Command Indecision (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (4 page)

"I'll be working in the gym, doing a mixed martial arts course
and circuit training
for uniforms and civilians, as well as gym duty. It's open to both, so I should get a good cross section of people to talk to, including those who came into regular contact with Tate.
Tate is our guy under arrest.
"

"Oh." I nodded. That made sense for Solomon. Since I was always last teammate to be picked in sports, and just about fainted after spin class, I didn't think I could pass as a
gym
ninja. Maybe I could make coffee or something? "What about me?"

Solomon mumbled something.

"Say what?"

"There's the base," he said, taking his hand off the wheel to point to the entrance. A large billboard announced Fort Charles.

"Oh, awesome. That was fast."

“Some time went by when you passed out.”

“I was resting my eyes!”

Solomon
made a skeptical noise as he
drove up to the guard shack, winding his window down, waiting for the guard to stick his head through.

"Names," he said, running his eyes over Solomon, then
across to
me. I smiled wanly back. He didn't return it.

"John Solomon and Lexi."

"Gr..." I started to a
dd my surname, but Solomon placed his hand on my thigh while
flashing his eyes at me, so I shut up.
I had to try really hard not to swoon as the warmth of his hand seeped through my jeans. Instead, I wondered if m
aybe he'd given me a false name? I frowned as the guard passed a parking permit to us after checking our names against the list. If I were using a false surname, why did Solomon give his name?
It was too much to think about, I decided, as I
dropped
my head against the headrest.
I waited while Solomon double-checke
d exactly where our apartment was and
the guard
waved us through.

"Do I have a different name here?" I asked, but received no answer. Solomon followed the guard’s instructions and parke
d up in front of a small, squat, brick
building. It wasn't unusual to adopt a different persona to get the job done, but it would be useful to
know beforehand
. Come to think of it, I still only had the basics of the case. "Um, hello," I cooed, but he was distracted as we parked, nodding to the man who peeled himself off the wall he appeared to be propping up. I scrambled to get out and follow Solomon as he crossed the narrow strip of grass, all long legs and lean hips
—not that I was looking—and
greeted the man.

"This is Ryan," said Solomon
, turning to look over his shoulder as I approached
. "He's
the facilities manager and
showing us the apartment.
Mitch
busy
,
huh?"

"You know it." Ryan gave me a broad smile that was bright, white teeth and tanned face as he shook my hand. "And this must be your wife."

"Oh, I, uh..." I stammered, looking to Solomon. Surely not?

No way.

What?

His
wife
!

"Yes," said Solomon, slinging an arm around my shoulders and giving me a
n unperturbed
squeeze. "This is Lexi."

I blamed my hangover big time for falling into that one without a clue. Me and tequila were
so
over. Instead
of hyperventilating,
I smiled weakly. As soon as Ryan's back was turned, I grinned sweetly at Solomon, raising my foot before stomping hard on his instep. I took no satisfaction in his surprised grunt, before stepping
past him and
following Ryan inside. After a couple of paces, Solomon caught up to me, flanking me all the way.

If I thought
getting married
minus wedding, cake, and honeymoon wasn’t a big enough surprise, then the one-bedroom apartment left me utterly speechless.

"It's kind of basic, but I think you'll manage," said Ryan after showing me the small, sparse kitchen with an eat-in nook, then the basic living room, the lemon-scented bathroom
,
and the single bedroom. I repeat.
The single bedroom
. I looked from it to Solomon, who remained in the living room, his hands on his hips. He raised an eyebrow. I looked at the couch.
Jeez
. One of us was going to be very uncomfortable for two weeks and it certainly wasn't going to be me.

"It'll be fine," said Solomon, steering Ryan towards the door.

"Call me if you need anything.
Mitch said he’d try and come by
later on, but you can probably find him holed up in his office if you want to catch him sooner."

I smiled feebly and gave Ryan an even more pathetic smile
as he pulled the door shut behind him with a cheerful, departing wave.

Solomon turned to me, a touch apprehensively, I thought.

"Where do you plan on sleeping?" I asked, hardly daring to look at the bed.

"In bed," he said.

"And where do you think I'm sleeping?"

His eyebrow
s
shifted upwards.
"In bed?"

"Solomon!"

"I didn't think, okay? I could go and ask if there are any two beds available, but frankly, that will look weird; and I don't want to start any rumors that don't make me look good."

With his chagrined expression,
I was tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt, except my head was starting to pound again and I felt my complexion turning green. The thought of sharing a bed with Solomon had briefly given me palpitations. They turned into pain when I thought about Maddox and the woman he was, no doubt, sharing a bed with. So instead, I gave a strangled cry of frustration, turned my back on Solomon and stomped away. I slammed the
bedroom
door and flopped face down on the bed like a particularly slobbish starfish. For a few long seconds, the room spun with the sudden movement, and it took all my willpower not to give the room a partially digested donut and coffee re-wallpapering.

I really hadn't thought this through at all. What the hell was I supposed to do for two weeks? Sharing this tiny apartment with my sexy-as-sin boss in my suddenly new, single state. As soon as the word “single” popped into my head with reference to me, a tear trickled down my cheek and I rubbed my face against the covers, the enormity of last night finally hitting me through the tequila haze
. I gulped down a whimper
.

Not only had my boyfriend been apparently avoiding me, but he also had a new woman and didn't even have the decency to tell me first, the jerk. And I just chanced to see them first hand. Maybe if Lily had told me she'd seen them, or if my brothers or sister, or anyone else had seen him, I could have explained it away; but not after witnessing the hand-on-thigh move and the overly familiar kisses
with my own eyes
. I couldn't explain th
ose
away at all.

I slipped my cell phone from my pocket and che
cked the display again. Three calls, but no messages
. No
txt spk
explanation. No “I'm sorry” or “it isn't how it looks” or “she's my second cousin from out of town and my mom made me take her out.
”

Nothing.

I guess that said it all. And he hadn't even dumped me. Well, the very least I could do was take the upper hand and execute that little ritual.

Squinting with one eye and with my hand propped on the mattress, I called up my
messages.
It took me a couple of goes, squinting the whole time, to type “Stop calling” then scroll for Maddox's number. After a couple of confusing passes, I remembered Lily and me giggling as we changed his name to Jerkoff. I also remembered working my way through half a box of man-sized tissues afterwards. I added Maddox's new, more appropriate moniker and hit “send.”

There. Done.

One of us could do the right thing and I was a lover, not a fighter.
I wasn't going to fight for someone who didn't want me. We were over and I was single and hating every minute of it.

My situation reminded me suddenly of the time I was so hurt when my fiancé broke things off with a terse note that  I ran away and joined the Army. Even though the military didn't work out either, ironically
,
here I was again, away from home and on an Army base. Except this time, I was with Solomon and no one was going to make me crawl through mud while trying to avoid gunshots. At least, not without getting a piece of my mind first.

A knock at the door made me
draw one eye open
. "What?"

"You okay?"

I garbled something into the pillow. Solomon could take his pick from “screw you” and “fine.” Evidently, he was a masochist, or a sadist, because he opened the door.

"What?" I said, my voice muffled by the pillow, but he didn't say anything
or make to move in any further
. Aware of how I looked, face down, and boneless
as a squid
, I shuffled onto my back and folded my arms across my stomach defensively.

"I'll take the couch," he said after a moment, and without reproach.

"Too right."

His voice grew dark. "Unless you invite me into bed; in which case, all bets are off."

"Are you ever going to stop trying to seduce me?" I mashed my lips together so I wouldn't smile, my usual response to Solomon getting flirty.

"No."

"Maybe I should just let you. You can get it out of your system and move on." I might have said that a touch too bitterly. Solomon arched an eyebrow. "Not now though," I told him. "I'm midway through the hangover of doom."

"You want me to issue a rain check?"

"There's no coupon for this."

"Shame. I
hop
ed to score
a two-for-one offer."

"Rearrange these words: Mind. Of the gutter. Out. Your. Get."

"I don't follow."

"You're being deliberately obtuse."

"Sex might cheer you up."

"I'm never having sex again. I'm becoming a nun."

"You're on an Army base with a couple thousand men who would see that as a challenge."

On the other hand, maybe I would rethink the nun situation. Perhaps rebound sex would help me get my mojo back. Only not with Solomon because Solomon was not a one-night-stand type of man. I suspect anyone who went there would at least go back for seconds. No, I was not going to think about that. Men and moi? No, thank you very much and goodbye.

"We've been undercover for ten minutes and you're already trying to get into my pants." I edged up on my elbows, although my stomach suggested lying flat would be a better idea. Never one to take advice, I ignored it. "Let me remind you, this is not real. We don't have to pretend to be married when we're alone. Maybe we're a couple who actually hates each other. Per
haps you're impotent. Or have
halitosis. Maybe you snore like a truck."

Solomon’s eyes lit up.
"I notice you're always perfect in our scenario."

I held up a silencing finger. "Yes, I am. I am also cross. You missed this key piece of undercover information on the drive over. And yesterday, too.
Don’t think I didn’t notice.
"

"Yesterday you turned it down," Solomon pointed out, unhelpfully. I could hazard a guess that he was amused, but I didn't like to. It might make me want to hurt the pillow.

"Not the point. The point was you should have told me this was our cover."

"How come you changed your mind?" asked Solomon, switching tack.

"About what?"

"This. Yesterday you said no, then yes. What changed your mind?"

Yesterday afternoon I was thinking I didn't want to miss getting it on with Maddox when he got home. Yesterday night, armed with the knowledge Maddox was getting it on perfectly fine by himself, I wanted to get the hell out of Dodge to lick my wounds and Solomon provided that opportunity.

"No reason," I said.

Solomon gave me a disbelieving look, then shrugged. "You don't have to look so worried." He held up his hands in surrender, then gave me jazz hands, which pushed a smile out of me. "And these are staying to themselves. You have a boyfriend. You've already made yourself clear where Maddox is concerned. You can tell him you'll be safe with me."

My smile dropped and I sucked in a painful breath. I wouldn't be telli
ng Maddox anything of the sor
t. The next time I saw him, I would probably be screaming uncharitable things about where he could shove it and how far. For a moment, it crossed my mind to tell Solomon that Maddox and I were, as of a few minutes ago, over; but I stopped myself. Solomon might be a fine package of temptation, but I couldn't be bothered with fending him off when I was feeling fragile. Fragile made me do things that weren't normally a good idea, like running away and joining the Army. I wasn't going to add bedding my boss to the list of life’s oops
i
es. Especially since for once in my life, I actually liked my job. I was good at it. I liked the challenges, and the variables, and the new things I learned that made me a little better at it each day. So instead, I nodded and simply said, "Right."