AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m about to get into a cat fight,” Future said. She released me but then tucked her arm back around Marc. “But I’m a good sport. Let’s go.”
We got out of the SUV. Once Future and I were next to each other, Brandon gave us both a stare down.
“Marc,” he said, still staring at me in the skirt and then at Future. “Marc…”
“What?” Marc asked. He was fiddling with a phone.
“What are we doing?” Brandon asked. “Exactly? And who is she?”
“I’m Future,” she said. She did this walk where her butt sashayed from side to side as she approached him. She traced a red-painted fingernail across his bicep. “And I’ll be yours if you’re going with us to this party.”
I started to say something and then Marc tugged my arm, leaning against me and whispering in my ear. “Don’t say anything,” he said. “He doesn’t know.”
I chuffed. “What?”
“I didn’t tell him Future was a he. Let’s see how long it takes him.”
“But…”
“Don’t ruin this for me,” he said. He pulled back, grinning big.
Was I that mean? Yes, I was. Was this the time? Probably not, but who cares.
Brandon looked at me, giving me the look a boyfriend gives his girlfriend when he thinks he’s about to be in trouble for letting another girl hang off his arm.
I smiled prettily and waved him off. “You know what? Maybe Future should go with you. You might have to go inside the house and Future’s your ticket just in case anyone’s asking questions.”
Brandon stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and put on a straight face. “What are we looking for?”
“Future,” Marc said, “if you can, I need you to talk to people you know about the Gunther case. See who might be willing to talk. Brandon, stay with her.” He looked at me. “You still have that MP3 player?”
I went back to the car to retrieve it and the cell phone.
Marc took the player from me and passed it to Brandon. “Plant this somewhere. Maybe we can listen in if this is Henry’s house. Try a bedroom.”
“What about Henry?” Future asked. “Shouldn’t we talk to him?”
“Bambi and I will find him and listen in on any conversations here.”
“Bambi?” Future said, looking at me. “Oh honey, that’s a beautiful name. Why did you ever tell me it was Rachael?”
Brandon and Marc started to snigger.
“It’s Kayli,” I said in a flat tone, and giving Marc a warning look. “My real name is Kayli.”
“Bambi’s cute, though,” Future said. “I mean Kayli isn’t bad. If I had to have a real girl name, I’d pick Kayli.”
“What is your real—” Brandon started to ask.
Marc coughed loud, grabbed my elbow and started hauling me toward the party. “No time. We need to get inside,” Marc said.
Future took Brandon by the elbow, pulling him toward the front door. “Let’s check out the inside. There’s a lot of dark corners in there, I bet. We’ll have to go inspect them.”
Brandon gave me a panicked look. He started shaking his head, silently telling me he really didn’t like this plan.
I smiled big. “Have fun!”
Marc laughed, throwing his arm around my shoulders and dragging me toward the open gate. “If he doesn’t find out about Future before we leave, wait until I’m around to tell him.”
Once Brandon was inside the house with Future, I felt a pang. I’d only seen him for a moment, and then threw him at Future. I felt a little bad about it. I hoped he didn’t see this as me rejecting him and trying to throw another girl in his face.
It killed me that I was still thinking about his kiss.
I died a little more thinking about Axel. Part of it probably was I hadn’t seen him all day. Corey had at least sent a text this morning.
Maybe he had been drunk last night. Could you get drunk off two glasses of wine? Was he avoiding me?
Marc kept his arm around my shoulders as I hobbled in the kitten heels toward the back. My heels kept sinking into the soft ground. The space between the side of the house and the fence was a little dark, but it opened up to a pool deck in the back yard.
There were a few beach bunnies in the pool already, bikinis barely clinging to their bodies. They were either up against the pool walls, talking to the guys who were sticking their toes in the water, or bouncing a beach ball around. Other girls were strutting around the guys along the deck, hanging over shoulders and tossing hair.
“There’s a lot of money spent on girls tonight,” I said.
Marc scanned the partygoers. He pointed to the back. “That’s Henry, isn’t it?”
I checked, and sure enough, Henry was sitting in a pool chair next to a tan brunette, looking as I’d seen him earlier: bald and bulky. The woman next to him was in a mini-sundress, with a bikini peeking out from underneath. She leaned back in her chair, talking to a guy sitting at the table with them. Henry was enjoying the pool show.
Something was off about this whole scene. Maybe it was the fact that they hired escorts and couldn’t get women to come over naturally. Then I scanned the men. A couple of the guys had wedding rings. I grunted, shivering. Ick.
“Yeah,” Marc said. “I don’t like it, either.” He nodded toward the edge of the pool. “Let’s make a slow circle, and then try to sit close to Henry.”
Marc started out walking beside me with his arm around my neck. At one point, we passed a cooler, and he fished out a can of beer sitting inside. He released me to open it, and when his hand was free again, he slipped his fingers across my back, holding me by the waist, close to him.
I was ready to head back to the hotel. My nerves were fried from the long day and now I was anxious; I felt authority around me. Bounty hunters. Police. I felt like they might be able to see right through me to the thief I had been, and to why I was there now.
When I started to notice the eyeballs on me in the tartan skirt, I threaded my arm around Marc’s middle, clinging back to him.
Marc rubbed his palm across my back. “You okay?” he asked.
“I think they assume I’m an escort,” I said. “Let’s get this over with.” I smothered a yawn.
“About time to switch up the teams,” he said. “Let’s get this job done. Then we’ll head back to the hotel.”
“You’ll send Raven out? Is it his turn.”
&nbs
p; “We’ll see,” he said. He rubbed his palm slowly across my back in a comforting gesture. “You know, you did a good job today.”
“What?”
“Doing the bounty hunter thing.”
I rolled my eyes. “That was totally ridiculous.”
“Still, it gave me an idea.” He swept his fingertips over my side. “What do you say, when we get back to town, we team up?”
“What do you mean?”
We made it to the other side of the pool. Marc positioned me so he could keep his eyes on Henry, looking past me as he spoke. “I’ve got a few bail bondsmen friends back home. We could do something like Future. You lure them out. I take them down. Could even get Raven in on it. We could make a really good team.”
“Don’t you work for…?” I started to say the Academy but then stopped and looked at him pointedly, “…that other place?”
He smiled and then talked through his teeth. “Sometimes.”
“Don’t they pay the bills?”
“No.”
I tilted my head. “Who does?”
“I do. We do. I mean, I take care of myself.”
I rubbed a fingertip across my eyebrow. “I don’t understand. How do you work for them if you don’t get paid?”
“How are you working for us and don’t get paid?”
“You…” I said, snapping up and looking at him. How do I tell him this without letting him know I overheard? Maybe it was my messed up nerves, but I ended up just going with it. “You’re getting paid for this,” I said. “A percent of the recovery, right?”
He looked confused for a moment. “It’s not…I mean…” He looked over my shoulder and then back at me. “I can’t talk about it here, okay?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course.”
“No,” he said sharply, and then tugged me closer. He leaned in. “I need to listen. I’ll tell you later. Okay?” His eyes bore in on me, pleading with me to understand. He was okay with the question, but this wasn’t the time.
I bit back other questions I had. “What do I need to do?”
“Just relax,” he said. He released me slowly and then slid his arm around my back. “With me.”
I wanted to appear tougher and stand and pretend to talk to him, but it was easier to sink into him. The tiredness was wearing on me. I was looking at his beer, considering drinking it because I was hungry. I tucked my head into his shoulder, resting.
