Claiming What's His (13 page)

“Why?”

Nat shook her head and shrugged.  “No particular reason.  I was just asking,
seein’ as how comfortable you guys were last night before the girls barged in.  You know, after six years, he looks better than ever.”

“You have a thing for him, go for it.  It’ll get him off my back.”

Nat’s brow drew together and she teased, “You sure you want him
off
your back?  I figured you two would want to be super-glued together.”

Ugh.

Sam hated how the girls had walked into her apartment and caught her and Alex almost doing the deed on her couch.  And she hated being teased about it. 

Sam walked over to the couch, hoping that she could get a brief moment of peace and quiet before any chaos occurred. 

The bell over the door rang.

Maggie walked in and saw her two companions.

“Damn, Sam.  You’ve never eaten B&J’s this early unless someone pissed you off or you’re upset.  Who was it?”

“It was your cousin, who else?” 

“Alex?  I thought from what the girls saw last night that you guys were good.”

“
Ehhh,
wrong!  What you guys saw last night was a moment of insanity.  I wasn’t thinking straight with bullets flying and dodging insanely-driven vehicles.”

“Speaking of that, how are you this morning after last night?”

“As good as I can be.  Tried getting into my normal routine, but like I mentioned, your cousin ruined it for me.  He and that guy Parker, whose real name is Cole, went at it again this morning.”

“Yeah, I know who Cole is.”

Sam slowly turned her head towards Maggie as if she had revealed a deathly secret to her.  One minute her eyes widened from confused, then the next it narrowed.

“What exactly do you mean, you know who Cole is?” she asked.

“Exactly how it sounds.  I know who Cole is.”  Maggie shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.

Sam turned to Nat for a little support, only to find her head ducked down behind the counter.

Way to show her sisterly support.

And you couldn’t tell me this last night at my place because…
” Sam drew out.

“Because with the chaos at the fundraiser money disappearing, my best friend being shot at, a car nearly runs her over,
and I catch her with my cousin making out on her couch with the possibility that they will finally get together, this kind of thing just slips a girl’s mind.  Give me a break.  I’m telling you now, aren’t I?”

She did have a valid point, except for the getting together with Alex thing.

That will never happen.

“Fine, you’re forgiven.”

“That’s what I thought.  Anything else happened?”

Sam sighed and caught Maggie up with this morning’s glacier stare down. 

Apparently, Maggie knew about Alex and Cole’s tiff but didn’t know exactly what it was.  Whatever it was had apparently happened back when we were still in high school.

Maggie then moved to one end of the couch and pulled out her phone.

Now that she had caught the girls up with her status, she hoped she could maintain a slight sliver of serenity of calmness.

Her hope was short lived.

A minute later, the person in question walked in.

Damn. 

Sam ignored him and went straight for her dates.

First Ben.

Then Jerry.

*******

Alex walked into Cozy’s, seeing a hot blonde working behind the counter in an apron as she wiped down the counter.  She was also one of the three that barged into Sam’s apartment last night with Maggie.

She lifted her head up and smiled.  “Hi, how can I help you?  Wait – Alex, right?”

“Yeah, I am.  You were at Sam’s place last night.  Have we met before?  You look familiar,” he said.

“Yeah, I was.  Actually, we haven’t
met
met, but I’ve seen you around before when I was in college.  I graduated the same year Sam and Maggie did.  I’m Natalie, but you can call me Nat.”

“Nice to meet you, Nat.”
  He greeted as he reached across the counter to shake her hand.

She released and stated, “Likewise.  What can I get you? 
Maybe some Irish?”

“No, not today.
  Americano, black.” 

Nat smiled, “Sure thing.”

Alex glanced over and saw Sam digging a spoon into a container, lifting it to her mouth.  He knew that container.  His last girlfriend Janine was addicted to them and had always kept them in the freezer.

Maggie sat on one end of the couch, her focus on her phone as she was completely and utterly oblivious to everything around her.

Alex walked over to Sam and nudged her foot.  She looked up as he placed his hands on his waist, grinning and slowly shaking his head.  She was sitting on the couch with an open container of ice cream in one hand, another one next to her and a spoon in her mouth.

“What?” she grumbled through the spoon.

“Ben & Jerry’s?”  He was staring at her containers of
Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz
and
Cinnamon Buns
with amusement in his eyes.  He had never met anyone that could eat ice cream so early in the morning before and still be as fit as her.

“No. 
Ben & Jerry’s
and
Cozy’s.  Plus it’s coffee flavored and I’m getting in my breakfast with the cinnamon buns.”  She informed him, lifting up the cinnamon buns container.  “I’m still waiting for my Cozy fix if Nat can hurry up over there.”

Alex heard some rattling behind him but didn’t turn around.  He was sure Nat was probably silently threatening Sam one way or another.

“That’s heavy artillery.  You sure you want to go there?  It’s still early, you know.  Don’t you have crime to fight, cases to solve?” he teased.

But Sam wasn’t in a teasing mood.  “Well, given that you
pissed me off
and ruined my morning, I’m allowed for this indulgence.  Plus, I’m building up my strength for whatever is to come.  I have a feeling I’m going to need it.” 
Like get rid of you,
she thought.

Alex sighed.  He lifted his right hand and ran it through his hair.

“I wasn’t trying to ruin your morning, Sam,” he stated.

             
“Well, you did,” she fired back as she dug into her ice cream.

             
He bent down at the waist, one hand on the back of the couch, the other tucking loose strands of hair behind her ear. 

             
“Fine.  Do what you want to do.  Just be careful.”

             
Sam looked up and blinked.

For once, Alex couldn’t read the expressions in her eyes and what they meant.  Her eyes were blank as if she couldn’t comprehend what he just said.  Then they started working like they were processing information. 

              Her brows came together and she pulled her head back just a bit and snapped, “What are you playing at?”

             
This time it was Alex’s brows that furrowed.  “What do you mean?”

             
“First, you tell me to stay away from Cole, now you tell me to do what I want.  What are you doing to my head?” she shouted.

             
“Here are your coffees,” Nat said, handing Alex his,  placing Sam’s on the table, and quickly walking away.

Alex followed her to the register and paid for his coffee.  “Thanks, Nat.”

“Anytime,” she replied.

He turned in time to catch Sam staring at his ass.  He smiled.  “I’m heading out.  I got a bunch of calls to make.  Behave,” he addressed, specifically to Sam, clearly interrupting her thoughts.

Her eyes snapped to his eyes, back to glaring at him.

             
“Behave?  I will not behave if I don’t want to Alexander Conrad!” he heard her shout to his back but he was gone.

Sam had been up in a tree, snapping pictures of a bald-headed muscular man undressing a black haired younger woman in a two story house located on the southeast side of Comfort, for the past hour.  She knew that was a pretty long time to take pictures of explicit activities, but she liked to be thorough.  Besides, majority of that time was trying to find a good view of the two of them together and doing something else other than sitting on the couch talking.

His name was Jim Tinker. 

After she divulged both her containers of ice cream, she (and her Cozy coffee, plus one more to go) returned to the office where she found the awaiting message.

It was from a distraught wife who had the suspicion that her husband was being unfaithful to her and their unborn child.  She stopped by and handed Sam a picture of her husband.  Sam could imagine what the stress did to a pregnant woman.  In the picture, he had a head full of hair but, otherwise, looked exactly the same.  She informed her that for some reason he came home one day last week bald.  He didn’t exactly explain anything to her except that he wanted something new.  Since then, he maintained his baldness, shaving it nearly every morning like he did with his mustache and beard.

Now Sam was thinking that baldness was for the sexy woman he was getting ready to have sexual activities with, the way she kept rubbing his head over and over again as if she was trying to slick it up with oil -  either that or trying to make a wish for him to have a head of hair.

Her new camera was strapped tightly around her wrist.  Before this assignment, she had stopped by Best Buy and grabbed the same brand (and nearly the same model as her old camera), needing a replacement for the one that damaged on fundraiser night.

Once Sam got the pictures she needed, she pulled the camera from her wrist and stuffed it in her lower right cargo pants pocket, secured the zipper, and gingerly worked her way back down.  She was three branches up which was about twenty feet off the ground.  She could have gone higher in order to reach eye level with the scene, but she didn’t want to get too close after she caught a glimpse of how they kissed, groping each other like they were two horny teenagers.

When she got her left foot onto the branch below, she took her weight off the right foot and began to descend down, only as soon as she lifted her right foot, she began to lose her balance
.   Luckily, her hands and arms worked quickly, grasping around the trunk of the tree, scraping her arms along the way.  Her ass fell on the second branch so hard that the impact cause the branch to partly break, rattling the tree. Her arm scraped even more.

The sound of angry banging against a window startled her, causing her to look around for the source.  It was Tinker, and he was
angry
. 

No, that wasn’t right.  Angry wasn’t the right description for the bulge of his eyes.  He was flat out
pissed off
!

He turned and disappeared from the window.

Sam quickly scrambled out of the tree, ignoring all of the scrapes, aches and pains that shouted to her, telling her they needed attention.  Once she was on the ground, she hightailed to the car, got in, started the engine and drove off. 

Looking back, she saw Mr. Tinker run out to the middle of the street in what looked like his blue plaid boxers and a white tee shirt, waving his fists angrily in the air.  He began running after her on foot but then turned around after a few steps.

Sam released the breath of air she didn’t know she held and continued driving back to the office, trying to calm her shaking hands and breathe along the way.  She deeply inhaled and exhaled a few times, hoping that this technique helped un-rattle her nerves.

Why are her cases getting her nearly killed every time (except Danny’s case because that one was solved on its own)? 

But, just when she thought she was in the clear, with a quick glance in her rearview mirror, a black vehicle quickly sped up behind her, and it looked like it wasn’t slowly down.

It came closer and closer.

It definitely wasn’t stopping so Sam braced herself.

Bam!

The car just rear-ended Sam, jerking her forward in her seat, causing her chest to hit the steering wheel.  She quickly reached her hand into her bag sitting in the passenger seat, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed 911.

“911, what is your emergency?
” The dispatcher asked on the other end of the receiver.

“Yes, this is Samantha Daniels and I’ve just been rear-ended by some maniacal road-
rager.  I’m traveling northbound on I-45 and I just entered the ramp off of Bender Road, south of town.  Please get units out to assist.  Make sure to pass this on to Sergeant Charles Ross and get him out here
now
!” she panted in a shout.

“Yes, ma’am.
  I have alerted all units nearby for assistance.  And we’ve got Sergeant Ross now.  He’s patching through to the call…”  And the line went silent for a few seconds before Chuck came on the line.

“
Sam!
  Sam, what’s going on?” Chuck yelled through the phone.  The sound of footsteps echoing in a closed structure thundered quickly across a pavement.  He must be running in the parking garage.

“Well, in short, some crazy person just rear-ended me.  And he or she is still chasing me.  I’m dodging cars on the freeway the best I can, but it’s getting really close behind my tail.”

“What were you doing before it hit you?”

“Working a case.”

“What kind of case?”

Sam answer was immediate.  “You know I can’t discuss it.”

“Right, then do you think this could be involved with your case?”

“No, I don’t think –”

And it hit Sam that it was possible.  Sam remembered that Tinker had a black Lexus GX460.  So it was possible that it was him.  After all, she did see him run out of the house with his boxers and tee shirt.

“Yeah, it could be related.  If they pull him over, do I need to be there?”

“No, I’ll get a statement from you the office.  Just hang tight until I get there.  And don’t worry, dispatcher told me that there are three units within two miles from you.  They’ll be there any minute.  Just do the best you can to dodge the cars.”

“I’ll try my best,” she paused then continued, “So how are the wife and newborn?”

There was a pregnant pause before he spoke.  “Uh, Sam, you mind asking later when you’re not chased by fast and very furious there?”

He made a valid point.  “Sure.”

Chuck sighed.  “But, just so you’d know, wife is good, tired but good.  Kid keeps us both up all night and we love every minute of it, even if we’re sleep deprived.  Now, be careful!”  He disconnected.

Police sirens wailed in the air.

Thank God.  The units were somewhere nearby to rescue her from this psycho.

Sam concentrated on whizzing through between traveling cars, doing her best not to hit them, constantly swerving left
and right.

Red,
white and blue lights flashed from a distance.  Sam glanced in her mirrors to look and saw that there were three police cars rounding their way to the black sedan.  A short wail escaped, signaling for the driver to pull over.  He took the hint and began slowing down and pulling to the shoulder.

Sam took a big breath of relief and one last glance behind and saw them pull out an angry Tinker who, stupidly, took a swing at Chuck (who definitely wasn’t happy with that).  He ducked the fist, grabbed his wrist, twisted it around Tinker’s
back and slammed him down on the hood of the car while slapping on the cuffs behind him.

Well, one thing out of the way.

*******

             
Sam was sitting on her desk, watching as Wendy stared at the proof of her husband’s infidelity.  Her eyes closed and her hands clutched the pictures so tight that she crinkled a good portion of it.  Sam saw her take a deep breath and continued through each photo.

Sam had told her in detail what she did, from following him from his office to his fast food stop to his mistress’s house.  Sam decided to leave out the part where he caught her falling out of a tree because it wasn’t relevant.  Even if it was, he knew he was going to be in trouble and would say anything to get out of it.  Sam was sure.

Lastly, she told her about him chasing her down the freeway and rear-ending her, nearly killing her in the process.  Man, what a crazy cheating husband would do to keep their secret from their wife.

Listening, Wendy gasped and apologized, placing her
hand over her protruding belly as she did, stating that if she knew her husband would do that then she would not have hired Sam. 

Sam assured her that she was fine and her husband was currently at the station.

Wendy thanked Sam, paid Sam for her services, and left.

Sam needed a caffeine-fix.
 If anytime was a time for Cozy’s coffee, now was the right (and perfect) time for one.

Cozy Inn & Cafe was an identical four-story brick building that sat next door to another four-story building where her office sat on the first floor.  The first floor housed the office and café.  The second, third and fourth floors were converted to hotel rooms, furnished with beds, bathroom, television, and desk.  Cozy’s coffee was very well known throughout the town of Cozy and it was surrounding other cities and towns, possibly throughout the state of Texas. 

Every now and then, while Sam was there, she’d see some out-of-towners stop by and grab a cup of coffee from Cozy’s.  Sam only knew they had been out-of-towners because she had overheard their conversations before.  It didn’t matter what time of day it was.  If anyone every needed coffee, Cozy’s was the place to be which was why Sam was there in the evening.  Sam knew some people who were not able to drink coffee at night because it kept them up at night. 

Not Sam.  She never had that issue before and until she does have that issue, she will continue to drink Cozy’s coffee at all hours of the day.

Loud engine roars echoed the motor garage, Jette’s Engines, next door to the building (Sam’s office was in between Jette’s Engines and Cozy’s Inn & Café).  Sam called it a ‘motor’ shop because they practically fix anything that has a motor – cars, motorcycles, boats, lawn mowers, etc.  If it had a motor, they fixed it.

Sam stepped out the door and glanced to the side to see four of them chatting on the side with a foam cup in hand.
 

Break time.

“Hey, guys!  Very busy, I see,” Sam teased, waving her hand as she turned towards Cozy’s.

“Hey, Sam!”
  They all said together, returning the wave with a smile.

Approaching the café, Sam grabbed the handle and pulled it open
.   Stepping in, the smell of freshly grounded coffee beans invaded her nostrils, its full force of yumminess hitting her.  She stopped inside the door and inhaled, deeply. 

Orgasmic
heaven.

It was evening and there was only one other customer in the store, sitting on the couch with his laptop in his lap.  He had papers scattered everywhere around him, on the table, on the couch, across his lap, and in his hand. 

A college student.

Sam remembered those tortuous days when she and Maggie were there doing the same thing at the last minute.  Their papers had been scattered everywhere on the table, couch, and taped on the walls.

They were a bunch of procrastinators.

A short, cute girl with glasses stood behind the counters, stuffing napkins in the dispensers.
 Jasmine.  She looked up and smiled.

“Hey, Sam.
  You want some coffee?” she asked as she pushed her glasses up her nose.

             
“Hey, Jas.  Coffee would be great, and make it a double.”

             
“Sure.  I’ll add it to your tab.”

             
Sam had a tab running here at the inn.  Back in college, most of those late nights when her papers were scattered everywhere, she sometimes didn’t have her wallet so Tess Tyler, Cozy Inn & Café’s owner, allowed her to keep a running tab.  Initially Tess insisted that Sam not pay at all, but Sam wouldn’t hear of it.  Sam was a customer so she was paying.  Simple as that.

“I got it, Jas.”
 Nat walked out of the hallway that led down to the shop office and up to the counter.  She had the most amazing body Sam had ever seen and Sam was woman enough to say that she was jealous.  She was dressed in her workout gear –yoga pants and sports bra, topped with a workout jacket.

“Make it in a to-go cup, Nat.
” Sam added before she reached the couch.

“You’re not staying?”

Sam stopped and glanced around. “Stay with who?  Looks like you’re about to leave me.  Besides, I have other pressing matters to get to.”

She sighed.  “Okay.”

Sam walked over to her usual back right corner set of couch and plopped down, lifting both of her feet up to rest on the coffee table (that was covered with a variety of magazines).  She laid her head back against the back couch and closed her eyes, hoping that this helped erase her hectic day.