Adrienne Giordano Read online

  Monk sat forward, drummed his fingers on the table. “How, with one antenna, is this guy getting into that car?”

  “That’s what I need to figure out. Gizmo thinks there had to be a second antenna somewhere. Basically, the antennas transmit the signal and trick the car into opening the doors. Then, Giz says, they can use the antenna to actually start the car because the signal enables the ignition. No key needed. Flipping crazy.”

  “Billy, this sounds fucked up.”

  “No shiznet there. Maybe the thief assumed the hotel would be transporting guests on a Saturday night and waited.”

  “Or did someone tip him off?” Izzy asked.

  “Check the footage,” Monk said. “See how long he was squatting. If he showed up right before the car disappeared, you know he had the driver’s schedule. If not, he probably figured a guest would need a ride at some point and waited. I could see that.”

  “I’ll check it.”

  The waitress swung by and took their lunch order. Once the salad versus grouper dilemma was settled, Monk turned to Billy. “You’re getting in deep here. Probably too deep for someone in a jackpot with his boss. When does Vic want you back in Chicago?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Did you think to ask?”

  “Yes. I thought about it.”

  Monk sighed. “This is typical.”

  “Hey, with Gina about to go into labor, he’s not thinking about me. Why put it on his radar? I’ll beg forgiveness later.”

  “That’s brilliant,” Izzy said. “You’re falling back on it being easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission?”

  “Why should this time be any different? This is how he gets jammed up. And then he wonders where he went wrong.” Monk turned to Billy. “Not calling Vic was your first mistake.”

  Here comes the nagging. Fan-fudging-tastic. Billy sat a little straighter. “Do me a solid and don’t lecture me. If he was gonna Donald Trump my ass, he’d have done it already.”

  Izzy wrinkled her nose. “Donald Trump?”

  “Fire him,” Monk said.

  “Where do you come up with this stuff?”

  Billy turned to Izzy and grinned.

  Monk poked a finger at him. “Don’t screw this up. I don’t want to hear you whining when you get your ass kicked.”

  Billy slapped his hand on the table three times. “Tap out. I’d love to sit and chat, but I sense this is going places we’ve been before. You kids enjoy lunch. I’ll be reviewing security footage to find out how long our thief was waiting.”

  He made his escape, walked around the busy pool and pushed through the patio doors into the hotel. His phone beeped. Voice mail. Missed another call. Damn building had a buttload of dead zones.

  Just then, the phone rang. M.H. “Hey.”

  “Where are you?”

  He looked up and a boiling hot, green halter dress in the boutique window nearly sent him to his knees. Hubba bubba. “I’m in front of the dress shop. I just came in from the pool. Major dead zone for cell reception, babe.” He glanced around to make sure he was alone. “You’re not using a signal jammer are you?”

  “Very funny. I’m heading your way. Wait there.”

  “Roger that.”

  He shoved the phone back in his pocket and stepped closer to the window. What a dress. Looked like silk. He immediately imagined Kristen’s full figure squeezed into that sucker. Suh-weet.

  “What are you doing?”

  He turned to see M.H. striding toward him. “From now on, nobody is allowed to ask me what I’m doing. Everyone always assumes I’m doing something I shouldn’t be. You told me to wait. I’m waiting. That’s what I’m doing.”

  M.H. threw her hands in the air. “Whoa, fella. You had your nose pressed to the glass. I was curious.”

  “Oh.”

  She waved him off. “Forget that. I just got a call from the Secret Service. They’re coming here to do a security sweep before the senator’s event.”

  Secret Service. Shazam. “Is the president coming? First lady?”

  “No.”

  “That’s weird then. Secret Service doesn’t usually show up if it’s only a senator.”

  “Yeah, well, half the Senate will be here. Not to mention the House members. They don’t want to take any chances.”

  “Well damn, Kris. Good for you.”

  She gawked at him. “I’m not ready for the Secret Service.”

  Billy stepped out of her reach. “Easy now.”

  “I need help getting my security up to snuff. You’ll know what they’re looking for. I want to hire Taylor Security, mainly you, to storm this hotel and tell me where I’m vulnerable.”

  Oh, he’d tell her where she was vulnerable. He engaged his version of a filter, squashed a laugh and nodded. Time to be serious. “Not a problem. I’d actually have fun with that.”

  “Good. I’ll call Vic and talk about the fee.”

  Billy glanced at the halter dress. “It’ll be steep.”

  “How steep?”

  “You’re not gonna like it.”

  She folded her arms. “I’m a tough negotiator, Billy.”

  Eyeing her up and down, imagining those gorgeous curves in that dress, he looked back to the window and pressed his finger to it. “That is my fee.”

  Her gaze shifted to the window, then slowly back to him.

  Oh, yeah, you know what I’m thinking.

  “It’s not really your color”

  “Hardy-har. It’s exactly your color. You wearing that dress during dinner with me will get this deal done. Take it or leave it.”

  “You’re out of your mind—which, frankly, isn’t a stretch—if you think I’m putting this body into that dress. My boobs will be spilling out.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t see a problem.”

  “Bastard!”

  Normally he didn’t like women who yelled at him. This one though, she made it kind of cute. “Those are my terms.”

  “I’ll call your boss and discuss the real fee. If you don’t like it, I’ll have Vic send someone else.”

  “You could do that. But I’m already here and I’ve been prowling this hotel for two days. I know the layout. A new guy would have to start from scratch. If you wanna waste that time, go ahead.”

  “Bastard!”

  Now he laughed. Couldn’t help it. Seriously, he might be in love. “So hot, you are.”

  She pinched her lips tight and held her fist up. “You’re such an annoying man.”

  “I know. It’s a curse. What’s your answer?”

  She grunted and bared her pearly whites at him. “Fine.”

  “And you won’t weasel out?”

  Kristen gasped. “Of course not. When I make a deal, I stick to it. I’m offended you would say that. I’m setting ground rules though.”

  “Uh-oh,”

  “I’m not wearing the dress in public. And especially not in the hotel. I don’t need my employees seeing my boobs hanging out. We’ll do it at my house.”

  She held her hand out to seal the deal. Billy took it, held on way too long while their gazes locked. And—oh, oh, oh—the feel of her skin against his got his mind working on scenarios that included varied use of those hands.

  Finally, Kristen reclaimed her lovely hand.

  He reached into his pocket for his phone. “I guess we have a deal then. I’ll call Vic and set it up.”

  “Good. How long will it take you to do the review?”

  “Other than cars disappearing, your security is fine. And I’m working on the car issue now. I need to talk to you about that next.”

  * * *

  A ferocious beating clobbered the inside of Kristen’s skull. “Excuse me?”

  “Yes?”

  “My security is fine?” She refused to so much as glance at the dress in the window. Otherwise, she’d kill him. She’d been bamboozled. “You said you’d check my security. That was the deal.”

  “Yes. And I have checked your security. The terms of
our deal have not been violated.”

  “Bastard!”

  “You’d better quit saying that.” He stepped closer—too close. Close enough to ignite a yearning for something she knew would be a disaster. He pressed his lips right against her ear and whispered, “It’s kinda turning me on.”

  Heat rushed into her face. Placing one hand on his chest, the rock hard chest she wanted to take a pick ax to, she shoved him back a step. “If you’d told me up front the security was adequate, I’d have never made that deal.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Exactly my butt.”

  Billy laughed. “And a lovely butt it is.”

  Now the panic, deep and rooting, had set in. He’d completely manipulated her. “You knew I was feeling desperate and you used it to get what you wanted.”

  He sighed, as if this conversation was nothing but a bother. “You got what you wanted. You wanted to ensure your security would hold up and it will. I’ll guarantee that. Isn’t that worth one night of wearing an incredible dress? Besides, I’ve been feeling desperate since the moment I put eyes on you. My desperation comes from a different place though.” He grinned. “Much different, but we won’t get into that right now.”

  “I’m…I’m… Gah.”

  She spun away and stormed off. This man was the biggest colossal pain in the butt to ever enter her hemisphere. He’d bullied her into this deal. She should renege. Tell him to buzz off. She’d entered into the agreement under false pretenses. Had she known the security was fine, she’d never have agreed. Shame on her for trusting him, a total hit-and-run driver of a womanizer, a self-admitted master at seduction.

  “Shall I grab the dress for you?” he called after her.

  “I hate you, Billy Tripp.”

  * * *

  Billy appeared in her office doorway two hours later and propped himself against the doorjamb. “Have you cooled off yet?”

  Not. One. Bit. She cocked her head and pasted a smile on her face. “Certainly. Come in.”

  “Oooh, that’s a rather frosty greeting from such a hot woman.”

  “You’ll survive. What can I do for you?”

  “You’re still pissed at me. Can we put it aside for a couple of minutes? Gotta talk to you about the cars disappearing.”

  “Whatever you want, Billy.”

  He put his hands up. “Hey, now. Don’t say that. What I want is you naked and horizontal on this desk.”

  Just how insane could this man possibly be? Kristen closed her eyes and grunted. She wouldn’t lose it on him. She wouldn’t. He lived for this. The provoking. The battle. The clash of wills. He truly got off on it and the more she screamed at him, the more he goaded.

  “Don’t forget that filter.”

  “You’re right. I take back the horizontal thing. Naked still goes though.”

  Kristen finally laughed. As much as she wanted to hurl something at him again, she had to admit he entertained her. In a sick, torturous, demented way, she found this free-spirited, annoying, chaos-inducing man attractive.

  That couldn’t be good.

  She folded her hands in front of her. “At least try a little harder to control yourself. Can you do that for me? Please?”

  He remained silent for a moment but nodded. “Sure. For you, I’ll do that.”

  “Wonderful. Now have a seat and tell me why you’re here.”

  “Right.” He dropped into one of her guest chairs. “I’ve reviewed the footage from the last theft. Our guy simply hung around and waited for one of the Dante cars to go out. And he has a partner.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “Yep. I talked to my guy at the office and showed him the footage. It appears they’re using two antennas. One needs to be close to the car and the other to the key.”

  Kristen sat back, replayed what he said. “The key has to be within a certain distance for the signal to be hijacked?”

  “Yes.”

  “If that’s the case, any guest parking a car when the thief happens to be in the area would be vulnerable?”

  “Yep.”

  “Get me the signal jammer. My dad told me to decide. I just decided.”

  As much as she despised the idea of doing something illegal, it appeared the thieves had complete control of her parking lot.

  That, she would not allow.

  “Good girl. I’ll get the jammer.”

  “Thank you for taking care of this.”

  He grabbed a sticky sheet from the holder on her desk and made a note. “No problem. Just wear the shoes you had on yesterday when we have dinner. Those were monster.”

  “First you tell me what to wear and now you’re demanding shoes? What am I, a Stepford wife?”

  Billy sat back, his blue eyes twinkling a tad too much. “I’d have fun with you as a Stepford wife.”

  “You make me crazy.”

  With his gaze steady on her, he leaned in, propped his elbows on her desk, and her chest seized. They sat there a full minute, his eyes on her, her refusing to give in, until he said, “Yeah, but I think part of you likes it. What I need to know is how far I can push, and that only comes with experience.”

  “And me getting angry.”

  “Sometimes, yes.”

  “That’s okay with you? That you have to infuriate people to know where the line is? Isn’t that the reason your boss sent you here?”

  Silence.

  “Billy, maybe you need to think of other ways to figure out where the line is.”

  “Such as?”

  “Talking.”

  “Okay. Let’s talk. We’ll start by you telling me where your line is.”

  Damn him.

  “Kris?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “That’s helpful.” He held his palms to the sky. “A guy with my issues needs consistent boundaries. I need people to clearly communicate their expectations and stick to them. Can you ballpark for me where the line is?”

  Go easy here. He’ll trip you up. “The problem is, it keeps moving. And that’s saying something. Prior to a few nights ago, I would have run screaming from you. I’m not doing that.”

  “You’re running a little bit.”

  She grinned. “But I’m not screaming. Yet. You infuriate me, but you also entertain me. What scares the hell out of me is you remind me too much of my sister and I don’t need that chaos.”

  “So you’ve said. What do I do about it?”

  “Don’t push me over the line.”

  Billy huffed, stared at the ceiling. “You just told me you don’t know where the line is. How am I supposed to—”

  “I’ll let you know when you’re getting close. How’s that?”

  “I won’t take responsibility for you getting pissed at me if I didn’t get a warning.”

  “I’ll give you a warning. I promise.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  She smiled. “Except for the shoes.”

  He smiled back. “Those shoes are monster.”

  Her assistant knocked on the door and Kristen glanced up. “What’s up?”

  “They need you in banquets.”

  “I’ll be right there.” She shifted back to Billy. “Are we done here?”

  “For now.”

  “We should probably let the police know about this antenna thing.”

  “We could, but you just told me to obtain an illegal device.”

  Apparently, being a criminal wasn’t her strong point.

  “Kris, I know this scares you. Let me take care of it.”

  Yes, it did scare her. He scared her. But somehow, she trusted her hotel in his hands. “Thank you. As soon as I fix whatever this banquets problem is, I’ll check back with you.”

  “Sounds good. When are we having dinner?”

  “As soon as you write me a report telling me what my security detail will be the night of the senator’s party.”

  “I can have that done in an hour.”

  Kristen laughed. “Good. If the report meets my requirement
s, I’ll set a date.”

  “Hang on. What are your requirements?”

  She inched closer, ran a finger down the front of his shirt and poked him in the stomach. “I guess you’ll know if you don’t meet them.”

  * * *

  Billy lay stretched on his bed while Monk sat on the edge of the long dresser. The overstuffed red chair by the balcony door looked dang comfy, but apparently the dresser had better appeal.

  Either way, his teammate wouldn’t leave him the hell alone. Considering he was down here as a punishment, maybe that was Monk’s plan. He himself said he’d gotten back onto Vic’s not-so-shit list and probably figured if he stayed on Billy, he’d remain in the boss’s good graces.

  “Does Vic know you’re doing the security for this event?”

  “Eff’s sake. This is not your problem. Go get busy with your super hot girlfriend.”

  “Fuck off.”

  “Gladly.”

  Monk scrubbed—really scrubbed—his hands over his face. “Don’t make me kill you. Please. I have no idea where to dump a body here. My point is, Izzy and I are leaving Tuesday. You will be alone and, after your visitors in the shed, that bugs me. Last thing I want is to be babysitting your ass, but if you need me to stay I’ll do it.”

  Babysitting? Billy engaged the already overused and strained filter and sucked in the salty sea air billowing through the open balcony door. He inhaled long and slow. Long and slow. Yeah, South Beach in December was good for his soul.

  I could stay.

  Filtering crisis averted, he said, “How generous, but I’ll pass. Leave before you piss me off. You’re already well on your way.”

  Speaking of which… He sat up. There was something he’d been curious about for months now, but had never had the opportunity—or the need—to ask. “Back when you beat the crap out of me, did it occur to you to stop pounding on me?”

  “No,” Monk said.

  “Wow.”

  Harsh. What monumental screw-up in Billy’s life made him capable of dogging his so-called friends to the point where they went Norman Bates on him? That he could be that far off-leash, that stupid, to push his friend to that kind of rage?

  “I was insane,” Monk said. “Your problem is you know you’re pissing someone off and you keep going. Most of us know when we’ve gone too far. You don’t. You go balls to the wall every time.”