Authors: Aimee Laine
“What the hell?” Wyatt watched through his rearview mirror.
He pulled out of the way of cars that streamed by in an attempt to either get in or out of the city’s limits.
The cruiser pulled in behind him with two people in the front seats. The passenger door opened. One occupant exited. The uniformed officer stopped at the back of the trunk and wrote something in a notepad before he walked around to Wyatt’s window, which had already been rolled down.
“Was I going too fast?” Wyatt didn’t turn but continued to watch in the side-view mirror.
“Wyatt?” Detective Bland asked as he reached the window.
Wyatt smiled.
This will be easy to get out of.
“What are you doing on patrol, Bland?”
“Rookie training.” Bland shook his head.
“For the city police? I thought you hung with the town folks.” Wyatt chuckled.
“I trained for a number of years, so when the city has new recruits and not enough trainers, they ask me to pinch-hit. They asked me to run Trent through a day’s worth of work before I pack it in for tonight. We’re all set, still?”
Wyatt tapped his fingers on the wheel. “S’far as I know, yup.”
“Great. Well, shoot, Wyatt. I’m supposed to be showing our driver the ropes. I thought I recognized your car, so I offered to get out first and see. I can’t really give you a ticket.”
Awesome.
“That’s good because I don’t know what it would have been for,” Wyatt said.
Bland laughed. “Speeding. This is a new trap. But don’t tell anyone. Limit dropped to twenty-five two weeks ago. Damn government needs their money.”
Wyatt shook his head. He hadn’t seen a sign anywhere. “Gonna let me go?”
“Yeah, sure. But can I impinge upon you? Let us follow you to your destination then allow Officer Trent to go through the motions of a stop.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m just heading up to the Hail Street parking garage. Late meeting with the bosses,” Wyatt said.
“We’ll follow ya.” Bland saluted and walked back to his car.
Wyatt pulled his Mustang out into traffic. The two followed, lights off. He maneuvered into the garage and circled around until he reached the third floor. With his car parked next to the elevator, he could make quick work of the jog to the office after he let Bland use him as a guinea pig.
25
Lily, Cael, James and Maggie planted themselves in Charley’s bedroom, prepared to practice what Maggie called ‘their magic acts’. They’d all agreed to the dry run. Luckily for Charley, she would remain as is and with James, double-check everyone’s copy.
“You’re not going to whine about it, are you?” Lily tapped her toe and gave Cael her best spoil-sport look.
“No.”
Charley stifled her laugh. “Let’s get started.”
Maggie got first dibs.
Arms outstretched, Charley turned in a circle. Since Maggie had been around the least amount of time, she’d get the most chance to touch and feel for realism.
They didn’t always have direct access. Charley once had to play the first lady to a former President and came up with her form based on photos and descriptions alone. She’d succeeded … at least with what people could see. Underneath, she’d fudged every curve and line.
Maggie hemmed and hawed, oohed and ahhed as she ran her gaze up and down Charley’s form. She ran her hands along the length of Charley’s outstretched arms, down her sides, and all the way to her feet, which Charley’d left bare. They didn’t know how much the folks they’d meet knew about her and didn’t want to take any chances with a replica who didn’t match down to the last freckle.
Maggie’s fingers threaded themselves through Charley’s—her palms against them.
Charley tried not to move. She held her breath as long as she could, let Maggie touch without a second thought.
When Maggie placed her palms on either side of Charley’s head, she still held firm but suspected Maggie’s ploy to tease the guys. She inched closer to her as their clothes ruffled against each other. Charley stared into her eyes, which Maggie let turn their natural state, and waited. Her lips parted as she drew closer, and her smile grew as she leaned in.
Charley didn’t move.
Maggie tilted her head right, shifted to the left, and kept her bright red lips no more than a few millimeters from Charley’s.
A chill ran up Charley’s spine.
“Oh, come on!” Cael broke the sexual tension that filled the room.
Maggie puckered her lips, eased forward and added a quick peck at the side of Charley’s lips.
Cael groaned from his spot on the side stool. He’d straightened from his leaned-over, elbows-on-knee, half crouch when Maggie started her little dance.
“That would have been too easy, Cael,” Maggie said. “Okay, give me a sec.” Maggie closed her eyes and let her hands lay at her sides, palms out. She tilted her head back and shook her hair before she stood straight again.
Charley didn’t like to see any of them change. Facial features contorted, limbs trembled, and in many cases, the change looked more like a convulsion than the sweet, spring-like renewal that Maggie displayed. Legs one inch longer, cheek bones less prominent, hair turned black, eyes turned to chocolate brown.
Charley stared at herself, though no mirror stood before her.
“How’d I do?” Maggie asked when she finished and turned her head to each of them.
“You look like me,” Charley said.
“I concur.” James had Maggie twirl under his extended hand. “You forgot a freckle, though. Right cheek, center.”
Maggie added it, and James pronounced her complete.
“Cael’s turn.” Maggie smirked as she shook the new curls that hung from her head.
“Lily first,” Cael said. “I’m the true last resort.”
“Chicken,” Maggie said.
“Fine,” Cael said, but Lily stopped him with a wave.
“Me first. I already know what you look like, so I’m going to do this and come back. Wait here.” Lily escaped into Charley’s bathroom.
“You can shift somewhere else, too, if you want, Cael,” Charley said.
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
Lily came back out with a slight misstep as her body wavered from fatigue. She, too, looked like Charley. The only discrepancy lay in the tips of her hair which had begun to change back to her own natural shade of blonde. “Dammit! I am so not good at this.”
“You convinced me.” Cael stood from his stool. As James had done for Maggie, he walked to Lily and raised her hand for a twirl. “You look great.”
The Lily-Charley smiled at Cael—a smile only Lily could make.
“Okay, Master Cael, s’your turn to pony up.” Maggie turned back to her previous form. Unlike Lily, a relative youngster, Maggie could transform within a short span of time without visible burnout.
“Told you she was talented,” Charley said to James, thumbing a hand at Maggie.
Cael opted for the more private method, too. He’d have to lose quite a number of inches and would lose his drawers in the process.
When he walked back in, he, too, looked just like Charley, and the towel he’d wrapped around his body made Charley wonder.
“Did you do all of the change?” She grinned at him.
He hung his head. “Yes.”
“Can we see?” Maggie clapped her hands and stalked toward him.
“No!” He barked in Charley’s voice, wrapped his arms around the towel.
Maggie as herself, Lily with half blonde, half black hair, and Charley laughed until her sides hurt. When Cael started to walk back to the bathroom, Charley stopped him.
“Wait.” One hand at her mouth, the other pressed into her side while she continued to giggle. “James needs to twirl and inspect you.”
“I think not.” James raised his hands as if Cael were a hot coal. “I’m not touching him.”
The women laughed even harder.
“What’s so funny?” Stuart asked as he walked in. “Whoa! Three Charleys.”
“Who’s who?” James asked.
Stuart stood near the door, his eyes tracked to each of the three of them, still in proper form. “Hair girl is Lily. Umm … I’m going with towel as Cael, and since Maggie looks like Maggie, the one standing in the clothes Charley had on earlier today is Charley.”
Charley smiled. “Right you are.”
“Puzzles are my specialty.” Stuart tapped his forehead. “Except that was too easy. You guys ready to get wired?”
“I am,” Charley said. “Don’t know about the rest of them.”
“I’m going to change,” Cael said.
“You can wire me anytime.” Maggie’s sensuality came through her tone.
“Ah, no, I don’t think so. Monster Man over there would eat me alive. She’s all yours, man,” Stuart said to James.
• • •
When nine o’clock rolled around and no one heard from Wyatt, Charley began to worry. She sat with Lily at the kitchen bar, swung her legs, tapped her fingers, and checked and rechecked her watch.
Cael and James had already headed out with Maggie. Lily hung back to wait with Charley for Wyatt. They’d agreed to rendezvous with the detectives at an old lumber yard across from the park. In dark, unmarked vehicles, they could pass through undetected and lay in wait. The van James kept stored for undercover purposes had been prepped and stocked with the necessary equipment.
Sophie tucked Chase in for the night. He’d curled up under the warm blankets like a little mouse. Within seconds, his snores could have drowned out a buzz saw.
“He said nine or ten, Charley.” Lily offered a milkshake, pie, and other goodies in a clear attempt to draw Charley’s attention away from the time.
Since Chase’s return, Lily had been bitten by the sweets bug; pastries, pies, cakes, muffins and who knew what lined shelves and countertops in the kitchen.
“You should start selling these, Lil.” Charley munched on a chocolate covered strawberry.
Thank goodness her kind didn’t have to watch their weight. She’d miss that particular piece of her skill. Cellulite? Gone. An inch to pinch? Sucked in. Hopefully Wyatt wouldn’t mind if she went gray and wrinkly. At least they’d do it together.
Charley moved to the dining table, where the plans still lay. She tried to distract herself with them—a double-, triple- and even quadruple-check on the gardens. Stuart snuck in behind her as she looked them over … again.
“You have a photographic memory. Why are you staring like you’ve never seen these before?”
Charley shook her head but otherwise ignored him until he disappeared.
At ten, her hands began to shake. She moved from the window to the door. With each sound, she’d rush and pull back the curtains to reveal the dark of the night. She paced in front of Cael’s big screen, dark with his absence. She tried Wyatt’s cell for the hundredth time and got voicemail.
Where is he? Why hasn’t he called?
“He can’t answer if he’s in a meeting, Charley.” Stuart sat with Sophie’s head in his lap. He popped a chip in his mouth and slid a hair back from Sophie’s face.
“He should.” Charley mumbled expletives under her breath.
She heard the crunch of tires and flew to the door, yanked the knob, and missed that the lock had been set. Her hand slipped off to pop her in the face. “Dammit!” She grabbed it again and twisted to unlock it.
The car rolled to a stop at the edge of the drive.
She stood in the doorway in an attempt to look nonchalant about his late arrival.
“Hi.” He approached, his cell in hand.
Charley smiled at him, watched him flick it to life. “Hey, back.” She moved to him, ran her hands up his chest. “I got worried.”
He tilted down to her. “The meeting lasted longer than I expected.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“I couldn’t. They had us in a secured room. No phones, no cell, no texts. It was dreadful.”
Charley leaned into him as his arms wound around her. “You smell like perfume.” She scrunched her nose. The scent, while not unpleasant, held a chemical tinge to it.
“Air freshener. The cleaning crew got there before we did. You ready to go? Might as well be early.”
“Yeah, sure. Let me get Lily.”
“I don’t need anything else, so I’ll wait for ya,” he said.
Wyatt stood behind her as Charley walked back in. Her nerves at his late arrival hadn’t stopped their incessant buzz. She shook her hands in an attempt to startle herself out of her tizzy.
Stuart and Sophie hadn’t moved. He’d popped the television on, and she’d begun to doze. “We got it covered here, Chief,” Stuart said.
Charley noted the channel guide scrolled down. “Good to know your role in this is a big one.” She smirked, though at the same time knew it could be a far greater one if anyone tried to take Chase again.
“Hey, Wyatt!” Lily said as she passed the open door and entered the living room. “Didn’t I tell you he’d be here?” She gave Charley’s shoulder a quick squeeze.
“Yeah, you did. Why am I so nervous, then?”
“That’s obvious,” Lily said. “This is serious stuff. It’s not life or death, but it hits close to home.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it.” Charley turned around, saluted Stuart with Lily in tow, and left to join Wyatt at the car.
“Ready?” He looked up from his phone. “Texted to tell James we’re on our way. Oh, and I got an FBI issue for stealth.”
“Right, excellent. Let’s go,” she said.
• • •
Wyatt steered the dark sedan down Turner Point’s hill as Charley watched her forest pass. They’d meet their group at the park, be reinforced by the police, and at midnight it would all be over. The ride home would be fraught with much less anxiety.
“Do you want to go over the plan again?” Wyatt asked, one hand on the wheel, one in Charley’s.
“I think I’m good,” she said.
“Do you know for sure everyone is in place?” He adjusted the wheel, following the subtle curve of the road.
“No, haven’t heard from James or Cael. We’re not late yet, so I expect they won’t start worrying for a bit.” She turned her attention back to the passing scenery.
“But you were nervous about my tardiness?” He smiled at her.
“How did you know?”
He chuckled. “Your hand is still shaking.”
“Ah, gotcha. I’m not usually this nervous about projects,” Charley said. “For all my time, I’ve been known for my steel spine.”
“This one’s personal,” Wyatt said.
“See?” Lily piped up. “I told you that earlier. Everyone’s in agreement that this is different because we’re all so close to it.”
“What she said.” Wyatt snickered. He offered Charley his classic smile.
“I think we’re ready, even though there are loads of unknowns.” She relaxed into the seat.
His hand caressed hers. “I think so, too.”
“You ready, Lil?” Charley asked.
“As much as I think I can be,” she said.