Keeping the chain-lock in place, she cracked it open. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming. Why are you in my backyard? And how did you get through the locked gate?”
Hands shoved deeply into the pockets of a pair of Levi’s, he crooked her a smile. “Doesn’t do much good to lock the gate when your fence is only four feet high. I hopped it.”
“How did you even find where I lived?”
He smirked. “I wouldn’t be any kind of a detective if I couldn’t figure that out in a small community like this.”
She shook her head. “Listen, I’m not even sure I should let you in here. I’m still not even close to convinced that you are telling me the truth.”
“I get that. Honestly, I do. And it’s actually smart of you. But I need five minutes of your time in a fairly private place to prove to you that I am who I say I am. So do you know of a place that would make you feel more comfortable?”
Perhaps it was because he was so understanding about her trepidation, but she suddenly wasn’t nearly as leery of inviting him in as she had been a moment before. She pushed the door shut, removed the chain, and then swung it wide and motioned him in. “Here is fine, but I’m warning you that I have a black belt in karate.”
He grinned and lifted his palms as he slipped by her. “I’ll be on my best behavior, I promise.”
“You’re late.”
“Sorry. I had to make sure no one saw me, and Simon Hall only pulled away from the front of the house a few minutes ago.
“Simon—what?!”
Case quickly lowered the shade over the window in the door and then remained where he was with his back pressed against the wood. “Mind pulling the curtains in the living room there? And at any other windows where someone might chance to see me?”
“O-of course.” Her house did have a rather open floor plan. She hurried over to oblige him. “He was really in front of my house?”
Case shifted so that his shoulder was planted into the door instead of his back. With his hip cocked out, thumbs hooked into his pockets, and the toe of one foot resting casually on the floor, he presented the most masculine of images. She swallowed and moved on to the next window.
“He didn’t have binoculars, or anything. Don’t worry. I think he was probably just checking to see if you’d been honest with him when you broke off your date, or if you were going to be heading out with someone else tonight.” There was a subtle teasing note in the words that was now accompanied by a twinkle in his eyes.
“It wasn’t a date!”
Case smirked. “Trust me. That’s not the way Simon Hall saw it.”
The curtains were all closed now and she stepped back into the kitchen, folded her arms, and pinned him with a look. “Listen, for all I know you are just a delinquent teen who got caught checking out the women’s bathroom and came up with a crazy story. So either get to proving your claims, or plan on spending Monday morning in Mr. Vaughan’s office.”
Case grinned at her even as he lifted his sweatshirt to pull out the file folder tucked away there.
She caught a glimpse of washboard abs beneath a taut black T-shirt before he tugged the hoodie back into place.
He tapped the folder against one palm, his humor-filled gaze drilling into hers. “In your estimation I’ve gone from a would-be serial killer to a would-be delinquent...” He winked. “I’m so happy to see that I’m coming up in the world.”
She snorted. “Ha ha. The next few moments will tell.”
Case motioned to the loveseat visible above the half-wall of her kitchen. “Sit with me?”
She eyed the proximity of the two cushions and weighed that against the danger of her attraction to this man. Keeping her distance won out. “Actually, I was just about to make some dinner. How about you go sit at the table?” There was also a block of butcher knives right here next to her. She’d feel safer being near those.
“Sure.”
He stepped across the room and sank down into a chair facing her across the table. She cracked two eggs into the pan before she thought to ask him if he was hungry.
He shrugged. “I could eat.”
“Scrambled eggs with ham and cheese sound okay to you? Sorry the pickings are slim. I need to get to the store.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
Kyra cracked three more eggs into the pan and set to chopping a few slices of lunch meat.
He watched her as she worked, making her very aware of every move she made.
She needed to get this meeting rolling. If only it wasn’t so hard to concentrate with him looking at her like that. She moistened her lips and tried to think where to start. “So how does an undercover agent go about proving to me that he’s undercover?”
His lashes lowered languidly, and he had a hint of a smile playing around his lips that let her know her nerves probably hadn’t gone unnoticed. “Well I have some paperwork here that I think will make it very clear. Barring all else you call the Everett police department and ask for Sergeant Damian Packard. He’ll vouch for me.”
Kyra felt like someone might pop around a corner at any moment and inform her she was on Candid Camera. “What is this? Some bet you took at school to see how gullible the newest teacher was?”
He sighed. “It’s not like I can give you a fake number for the Everett department. You can look it up online, if you like.”
She studied him for a moment. She was generally pretty good at reading people. And her instincts had been registering something off about him as a student from the first day he’d walked into her classroom.
But still… She was really torn over what to believe. She didn’t want to be duped by a delinquent prankster in the first month of her first teaching gig.
His expression had lost all humor now. “Kyra, I’m not yanking your chain here. And it’s really important that you believe me. So I’m going to do everything within my power to prove to you that I am who I say I am.”
Kyra added slices of bread to the toaster. “Okay, what is your first piece of evidence?”
He opened the folder. “This is my driver’s license.”
Kyra stepped over to look at it. It looked real enough, and was under the name Case Lexington. It even had his date of birth as being two years before her own. “You are seriously twenty-five years old?”
He spread his hands and dipped a nod.
“What bands were popular when you were in school?”
He named several immediately. All of them were bands that her sister Lainey, who was also twenty-five, had raved over when they were teens. But he could have studied up on that, or simply be a music trivia buff. She fired off several more pop-culture questions from her and Lainey’s time in high school. He had a satisfactory answer for every one except for her question about Natalie Portman to which he only gave her a blank look.
She arched her brows. “You don’t know Natalie Portman? Padmé Amidala?”
He blinked. “From the Star Wars movies? Guess I never bothered to learn her name. If I’m honest, I’m not much of a Star Wars fan.”
“I suppose I can let that one slide.” She gave him a smirk as she tossed the license back on the table. “But even I know that there are places that create great looking fake IDs.” The toast popped and she crossed the room to pull it out. “Butter?”
He shook his head. “No. Thanks. And come on! You think I was able to get a fake ID created between the time we spoke at school today and now?” He shook his head. “These things—especially the good ones—take more time than that.”
She supposed that was true enough. But he could have had this ID made sometime in the past for some other nefarious reason. Like the weekend he’d been in Everett at the salon hitting on her. She pegged him with a look. “I do have to say that the thought crossed my mind that maybe you came into the salon that day to see if you could pass yourself off as an adult in a non-threatening environment. You could have had this for who knows how long.”
He smirked. “You think I would
choose a nail salon for my trial run?”
She threw up her hands. “I don’t know, okay! My mind has been spinning like crazy ever since you walked into my classroom that first day.” She cringed. She probably shouldn’t have admitted that to him. It revealed too much emotional attachment to this. She forced her gaze back to his folder. “What else do you have for me?”
He laid another item on the table. “This is the receipt from the day I was in your sister’s salon. The last four digits on it match the numbers on this credit card that is issued to… oh look at that, Case Lexington.” He snapped the credit card onto the table next to the receipt before he dug into the pocket of his hoodie and said, “I also brought my badge.” He dropped a heavy metal and leather badge on the table. “And here is even my passport where you can see that I went to London six weeks ago. There was a big law-enforcement conference there in the Grand Staffordshire Hotel. You can look that up too.”
Kyra slid his plate in front of him, then sat down with her own and picked up the receipt and the credit card. After looking at them she examined the badge, which looked real enough, but what would she know about what a fake badge might resemble? Lastly, the passport was definitely him and the stamp for London was there just as he’d said. She did have to admit that if he was just trying to pull one over on her he was going to some extreme lengths to do it. But she was still leery of buying this proof too easily. She slid the items back across the table. “Again. They could have been printed up for you. Do you know the phone number by heart?”
He blinked. “Pardon?”
She tilted her head. “Most people know the number of the place where they work by heart.”
The humor returned to his gaze. “9-1-1?”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
He lifted his hands. “Kidding. Kidding! Yes, I know the number. I can even give you a direct line to Damian’s desk.”
She lifted a finger. “Oh no. I won’t have you giving me a number to some friend of yours who will feed me a bunch of lies. We’ll go through the front switchboard and see if this Damian person even exists.”
He scooped eggs onto his toast and folded the bread into a sandwich of sorts. “I can live with that.” He took a huge bite.
Kyra chewed a mouthful of eggs as she tapped a search for the Everett Police department into her phone. Once she found the number she peered at him over the device. “Okay, go. What’s the number?”
He chuckled. “You’d make a pretty good detective, you know that?”
She quirked one brow. “Stall much?”
He was still laughing when he rattled the number off to her without missing a single digit.
She couldn’t believe how pleased she was to have him pass that little test. But she reminded herself to reserve judgment as she set the phone down. “I can’t call until tomorrow, obviously. But I’ll say that, for now, I guess I believe your story. So what are you over here investigating?”
He raised one brow as though to question if she really needed to ask.
“Well, of course I know it’s the drugs and the kids who’ve died. But I just wondered if there was anything else?”
Case didn’t even miss a beat. “Here’s the thing. My boss about blew a gasket when I told him I was going to have to read you in. The more people who know about an op, the harder it is to keep it under wraps. So I really need to know that you will do your best not to give me away. My life could literally be in your hands.”
He wasn’t even going to acknowledge her questions? Did that mean there was more to this than she realized? But she wouldn’t push him if he wasn’t supposed to talk about it.
He kept those soft green eyes locked on her. There was so much seriousness in his expression that she felt her pulse begin to pound with fear that she might do something to blow his cover. “I’ll do my best, for sure.”
He nodded. “I appreciate that. And now I have a request for you.”
She tilted her head, waiting for him to go on.
“Please don’t ask all your students to give you anonymous information if they know anything about the drugs. It could actually put you and anyone who talks in a lot of danger.”
She doodled her fork through her eggs. “But isn’t that what you do? Ask a lot of questions?”
“Subtly.” He raised a brow for emphasis before taking another bite. “So, what made you want to be a school teacher?”
She pinched her lips together. He was just changing the subject like that? As if she’d agreed to his request? That grated, but maybe it was best if she dropped it for now because pressing on with that line of talk would mean she’d have to admit that she’d already spread the word to many of her students today. She could think about it over the weekend and decide what she wanted to do.
She tilted her head and savored a mouthful of ham and cheese while she pondered what to tell him of her history. She certainly didn’t know him well enough yet to lay the burdensome story of her brother at his feet. She considered several variations of her history and decided on, “When I was a sophomore in high school I had a teacher who went out of his way to connect with every student every day. I had a bit of a rough year that year, but Mr. McCurry always had positive encouraging things to say no matter how badly I messed up. When I got to college and had to make a career choice, I knew I wanted to impact kids in the positive way he had influenced me.” She ended with a shrug.
Case had polished off the last of his eggs and toast while she talked, and now he nodded. “From what I’m seeing at the school, I think you are doing just that.” He stood. “I should be going. The less time we spend together the less chance of my cover being blown. Besides”—he grinned—“I have a party to get to.” He dumped his plate into her sink and then scooped his file off the table and tucked it beneath his sweatshirt again. He shoved the badge back into his hoodie pocket. “Mind taking the trash out? Will give you an excuse to check that no one is lingering back there before I leave.”
“Of course.”
Kyra took out the trash. All seemed quiet, and she felt a little silly as she scrutinized every shadow or flicker of movement for several moments. The only sounds she heard were the soft swish of the waves against the shore not far away, and the soft croaking of a frog from the drainage ditch at the back of the property. Finally satisfied, she signaled Case that it was okay for him to exit the house.
“Night,” was all he offered in parting.
And for some reason as he strode into the darkness and she heard him grunt softly as he vaulted her fence, nothing seemed silly anymore. The police were taking this drug situation serious enough that they’d sent in an undercover officer. Despite the warm autumn evening, fear whispered a chill down the back of her neck.
She hurried into the house and locked the door.
CHAPTER 10
Case didn’t let himself linger on concerns for Kyra. They’d been careful and he didn’t feel like he’d put her in any danger. At least not any more danger than she could be in while working at a school where someone was pushing drugs. Unless she didn’t listen to his advice and tried to help in ways she shouldn’t.
He hurried back to the house and stashed his badge and the paperwork in the safe. Then, after changing into clothing more appropriate to a jock at a high school party, he headed for the address that had been texted to him earlier today.
The house was a nice tri-story right on the beach with the Salish Sea splashing against the rocky shore at the far end of the backyard. Music pulsed, and teens already gyrated around the campfire that flickered from the stone pit just up from the beach. There were two coolers full of beer and a couple other bottles of harder stuff sitting on a picnic table off to one side. But right up front, nothing that looked like the orange crystals that had killed Greg Salazar.
The lab had finally sent them an update just this morning and the ingredients in this drug were scary enough to make the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as he read through the list. It was a wonder more kids h
adn’t died. They needed to get it out of circulation as soon as possible or they were going to have a lot more deaths on their hands.
He’d just stepped through the gate into the backyard when Chloe bopped up to him. Her first two fingers held a half-smoked cigarette that poked out to one side, and her ponytail swayed like a California blonde. “Hey Case.” She drawled his name as if it had three or four letter ‘A’s instead of just one.
“’Sup?” he asked.
She cocked him a funny look.
Case rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe he needed an update on teen lingo.
But after only a moment Chloe seemed to shake off her curiosity. “This is going to be a killer party. I’m glad you came.” She linked her arm with his and leaned close to bat her big eyes at him.
He stifled a sigh, hoping she wouldn’t literally be correct while at the same time realizing that at least one part of teen lingo hadn’t changed since he was in high school. And it was time to put an end to this infatuation of hers right now. He stepped away and shoved his hands deep into his pockets, pinning his elbows to his sides so she couldn’t loop her arm through his again. “Listen,” he kicked at the ground not even having to fake his discomfort with this conversation, “I sort of have a girl… Back home. I mean back where I just moved from. So…”
Chloe giggled and took another drag on her cigarette. She doodled her finger across his chest blowing her smoke to the side. “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” She tilted her head coyly.
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to treat her that way. Not the kind of guy I want to be.”
“Aw, you’re so sweet.” She leaned close to whisper in his ear. “Which is why I’m not going to give up on you. I heard you told RD you’d like to score some Fire?” There was an innocent glimmer to her gaze that belied the danger in her question.
Case’s heart thudded. Was this the breakthrough he’d been looking for? “Yeah. I heard it’s some good stuff. Do you have some?”
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