Engaging Sam

by Ingrid Weaver

  “Audra, I didn’t want to involve you any further in this investigation, but it seems unavoidable.” He searched her face, his jaw tightening until a muscle jumped in his cheek. Finally he looked directly into her eyes. “I’m going out on a limb here, but I believe I can trust you. I need your help.”

  Audra shook her head, trying to make sense out of what he was saying. It was like last night all over again. The sudden shock, the confusion, Sam’s grip holding her motionless.

  “I need your help,” he repeated. “We need to place a member of my team undercover in McPherson Catering.”

  His words were so unexpected, it took a few seconds for his meaning to penetrate. Place a member of his team undercover? In her family’s catering company? “What!”

  “You won’t need to do anything, just tell your family that you’re engaged. We’ll take it from there.”

  With a sudden twist, she yanked her hands free and shoved hard against his chest. “You’re crazy. My father is the most honest man in the world. You have no business spying on him!”

  Sam swore under his breath. “No, you misunderstood me. Your father has nothing to do with this. We simply want to place someone in the catering company so that we can gather information on one of your clients.”

  She backed away until her shoulders struck the side of the elevator. “So that’s what this is all about. This is why you wanted to call me, and why you came with me, and why you were so dam interested in my work. You want to use me as part of your next cover.”

  He spread his hands, holding them palms up in a gesture of appeasement. “It will only be temporary. And there’ll be no danger to you or your family as long as no one knows the truth. Once we have what we need, your involvement will end.”

  “I can’t possibly—”

  “Audra, hear me out before you decide. We’re in the process of gathering evidence against a man who is responsible for the growth of everything from drug smuggling to racketeering. Because of his organization—”

  “Organization?” she repeated, her voice rising. “As in organized crime? You mean one of our clients is some kind of...godfather?”

  “Calm down. He’s not involved directly in the dirty end—he’s in the business of laundering money. He uses a complex chain of transactions to legitimize the proceeds from other people’s crimes. To put it simply, without him, crime wouldn’t pay.”

  “This is unbelievable.”

  “I’ll ask Xavier to brief you before we get started. He’s the lieutenant you heard on the phone last night.”

  “Which client is it?”

  “Are you agreeing to help us?”

  She ignored his question, frowning as she tried to concentrate. “If this...this money launderer is that important, he must be rich,” she muttered. So that ruled out the Dubcheks who hired them for their family reunion. She could rule out the insurance company’s vice president who was organizing this retirement party, because he was an old friend of Norm’s. And they’d already finished the job for the mayor. So besides that class reunion next week and the summer camp parents’ night and the charity concert, that left...

  She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “Of course. It’s the Fitzpatrick wedding.”

  Sam remained silent.

  “Larry Fitzpatrick. He’s your criminal, isn’t he?”

  More silence.

  Yes, it had to be the Fitzpatrick wedding Sam wanted to crash. It was right after she mentioned it that Sam had shown such a sudden interest in her.

  No, he had never been interested in her. He’d been interested in his case all along.

  The twinge of disappointment she felt was an unwelcome surprise.

  “The Fitzpatrick wedding,” she said unsteadily. “It’s supposed to be big and splashy, with money no object. It’s going to be held at his estate. My mother was there yesterday. She said it was huge and luxurious and isolated enough to have guards at the iron gates.... Oh, no.” She moved toward the elevator controls. “I have to warn my family. They’ll have to cancel the job.”

  Sam stepped in front of her to block her path. “No, Audra. They’re in no danger as long as everyone acts normally. You’ll only arouse suspicion if McPherson Catering backs out of a profitable job like that now.”

  She squeezed past him and reached for the restart button. Before her finger made contact, Sam caught her around the waist and hauled her back against his chest. Lifting her off her feet, he spun around and carried her to the opposite corner, then set her down and turned her to face him.

  He braced his hands on either side of her to prevent her from slipping past again. “Audra, please listen to me,” he said. “We wouldn’t do anything to put you or your family at risk. This is strictly a reconnaissance kind of operation. But if you reveal what I’ve told you, you’ll be endangering the members of my team.”

  “But—”

  “I apologize for approaching you like this, but time is of the essence. The sooner we place someone in McPherson Catering, the more solid his cover will be.”

  She was vividly aware of Sam’s size, and his nearness and her own racing pulse. Forcing herself to take several deep breaths, Audra tried to think. “Are you sure my family will be all right?”

  “Positive. We only want to observe. We won’t be confronting anyone at this stage. All you need to do would be to make it possible for one of us to attend Marion Fitzpatrick’s wedding.”

  “You’re not denying I was right about which of our clients you’re after.”

  “What’s the point? You’re obviously intelligent enough to figure it out on your own,” he stated.

  “If it’s that important to get into the wedding, surely there must be some other way.”

  “We’ve tried. This is the only opportunity that’s come up.”

  “And if I still say no?”

  He dropped his hands and stepped back. “If seeing justice done isn’t enough of a motive for you, then there’s something else to consider. One of the biggest insurance companies in the country has put up a fifty-thousand-dollar reward for information that leads to Fitzpatrick’s arrest.”

  “What?”

  “If you help us, you could claim the reward. It would give you a good start on that restaurant of yours that you were telling me about.”

  Fifty-thousand dollars. With that kind of money, she’d be able to quit the family company and open up her own place within the year. She took another deep breath and tipped back her head to meet his gaze. “This is all so...unbelievable.”

  “Last night once you understood the situation, you handled yourself better than I could have hoped. You don’t panic and you think fast. That’s why I went with my instincts and trusted you enough to ask for your help now. Audra, I’m sure you can handle this.”

  Good Lord, was she actually starting to consider it? “Even if I agreed,” she said finally, “I don’t think it would work.”

  “Why not?”

  “My family will never believe me if I suddenly announce my engagement to a complete stranger.”

  “Your mother seemed ready enough to match you up with me when she saw me at your place.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Then the groundwork’s already established,” he said, his gaze unwavering. “Xavier wanted to send in someone else, but we have no choice if we want this to work. It’ll have to be me, that’s all.”

  “You?”

  “I’ll be your fiancé.” Sam reached out to take her hands and coaxed her forward. “Considering the compromising situation your mother witnessed this morning, it shouldn’t be too hard to convince her we’re serious about each other. What do you think?”

  “I’d hate lying to them.”

  “It’s only temporary. We’ll tell them the truth when the case is over.”

  “I need more time to think about—” Before she could finish her sentence, the elevator jerked. The motor hummed as it began to ascend once more.

  “Someone overrode the controls,” Sam sa
id.

  She tilted her head to see past him. The numbers over the door were lighting up in rapid succession. “Norm. He must have noticed something happened to the elevator.”

  “Your brother? You said he was meeting you here?”

  “That’s right.”

  “There’s no more time, Audra. I need your answer. Are we engaged or not?”

  “There’s no danger to my family?”

  “None.”

  “And you’d help me collect that reward?”

  “Definitely.”

  “And this engagement is completely fake?”

  His grip on her fingers tightened briefly. “Absolutely,” he confirmed as the elevator eased to a stop. “Audra? Yes or no? I have to know now.”

  Could she pull this off? Until last night, the closest she’d gotten to a criminal investigation was through the pages of the books she liked to read. There was a big difference between reading about it and actually being part of it, but for the sake of justice...and the fifty thousand dollars that would ensure her independence...

  The doors slid open. Audra glimpsed her brother’s face, then focused on Sam. She had hesitated last night, when she’d first seen him come through her window. Her mind had been dulled by heat and fatigue then, but she was thinking clearly now, wasn’t she?

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Sam leaned closer, releasing her hands to cradle her cheeks in his palms.

  “Sam,” she hissed. “What are you doing?”

  “More groundwork,” he murmured against her lips.

  Chapter 4

  The shock of Sam’s mouth on hers scattered Audra’s protest before it could form. His lips were warm and supple, gliding in a teasing caress that was there one second and gone the next. It was a brief promise, merely a hint of a kiss. But it was potent enough to send awareness surging through her body.

  She hadn’t thought his kiss would feel like that. He was so...big, so tough, so determined, she would have thought he’d kiss with the same take-charge straight-ahead assertiveness that characterized everything else he did. She hadn’t guessed he’d be capable of gentleness. It touched her in the same way as the boyishness she’d glimpsed in his smile.

  Drawing in a shaky breath, she lifted her hand to his face. Her fingers were unsteady as she feathered them across his cheek, tracing the long groove beside his mouth before she pressed lightly against his lips. “I hadn’t expected this, Sam.”

  He caught her hand in his and kissed her fingertips, his eyes sparkling with pleasure.

  At the sweetly romantic gesture, she swayed toward him. Her breasts brushed his warm, solid chest and another jolt of awareness sent her pulse racing. Echoes of sensations she’d done her best to forget tingled along her nerves. She remembered his weight stretched out on top of her, pressing her into the mattress. And the feel of his hair against her cheek, and the slide of his knee against her thigh, and—

  There was a quiet cough from the doorway of the elevator.

  Audra blinked and glanced past Sam’s shoulder. Norm was standing less than a yard away, his arms crossed, his eyebrows drawn together in a frown.

  Sam dipped his head to the side of her neck. “Keep it up,” he whispered. He flicked his tongue against her earlobe. “You’re doing fine.”

  Reality crashed over her in a belated, humiliating rush. “Oh, my God,” she muttered. Her cheeks heating up with a blush, she braced her hands against Sam’s chest and pushed herself away.

  This was fake. Fake. How could she have forgotten that, even for an instant? Sam wasn’t being gentle and romantic, he was playing a part.

  Thank God he thought she was acting.

  Unable to meet his gaze, she brushed at the wrinkles in her dress and took another step backward. “Um, hi Norm.”

  The elevator door started to slide shut. Norm slapped his hand against it to hold it open. “Audra,” he said.

  He had their mother’s talent for infusing a realm of meaning into a single word.

  Audra’s blush deepened. It wasn’t really any of her brother’s business if she chose to kiss a man in an elevator. Even if the kiss wasn’t real. And she hated the way she felt as if she should apologize. She was twenty-eight years old, for God’s sake. She had a right to kiss a man wherever she chose, didn’t she?

  In some ways, her brothers were worse than her parents when it came to their attitude toward her. At least her parents wanted to see her married. Norm would probably prefer to keep her forever sheltered and protected, the quintessential maiden locked in a tower.

  If he was shocked because of that brief kiss, what would he think if he knew the rest? How would her well-meaning, overprotective family react if they learned she had just agreed to participate in an undercover police operation? If she thought having them find out about Sam’s unconventional entrance through her window would be bad, that would be nothing compared to the furor that would ensue over her involvement in Sam’s scheme.

  . Oddly enough, thinking about their reaction didn’t discourage her. On the contrary, it only reinforced Audra’s determination to see this through.

  “You must be Audra’s brother,” Sam said, breaking the awkward silence. He thrust out his right hand. “I’m Sam Tucker.”

  Norm hesitated, his expression guarded. After a pause just short of rude, he shook Sam’s hand. “Norm McPherson,” he said.

  Sam picked up the carton from the floor of the elevator and hoisted it smoothly to his shoulder, then settled his free hand at the small of Audra’s back and guided her through the door. “Where do you want these glasses, Norm?”

  Norm tipped his head toward the semicircular desk that was across from the elevators. “Just set them down on the reception desk. I’ll take it from there.”

  “Sure thing.” Sam strode to the desk and put the carton down in the center. “Anything else I can do?”

  “No, thanks.” Norm glanced from Audra to Sam. “Did you have some trouble with the elevator?”

  Sam grinned and moved back to Audra’s side. “I must have hit the stop button accidentally.”

  She pushed a strand of loose hair back into her bun. “Sam came along to help me deliver the extra glasses.”

  “I see.” He gave Sam a long, thorough look. “I don’t recall Audra mentioning you before, Mr. Tucker.”

  “Call me Sam. Under the circumstances, there’s no need to be formal.”

  “Oh? And what circumstances would those be?”

  Sam slipped his arm around Audra’s shoulders and pulled her securely against him. “I think our secret is out, darling. Do you want to tell your brother, or should I?”

  Well, this was it. The first lie.

  No, that kiss had been the first lie.

  He leaned down to brush another tantalizing kiss across her lips, then straightened up and smiled at Norm. “You’ll be the first to know. Audra has just agreed to marry me.”

  As much as she steeled herself not to feel anything this time, she couldn’t prevent the renewed rush of sensations that tingled through her at Sam’s touch. She started to ease away from him but his arm tightened around her shoulders, anchoring her to his side.

  Norm’s jaw dropped. He stared at her, his eyebrows practically meeting his hairline. “I don’t believe it,” he said finally. “Audra, is this true?”

  She felt Sam tense. Lifting her chin, she met her brother’s gaze. “It’s—”

  “Hi, Audra. I was wondering when you’d get here.”

  Audra turned her head. Her sister-in-law Judy, Norm’s wife, was walking toward them, crepe paper streamers trailing behind her from the huge bow in her hands. She stopped beside Norm, her warm brown gaze sparkling with curiosity as she regarded Sam. “Well, hello,” she said.

  “Hi, Judy.” Audra made another attempt to pull away from Sam but he squeezed her upper arm with his fingertips in warning. “I’d like you to meet Sam Tucker.” She glanced up at him. “Sam, this is my sister-in-law Judy.”

  Sam extended his free h
and and smiled. “You wouldn’t have any spare champagne around to go with those glasses we brought, would you?”

  Judy juggled the bow into the crook of her elbow and clasped his hand. Her forehead furrowed with a question. “Spare champagne?”

  “Audra and I have just become engaged.”

  For a moment, Judy looked as stunned as her husband. Still holding Sam’s hand, she swung her gaze to Audra. “Really? You’re getting married?”

  This was it, the point of no return. Once she told the lie to Judy, it would only be a matter of minutes before every one of her relatives knew. As she had expected, her conscience stirred.

  But so did a budding sense of...excitement.

  Sam’s fingers stroked her arm in a caress that she felt all the way to her toes. “Go ahead, sweetheart,” he murmured.

  Norm’s eyes narrowed.

  Taking a deep breath, Audra nodded. “Yes, we’re engaged.”

  The crepe paper bow fluttered to the floor as Judy released Sam’s hand to throw her arms around Audra. “Oh, honey,” she said, kissing her cheek. “I’m so happy for you.”

  Audra slipped out from underneath Sam’s arm to return her sister-in-law’s embrace. “Thanks, Judy.”

  “This is wonderful,” Judy said. “Just wonderful.”

  “And so unexpected,” Norm added, making no move to congratulate either one of them.

  “Oh, cut it out,” Judy said, shooting him a stern look. “If anyone deserves a bit of happiness, it’s your sister. After everything she went through—” She turned back to Audra, her face beaming. “You sly devil. You never said a word.”

  “Well, we’ve all been so busy lately,” she began, fumbling for a reasonable excuse.

  “It must have been love at first sight,” Judy said. “That’s the way it was for me and Norm. One look and I knew he was the one for me.”

  Love at first sight? A vivid image of Sam naked in the moonlight sprang into Audra’s head. She started. “Yes, it was something like that.”

  Sam grinned. “I guess you could say that I swept her off her feet.”

  Judy turned her attention to Sam. “So you’re Audra’s neighbor.”