah, a sergeant with the major case squad of the San Diego Police Department, who was busy flirting with a young woman while he assisted her pull-ups. Two inches higher and the guy would be gripping her ass, but he couldn’t blame Noah. It was a cute one. He wondered if Louisa worked out. A gym like this would probably be hell for her.
He looked around. There were people everywhere, some there to work hard, some there to try to look good while they got a workout in. She would struggle with the volume of people she’d have to avoid.
“You going to throw that ball or just stand there like a goldfish,” Cabe said, throwing the towel he’d just wiped his face on straight at Six.
“Fuck you,” he said good-naturedly, tossing it back. Six shook his head to clear it. Nothing good was going to come from his keeping thinking about Lou, despite the fact he’d pulled his phone out several times to text her, call her maybe. If he was honest, it was part of the reason he was at the gym at seven on a Friday night instead of getting ready to meet up with friends for beers. “Sorry, man. Miles away. It’s good it’s gonna ramp up. I had a look at those financials you sent over. Hadn’t realized our monthly outgoings were going to be quite so high, and there is still a ton to do with the building.” He lifted the ball, turned sideways, then pivoted to throw the ball against the wall, catching it without moving his feet when it bounced back toward him. One down, nineteen to go. He felt the tightening through his abs and obliques.
“There are five major jobs next month. We need to talk about who is taking which one. Was thinking I’ll do the training of the aid-route security down in Sierra Leone. I’ve been home longest. And that is pretty much all of September. I’ll take two guys with me. That will leave you, Mac, and three guys to tackle the other four. Plus, all the fill-in work of security.”
Six finished the set and changed sides. “If that works for you, it works for me. While we’re building up, we should keep the security guard training side of the business going. Offer courses during the down weeks, take on one-off security engagements. Build some cash.” He threw the ball and began his twenty-rep set on his left side as Cabe followed suit and finished off the exercise.
Without discussion, they moved over to the pull-up stations. “Race you to fifty,” Six said, jumping up quickly.
“Asshole.” Cabe laughed and joined him. They’d egged each other on since those early days in boot camp. When he’d received his SEAL pin two years later, he owed it as much to Cabe and Mac as he did to the million dollars the US Navy had invested in him.
Noah wandered back over to them. “You know you guys are in your thirties now, right?”
Six finished first. He always did. Pull-ups had always been Cabe’s nemesis, which was weird given how fit the guy was. Didn’t stop the guy trying though.
“How are things with you, Noah?” Six asked as he dropped to the floor. He opened his water bottle and took a large gulp of cool water.
“Still waiting for an opening in homicide,” he replied, and lowered to the ground. Push-ups. Noah started counting, and Six joined him.
“Don’t listen to him,” Cabe said. He wrapped his towel around his neck. “He’s like a freaking all-star and hasn’t even hit ten years’ service yet.”
“You could leave, come join us,” Six said, only sort of joking. Someone with great detective skills would be an asset. He shifted to his back for crunches.
Noah laughed. “Yeah. Can’t see myself doing that anytime soon. I found my home with the force. Now I just got to wait my time for a position in the department I want most. Special Investigations is pretty varied, and I get to work with the feebs which is always a barrel of laughs.”
They were coming to the end of their workout, and Six began to stretch. If he didn’t, he’d walk like an old woman in the morning. He rested his left hand on the wall, kicked his foot up to his butt, and gripped it with his right hand. His quad groaned in disagreement at the move, but he knew it would thank him within a minute.
“Hi. Are you new to the gym?” A cute woman with bright blue eyes and blond hair piled up in a messy bun on top of her head walked into view. She wore neon leggings that showed off a very defined ass and a sports bra that highlighted her saline-filled assets. Usually one of his favorite combinations, but now she seemed a little … obvious. At least when compared to Louisa. But it took guts to walk up to a guy you didn’t know, so he humored her.
“I’m an old friend of the owner. Been out of town for a few years. What about you?”
She pursed her lips, suddenly looking very confused. “The owner has been out of town for a few years?” she asked.
He couldn’t imagine Louisa confusing what he’d said. He’d put money on it that she wouldn’t have mixed things up. “No, I have,” he explained patiently. “I’ve been overseas. The owner hasn’t been anywhere. I’m Six.” He offered her his hand, and she shook it.
“Ha ha,” she said, as if she got the joke. The one he hadn’t made. “You are way older than six.”
Six shook his head and looked around for one of the guys. “No, my name is Six, short for Sixton.”
“Huh. I’m Poppy which isn’t short for anything. I mean, my dad used to call me Popsicle. But then that’s actually longer than Poppy, so…”
He couldn’t help but laugh, but he thought of Lou. She had her own kind of awkward, but she was engaging and smart. Someone you could go on a hike with and not run out of things to say. If you’d asked him a week ago who he would have preferred to take on a date, Poppy would have won by a mile. But suddenly he found himself attracted to brains and quirk.
“Noah,” he said, and waved his friend over. “This is Poppy, which isn’t short for anything.”
He slapped Noah’s back and let him take over.
“What’s with you?” Cabe asked, following him to the locker room.
“What do you mean?” Six asked, grabbing his shower bag.
“Poppy with the tight ass. That’s what’s wrong
with you,” he laughed, grabbing his own supplies.
How to explain that a totally different kind of woman had grabbed his attention? Once showered, dressed, and packed up, they wandered outside with Noah, who’d arranged a date with Poppy for the following evening. “You sure you don’t want to join us? We’re meeting up with some of Noah’s cop friends,” Cabe asked
Six shook his head. “Thanks for the offer but I’m gonna head. See if I can’t actually act like an adult and start to unpack all the boxes sitting around my house.”
“Okay. Cool. Talk to you tomorrow about the Mexico job, right?”
Working on a Saturday was nothing new. “Sure thing.”
All the talk of Mexico gave him an idea for dinner. He walked in the direction of the truck with plans to stop off at a Mexican place he knew in the Gaslamp district first to get some food so he didn’t need to bother when he got home. As he crossed the street, he caught sight of a brunette, and did a double take. Lou was walking with an older woman on the opposite side of the street. She was wearing a pale blue sundress and brown ankle boots. The kind that made him think of country songs and stolen kisses behind hay bales, although the way the dress skimmed her body gave him the urge for a little more than simple kisses. He should just let her go about her business, but he wanted to talk to her again, and accidentally running into her was a whole heck less risky than calling her up. Hurrying across the street, he tried to catch them, but as they stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street, the older woman fell down heavily to the ground. A taxi screeched to a halt inches in front of her and Six began to run as the woman tried to scramble back toward the curb, crying out in pain as she put weight onto her ankle.
“Oh, Mom,” he heard Louisa say as he jogged closer. She offered her hand to her mom to help her up. “Are you okay, what did you hurt?”
“Here, let me, Lou,” he said, anxious to help her mother off the road where an irate taxi driver was already gesticulating to them. Six flipped him the bird and told him to cool his heels. Lou looked at him in shock and he wasn’t sure whether it was her mom’s fall, his sudden appearance, or the fact that he had just yelled at a cabbie.
But it didn’t matter. His heart raced, and it wasn’t the adrenaline of the woman’s fall.
It was the fact that Lou was looking at him. And he loved it.
* * *
Six gently placed an arm under her mom’s legs and around her back and scooped her mom up as if she didn’t weigh more than a bag of apples. Louisa was certain that it was very wrong to study the way his biceps stretched his pale gray T-shirt as he carried her mom onto the sidewalk where an industrious server from the restaurant on the corner had delivered a chair from their patio. With care, he lowered her mom onto the seat, and in a rush, she returned her focus to her mom’s injuries instead of the man who stood next to her. “Oh my gosh, Mom. Are you okay?” She crouched down in front of the chair, and Six joined her.
“No,” her mom whimpered. “I really hurt my ankle. I can’t put any weight on it.”
Louisa touched it gently, and her mom winced. It was already starting to swell rather nastily.
“Should we get you to a hospital?” Six asked. He placed his hand on the small of Louisa’s back and rubbed it gently.
“I think I need to go,” her mom answered, tears filling her eyes. “Let me call Lucan. He can take me.”
Oh dear lord. Louisa could only imagine how caring the guy would be when faced with a Friday evening spent in the ER. “Mom, we can take a cab,” she encouraged. They could grab some food to go so they didn’t starve at the hospital.
“Please. Just let me call him,” her mom begged.
Louisa watched as her mom pulled her phone from her purse and dialed. She couldn’t bear to listen to the pleading conversation, so she stood and stepped away.
“You okay, Lou?” Six asked, and placed his hand on her shoulder. It felt warm and comforting.
She nodded and looked up at him. “Lucan is my age, as have been most of my mom’s friends of late. We were meant to meet him for dinner.”
There was a sadness to her voice, and he hated that it was there. “I could drive you both. My truck is only another block that way. I can help your mom get in.”
“Oh, thank you. But I wouldn’t want to interrupt your plans for the evening. You’re probably late for your … whatever you were heading to. I’m sorry.”
Six placed his arm over her shoulder. “The only thing I’m late for is a plate full of tacos, alone. I got nowhere else to be.”
“Louisa. Lucan is on his way,” her mother called from behind her, and Lou rolled her eyes.
“Of course he is,” she mumbled, just for Six to hear. “He’ll be worried his allowance will get cut if he doesn’t come.”
The server came out with a bag filled with ice, and Lou helped her mom place it around her ankle. They attached it with her mother’s Hermès scarf and tied it tight to reduce the swelling.
Within a few more minutes, the roar of a powerful engine disturbed the peace and a sleek black sports car pulled up by the curb. It was the one her mother had bought Lucan for Valentine’s Day, and Louisa felt a little ill at such a vulgar display of their wealth.
“Toni, sweetheart,” Lucan said as he leapt out of the car and walked to where her mom sat. “What happened?”
“I fell off the curb and think I broke my ankle. I wondered if you could take me to the hospital.”
Louisa watched as Lucan looked from her mom’s foot to his car to his watch. “We had reservations at eight thirty. Are you sure we can’t perhaps go eat, rest your foot on a stool maybe, see how it feels in the morning?”
He was trying to worm his way out of it, just as she’d known he would. She was about to step forward, torn between giving Lucan a piece of her mind or simply demanding that her mother went to the hospital with her instead, when Six placed his hand on her shoulder and stepped forward.
“I’m gonna mark that bullshit answer down to the stress of finding out your girlfriend was nearly killed when she fell down in front of a moving vehicle,” he said, stepping into Lucan’s personal space, completely dwarfing him.
Despite her mom’s injury, Louisa covered her mouth with her hand so Lucan wouldn’t see the grin she was trying to stop.
“So given you are still clearly shaken,” Six said, “I’ll lift Toni into your car while you cancel those reservations.”
Lucan nodded, mutely.
Once her mother was safely in Lucan’s car with promises to keep Lou posted on her diagnosis, Lucan pulled away from the curb. She watched the flashy taillights as he braked at the first set of lights.
“Thanks again, Six,” Lou said, turning to face him. “Your timing was perfect.” She looked at him for a moment, then her bangs fell back in the way.
“Always a pleasure. You can make it up to me by preventing me from eating alone. Have dinner with me, Lou.”
Dinner with Six felt like a trap. Restaurants, people, servers she’d need to answer. She hadn’t wanted to eat out with her mother or Lucan either, but they’d reserved a table at a spacious restaurant, and her mother had assured her it wouldn’t be overly busy.
“Don’t worry, Lou,” he said, taking her hand. “Just stay with me and we’ll figure this out.”
She could always hop in her car and head back home. It would take less than ten minutes given the traffic at this time of night. She could call in an order to her favorite deli in Little Italy. They’d even pop outside and hand it to her so she didn’t need to go inside. But she couldn’t tug her hand away from his. For some reason, staying with him seemed the most compelling of options.
“Want to join me for tacos?” Six asked playfully. “I know a great place just south of here that does incredible seafood.”
“I’m pretty much a vegetarian,” Louisa said, ready for the awkward comments about her choices, but Six didn’t even blink.
“Well. I’m sure you can find something on the menu that works. If not,
we’ll just head somewhere else instead. There’s Café Gratitude. They do a really good vegetarian Indian curry bowl.”
Louisa grinned.
“What?” Six asked, looking at her curiously.
“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. How on earth had she ended up going to dinner with Six? Was it a date? Or was it just an act of mercy? If that was the case, someone should put her out of her misery now.
“So do you live locally?” Six asked, leading them purposefully. His hand was wrapped tightly around hers. It was an anchor to hold on to as she navigated the busy street.
“About ten minutes away. I’m in Mission Hills.”
“Nice neighborhood. One second,” he said, leading them into a Mexican restaurant that had bright yellow umbrellas and tall wooden tables. There was a large crowd of people around the bar, and most of the tables were full. Six placed his mouth close to her ear. “Does outside work for you? Or is it easier for you inside? And if it’s too busy for you, we can just go somewhere else.”
It was too busy for her. She glanced back through the window and noticed a couple leaving a corner seat on the patio. “If we could sit there it would be fine,” she said, gesturing toward it.
Six spoke to the hostess, and within moments, they were seated in the corner, Louisa with her back to the crowd. The only thing to focus on was Six, and at moments like this, she really wished she wasn’t quite so … inept. She’d noticed the way the hostess had looked up at him and done every enviable girl trick to flirt with him, from twirling her long ebony ponytail around her finger to fluttering eyelashes that had to be fake. Because nobody’s eyelashes were that thick naturally. Yet Louisa could barely look at him. It was taking every ounce of energy she had just to deal with the crowds around her.
“What were you thinking?” Six asked, and she realized she hadn’t even looked at the menu. “I’d recommend the mahi-mahi tacos normally, but I have no idea what’s good vegetarian-wise.”
Under Fire Page 5