Grant pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, the grief threatening to bust through every pore. He hadn’t cried since the funeral. Part of him believed he’d cried so much when it’d happened that his lifetime allotment of tears had been used up. But as he sat there in his truck, moisture touched his cheeks. He swiped at the tears, gritting his teeth as he tried to reel in the waterfall of emotions pounding him.
He couldn’t afford to lose it right now. He had a job to do. He forced his attention to the clock, trying to focus. Charli had said five minutes and it’d been ten. Her car still sat a few spots away, so he knew he hadn’t missed her come out. She was probably caught up in finishing her notes. But Grant wasn’t in the mood to take chances. Five more minutes. If she wasn’t out, he was going back in.
He hadn’t failed a mission since that night with his wife, and he didn’t plan on doing so now.
Charli quickly jotted down a few more notes from her interview. Rodney had given her pay dirt. Not just an admission that he’d received cash payments while playing for the university but names of who he knew to be involved—including some pretty prominent businessmen and politicians in the area. But more important, he’d told her he suspected the university’s dean had known the cheating was going on. The dean was well liked and a local celebrity. If those people could be implicated, the story was going to be huge. A career-making kind of scoop.
Finally. She was going to get her shot.
“Mind if I join you?”
Charli’s head snapped up, the familiar voice startling her. “Pete? What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’ll take that warm greeting as a yes.” He gave her a cat-who-ate-the-mouse smirk and slid into the other side of the booth. He nodded toward her notebook. “Got some good stuff today?”
Instinctively, she dragged her notebook closer to her on the table, and glanced over to where Grant had been sitting. But of course, he wasn’t there. She’d sent him the signal to go outside a few minutes earlier. “Just working on the piece about Valley High School.”
“Bullshit,” he said, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the table. “I saw Rodney walking out of here. You finally got him to talk, didn’t you?”
Her stomach turned sideways, a sick feeling rolling over her. How would Pete even know what story she was investigating or why Rodney was important? Unless…
“You fucking prick.”
“Always so crass, Beaumonde. Didn’t your momma teach you any manners?”
It took everything she had not to jump across the table and throttle him. “Yours didn’t teach you breaking and entering is a crime?”
He drummed his fingers on the table. “It’s not breaking in when you leave a spare set of keys in your drawer at work. It was just…entering.”Author: Roni Loren
She grabbed her purse, her skin crawling being this close to the man who’d scared her out of her house, run her off the fucking road. He could’ve killed her. She moved to scoot out of the booth.
“I wouldn’t leave so fast, Charli,” he said, the humor fading from his voice. “I have something you may want.”
He dropped a thumb drive onto the tabletop. She stared at it, the small thing seeming to loom between them. “What is it?”
He smiled, way too pleased with himself. “An audio file starring you.”
Her brow knitted.
“Maybe this will refresh your memory.” He pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket and touched the screen.
Voices spilled from the small speaker. Very, very familiar voices.
I’m about halfway to coming, where are you, sweet Charlotte?
Wishing I was there. Touching you.
Charli gasped, reaching for Pete’s phone, but he held it out of her reach. “Turn it off.”
Are you wet for me?
Perhaps.
How much privacy does your office allow?
Charli looked around, mortified that anyone might hear, but luckily the restaurant was loud enough that they hadn’t drawn anyone’s attention yet.
Pete laughed and touched the screen, halting the embarrassing recording. “I have to admit, Beaumonde. Listening to you on that call was kind of hot. I didn’t think you had it in you. But I knew you were up to something on the phone when I saw you were all flushed and breathless when I stopped by your office.”