by Tawny Weber
“Whoa, Maya’s back in town? I remember her from school. She was a few years behind me, but man was she a hottie,” Jason exclaimed, looking toward the large plate glass window fronting the store as if he’d see her waving outside. Then he gave Simon an appreciative grin. “Dude, nice taste.”
“Thanks,” Simon murmured, watching Lilah pout. “So how about you show me the rest of the place? Any cool bikes being renovated?”
Lilah had to swallow a couple of times while glaring at Jason, but finally she jerked her head toward a door toward the back of the showroom.
Lucas wasn’t as mellow about Simon’s presence. Whether it was loyalty to his boss, or his own crush on Lilah, he had nothing but glares and monosyllables for them.
“Lucas is Tobias’s right-hand man,” Lilah said, trailing her fingers over the mechanic’s shoulder as he bent to work on a bike. “He’s been here for almost six months now and is a brilliant mechanic.”
“Right-hand man in only six months. That’s impressive.”
Lucas shot Simon a glare out of the corner of his eye, then jerked his shoulder. “What’s the deal? You shouldn’t be bringing strange guys back here. Not with the boss away.”
“Simon isn’t strange. He’s dating Tobias’s daughter.”
That worked like a stamp of approval. Lucas chilled out enough to answer Simon’s random-seeming questions. In the meantime, Simon cased the room. As wide as the showroom, but twice as deep, this was clearly the heart of the operation.
Before he could do more than a visual inspection, Lilah scooted herself up on a stack of crates and swung her feet so her heels banged against the wood.
“Hey, watch it,” Lucas yelped, jumping to his feet. “That stuff in there is valuable.”
“Fine,” she huffed with a glare. Hopping to her feet, she warned, “Don’t think I’m not telling Tobias that you’re being a jerk to me, though.”
“Those parts are custom-ordered chrome parts and I’m on a deadline to get these bikes done. Don’t think he’s gonna worry that you had to sit somewhere else so I could finish on time.”
Still, Simon’s antenna was buzzing.
The intercom rang, then Jason’s voice came over a speaker. “Lilah, we’ve got a customer that’d like to test ride one of the bikes. I can’t get away right now. You up for showing him the route? Bring Lucas out. The guy has a lot of questions about custom features and the condition of his soft tail for a trade-in.”
“Could this shop run without me?” Lilah wondered with a put-upon sigh. Then she inclined her head toward the door and gave Simon an arch look. “C’mon, it’ll be fun. After I take this guy on a test ride, you can try out a bike. I’ll bet you can handle a whole lot of power.”
While Lucas rolled his eyes, Simon unobtrusively slipped his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pushed a button on his phone. Five seconds later, it chimed.
He made a show of pulling it out and checking the display, then grimaced and looked at the other two. “You don’t mind if I take this, do you? It’s important. And, you know, private.”
Lilah frowned. Simon wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t want to leave him alone or because she thought it might be Maya on the phone and she wanted to stir up trouble.
“Lucas!” Jason yelled.
“Don’t touch anything,” Lucas mumbled, wiping his hands on a red rag and tossing it toward a tall toolbox before skulking out the door.
Lilah hesitated, glancing from the door to Simon and back. Then, with a little shrug, she followed Lucas.
Simon waited, counting to ten. Then with one eye on the door they’d gone through, he stepped toward the three small crates. A pry bar lay across the top one, having been used to loosen the nails. But it didn’t look like the lid had been removed yet.
His phone still tucked to his ear as if he were on an actual call, Simon shifted the lid and looked inside. Straw-colored packing material and a whole lot of chrome.
Then something darker, denser, caught his gaze.
His heart sped up. Muscles tightened and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
Well, well. Eyes narrowed, Simon shook his head. Talk about luck. Crazy luck. He’d hoped to find something to incriminate Black.
But this had been much easier than he’d expected.
Maybe a little too easy.
He poked his finger at the packing material, careful not to touch any of the metal and leave a fingerprint.
Packed in there between the shiny chrome mufflers and tailpipes was dense black metal. Simon glanced around, then grabbed a pencil off a nearby toolbox. A quick check toward the showroom and he could hear Lilah and Lucas laughing and talking to the customer. He hurried back to the crate, and using the pencil, he lifted one of the black pieces of metal out.
Yep.
Black really was running guns. Automatic lower receivers for what, at first glance, Simon figured was an M4 machine gun. The upper part of the gun was easily obtainable and legal. But a fully automatic lower receiver, the part that regulated whether one or forty bullets could be released at once? Totally illegal, in all fifty states. Especially California.
Knowing his time was limited, Simon poked through the packing material with the pencil, counting at least six lower receivers mixed in with motorcycle parts.
Suddenly, Lilah’s voice grew louder. She was coming back. Using the pry bar, Simon lifted the metal. He tugged the sleeve of his jacket down over the fingers of his left hand and laid the receiver across the fabric, committing the serial number to memory.
Then he tossed it back in the crate, fluffed the packing straw and shifted the lid back in place. He’d just set the pry bar on top when she cleared the doorway.
“Yeah, thanks,” he said into his dead phone, pacing with his back to Lilah as if he didn’t notice her return. “I’ll check with Maya and see what she thinks and get back to you.”
He pushed a button on his phone and slid it into his pocket, turning at the same time and making a show of being surprised to see her.
“Hi,” she trilled from her perch by the door. “Did you miss me?”
Since there was no polite response, he just smiled and gestured to the window and the alley beyond. “I was checking out the fancy stained glass. Moons and suns and stars. That’s Pandora’s place, isn’t it?”
Lilah wrinkled her nose toward the window, then shrugged. “Sure. Those are the café windows. She claims her food is an aphrodisiac. I’m not saying I believe that, but maybe it’d be a fun little experiment, hmm?”
Was she really coming on to him? Simon’s ego wasn’t big enough to think it was anything personal. More like a swipe at Maya. But still, she was in and out of this shop. She was tight with Tobias. And she seemed to have somewhat fluid morals. All of which meant she could probably fill him in on the guns. Like confirming where Tobias had got them, pointing the way to who they were being sold. And if rumor around town were true, what Tobias’s tie-in with the recently busted drug ring was.
All good reasons to use Lilah.
Even if the very idea made him feel dirty. He almost shuddered. Dirty and disloyal.
“Sure. I was so distracted by the merchandise, I didn’t even realize there was a café.” He made a show of looking at his watch, then gave Lilah another charming smile. “I have to meet Maya now. But maybe tomorrow? Lunch? You can tell me what’s good.”
Hurrying without seeming to, Simon agreed on a time and place to meet Lilah, then he got the hell out of there.
As he walked away, his shoulders sagged. There was enough evidence to officially open the case. One phone call to Hunter and he could kick off his new assignment with the biggest bust of his career.
Then he imagined Maya’s face. She might not yet realize she’d come home to make amends with her father, but he did. What kind of jerk would he be to have her father hauled off before she had a chance to heal their relationship?
Then again, maybe Tobias wasn’t guilty. Maybe the rumor was true and someo
ne had tried to set him up to take the fall in last month’s drug bust. If so, it was remotely conceivable that the guns tied into that.
He owed it to Maya to double and triple check before opening a case on her father, didn’t he? Otherwise, he’d be destroying any chance of this thing between the two of them becoming real.
And that was something he suddenly, desperately wanted.
9
PRETENDING SHE WASN’T furious, Maya curled up on the bed with Dottie purring a soothing tune against her side. She booted up her laptop and plugged in her internet USB, and waited for access. The Manor had wireless, but she didn’t trust open modems.
As she waited for her Captain Jack Sparrow wallpaper to load, Maya stared out the window. The bumper of her car was barely visible, but it was right there where she’d parked it.
After, of course, she’d used her spare key and driven it back from the town square. Leaving Simon behind doing who knows what, who knows where, had been the most pleasure she’d had since he’d pulled his head from between her thighs this morning.
And not just because he’d taken her car and ditched her without so much as a kiss goodbye. Or that he’d made her feel like an ass when she’d gone downstairs, furious, to ask Mr. Hamilton to call her a cab and discovered her aunt visiting with the creepy innkeeper.
The fury wasn’t even because of the overwhelming rumors her aunt had bombarded her with about Tobias, pushing miserable doubts and worries into Maya’s head.
Nope. She was pissed because Simon was with Lilah.
Grinding her teeth against a scream of frustration, Maya punched her laptop keys to open her browser. This was stupid. She’d hired him to pretend to be her boyfriend, not to offer up his undying loyalty. So he was with Lilah. So what. Maybe the other woman would glom on to him so publically that Tobias dumped her.
As if the very idea didn’t make her want to cry, Maya forced herself to focus on the matter at hand.
Hacking into her father’s computers. She had to discover if her father was a dirty, lowdown drug dealer.
Even though she knew he was too smart to run anything through the business, she started with the Black Custom Rides account. Hacking into his system didn’t take long.
Thirty minutes later, she’d gone through the shop’s email accounts, saved and sent messages, and had glanced through the documents folder.
Now for the real nitty gritty, his accounting program.
She had to bypass two passwords, and shook her head at the ease in which she was able to access not only his books, but his bank account.
What the hell? Tobias should have better safeguards. What was he thinking, depending on a simple firewall and security program? If things were normal, she’d have lectured him first, then after a big hug, she’d have built an impenetrable wall around his system.
Blinking back tears as she imagined the scene, she felt a pang of regret, deep in her heart.
Not the point, she reminded herself. If her father was up to something, especially if it was something that would hurt Caleb, she had to find it out.
But his accounting numbers looked legit. She made a few notations to check on, especially the supply costs since they were high, but didn’t seem too far out of line given the price he was asking for the bikes. Really, it looked like her father, with his usual panache, was making a huge success of his motorcycle shop. So why was Aunt Cynthia so sure he was breaking the law? Especially with something as nasty as drugs?
She’d have to do a deeper search. Home computer, secondary accounts. Because really, unless her father had hit senility along with his fiftieth birthday, he wasn’t going to keep anything illegal on the company books.
Before she could do anything, though, someone pounded on her door. Maya jumped, almost sending the laptop to the floor as she exchanged a chagrined look with Dottie. She quickly closed the browser and had just lowered the computer lid when the door swung open.
“Well, well,” Simon said as he strode in. He closed the door behind him with a care that belied the angry fists he’d used to announce his arrival. “Don’t you look cozy?”
“I should, since it’s my room,” she said with a stiff smile. She hadn’t expected him back this soon. In the old days, Lilah had a rep for taking a long time to please.
Her gaze as chilly as her smile, she inspected her faux boyfriend. No lipstick, no missing buttons. He looked healthy, so Lilah obviously hadn’t sucked him dry or gobbled up his soul.
“You look a little uncomfy,” she observed with an arched brow, noting his hair was disheveled and he had a faint glow of sweat. Had he walked all the way back to the manor? Her stomach sank a little as she wondered if that sweat was Lilah induced instead. He hadn’t gotten all sweaty during their sexfest last night, but who knew what kind of crazy demands the other woman insisted on.
“Uncomfy? I just jogged five miles,” Simon informed her, tossing a duffel bag on the foot of her bed. It was then that she noticed that he was wearing jogging pants instead of the jeans she’d seen him wear in town.
“Five miles is a tough run for you, hmm?”
“Five miles is a cakewalk. Five miles with a bag and jacket, that’s a little more interesting.”
Maya gave him a glowing smile.
“Awww, that’s too bad. You should have gotten a hold of me. I’d have given you a ride,” she lied, not bothering to hide her glee.
Hiding her reaction to seeing him again was harder, though. She’d brought him because he was gorgeous. Sexy and tempting, which she’d known would appeal to Lilah. Because as much as she hated the fact, Lilah did have great taste in men.
“You left me stranded,” Simon accused, giving her a look that was probably supposed to be friendly but didn’t hide the irritation in his eyes.
“Tit for tat,” she returned, filled with both joy and satisfaction. Playing with him was almost as fun as, well, playing with him. “You left me stranded this morning.”
“I left a note. You left an empty parking spot. I was worried your car had been stolen.”
“It was stolen. By you.”
Simon laughed. Then, noting the look on her face, his amusement died and he shrugged. “I had the keys, remember? Keys you handed me yourself.”
Maya sniffed. Her keys weren’t the only thing she was regretting handing him.
“So what’s the deal?” he said, a manly smile playing around the corners of lips she’d spent that morning missing. Of course, she’d been an idiot that morning. “You’re upset that I left you alone in bed? But it wasn’t a reflection on our night. That was fabulous. We were fabulous together.”
His voice was low and husky, the sexy tone making her toes curl and the heat pool between her thighs. He was almost as good with his voice as he was with those magic fingers.
“Like I said in the note I left for you, I was looking for a gym. I figured I’d get a day pass and work off some of the excess energy I woke with. And, to be honest, I was afraid if I stayed I’d take you again.” He gave her a look that had Maya’s thighs turning to mush and her heart starting to thump. Memories of him giving her that look as he was poised over her, his gorgeous body naked except for a light glinting off his muscles.
It took every bit of acting skill Maya had learned at her daddy’s knee to keep the desire off her face and her breathing calm and even.
“I wanted to stay,” he said quietly. And damn him, he looked like he really meant the words. “I wanted to touch you. Taste you. Slide into the warm welcome of your body. But you were asleep. It was a roller coaster of a night. The drive down. Seeing your family. Us, together. I figured you’d appreciate a little rest.”
He crossed over to the bedside and brushed his fingers through the curls by her temple, giving her one of those heart-melting smiles. Her nipples perked to attention and her thighs tensed. She swallowed, unable to stop her body’s Pavlovian reaction but damned if she’d let him see it.
“You shouldn’t have bothered,” she said, her words shaky wit
h desire. She forced herself to think back to the image of him and Lilah, all wrapped together. That gave her the incentive she needed to tilt her head aside so his fingers dropped away. “Black Oak doesn’t have a gym.”
Simon’s brows furrowed, but his smile didn’t shift. “Yeah, I found that out. But I was there, so I figured I’d take a little tour of the town. See where you grew up, all that.”
“A tour. Right.” Maya arched her brow and angled her head to one side to give him an aren’t-you-the-dumbass look.
“Then, after I called the sheriff to report your car missing and he assured me it was here at the manor, I jogged back.”
His face tightened, lips pressed tight for a second, making Maya wish like crazy she’d heard that discussion between him and Caleb. The thought almost pulled her out of her foul mood. That must have been a doozy of a chat.
“Well, then yay. It sounds like you got your workout after all.”
Simon grinned and backed up to lean his butt against the dresser and give her a long, intense look.
“So what’s the deal? You’re pissed because I left this morning without waking you? Or because I borrowed your car without asking?” He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a sad sort of look, like a pouty little boy who didn’t understand why he was being scolded. “I thought we were past that, Maya. I though, after you came to me last night and moved our relationship to the next level, that we at least had a little trust between us.”
Oh, man. She was acting like a jealous shrew. An apology actually made it to Maya’s lips, but she yanked it back just in time. Her eyes rounded and she gave him a suspicious look. Trust? He’d snuck out of bed while her body was still warm from their lovemaking. He’d stolen her car. She’d just seen him in town with Lilah hanging all over him.
Still, as a girl who’d grown up learning the art of manipulation, she had to hand it to him. That had been a masterful emotional play. And her feelings about him were still way too raw, much too vulnerable, for her to withstand that kind of manipulation.