Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(20)
His card was colorful but simple. It said only: Coleton Savoy and gave a number. He pointed to the one he had written. “That’s my personal cell phone number. Call me anytime.” He stretched out the word anytime, giving it subtext. Is he flirting with me? The idea filled her with a wild gladness and a nervous dismay. He was too good-looking. She couldn’t trust herself to be objective about him. This was the kind of man who would get her in trouble. The type of man that women jumped in head-first over, without bothering to check how deep the water was.
Jen nodded, then looked around desperately for Ivy. Ivy was the pretend manager. Shouldn’t she be handling this? She spotted Ivy, who was standing by Ryker in the middle of the store. Ivy gave her a thumbs up and mouthed something. Jen wasn’t sure but it looked like “he’s hot.” Jen groaned inwardly and looked back at the card in her hand. Ivy wasn’t going to be any help.
“I’ll come back by in a couple of days, Jen, to see what’s come in.”
“OK.”
He flashed her one last heart-breaking smile and left, leaving her feeling discordantly wrung-out and hyped-up.
Ivy ran over. “Wow, he really liked you. What did he want?”
“He wanted watches. And he didn’t like me.”
“Are you kidding? I could tell from over there that he liked you.”
Jen blinked at her, trying to tell if she was kidding or serious. She didn’t know Ivy well enough yet to know for sure. But Ivy couldn’t be serious. That guy was way out of her league. He was movie-star hot. Which probably makes him an arrogant jerk, she thought and grimaced. He didn’t seem stupid, so he had to be a jerk, right? A tiny divot of shame wormed its way into her chest at the thought. She was stereotyping him as either arrogant or stupid because he was good looking? That made her as bad as the men who did that to women.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the bat phone ringing. She ran to it, hoping to hear Sgt. Foley’s voice, but it was Sadler instead, his words sounding venomous. “What did pretty-boy give you?” Completely non-plussed for a moment, she didn’t say a word. But then she realized who and what he meant. “His business card.”
Sadler’s reply chilled her as much as it confused her. “Perfect. Lock the door and you three get your asses over here. Change of plans.”
***
Hunter sat in a chair behind Sadler and watched him light into their three undercover officers. He knew what Sadler’s issue with Ryker was (although he didn’t think it was relevant - Ryker had proved himself, in Hunter’s opinion), but he didn’t know what Sadler’s issue was with Ivy and Jen. He just didn’t seem to like them. Maybe he didn’t like anyone. Maybe it was because they were women. Hunter sighed and idly thought about asking for a new partner. Sadler was a good cop, but he was such a brutish jerk. It wasn’t worth having to walk on eggshells around the guy’s crappy mood all the time.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts and tried to listen to what Sadler was saying. “Does the name Savoy mean anything to you?” Sadler was asking Jen, his voice too loud and harsh. His hand out-stretched, with Savoy’s card in it. Jen shook her head no.
“How about you?” He turned to Ivy and waved the business card in her face. “No.” Ivy said, and Hunter could hear a thin wire of anger in it.
Sadler turned to Ryker and a vicious smile crossed his face. “I know you have heard the name Savoy before, Wells. Enlighten your partners.”
“He’s referring to Fiore Savoy. He’s the head of the oldest organized crime family in Northern California. Coleton is his son.” Ryker said, his voice neutral and calm. Good for you, Hunter thought. Don’t let him get to you.
“That’s right,” Sadler said, pulling the card back triumphantly. “The head of the oldest organized crime family in Northern California, and the only organized crime family Westwood Harbor ever had to deal with until these three new *s moved in!”
Hunter clenched his jaw in frustration. What was Sadler getting at? What was the point of this? He chanced a glance at Jen and saw she looked visibly upset - her eyes were red and her face looked strained. Hunter stood up, intending to get in between Sadler and the three recruits. It was their first day. They’d done a good job. They didn’t need a lecture right now.
“So now, Coleton Savoy just waltzes in to our pawn shop and starts asking about watches? There was more to it, wasn’t there?” He stepped forward in front of Jen and asked this question directly to her.
“Well, he did ask if I was new. And where the old employees were.”
“Exactly!” Sadler paced away from Jen. Hunter moved into the spot he’d just vacated. Sadler kept talking, pounding his fist against his open palm, seeming almost to be talking to himself. “I bet there’s something we’re missing here. There’s some way that all of these guys are related. How else is there no fighting between them? And why else would Savoy not have moved to get them out of his playground yet?”
Hunter saw that Ivy looked perplexed, Jen looked still upset, and Ryker wore his usual placid expression. Hunter felt most like Ivy. Perplexed. Was Sadler really trying to say that Coleton Savoy was working with their three targets?
Hunter decided to put a stop to this. “You know that Coleton Savoy has never been connected with any illegal activities. And that it has never been proven that he works with his father in any capacity.”