Knock Out (A Reynolds Security Novel) Read online

  Lou groaned and flopped onto her bed. “This is great just great. As if my life isn’t complicated enough someone is trying to frame me as a jewel thief.”

  “No one says frame anymore hun. You were set up.” He sat down beside her. “You know you’re going to have to call him right?”

  “Yes,” she hissed. “I just don’t want too.” Lou stood up and angrily walked back to the living room. She paused to give Cooper a treat and praise him for his find before she pulled out her cell phone.

  “Carpenter.” He answered on the first ring. She was caught off guard and wasn’t quite sure what to say.

  “I um, I have something that you need to see.”

  “Much as I would love to pretend to be at your beck and call. I am busy.” His nasty tone fortified her resolve.

  “Look this isn’t a personal call. I told you we only have a working relationship. This is work related and I can’t talk about it on a cell phone. Would you like to meet in person or shall I call your partner?” She held her breath awaiting his response. She was bluffing there was no way she would call Ethan.

  “I’ll be there in ten.” he said and hung up. Lou resisted the urge to throw the phone, barely.

  Jace arrived in three minutes. She took a deep breath before she opened the door. He looked pissed. More so than she had ever seen him.

  “In here.” She walked toward the bedroom trying to ignore the awkwardness. Colby was still sitting on her bed. The two men shot daggers with their eyes but neither spoke to the other. Lou pointed at the box and Jace looked inside.

  “Where did this come from?”

  “Hell if I know. Cooper found it.”

  “Cooper?”

  “Yes. Cooper alerted on it. Scared the shit out of me. I thought it was a bomb.” She meant it to be funny but no one so much as smirked. Jace sighed and rubbed his eyes.

  “Where were you last night?”

  “She was with me.” Colby spoke up for the first time and Jace glared at him.

  “Not until three.”

  “Lou…”

  “Colby, not until three.”

  “Before that?”

  “I was alone.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

  “I was driving. I decided I need a run. So I parked and I went for a run.”

  “Where did you park?”

  “What difference does it make?” She growled. He held up his cell and showed her a picture.

  “Is this your car?”

  “You know it is. Where is it?”

  “It is parked about a block away from the Radisson in a Starbucks parking lot, where a woman fitting your description was seen acting suspiciously.

  “Damn, should’ve gone north.” Colby muttered. Jace glared at him again.

  “Would you give us a minute alone?” Jace said to Colby barely making it sound like a request and not a demand. Colby glanced at Lou. She nodded. Colby sighed and stood up.

  “Come on Cooper, let’s walk down to the corner store. I need a pack of smokes.”

  “Don’t you dare! You quit.” Lou called after him.

  “Somehow I think I am going to need them before the night is through.”

  “Get the gum.”

  “I’ll think about it.” She heard the front door close and realized she was alone with Jace. She crossed her arms squeezing them tightly.

  “I did not steal that necklace.”

  “Where were you?”

  “I just told you.”

  “You drove and then went for a run.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what?” She glared at him and clenched her fists to keep from taking a swing at him.

  “Then Colby picked me up and I went back to his place. I stayed there until I went to work this morning. After work I went looking for where I left my car. I didn’t find it. A little while ago when I came in was the first time I had been here since Sunday when I packed and left for the city.” She could see the muscles flexing in his jaw. He was angry. She didn’t really care, she was angry too.

  “I did not steal anything.” She clenched her teeth.

  “I know.”

  “Then why are you interrogating me?” She yelled.

  “I am not asking anything that you aren’t going to have to answer a hundred more times.” They stood there glaring at each other in silence for a full minute before he finally voiced what was burning between them.

  “Have you been sleeping with him the whole time or did you just decide to change things up last night?”

  “Oh you’re one to talk you hypocrite!” She yelled at him and stormed out of the room.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He yelled back following her.

  “I am not discussing this. No strings, remember? That means you are free to fuck whoever you want and so am I.”

  “Well a heads up would have been nice.” He threw out. She spun around her mouth open in shock.

  “Are you kidding me?” Before he could respond there was a knock at the door. It eased open and Colby stuck his head in.

  “Sorry to interrupt. Thought you might want to see this.” He handed her a tabloid and she looked at the cover. The headline was Candi Spellner’s lesbian liaison. Underneath was a picture of her and Candace laughing at the restaurant. Inside there were more pictures of the two of them around the city. It even listed her by name. She groaned and buried her head in the paper.

  “Batting for the other team now Lou?” Jace said snidely.

  “One of us had a tryst with a hot blond recently but it wasn’t me.” she said, angrily stomping past him. She grabbed her cell phone and pressed the button before putting it to her ear.

  “Candace… yeah I saw it. I am really sorry… no… are you sure? Okay I’ll talk to you soon.” She looked at the two men watching her. “She thinks it’s funny. She is more concerned about my reputation.”

  “I told you not to get involved with the client.”

  “Don’t be an asshole Jace.”

  “Damn it Lou, didn’t you pay attention to the rules.”

  “Yeah I’ll bet there is rule about not fucking your employees too huh?” She glared at him and he glared back before glancing to where Colby was lounging in a chair. “Don’t worry about him he already knows we’ve been boinking like bunnies. He’s the one who told me to get new underwear.” Jace’s look was downright murderous when he turned it on Colby.

  “You slept with her knowing she was with me?”Jace advanced toward Colby and he stood so the two men were toe to toe.

  “I didn’t sleep with her. We are friends. You are the one who made her cry.”

  “Colby!” Lou cried as if he had just revealed her darkest secret. Jace spun and looked at her.

  “I made you cry? How?” Despite the seemingly sensitive question he had barked it at her and she was not the least bit inclined to answer it.

  “Who I do or don’t sleep with is not your business, either one of you. What is important is the fact that someone stole millions of dollars in jewelry just to hide them in my apartment and not very well I might add.” Both men’s expressions lightened as if they had both forgotten the reason they were there. Jace sighed and took out his cell phone.

  “Round up the team and meet me at 388 twenty third avenue apartment 230.”

  “What team? Who did you just invite to my apartment?”

  “There is already a team investigating the missing necklace, who do you think found your car?”

  “Who?”

  “Sam Cavanaugh, Charlie Batch, Lance Cocker, Brent Lee.” Lou wanted to complain but they were all people that she had worked with at the party people she would have picked herself.

  “Should I take it personally that Colby and I weren’t picked for your team?” She crossed her arms defiantly.

  “No, you and Colby both have upcoming engagements. They were free.” She gave him a look that said she was skeptical and he glared back with equal defiance.

  “
So fill us in on what the rest of the team knows.” Colby said trying to ease the tension. Jace told them everything that had been reported to them along with everything the team had found out so far, which amounted mostly to her and her car.

  “Wait so you’re saying that you were hired to find the rainbow necklace but not the Heart of Africa? Why not? It has to be worth a lot more.”

  “He didn’t mention that it had been taken, only the rainbow.”

  “That’s… weird.”

  When the rest of the team arrived they were all surprised to see the necklace.

  “Well that was the easiest assignment ever.” Charlie joked.

  “Yeah way too easy.” Sam grumbled.

  “Tell me about it. How long until you figure an anonymous tip leads the Edgepark PD to bust down my door with a search warrant?” Lou grumbled. She was sitting on the floor with Cooper’s head in her lap and Jace found himself wishing he could change places with the dog. Though given the fact that their shouting match had in no way resolved anything he doubted he would be in that position anytime soon.

  “We’re not going to let it go that far.” Jace said. “We’re going to call in the FBI.”

  “I thought the client didn’t want the authorities involved.” Brent said.

  “At this point I don’t give a rat’s ass what the client wants. We aren’t going to chance Lou or any one of us getting busted for being in possession of stolen property. I have a friend in the San Francisco field office. I’ll give him a call. He might let us work with him on this. But until we are officially told to back off we’re going to stay on it. I want someone to talk to the hotel staff, mostly the cleaning crew. See if they have noticed anything. They are invisible to people like Castillo. Bribe them if you have to, all expenses will be reimbursed. I want someone sitting on this apartment round the clock. Whoever got in here was a professional. They didn’t leave a trace of entry, forced or otherwise.”

  “Ah hello, I am here. I can sit on this place.” Lou spoke up. Not that she relished playing sitting duck.

  “You are the target, you are not staying here.”

  “Excuse me? I can take care of myself.”

  “You will go to a safe house.” He continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

  “I will not. I am a member of this team too.” The tension was fairly crackling between them.

  “Lou makes damn good bait.” Charlie put in.

  “She is not going to be the damn bait. We are talking about millions in diamonds. People kill for a hell of a lot less.” He roared. Everyone was staring at him and he knew it but he wasn’t relenting.

  “Right now let’s call the FBI and arrange to get the millions in jewels taken off our hands. Then we can figure out who is behind this and what in the world it has to do with Lou.” Colby said calmly.

  “I’ll make the call.” Jace grumbled and walked away.

  “You have anyone holding a grudge against you, Lou?”

  “Only Charlie.” She muttered and they all laughed. She thought of all the people she had pissed off. Of course her former CO and his brother in law were at the top of the list but they didn’t have the knowhow to put something like this together. “I have pissed a few people off but no one that could pull off a jewel heist like this. We’re not talking about shop lifting here.”

  “You’ve pissed off shop lifters?” Colby asked and she laughed relieving the tension that was building inside her.

  “Alright Frank is on his way. I want someone to set up discreet surveillance outside. We’ll get cameras up tomorrow. Work out a rotation schedule until we do. The rest of you go home and get a good night’s sleep.”

  “Hey boss I have some extra cameras from my last install in my car. You want me to put them up?”

  “Yes, that would be perfect.”

  The rest of the men worked out a schedule of who would be doing what in the next twenty four hours. As they prepared to leave she realized she was going to be left alone with Jace. She turned pleading eyes to Colby and he smiled sympathetically.

  “You want to stay at my place?”

  “She needs to be here to talk to the FBI.” Jace said before she had a chance to respond. Lou glared at him.

  “Aren’t you the one who said I needed to be in a safe house?”

  “You’ll be safe until the FBI gets here.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I will protect you.” She rolled her eyes and Colby smirked.

  “Clearly you two have things to talk about. I will see you in the morning.” Lou turned her glare on Colby, the traitor.

  Chapter 18

  It was quiet once they left. Lou was determined not to give in to Jace. But it was hard when he leveled that penetrating stare on her.

  “What is this all about?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes you do.”

  “I swear I haven’t pissed off any international jewel thieves that I know of.”

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  “Look Jace, no strings means I can end it anytime that I want to. I don’t need to give you an explanation.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “How?”

  “No strings means you don’t spend the night. You don’t curl up on the couch and watch movies. You don’t go grocery shopping. You don’t lay awake talking about your favorite Christmas movie. No strings doesn’t care about your favorite color or your family or your fighting style. What we have is not no strings. What we have is special.” A fat tear rolled out of her eye and it pissed her off. She surged to her feet.

  “Fuck you Jace.” She said and turned away but he was too quick for her he grabbed her elbow and turned her back. She swung at him a hard right cross but he pulled back and she barely missed him.

  “I think that would’ve done some damage had it connected. Good thing you’re still telegraphing your punches.” She really wanted to swing at him again but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  “Get out of my apartment.”

  “Tell me what I did to make you cry.”

  “You know what you did you lying SOB. If what we had was so special why the hell would you have your arms around some blond bimbo the second I am gone?” His mouth dropped open in surprise and it was all the confirmation she needed. “Get out.” She said again and turned away again.

  “Wait.” This time he caught her around the waist. She fought against him but he lifted her off the ground. “I was not with some blond bimbo.”

  “Liar! I saw you!” She screeched kicking at him. “Let me go!” Cooper stood up and began to growl.

  “She’s not a bimbo.”

  “Go ahead stick up for your girlfriend. I don’t care. You can sleep with whomever you want. No strings remember.”

  “It was Savannah.” Lou stopped struggling. “My sister Savannah. She’s in town. She’s been staying with me the last couple days. She is there still if you’d like to meet her.”

  “Your sister?” She said weakly and he lowered her to the floor.

  “With you in my bed I don’t want anyone else.” He whispered right in her ear. “Not ever. You are everything I’ve ever wanted and a whole lot more.” Her breath caught at the softly spoken statement and her eyes filled with tears.

  “No strings is not jealous Louellen. What we have is not no strings. What we have is I am head over heels in love with you and about to lose my mind at the thought of losing you.” He whispered. She gasped and craned her neck to look at him.

  “You love me?”

  “Yeah I do.”

  “You can’t love me. I am so screwed up.”

  “We’re all screwed up in our own way.

  “I am scared.”

  “Me too. I’ve never said that to a woman before and you kinda left me hanging.” She let out a watery giggle at that admission.

  “I think I love you too.”

  “Good.” He bent and kissed her despite the odd an
gle.

  “Now what?” Before he could answer they were interrupted by a knock at the door.

  Chapter 19

  Frank Sinclair was not what she expected an FBI agent to look like. The TV shows all showed young GQ looking guys in suits. Not that Frank wasn’t young, he was thirtyish but he wasn’t wearing a suit and he didn’t look like he just stepped off a GQ cover. He looked like a regular guy. Someone she would pass in the grocery store. Someone with a wife and 2.5 kids. He whistled low when he saw the diamonds.

  “Those are real?”

  “Well I’m no expert but I assume so. If they aren’t then they are exact replicas of the necklaces we saw at the exhibit.” Jace said.

  “I bet it wasn’t easy to steal these.”

  “Probably not.”

  “So why leave them here?” Frank directed the question at her and she spoke up for the first time since they had been introduced.

  “That is a good question. They were pretty badly hidden too. Granted I wasn’t planning on wearing those shoes anytime soon so who knows how long it would’ve taken me to find them but for someone that was looking it would’ve been pretty easy to find them.”

  “So who has grudge against you?” Lou shrugged. She had already asked and answered this question.

  “Maybe it is against the company.” Jace volunteered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well we foiled the robbery the first time. Maybe this is to implicate Lou and make the company look bad.”

  “That would mean that the same people who attempted the first time pulled it off the second.”

  “Yeah.”

  “But they left their spoils.” They all looked around at each other. They were all thinking the same thing.

  “There is one other thing that is bothering me about this. The second necklace. Castillo hired us to find the first. Does he know the second is missing? How could he not? And if he is the one trying to implicate Lou, why the second? The first would be enough.” Jace rubbed his eyes and Lou yawned.

  “I am going to call a couple of crime scene techs to dust for prints and document everything. It will take a couple of hours. Is there somewhere you can stay for the night? I hate to keep you up.”