Hot Winter Nights (Heartbreaker Bay #6)(59)

“Don’t,” Lucas said. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Don’t belittle her. She’s not a little kid anymore, Joe. Nor is she incompetent. Far from it. In fact, she’s smart as hell. Look, a lot of bad shit happens to all of us, and our experiences have made us hard. Cold. But not her. She’s special, and stronger than both of us put together.”

This got a moment of surprised silence from Joe. And since Lucas didn’t want to fight with him, he rose and grabbed his laptop for their meeting.

“What’s going on between the two of you?” Joe asked.

Lucas turned back. “You asked me to get involved. I’m involved. And you know what? Out of all the things she loves, she loves you the most. Instead of trying to hold her back, do you know what you should be doing? You should be doing the job you asked me to do. You should be training her, letting her fly, and stand at her back while she does.”

Joe was stunned. “This is all just a phase for her. Why would I do that?”

“It’s not a phase. And you should do it because she would do it for you,” Lucas said. He then walked out of his own office, doing his best to shrug off his irritation at Joe.

If this is how Molly felt all the time, he didn’t know how she dealt with it.

The rest of the day went on in much the same vein. He and the team had been working a corporate investigation case. An HR director at a large attorney firm had heard rumors that the president was known to be having an affair with a subordinate. Notwithstanding the fact that the executive was married to someone else, company policy expressly prohibited such office relationships. The affair put the firm at significant risk of legal action by the female against the company and the executive if the relationship became public, or worse, failed in a bad way. Unfortunately the HR director needed hard evidence to support the termination of the employees for violating company policy.

Enter Hunt Investigation. Today was day five of surveillance and Lucas and Joe were up.

Lucas drove, feeling Joe’s eyes on him. “Something on your mind?”

“I feel out of the loop.”

“On what?” he asked, and watched Joe struggle to maintain the guy code that said they couldn’t discuss emotional issues for too long. That was the real five second rule. He sighed. “I feel out of the loop on you and Molly.”

“There’s no loop,” Lucas said and wished that it wasn’t true.

Joe took a deep breath. “You were right before,” he said quietly. “About me being overprotective of her. It’s a lifelong habit, one I don’t know how to break.”

“You need to learn before you lose her.” Like I did . . .

They fell silent after that, each lost in their own thoughts. Fifteen minutes later, they were in an upscale restaurant not far from the law firm’s offices, watching the illicit couple in question order and toast themselves with a very expensive champagne.

“He’s telling her he got her a little something special,” Lucas said behind his water glass.

“If it’s his dick, I hope it’s more spectacular than his hairpiece and beer belly stressing the buttons on his shirt,” Joe said.

“It’s probably jewelry.”

“Bet?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “Today’s lunch.”

“You’re on. But if you lose, I’m ordering the most expensive dessert on the menu.”

Lucas watched the woman give her lover a secret smile and cock her head toward the back hallway where the restrooms were. Then she got up from their table and sauntered down the hallway and out of sight.

Shit. It was going to be his dick.

Joe shook his head in disbelief as the man waited a minute and then followed her. “Going to need some audio for evidence,” he said. “Your area of expertise.”

“Since when?”

“Since I want dessert,” Joe said, raising a hand to their waitress.

“What about backing me up?” Lucas asked.

Joe tapped the comm he had in his ear. “I’ve got your six, man. Tiramisu, please,” he said to the waitress.

Lucas shook his head and moved down the hallway. The men’s room was empty, even the stalls. He waited a minute outside the women’s room, not wanting to surprise any patrons, but when no one came out, he slipped inside.

One of the stalls was closed. He could see a pair of men’s dress shoes facing out, trousers pooled around the guy’s ankles. It was that along with the rhythmic pounding against the door, accompanied by a male voice that was moaning and panting out, “Bill’s doing a great job, a really great job! Watch Bill do it, tell Bill he’s doing great!”

“Wow,” Joe said in Lucas’s ear. “Sounds like he’s giving himself his own evaluation. Wonder if he’s going to get a raise.”

There weren’t many days where Lucas missed working for the DEA, but this was definitely one of them. Several hours later, they’d delivered the needed evidence to the HR director, closed up the case, and were back at the office.

Molly had locked up and was gone.

Shit, Lucas thought. She was working the Christmas Village tonight. Not bothering to change, he left again, calling her on her cell as he strode across the courtyard. “Come on,” he muttered, listening to her phone ring in his ear. “Pick up.”