Whiskey Sour (13 page)

She pushed with all her might and I went flying to the top ledge of the fence, and an unladylike
oomph
coming from my mouth as I jackknifed across the top and my pelvis took the brunt of the impact.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” I whispered, the blood rushing to my head as I hung over the top of the fence. I wasn’t sure where to put my hands without them getting burned and I teetered back and forth like a
seesaw, trying to decide the best course of action.

I slowly brought my knees up and started scooching the rest of my body to the other side. The problem was that ten feet going up wasn’t all that big of a deal. But I had ten feet going down that I had no idea how to maneuver. It’s not like there were bales of hay on the other side to break my fall.

“For fuck’s sake, Addison. Hurry,” Kate hissed.

Sweat dripped in my eyes and my boobs were squished against the rocks made of lava. I finally gathered all my strength and heaved my legs over the fence. Unfortunately, I overcompensated and started the long fall to the ground. I caught myself by the tips
of my fingers and got a nice glimpse of the stars before I plummeted to the ground.

The good thing about having the wind knocked out of you was that you hardly made any sound at all. The bad thing was not being sure if your spine was broken, or if the crack you just heard was the equivalent of getting an adjustment.

A thin nylon rope landed on my stomach, and I had enough wherewithal to grab hold and brace my feet against the wall as Kate’s weight pulled against it. She hopped over the side and landed on her feet like a damned cat, so silent that if I hadn’t been watching her I wouldn’t have known she was there.

“Sometimes I hate you,” I said, rolling to my hands and knees once I was able to take deep breaths again.

“It’s those cinnamon rolls you had this morning. Don’t think I didn’t notice the mess your kitchen was in. Maybe you should think about clean living.”

“Maybe you should mind your own beeswax.”

I stayed glued to Kate’s back as we made our way from tree to tree, avoiding a koi pond and a metal sculpture that looked like one of Satan’s kidney stones. A large swimming pool sat just outside the French doors leading into the bedroom, and the urge to yank off all my clothes and dive in was more exciting than the prospect of what we’d find in that client list.

“Stay here,” Kate whispered. “Keep watch on all the entrances. I’m going to check the door.”

Kate scurried off and knelt in front of the French doors, checking to see if they were unlocked before she pulled the black case from her bag. I tried to keep watch on all the entrances to the backyard like Kate had told me to do, but I was too fascinated by the lock picking set in her nimble fingers. I wondered if they’d teach me to do that stuff in classes to become a private detective. Somehow, I was thinking that wasn’t a skill they wanted to teach to the general public.

She had the door open in a matter of seconds, and when she gestured for me to join her, I ran to her side like the great loping gazelle I was—almost slipping on the edge of the pool and going in face first.

“Thank God,” I said as we entered the bedroom.

The air conditioning was on full blast
, and I took a minute to lean against the wall and let the sweat on my skin turn to chills while Kate locked the French doors behind us and went to check the security system.

The green light was on, letting us know it was disengaged, and she gave me a thumbs up signal to show everything was good. I would have returned the gesture, but it seemed like a lot of energy to move my thumbs at this point.

She moved to the bedroom door that led into the house and knelt down so she could see through the crack at the bottom of the door. Savage had managed to get us a set of blueprints for the house, and we’d already mapped out our route to get to Natalie’s office on the second floor.

I joined Kate at the door and held my breath as she turned the doorknob slowly, easing it open a crack without making a sound. I already knew I wasn’t cut out for the life of a
criminal. Butterflies were dive-bombing in my stomach and I had to pee like a racehorse.

We hunched over and made our way through the long corridor. There was staff moving all over the damned house and we barely ducked into a dark room as a man in a black suit jacket walked by.

The steady pressure Kate was putting on my arm let me know more than anything that now wouldn’t be a good time to make a sound. We were hiding behind a love seat, our view obstructed so the only thing we could see were his shoes as he made a second pass down the hall.

“He’s security,” Kate finally said.
“And he’s carrying.”

“Carrying what?” I asked.

I could see the whites of her eyes rolling in the dark. “A gun. Try to stay out of his way.”

“Right,” I nodded.

Kate took a gleaming black weapon from her bag and shoved it in the front of her pants. This was going from bad to worse with every passing second. We’d now upgraded from just burglary to armed robbery.

I grabbed Kate by the shoulder before she could move back toward the door, and I shook my head frantically, trying to get her to see reason. When she decided to go off the deep end, she did it with style.

“Relax, it’s a tranquilizer gun.” The words were barely a whisper, floating on the air.

“I knew that,” I said, relieved.

I followed her back to the doorway, and we went out quickly, heading for the second set of stairs towards the kitchen. Savage’s contact had told him they were the least travelled at this time of night because most of the live in staff was in their private quarters.

I was sweating bullets—
despite the air conditioning—by the time we made it to the second floor. The stairs went up even higher, but we broke off and slipped down the long hallway to the last room on the left. I kept watch while Kate worked her magic on the locked door, and then we were inside and Kate was shoving things into my hands to put away in her bag. Apparently, I was the equivalent of a thief’s personal assistant.

I relocked the door and took out the small tool Kate had showed me how to use back at my place. It was like a miniature version of a submarine periscope, and I la
y down on the floor and stuck one end under the crack in the door, curving it gently so I could see the entire length of the hallway when I put the other end to my eye.

I was too scared to watch Kate diddle with the safe she’d found behind the abstract painting of a naked woman with five breasts. Time slowed to the point that I could hear every thud of my heart and count the seconds we were inside.

“Bingo,” Kate whispered. “I’ve got it.”

The words barely registered because I saw and recognized the shoes standing at the top of the landing. The security guard was back and he was making his way up the hall, poking his head in each of the rooms like he had downstairs. I had no idea if he had orders to stay out of Natalie’s office, but I wasn’t about to stick around and find out.

I jumped up and shoved everything back in Kate’s bag, waving my hands around in indiscernible hand gestures that she couldn’t possibly interpret, but I think my urgency got through just the same because she tossed me the small, leather bound book in her hands and went back to closing the safe and putting the painting back on the wall.

I put the little book in the bag and slung it across my body, and I bit my lip to make sure no stray noises of fear escaped. Kate went to the large picture window and motioned me over as she unlatched it and pushed it open with only a minimal squeak of the hinges. It was enough to have both of us pausing as we heard the doorknob rattle.

We gave each other identical
oh, shit
looks and Kate shoved me out the window and onto a steep patch of roof. A huge magnolia tree covered our escape, but it wouldn’t for long. We were on the front side of the house nearest the street, and I was thinking now would be a great time for Savage to lend us a helping hand.

Kate hopped out behind me and reclosed the window, and then she grabbed my hand and we ran, using the steep pitch of the roof to climb up to the third story so there was less chance of being seen if the guard looked out the window. We scaled the widow’s walk and crouched low beneath a dormer, waiting to see if we’d been spotted.

I was almost ready to declare surrender and let them cart me away. Our only option down from such a height was to jump across to the closest tree and climb down. I’d already had my fair share of experiences with tree climbing, and none of them had ended well. I wasn’t expecting this time to be any different.

I could see Savage’s Tahoe from where we were sitting, and I dug around in Kate’s bag until I came out with a pair of small binoculars. I looked through them and saw the incredulous expression on Savage’s face as he stared back at me. I waved and he dropped his head on the steering wheel, banging it hard enough that I thought he might do some damage.

“Savage says hi,” I told Kate, replacing the binoculars. “So what’s the plan? I’m assuming it has something to do with that tree.”

“Looks like the only way,” she said.

Neither of us were in a hurry, but I saw Savage get out of his Tahoe and move like a shadow through the neighborhood until he stood below us.

“He’s very stealthy,” I commented. “That’s kind of hot.”

“It is. I guess we’d better go. He doesn’t seem to be in all that good of a mood.”

“This was his dumb idea in the first place. And it’s not like we didn’t get what we came for.”

Savage climbed the tree like a stealth monkey until we were almost eye-to-eye.

“You go first,” I said, nudging Kate.

It was a hell of a jump from the roof to the sturdiest branch, and I wasn’t all that confident in my abilities. My limbs were stiff from sitting so long and my full bladder was weighing me down.

Savage gave Kate the all clear and she made a flying leap toward the thick branch.
She wrapped her arms and legs around the branch and scooted towards the safety of the trunk. She shimmied halfway down the tree, staying hidden in the branches while she waited for me to take my turn.

“You’re up, Addison,” Savage called out quietly.

I looked down the three stories below me and looked back at Savage with sheer terror in my eyes. There was no way I could kamikaze myself onto that branch. I shook my head no, even as he scooted further out onto the branch, holding out his hand.

“I can’t do it,” I said back. “Y’all go on without me. Save yourselves.”

He rolled his eyes and said, “Get a grip. It’s twelve minutes until midnight. I don’t think you want to still be here when the alarms go back on. Now jump, dammit.”

I chewed on my bottom lip and did a few stretches. M
aybe I should have worn my Nikes instead of my Chuck’s. Not a lot of bounce in Chuck’s, but they were the only all black thief shoes I had.

“This is going to have to go into my report,” Savage said. “It’ll say chicken in big red letters right next to your name.”

I narrowed my eyes and made a flying leap for the branch, catching Savage by surprise. I wrapped my arms and legs around like I’d watched Kate do, but I ended up sliding sideways until I was hanging upside down like an opossum.

“Christ,” Savage muttered as his strong arms pulled m
e from certain death. “It’s like going on a mission with Gomer Pyle.”

“Excuse me,” I hissed. “Not all of us can be Green Berets. And I bet you looked really stupid in the hat.”

I heard Kate snort out a laugh and I watched as Savage’s mouth tightened to a thin line.

“Respect the beret,” he finally said.

He wrapped his arm around my ribs and squeezed a little tighter than was necessary, in my opinion, and then he made easy work of getting both of us onto solid ground. The urge to kiss the grass was fleeting as the party from down the street began to let out and traffic picked up.

“I’ll follow you back to your place,” he said as we ran for cover. “I want to see that book.”

I didn’t tell him there was no way in hell he was getting a look at that book tonight. I just ran back with Kate to her car and hopped in, taking a pit stop by a gas station along the way so I could use the restroom.

When we got to my house, Kate and I ran inside, laughing like lunatics before Savage could
get out of his car and stop us. I bolted the door behind us. Kate and I had a date with a bottle of tequila to finish.

I’d just set out the bottle and two shot glasses when Kate dropped a bomb. “So how long are you going to wait to tell me
if my husband is cheating on me?” 

Monday

T
he wild blast of
Baby Got Back
blaring in my ear had my head jerking up and smacking on the underside of the dining room table. The details of getting under the table were hazy, but since I had a rolled up towel for a pillow and my high school letter jacket for a blanket, I was assuming I’d decided to use the table as a tent of sorts. I’m sure it made sense at one point.

I reached blindly for the phone and didn’t even bother to look at the screen to see who was calling.

“Lo,” I mumbled, trying to decide how to navigate through the maze of chairs surrounding me. It seemed like a lot of effort, so I laid my head back down on the towel. I might have dozed for a few minutes because I woke again to the buzz of Savage’s voice nattering in my ear.

“Addison. Answer me now or I’m going to be there in the next ten minutes to put my foot through your door.”

“I’m here. Don’t get your panties in a twist. And stop talking so loud. My head hurts.” My voice sounded like I’d spent the night swallowing shards of glass instead of tequila.

His sigh was audible from the other end, and even that felt like ball peen hammers rocketing through my skull.

“Did you get a chance to look through the client list?” he finally asked after several seconds of silence.

“Yeah, Kate and I read through the whole thing last night.
We made it a drinking game.” Which, as it turns out, was a bad idea. “You wouldn’t believe some of the names in there. It just goes to show that the men in Hollywood don’t take their marriages seriously.”

“You needed a little black book to tell you that?”

“I at least had the illusion,” I defended. “I assume you want to see it for yourself?”

“Yeah, but I’m tied up at the moment.
Can you meet me in Kate’s office at three o’clock? I want to look through that list and check out the background you’ve done so far. Maybe something will click and we can take a fresh look at this thing.”

“Three o’clock,” I mumbled. I calculated the time in my head and figured I could make myself mostly presentable by then. “Sure, I can do that.”

“Keep that list safe,” he said. “If anyone finds out you have it, you could be in danger.”

He hung up with that ominous warning, and I decided maybe I should put the book somewhere safe until three o’clock. I navigated my way past the labyrinth of dining room chairs, knocking a couple over as I finally crawled from beneath the table and managed to stand.

An empty bottle of tequila sat on the coffee table and the remnants of a bag of Oreos accompanied it. No wonder I felt so bad. Just the thought of all those Oreos sloshing around in a bath of tequila was enough to make me turn green.

I downed a couple of
aspirin and got into the shower, and by the time I got out again I was semi-human and ready for a cup of coffee. I wrapped my head in a towel and my bathrobe around my body and headed into the kitchen.

I eeped out what could only pass for a scream with my damaged vocal cords at the sight of a stranger putting dishes in the dishwasher. He looked a little startled at my appearance, and he immediately handed me a cup of coffee. I breathed in the aroma and felt the tension drain from my body.

“You’re a godsend,” I finally said. “The best man I know.”

“Remember that,”
Nick said, smiling. “Kate doesn’t look much better than you. I stopped into the office this morning to see if she had anything new for me, and it was like being met by the swamp creature.”

He shuddered at the memory
and I tried to smile, the corners of my mouth working their way up slowly. I finished the coffee and handed my cup to him silently, letting him refill it so I could start the process all over again.

My brain finally started to function and I took a good look around. The kitchen was spotless, and Nick
stood with his back to the counter and his arms crossed over his chest. He was dressed in the suit he often wore when he had to speak to the media and a blue and gold striped tie. His jacket was draped over the kitchen chair, and the sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up, exposing the sexiest forearms I’d ever had the privilege of being acquainted with.

It was starting to get hot
in the kitchen all of a sudden. And very crowded.

“I—umm—I thought you had the day off. What’s up with the suit?”

“I had a meeting with the mayor this morning and a press conference. The rest of the day is mine to do as I wish.”

He loosened the tie at his throat, pulling it from beneath the collar with one long swipe, and he unbuttoned the top button of his white dress shirt, exposing a dark expanse of throat and a small amount of chest hair. I clenched my thighs together and tried to think of something to say, but I was pretty much brain dead at that point.

“I know just the thing for that hangover,” he said.

His voice
was pure silk and sex. I could hear the smile and wanted to return it, but all I could do was stare, mesmerized as his fingers undid the rest of his buttons.

“Are you trying to make me crazy?” I managed to croak out.

“How am I doing?”

“Pretty damned good. My headache’s gone.”

He pulled the shirt from the waistband of his slacks and had his fingers poised at his belt buckle when I couldn’t stand it any longer and pounced. His lips met mine, and I forgot that I was trying to be mad at him for not calling after the last time. I didn’t even think too much about the fact that I’d eaten all of those cinnamon rolls the morning before, and now Nick was about to see me naked. At least I didn’t think about it too much.

Things got pretty hazy from that point on, but we actually made it to the bed this time
. All I knew was that three hours later, all signs of my hangover were gone and I couldn’t feel my feet. After another shower—which involved more messing around—and a quick sandwich, I was back in top form and ready to get to work. I filled Nick in on everything I’d found out about the case, and showed him the little black book we’d retrieved from Natalie Evans’ home the night before.

“I don’t suppose you want to tell me where you got this,” he said, flipping through the pages and letting out a soft whistle between his teeth at some of the names written there.

“It’s probably best if you don’t know. You wouldn’t get sex if I was in prison.”

“I’m a cop,” he said, not bothering to look up. “I’d make sure you got conjugal visits.”

“Thoughtful of you,” I said, looking over his shoulder. “What we have is politicians, A-list actors, eight princes, twelve rock stars, two opera singers, an underage pop star, a sultan, the governor of Georgia, and the police commissioner. Not to mention the billionaires and philanthropists. That’s a long list of potential murderers.”

“Fuck,” Nick said, rubbing his hands over his face. “This isn’t good. In fact, this is really, really bad. This morning at the press conference
, I was asked about the murder of Sasha Malakov and if the gems he’d been transporting had been recovered. The mayor stepped in and gave a bullshit answer about professional thieves who’d been following the auction sites, making it sound like it was the same group of people who pulled off that diamond heist in Luxembourg last year. Christian DeLuce is making a public nuisance of himself, making it sound like we’re all twiddling our thumbs while a murderer goes free, and it looks like he might be right.”

“So what do we do?”

“What you’ve been doing. I’ll help out however I can, but with this many officials involved, I’ve got to be careful. I’ll assume it’s going the same way for Agent Savage, since he’s got you doing stupid ass things like breaking into Natalie Evans’ private office to steal her client list.”

I tried to look innocent, but I could fee
l the heat of guilt rushing to my face.

“Jesus, Addison. I can’t believe you’d take a risk like that. I hate to even imagine how he talked you into doing it.”

“Hey, that’s uncalled for. Besides, Kate was with me the whole time. We were perfectly safe.”

I tried not to think about the random kisses and the blackmail date I’d agreed to just in case Nick had become a mind reader since I saw him last.
I pinched my lips together with indignant anger.

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better. And what the hell was Kate thinking going along with a stunt like that? That doesn’t sound like her at all.”

“She’s having a personal crisis. I was hoping she’d decline Savage’s invitation, but she kind of ran with it.”

“What kind of personal crisis?” Nick asked. His eyes were narrowed and I could see the anger he was trying to hide smoldering in his eyes.

And that’s when I realized. “You already know,” I said, mouth hanging open. “Of course you do. The gossip spreads faster in cop shops than in Betty’s Beauty Parlor. Son of a bitch. Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because it’s not something you just walk up to someone and drop on them. I work for Kate occasionally and I know her only as an acquaintance on a personal level. She’s a smart woman. I knew it wouldn’t take long for her to find out.”

“I’m going to kill him,” I said, pulling clothes out of the closet and tossing them on the bed. I rummaged around in my underwear drawer and came out with a pair of black lacy underwear, tossing them on the bed as well. “I’m going to hunt him down like a dog and shove his body parts through a meat grinder.”

Nick winced and squirmed on his chair, said body parts obviously cringing in sympathy
.

“I’m sure Kate has a meat grinder of her own.
You might let her handle this. Probably death by meat grinder doesn’t allow for conjugal visits.”

I glanced up and grinned. He was still in his underwear, looking rumpled and sexy sitting at my desk.
I tried to ignore the sudden rush of happiness I felt just in case he could see my feelings on my face. I was afraid I was falling in love with him, and I knew from experience that the sudden rush of euphoria only lasted so long before reality slapped you in the face.

“What are these?” he asked, holding up the underwear I’d tossed. “I’ve never seen these before. They look fun. You should put them on.”

“I plan on it,” I said, yanking them from his fingers.

“And then I can take them off again.”

A general look in the direction of his lap showed me he was very interested in taking them off again, but I moved out of reach and shimmied into them before he could grab me.

“We don’t have time. I’m supposed to meet Agent Savage at Kate’s office at three
. He wants me to bring the client list.”

“I just bet he does,” Nick said, jaw clenched together. “Maybe I should join you for this little meeting. Just to be kept in the loop.”

“Fine with me,” I said, tossing my robe aside and pulling on the turquoise and lime green maxi dress I’d gotten on sale at Neiman’s last summer. “But you should probably get dressed, unless you’re just dying to rub it in his face that you spent the morning naked with me.”

“I won’t have to rub it in. He’ll know. Men recognize things like that.”

“Too bad they can’t recognize when the toilet seat is up or when the garbage needs to be taken out.”

“Some h
ave more highly developed senses than others,” he said.

***

We took Nick’s truck into Savannah since he’d more or less invited himself to stay the night at my place. And because he had air conditioning. Things were comfortable between us, which felt a little odd considering we’d spent most of our time up till now arguing.

I almost didn’t see them until we’d driven right by—Noogey Winthrop and Marika
Dubois.

“Stop!” I yelled, yanking on Nick’s
sleeve as he slammed on the brakes. It was a good thing no one was behind us or it would have been smash city.

“Are you fucking crazy? You don’t just go doing that while someone is driving.”

“Don’t you call me crazy,” I said giving him my best PMS look. “I was just taken by surprise. Pull over there and park before they see us.”

“I’d be surprised if anyone
hasn’t
seen us. I’m stopped in the middle of the goddamned street.”

“That’s why I told you to park over there,” I said, showing more than adequate restraint. “I need my files.”

I rummaged through my bag while Nick did an illegal turn and parked off the side of the road. I could practically hear his molars grinding together, but I didn’t care. I’d just seen Noogey and Marika walk into Christian DeLuce’s jewelry store. Not the usual shopping place for the destitute and impoverished.

I glanced Nick over from head to toe. Other than the flush of anger in his cheeks he looked like a successful businessman dressed in his suit. Thanks to the dress, I didn’t look half bad either.

“How do you feel about a little shopping?”

“Does it involve sex toys?”

“Not unless Christian DeLuce is designing diamond encrusted dildos in his shop. Which doesn’t sound like all that great of an idea now that I’ve said it out loud.”