In the Line of Fire: Hot Desert Heroes, Book 1 (10 page)

The girl gave her a sweet smile and asked, “Your usual?”

“Yep. Thanks.” Delaney thought about it and changed her mind. “You know what? Go ahead and get me a carrot cake muffin, but give me a large white-chocolate-mocha French roast, okay?”

The teenager nodded.

Delaney leaned over to look into the kitchen. “Are Lily and Andi both in the back?”

“Uh-huh. Accepting a delivery.” Someone called out, “Hey, Anna!” and the girl lifted her hand in a wave.

Anna. Jeez. How embarrassing. When the teenager put a plate with the carrot cake muffin onto the counter then followed it with a large cup of what Delaney knew was going to be delicious cappuccino frappé, she smiled and said, “Thanks, Anna.”

“You bet.” She worked the cash register and said, “That’ll be nine fifty-eight.”

Delaney handed her a ten then realized until she knew what was going on with her job she should probably cool it with the coffees and goodies. With a mental shrug she plunked the change into the tip jar on the counter. Hands full, she turned and almost ran into a man in line behind her. She hadn’t heard anyone come up. Recognizing who it was, she said, “Oh hey, Edmond,” and smiled.

The older man dipped his head. “Delaney.” His rich voice held a hint of an accent she still could not place. “How are you today?”

This man wasn’t even someone she could term as an acquaintance. He was someone she saw every once in a while at a coffee shop, so no way would she share the myriad ways her life seemed to be getting ready to completely derail. “Oh, I’m good,” she lied. “How’re you doing?”

His lips tightened briefly before they curved into a smile she noticed did not reach his dark eyes. “I, too, am well. Thank you for asking.” He motioned to her epicurean delights. “And I see you have your hands full, so I won’t detain you from your friends.”

“Oh, okay. See you later.” She took a few steps away then turned back to ask, “Edmond, where are you from? I can hear traces of an accent but I haven’t been able to place it and it’s making me crazy.”

“I am originally from a little town outside of Quebec, Montreal. You would not have heard of it,” he added with a small smile.

“Oh. But in and around Quebec they speak French, right?”

“Oui.”

She sighed. “That’s lovely.” She glanced over and saw Colbie give her a get-your-butt-over-here look. “Well, have a good day,” she told Edmond and walked over to join her friend on the couch.

“Who is that?” Colbie asked as soon as Delaney sat down next to her.

Delaney shrugged. “Just some guy I’ve said hi to now and again. We frequently seem to be in line at about the same time.”

“You don’t know who he is?”

“No, why?”

Colbie shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve seen him before, and the way he looks at you when you’re not looking seems like something’s not quite right with him.”

Delaney put her coffee cup on the side table to the right of the sofa. “Just so you know, you’re kinda freaking me out. Something’s not right how?”

Again with the shrug. “Like he wants you but hates you at the same time?”

“Are you asking or telling me this?”

“Um, telling, I think. I don’t know!” she burst out in a low tone. “Maybe he’s seen you and Beck together and is jealous.”

“Are you…” Delaney leaned forward. In a soft voice she asked, “Do you think he likes me that way?”

Colbie shook her head. “Yes. No.” She glanced over to one side of the shop then quickly looked back at Delaney. “Maybe.”

Delaney sat up straight and restrained herself from glancing in the direction Colbie had just stared. “What is it? Is he watching me now?” she asked in a low voice.

“He was looking this way,” Colbie replied softly. “He’s sitting at a table pretty close by. If we talk any louder than this he’s sure to be able to hear. He has really dark eyes, doesn’t he?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sometimes Delaney couldn’t keep up with the younger woman’s train of thought. She was like a raven, flitting from one shiny object to another.

“Nothing, nothing. It’s just I think he could probably look really evil, like, if he got mad or something.” Again Colbie’s voice rose at the end and made the statement sound more like a question.

“Maybe he just has resting-bitch face,” Delaney muttered and took a sip of her cooling coffee drink.

Colbie laughed. “Maybe.”

Just then Rachel rushed through the door and plopped onto the couch on the other side of Colbie. “Sorry I’m late!”

Delaney glanced at her watch. “Only by five minutes or so.”

“Still, you need me and I wanted to be on time. Got stuck behind an accident at Campbell and River. I hate that intersection,” she grumbled.

“Just because you had someone turn left in front of you there one time doesn’t mean it’s a dangerous intersection,” Colbie said. “I had someone turn left in front of me at Grant and Alvernon, and I go through that intersection now all the time with no problem.”

Rachel waved her off. “So, what’s up?” she asked Delaney.

“Do you want a coffee or something first?”

“You don’t mind?”

“Of course not.”

“’Kay. Be right back.”

By the time Rachel made it back with an extra-large caramel-vanilla cappuccino, Andi and Lily had come from the kitchen. They pulled the armchairs a little closer to the sofa and got in a huddle. “Okay, Laney,” Andi said. “Tell us what’s what so we can straighten you out.”

The others, including Delaney, laughed, though she quickly sobered. “Let me start with the little stuff and work my way up.” Though she wasn’t sure any of it was little by any stretch of the imagination. “Let me amend that. I’ll start with the big stuff and work my way up to humongous.”

Eyebrows went up at that but the girls stayed silent.

Delaney blew out a breath. “Okay. So, you know that quilt I made for the women’s shelter?” She received nods from everyone and went on. “When I stopped earlier today to drop it off, it wasn’t in my trunk.” When she got blank looks, she said, “I’d put it in my trunk this morning before I left for work. When I got to the shelter, it wasn’t in my trunk. So unless there’s some sort of quilt gremlin, someone somehow broke into my car and only stole the quilt.”

“What’d Beck say about it?” Lily asked.

“He thinks it’s weird. He thinks a call to the police would be a waste of time, and I don’t disagree. But someone got into my car without leaving any evidence of it. I mean, there are no scratches on any of the locks. At all. It freaks me out.”

“Well, yeah,” Rachel chimed in. “I’d be freaked out too. Did you maybe leave your keys out at work or somewhere so someone could grab them and get into your car?”

Delaney frowned and shook her head. “When I’m at work, my keys are in my pocket. If I have on an outfit without pockets, they go in my purse, which is inside my desk drawer.”

“Maybe someone got into your desk today while you were in the bathroom?” Colbie said.

Delaney stopped and thought. “Actually, I didn’t go to the bathroom while I was at work. We had that meeting,” she told Colbie. “I suppose someone could have grabbed my keys then, but why take just the quilt?”

“What, you think they’d want your jumper cables?” Rachel asked with a quirk to her lips. The gal who’d known her since grade school knew what kind of stuff she kept in her trunk.

The mark of true friendship.

Delaney stuck her tongue out at her.

“Maybe they know someone who’s having a baby and didn’t want to splurge for a gift,” Andi chimed in.

When Lily shot her a look, she lifted her shoulders and muttered, “What? Stranger things have happened, I’m sure.”

“I’m not sure how anyone from work could have seen me put the quilt in the trunk,” Delaney said. “And, anyway, if they did see me put something in the trunk, all they would’ve seen was the bag.”

“Well, I don’t think we can help you solve this one, Laney,” Lily said. “Just be super careful getting into your car—make sure you’re checking the backseat before you get in.”

“I will.” Delaney heaved a sigh. She didn’t want to think about some weirdo who broke into her car to steal a kiddie quilt. She pushed it out of her mind and went on to the next item on her agenda. “That brings us to the second order of business. And that is, Colbie and I are probably going to be out of work soon.”

The others, except for Colbie of course, all exclaimed, “What!” in one voice.

“SNJ has been bought out by a company back East, and starting Monday they’ll be sending in a team to go over our jobs to see which duties are already being done by employees who work at the parent company near the Pentagon. My boss says they already have a department that does what we do, so it’s a sure thing he and I and everyone else in analytics will lose our jobs. And probably just about everyone in finance will too.”

“My supervisor told me they’ll likely keep a couple of midlevel accountants,” Colbie added, “because they’ll need the extra help with payables and receivables, but those jobs will be relocated to the parent company.”

“¡Híjuela!”
Andi muttered. “What will you do?”

“My supervisor has already put me in touch with her brother-in-law who owns a temp agency,” Colbie said. “I have an appointment tomorrow morning.”

“Colb, that’s great news.” Delaney reached over and squeezed her hand. “I know temping wasn’t high on your list, but you’re so skilled you’ll have another job lined up in no time.”

“But what about you?”

Delaney shifted in her seat and picked up her coffee. After taking a sip she said, “Beck told me he and Ty were just about ready to place an ad for an office administrator for Red Eagle Group. I’d be saving them from having to do interviews if I took the job.”

“Wow.”

She looked at Lily. “What does that mean?”

The other woman lifted her shoulders. “Nothing. Just, well, great timing, right? That your new boyfriend has a job opening just when you need it?”

Delaney frowned. “Do you think he’s making it up? That they don’t really have the work?”

Lily held up one hand. “I’m not saying that at all. I think it’s great. It’s serendipitous, really. I mean, Andi and I would hire you if we could, but, honestly, we really don’t have enough work and we’d only be able to pay you minimum wage. It’s okay for these high school kids,” she said with a gesture toward the counter where two of her part-time employees were working, “but I doubt either one of you could live off that low of a salary for very long. But with Colbie’s boss putting her in touch with his brother-in-law and Beck offering you a job, that means you and Colbie won’t have to expend energy worrying about employment, right?”

Yeah, that was what it meant.

“As long as it pays what I need. It’s a start-up company. Maybe they’re short on capital,” she fretted. “What if they do only want to give me minimum wage? I won’t be able to afford my house.”

Rachel leaned forward to look at her from around Colbie. “It’s a start-up company that’s already known as being an elite security firm. I’ll bet they charge a very pretty penny for their services. I’d be surprised if they offered you less than forty K a year.”

That would be a pay cut for her, but not by much.

“Okay, so I should stop worrying about my job, is what you’re all saying.”

Heads nodded around the table.

“And it sounds like Colbie shouldn’t worry, either,” Rachel soothed with a hand on Colbie’s shoulder. “Your boss is looking out for you.”

Colbie sighed. “Yeah, but I hate looking for a new job.”

“We all do,” Lily chimed in. “That’s why Andi and I are self-employed. Working from four in the morning to three in the afternoon every day sucks, but we don’t have anyone telling us what to do.”

“Unless we count each other,” Andi interjected. “You’re always trying to tell me what to do.”

“
Trying
being the operative word.” Lily threw a mock grimace her friend’s way then spoiled the effect by laughing.

“All right then, moving on,” Rachel said. “What else?”

Delaney took a deep breath and launched into her morning with Beck, leaving nothing out except the really sexy bits. “So I’m just supposed to let him go jaunting off and be willing to not ask questions and also not worry about him when he’s gone.” Twisting her hands together, she looked at her friends. “I’m not sure I can do that. The not-worry part, I mean. I get that he has to keep stuff confidential. Tight security helps protect him, and much of what he does is on a need-to-know basis—and I’m not one of the people who needs to know, though I really, really do.” She gave a halfhearted smile at her friends’ laughter. “But I’d probably worry even more if I knew what he was up to wherever he is.”

The women glanced at each other; then Rachel spoke up, “What’s the alternative, honey?” Her voice was as soft as the expression on her face.

“I know, I know,” Delaney whispered. “I take what he has to give or I get nothing at all. I realize that. But you know me, I’m an all-or-nothing kinda gal,” she said, trying to joke and failing miserably. “And going to work for him…will that make things too complicated or maybe too familiar? We’ll be around each other all the time except when he has to go off on supersecret missions,” she added. “But, really, there’s more to it than him being secretive about his work. Just about every time I ask him a personal question, something that will give me more insight into who he is, he shuts down. Shuts me out. And that, really, is what I don’t think I can accept.”

“And can you give him up? Because that’s what getting nothing at all means,” Lily said. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “You and he have been seeing each other for such a short time. I get that it’s new and intense, but you’re still learning each other. You only know the surface. You have to give him time to learn to trust you before you’ll be able to get to the gooey center.”

“But—”

Lily shook her head. “When you earn the secrets—personal ones, not professional—of someone like Beck, a man worth knowing as deeply as one human being can know another, it’s like a reward. Treasure you can hoard.” She reached out and took one of Delaney’s hands in hers. “You have to be patient, sweetie. Let him reveal what he’s holding back in his own time. When he does, it’ll mean something to both of you. You’ll have completely earned his trust, and he’ll have learned his heart, the essence of who he is, is safe with you.” She gave Delaney’s fingers a squeeze then let go and sat back in her chair.