Justice Falling (Falling #3)(25)
To: Nate Walker
From: Jonny Spark (Spark Investigations)
Camille Christine Johnston
Age: 22
Birthday: July 3rd
Address: 2020 Beach St. Apt# 35, Bronx, NY 10472
Employment: Jensen Construction and Gems
Roommate: Jin Sang - Female - age 25
I read through the rest of the email showing her phone number, length of time at her apartment, the high school she graduated from and so forth. My eyes settled on her employment. I was trying to recall what ”Gems” was. I was pretty sure it was a bar, which would make sense if it was a job she had after her work at Jensen Construction. The area she lived in wasn’t bad but not the Ritz either. It was also a solid thirty to forty minute drive from work. She didn’t have a car registered to her name. That’s all the information Johnny sent for now, which was more than enough. Medical and any familial contacts would come later. I had her number and address. The rest would come. Maybe I’d read it, maybe not. I felt like a bit of right arsehole for investigating her, but she left me with no real choice.
Camille liked me. I knew that much from our phone conversations and lunch date. Not to mention the mouthwatering kisses we’d shared in the lift. Mostly, I knew it from the way she pressed her body into mine at lunch today when she seemed scared and uncomfortable. Women didn’t get that close and look to be sheltered by a man’s arms that they weren’t into. Whatever had happened between her and Ty was a long time ago, but he still had a negative effect on her. One way or another, I was going to find out why.
Chapter 7
The weekend passed in a blur. Both Jin and I were called into Gems. She was contracted for a private booking which made it necessary for me to cover her shift on the floor.
We had our teenaged neighbor, Leah, watch the boys. That girl was a Godsend, but she didn’t come cheap. To get a sixteen year old to give up her Saturday night, you had to make it worthwhile. Jin and I halved the bill, but still it came close to forty bucks a piece.
It was a long evening. The only reason Leah’s mama let her stay so late was because they lived across the breezeway, letting her mother check on her within seconds. It gave Jin and I an extra level of comfort knowing Leah had her mother so close in the event of an emergency.
Sunday was hectic. The boys bounced off the walls. Due to the busy week and evenings spent working, they hadn’t had enough one-on-one time with either of us. Basically, we had two forty-something pound children all over us like white on rice. Both grappled for an ounce of attention, and, for two mothers that hadn’t come home until three in the morning, a seven a.m. wake up call from two little boys was rough. As usual, we grinned and bared it.
I made pancakes while Jin put on the cartoons. We spent the day watching Disney movies and dozing in between playing snack courier every thirty minutes to our little ones. It was impressive how much a four and five year old boy could put away in snacks. It was as if their bellies were endless pits of nothingness.
On Monday mornings, Mr. Jensen liked to treat everyone to their first cup of coffee at the office. I stumbled off the elevator and into Jensen Construction arms loaded with Starbucks. With great effort, I eased the two containers holding four steaming Styrofoam cups onto my desk feeling a great sense of achievement that I didn’t spill a drop. All those shifts waitressing at the diner taught me a thing or two, and I never got an order wrong. The office loved that about me.
“Good morning, love.” The voice I’d heard in my dreams every night this weekend smoothed over my senses, sending my heart to a heavy pitter patter. I twirled and leaned against the desk.
There he stood, inclined against the wall. All kinds of tall, dark, handsome and British, looking spectacular in a pitch black suit with a slate blue tie that matched his eyes. Good-looking didn’t even come close to Nathaniel Walker. He exuded confidence and sex appeal. So much so that I waved my hand against my face to cool the blush I knew was coloring me crimson.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, dumbstruck and breathless. Seeing him standing there blew me away like a dandelion’s flowerets escaping in the wind on the breath of a wish.
“Isn’t it obvious?” His smirk added the tiniest dimple barely hidden by his goatee.
“Not to me, it isn’t.”
“Let me be a little less obtuse then.” He took a few steps towards me, and I took a couple backward. Those pouty lips twitched in, what I could only surmise, was humor. Instead of caging me in like I expected, he stopped at the huge bouquet of flowers he’d sent. Long fingers toyed with one of the daisies. “I want to take you out to dinner. You’re going to say yes.”
“Nate I ca-“
“Yes, you can and you will. There’s something between you and me, and I want to find out what. The only way to do so is to spend time together…alone.” He emphasized the last word in a decidedly sultry tone.
“I’m surprised you still want to go out with me. After lunch…”
“It seems you have a past with my best mate, Ty.” I winced and tried hard to swallow the bile that rose at the mere mention of that horrible man’s name. “I can see it on your face, and, though it makes me feel as though I’ve gone raving mad, I can’t deny there’s something between us. Do you not feel it?”
I could have ended things right there by agreeing that I “did not” in fact feel anything for this beautiful man. Unfortunately, I was never any good at lying. My heart screamed lies at my brain, my brain yelled at my voice, and my voice spit out the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. Dammit!