Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(67)
Her neck twisted and her head tilted back to look up at him.
“Do you think we should go back tomorrow night, set up camera surveillance or something?”
Yep, she was cute.
“No, we aren’t gonna do shit. I run him tomorrow, I find dirt or even that he lied on his application, I turn it over to Merry or Colt or Drew and they run with it.”
“That’s it?” she asked, sounding disappointed.
He grinned at her and somewhat lied. “Baby, on TV, they make my job look exciting. Most of the time it’s done either sittin’ at a computer or sittin’ somewhere else. The action man shit is a stereotype based on total fiction.”
Her eyes dropped to his middle and, to hide what that said, she quickly turned and grabbed her beer, tipping her head back to take a sip.
When she put it down she turned back to him and asked, “What if there isn’t any dirt?”
“There isn’t any dirt, we go deeper.”
“Cameras?”
“Cameras are expensive, it’d take forever to set them up, I’d need the feeds to come into the office, I’m not set up to do that and I don’t have the cash to get set up so I’d need recording devices which are bulky, therefore hard to hide, and someone would have to go and collect the DVDs. Each time I go in, I court gettin’ caught. I’m good but the law of averages on that kind of operation are never on your side. And, I go that way, I got hours of DVDs to watch, most of the shit on ‘em not worth watchin’, and I don’t have hours to waste.”
She turned her body toward him and rested her bent arm on the couch beside him. “So what do we do?”
“Again, we don’t do shit, sweetcheeks. I’m workin’ this case because you’re worried and what I’ll do is send in undercover recruits.”
Her brows shot up. “Undercover recruits?”
Layne leaned down, reached around and grabbed her ponytail, giving it a gentle tug as he got close to her face. “Jasper or Tripp. I’m thinkin’ Tripp. He’d do good at bein’ a Jesus Freak. Not to mention, the Youth Group is filled with girls. He’ll be all over that.”
Tripp would be all over that for the girls but mostly Tripp would be all over it because his old man asked him to do it and Layne would let it slip that it was a favor for Rocky.
Her eyes got bright and she whispered, “That’s brilliant.”
He let her hair go, handed her the rosters and she took them. “Your job is to look over those rosters and call me tomorrow with Tripp’s target.”
“His target?”
He nodded. “A girl, on those lists,” he tipped his head to the papers in her hand, “who’s been goin’ to Youth Group awhile. Not a new kid, someone who’s been around, could have seen things, heard things.”
She nodded.
Layne went on. “And she has to be open to Tripp. A shy or plain girl who’ll be flattered at attention from a kid on the football team.”
She shook her head. “I’m not setting up some girl to –”
He put his finger to her lips and she fell silent but he felt her lips part under his finger as he watched the intensity shift into her eyes.
In about a week, or, hope to God, sooner, he’d kiss her after seeing her eyes get like that.
Now, he took his finger from her lips.
“I’ll coach Tripp, he won’t leave her high and dry. This is a friendly operation with no collateral damage.”
She was still looking at him with that intensity in her eyes when she whispered, “Okay.”
“Now, it’s late, baby. Go get me a pillow and a blanket and go to bed.”
Her back went straight and she asked, “What?”
“Get me a pillow and a blanket, I’m sleepin’ on your couch tonight.”
She looked at the couch then at him. “Why?”
“Because it’s after one in the morning, I’m wiped and you don’t have any security sensors on your doors.”
She looked at the doors then at him. “But –”
“Go get me a pillow and blanket.”
“Layne, you live five minutes away. You could be wiped and still walk that far.”
“All right, sweetcheeks, I can also walk as far as your bed. You got two choices, get me a pillow and a blanket or I walk upstairs to your bed.”
“But –”
“Three seconds.”
“Layne!”
“One.”
“This is stupid,” she hissed.
He started to get up. “Two.”
“What about –?”
“Three,” he pushed up further but she shot up, her hands going to his shoulders to press him down.
When his ass was on the couch, she muttered, “I’ll go get a pillow and a blanket.”
Then she whirled around and ran up the stairs.
Layne watched her ass move as she did.
Chapter Ten
Your Boyfriend is Hot
He felt her hands on him, her mouth on him, her hair gliding across his chest following her lips.
They trailed up, then along his collarbone and his hands moved to her waist, down to her h*ps and in, over her ass as her lips went up his neck to his ear.
“You need to get home to your boys, baby,” Rocky whispered.