Hot Winter Nights (Heartbreaker Bay #6)(10)

He was there for surveillance and to record any evidence, but had been ordered to stay away from any real action, with Joe as backup on the off chance things were sour.

Lucas was ridiculously grateful to be on the job at all.

“I’m just saying,” Joe said.

“What are you just saying?”

Joe gave him a look. “Why aren’t you listening?”

Because I’m fantasizing about your sister naked and under me, moaning my name . . .

“This isn’t going to happen today,” Joe decided, pulling off his headset. “Intel was wrong.”

Intel on today’s surveillance had come from Molly’s research, research that Lucas had gone over with a fine-tooth comb. “My gut says otherwise,” he said. And his gut was almost always right. He’d honed his instincts at his previous job with the DEA, where he’d worked undercover for five years. Several of his cases had involved huge insurance fraud schemes, and it’d been one of those jobs to cost Lucas the love of his life, however indirectly.

Not that he was going there.

In any case, this job was going to be textbook. Their client, a major car manufacturer, had a problem. Some of their employees had been working overtime when a drive shaft had slipped, sending a truck axle crashing to the floor. Seven employees had claimed a variety of injuries, though no one had been hit. Three of the employees were back at work. Four employees were still off and had instigated a civil suit against the car manufacturer.

Lucas had dug deep, and in fact he’d done so with Molly’s help, discovering that the four employees went way back with each other and were old friends whose lives were entwined to the point that they’d all vacationed together. They each had doctor documentation saying they were unable to work, and yet Molly had tracked credit card records that put all four of them at the Sonoma Raceway for three consecutive weekends.

They were taking race car lessons.

“Maybe you’re right about tonight,” Joe murmured as two cars pulled into the lot. Two men came out of each car, the four of them meeting the descriptions and photos they had of the “injured” employees. “Damn,” he said looking through the lens of his camera, snapping still shots. “You getting this?”

“Yep,” Lucas said, filming their entrance. “Still want to leave?”

“Shut up.”

When the men vanished inside the racetrack, Lucas and Joe exited their vehicle to get better coverage. And to make sure that the men actually got into race cars.

“I always forget how good she is,” Joe murmured as they took their seats in the stands as spectators. “Molly.”

Lucas didn’t answer. Because he never forgot how good Molly was.

Well, except for the other night . . .





Chapter 4





# BahHumbug



It was late afternoon the next day before Lucas and Joe were able to show everyone in the team meeting the footage of the supposedly injured employees joyriding in race cars. The whole team was in a conference meeting doing post op; Archer, Joe, Lucas, Max, Reyes, and Porter, along with Carl, Max’s hundred-pound Doberman. Everyone was still dressed from their last job—meaning they were all loaded for bear, having come straight off a high-stakes takedown that had gone down without a hitch.

Lucas hadn’t been in on the action, but once again tasked with running the surveillance van, which was bullshit. But Archer had been a stone wall on making sure he saw zero action until his doctor fully cleared him, something the guy had refused to do for another full week.

Lucas thought about having Molly call his doctor and tell him that he’d managed to see plenty of action in bed several nights ago, but with his luck, she’d tell the doctor the action hadn’t been worth the effort.

Now they were debriefing, each giving an oral report of the mission.

“Nice job,” Archer said when he’d heard everything they’d done. “Couldn’t have closed this one down as fast as we did without your help on the intel.”

Lucas opened his mouth to say thanks, but realized Archer had been talking to Molly.

She beamed at the rare compliment from their boss, and Lucas shook his head to himself, once again thinking that Archer and Joe were wrong by trying to clip her wings.

The meeting ended and everyone filed out, leaving for the end of the work day. Lucas stayed seated, opening his laptop as it was his job to type up the report. Another reason to hate his doctor. When his phone buzzed an incoming call from his mom, he hit answer on speaker so he could keep typing.

“Lucas Allen Knight,” she said. She’d been in the states for forty years but she still had a slight accent from her homeland, Brazil, and the sound of her voice always made him smile.

Well, usually.

“You’ve been ignoring me,” she said.

He blew out a sigh. “Hi, Mom. And I haven’t been ignoring you, I’ve just been working long hours—”

“Honey, don’t even try. I know that this job—unlike your last—doesn’t keep you out of commission for weeks at a time.”

True, which was part of the reason he had a life again, although he wasn’t wholly sure he fully deserved it.

“So how are you, baby?”

He hadn’t told her he’d been shot, or that he was on light duty. If he had, she and his older sister, Laura, would have descended on him like dogs on a bone. Sweet, loving dogs, but still . . . “I’m fine, I promise. I’ll call you this weekend to catch up.”