Friction (Red Hot Private Eye, Novella, Vol. 2) (3 page)

Mateo had known that his interest in the sexy siren sitting across from him were far more than merely professional since the first time he had laid eyes on her four long years ago. He had tried to ignore his feelings. Primarily by distracting himself with other things—mostly other women—but it had not worked.

He still
wasn’t absolutely sure if he would ever act on the hidden desires he was harboring, but he had definitely tried to stop denying their very real existence. Raiza Diaz was by far the most hard-working, determined—not to mention smartest—women Mateo had ever had the pleasure of knowing. And, to call her 'attractive' almost seemed like an insult. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with a body that could easily be registered as a lethal weapon.

But
, honestly, what attracted Mateo to her most was her innate ability to always keep her cool. No matter what situation Mateo had ever seen her in, she always maintained an air of dignity, class, and grace.

Of course, some people in the office thought it was more like an air of superiority—but not Mateo. He thought it was smokin’ hot.

Maybe he was so attracted to that quality in her because, as far back as he could remember, he was always taking care of both his unstable mom and two out-of-control little sisters. He and his siblings all had different fathers. Growing up, their mom, Eliana, was always either with the loser-of-the-hour, or on the hunt for the next one.

Eliana Kostas
never
wanted to be alone. Not that she was ever actually alone…she had her three children. But theirs was not the company she wanted.

Nope. His mom’s energy and attention
was always focused on the rotating men in her life, which left Mateo, as the oldest, with all of the responsibility for insignificant little things like...oh...laundry, food, keeping the lights on, and a roof over him and his sisters’ heads.

It had not been easy, by any means. He got his first job at eight. It was a paper route. Within six months, he had begun mowing lawns for the upscale neighborhoods that surrounded the less than desirable area he grew up
in. By the age of ten, he had two ‘employees’ (i.e. two other boys from his neighborhood) in his landscape business, three paper routes, and was paying the utilities, groceries and half the rent.

He had made sure his sisters had clean clothes, backpacks, and food. He saw to it that they did their homework, got good grades, and very little exposure to
any
of the seedy elements his mother allowed in their home. It hadn’t been easy, but no one had ever promised him an easy life.

He knew now, as an adult, that his upbringing had scarred him in ways that he
wasn’t even consciously aware of. One glaring example of the damage that had been done was the fact that his relationships never lasted very long.

Mateo had zero patience when women complained and whined about ridiculous things like clothing or a manicure. Another
pet-peeve was when they manipulated situations to get their way.

Also
, the second he started feeling that whichever random woman he was dating was getting too attached, he took that as his cue to run so fast it would make your head spin. You put all those ingredients together, and you definitely did not have a recipe for a healthy relationship.

As far as he knew, Raiza
hadn’t been in any kind of serious relationship in the four years that she had worked at Red Hot. He wasn’t exactly sure what the reason for that was. He had heard through the office grapevine that her upbringing had been tough, but she had never spoken directly to him about it. And unless he heard something from the horse’s mouth, he tended not to put too much stock in the information.

Now as Mateo watched Raiza, sitting directly in front of him—chewing on her bottom lip, he sensed that she was one more ‘announcement’ away from completely losing her shit.

He wasn’t sure what this new case that they had been assigned to work on together entailed but he hoped that it didn’t involve anything that pushed Raiza too far outside of her comfort zone. She
needed
control.

He may find the nervous habit she had of pulling her full red lower lip between her teeth sexy-as-hell, but he knew her well enough to know that the only time said
habit made an appearance was when Raiza was feeling out of control…and not in a good way. Not in the way he had dreamed of making her feel out of control.

The staff meeting
was adjourned and Raiza and Mateo remained seated. Dominic and Cristal both sat down, Cristal next to Raiza, and Dominic next to Mateo.

“Do you still have your connection over at the Omni?” Dominic asked Raiza.

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“Ok, we need you to plant eyes and ears in room 418 today before three p.m.,” Dominic explained.

Mateo saw the look of panic that flashed in Raiza’s eyes before she quickly masked the reaction. She glanced down at her phone, “It’s already eleven. You couldn’t have given me more of a head’s up?” she asked somewhat tersely.

Cristal stepped in, “With everything that happened next door it’s been a crazy morning.
And we only received this case at nine a.m. The mark's wife called and said that she found records on credit card statements that her husband spent every Monday afternoon there, best as she can tell, arriving after four o’clock and always checks into the same room. She wants visual and audio confirmation of his suspected affair.”

“The mark is Hector
Maldonado, he owns three of the largest shipping docks in Los Angeles. All his info is in your inboxes.” Dominic picked up his iPad as Cristal, Mateo and Raiza followed suit.

Mateo looked at the profile of the man that they would be staking out.
Forty-six years old. He was a father of three boys—ages fourteen, eleven, and nine. Married nineteen years to Annabelle Maldonado, age thirty-four.

Damn, Mateo thought with disgust, Maldonado had married his wife when she was just a kid.

“Mateo you will be on surveillance on the ground and, of course, back up.” Dominic said as he went over the layout of the hotel and where Mateo would be stationed in the van.

Mateo noticed out of the corner of his eye that Raiza was typing on her phone. He knew she
wouldn’t be on it unless it was pertinent to the case so he assumed she was reaching out to her contact at the Omni.

His suspicions
were confirmed when a few moments later she set her phone down. “I can pick up the key card in an hour, with traffic it will take close to that to get across town. Are we almost done here?”

Her voice was steady, her gaze was steady, but Mateo knew that she was close to the edge.

Cristal, who was more than just their boss, but also Raiza’s friend, must have sensed the same thing because her brows furrowed and she reached out and placed her hand on Raiza’s arm. “Are you okay with all of this? We can send someone else to pick up the key card and plant the bugs.”

Raiza stood abruptly causing Cristal’s hand to fall back down by her side. “I’m fine. My contact trusts me. I’m not going to compromise that relationship.”

She looked down at Mateo, who was still seated. “Ready?”

“Yes ma’am.” He stood nodding at both Cristal and Dominic.

As they exited the room Mateo noticed the look of concern that Cristal was wearing for her friend. Mateo wanted to reassure her that he would take care of Raiza and not let anything happen to her. But he knew that neither women would appreciate that assurance. They were two of the most independent women he knew. And for some strange reason, that just made Mateo want to protect both of them more. Not in the same way, of course. He thought of Cristal the same way he did his sisters. But Raiza, well…he definitely did not think of her as a sister.

Raiza wished that she could start this day over. Groundhog Day it. Rewind. Take two. Do-over. She wished she had the ability to turn back time about, hmm…four hours, give or take.

In her perfect world she would have loved to be able to wake peacefully this morning after her restful night’s sleep and simply shoot an email to the office informing them that she would not be coming in today. Then she could have snuggled back under her Goose down comforter and gotten a few more precious hours of shut eye, all the while being blissfully unaware of any dead people next door to her office, any office mate, any impending babysitting job, and most importantly, any knowledge—much less involvement—in an undercover operation at the Omni.

She was a realist. She knew there was no use in daydreaming about such an occurrence. As much as Raiza wanted to believe that she could control
everything
in her world, she knew she
couldn’t
turn back the hands of time.

Taking a deep
breath she resigned herself to the situation and re-adjusted her daily goal to simply include making it through the day with as much of her sanity intact as possible. She could start fresh tomorrow.

As she walked briskly into her
office she felt Mateo close on her heels. She knew that he wasn’t ‘following’ her, per se, since
technically
it was his office that they were headed to, as well as hers. But that didn’t change the fact that it felt like he was.

She pushed open the door and went directly to the storage closet to retrieve the necessary devices that she would be planting in the hotel room. Mateo
didn’t speak; he sat at the desk, collecting things from boxes stacked beside his filing cabinet. It looked to be mostly wires and adapters that she assumed he would be using in the van.

As she carefully set each
item she would need into a specifically designed pouch in her all-purpose tote she did notice that Mateo was throwing his things haphazardly into a gym bag. As he held it open, she noticed that all of the wires and cords were just tossed in, no organization whatsoever. Seriously?!

She tried to ignore it. It was none of her business. It
should not
bother her.

But
, it did.

Honestly—if he would roll up those cords and wrap them with a little zip tie, then they wouldn’t
get all tangled. How hard was that? Sure, it might take a little time to set up, but then you save that time when you don’t have to disentangle masses of wires and cords! It’s wasn’t brain surgery, just common sense!

“I have zip ties if you want some,” Raiza said in the most neutral tone she could muster.

“For what?” Mateo looked up, his brow furrowed.

Raiza
didn’t answer. She had no words. Was ignorance really bliss?

How other people seemed
to happily move through the world in disorder and chaos baffled her to no end. Glancing at his desk, taking in its current state, before returning her gaze to his bag she realized that Mateo might just be a lost cause.

So
, instead of wasting her time, energy, and breath she moved to her desk and sighed happily as she sat down to shut down George. He wasn’t a disorganized mess. He wasn’t a mountain of clutter. He was perfect.

The hairs on the back of Raiza’s neck rose as she felt Mateo’s intense stare boring into her. She raised her head. Yep, she confirmed that he was indeed staring at her intensely so she asked, “What?”

“For what?” he repeated, seemingly not out of curiosity but obviously making a point of the fact that she had not answered his question the first time.

Through clenched
teeth she responded as kindly as humanly possible, “For the loose wires and cords in your bag.”

“Oh,” he shook his head before his face broke out in a mischievous smile, “Nah, there is a method to my madness.”

“Is it called being sloppy?” she asked. Her tone was laced with patronizing pleasantness but she wasn’t even sure if he would catch that.

“No.” He stood walking over to her. Placing his hands on the surface of her desk, he once again loomed over her.

Raiza was momentarily rendered speechless as she took in the sheer size of Mateo’s impressive frame. A realization slammed into her like a Mack truck. Normally, since Mateo’s demeanor was so easy-going and non-threatening he seemed less
overwhelming
, er, um, dangerous. In fact she had always wondered about his abilities in the field when he was required to work security or undercover. But now as he stood before her, his intensity dialed up, she
totally
got why he was able to intimidate people when the situation called for it.

It was…hot. She felt a rush of awareness sweep through her as she tried actively to ignore it and regain her bearings.

“It’s not called being sloppy,” he said in a light tone which was in complete opposition to his severe (hot!) expression. “It’s called my bag, my business.”

Annnd she was back.

“I was just offering to help,” she said tightly.

“By calling me sloppy?” he said. The corners of his lips twitched into a small smile and she knew that he
wasn’t really offended by what she had said.

“I just call 'em how I see 'em.” She turned back to George to finish powering him down. She and Mateo needed to get going, they
didn’t have time to banter over semantics.

“I’ll have to remember that.”

Raiza heard more than a hint of cockiness in his voice as he returned to his desk. She was tempted to roll her eyes, but she had worked very hard to break that immature habit, and she quickly decided that Mateo was not worth a relapse.

After taking a cleansing breath, she reset her mind. All she had to do was make it through the day. She looked down at the watch she wore on her left hand. She had a little over thirteen hours to go.

Piece. Of. Cake.

---~---

Mateo rolled his neck from side to side as he flexed his hands open and shut, gripping the steering wheel. He was sitting in the unmarked undercover van, two cars behind Raiza’s black Audi, stuck in traffic. They had left the Red Hot offices over forty-five minutes ago and were still only about halfway to the Omni. He would put money down on the fact that she was seething.

Things that Raiza
couldn’t control seemed to be hot buttons for her. She was definitely
not
a go-with-the-flow gal. That may scare some guys off. It had the exact opposite effect on Mateo. He sensed that right under the surface of her steel containment, brimmed a passion unlike any he had ever encountered.

His cell rang and he saw
that it was Raiza who was calling.

“Yellow,” he answered in a chipper voice,
knowing full well it would irritate the crap out of her. She needed help lightening up, and Mateo had designated himself as 'just the guy for the job.

Silence greeted him on the other end of the call. He waited her out, not saying anything else.

Finally she spoke, her voice sounded tight as a wire, “You need to turn down Figueroa and take First. No one can see you following me.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, Sweetheart.” Mateo knew that she
wasn’t
really
insulting him, she was just a control freak. Even armed with that knowledge, he had no intention of letting her get away with it—in fact, he decided to give her a taste of her own medicine. “Remember, you need to put your earpiece in
before
you head into the hotel. Don't want anyone to see you slip it in.”

His comment
was met with silence, and he knew that she was probably furious. Oh, well. She’d get over it.

The call disconnected. He dialed her back immediately. After one
ring she picked up.

“What?” her carefully modulated tone gave nothing away.

“I think our call dropped, because I
know
you would never be so rude as to just hang up on me without saying goodbye,” he said faux-innocently, keeping his tone light and playful.

Nothing but silence.
He knew she was probably calculating how far she planned to take this. He waited patiently for her to decide on a plan of action.

As he made a left onto Figueroa, she finally spoke, her voice sounding superiorly sweet, “Good boy! See, I knew you could follow directions. Goodbye.”

She once again disconnected the call and a large smile spread across Mateo’s face. Well played Miss Diaz, well played. Damn, he liked her.

As he circled the block once to find the most advantageous parking spot, he heard Raiza’s voice come over the receiver that was transmitting her earpiece. The earpiece would fill both the roles of speaker and mic. “Are you in position?”

“About to be,” he answered.

As he parked the van between a green SUV and a metallic gray
sedan he felt his chest tighten. An odd feeling of dread welled up like a storm brewing. He usually only had this
anxiety-induced feeling when there was something off on a mission or assignment. He considered it his body’s innate red flag system.

Logically, he knew there was no reason it should be waving today. This
wasn’t even a borderline dangerous assignment. They were merely getting eyes and ears planted in a hotel to catch a cheating husband. No danger involved.

Unfortunately, Mateo’s inner alert system was overriding his logic. His body
was strung tight. He tried to ignore it as he moved to the back of the van and turned on the monitors that were feeding a signal from the small cameras on the dash and tires. He had a perfect view of the plaza in front of the entrance of the hotel.

The second Raiza came into view he felt his muscles relax a little. She walked with purposeful strides into the upscale hotel. As the sliding doors closed behind her, the last thing he saw was her sculpted calves, accentuated by her ‘fuck me’ heels. The vision had Mateo’s blood pumping fast and it
was all headed to the same area, his head, and not the one that he needed to be using right now, the one located below his belt.

He continued setting up his equipment as he tried to clear his mind of the seductive snapshot it was stuck
on. The loud click of Raiza’s heels as she walked across the tile floor, making her way through the lobby, came over the monitor. The sound was definitely not helping him erase the image that now seemed to be emblazoned in his mind’s eye.

A vision flashed through his brain—him standing behind Raiza who wore only panties, a bra...and those heels. His eyes drifted down the mental image he had concocted. First, taking in the sleek slope of her back, then heading further south, admiring her firm, round ass. He flexed his hands before reaching out to grab her hips…

“What floor?” a man’s deep voice came through the receiver, interrupting Mateo’s erotic daydream.

Shit, he could not be doing that. He had to keep his head—the one on his shoulders—in the game.

“Ten,” he heard Raiza reply with a sultry edge to her tone.

Mateo
didn’t like that. Not one bit.

“Are you here on business?” the man who Mateo assumed was riding the elevator with her asked.

“Well, it’s certainly not pleasure,” Raiza answered. Hmmm. A little too flirtatiously for Mateo’s liking.

“That’s a shame. We should all have a little more pleasure in our lives.”

Seriously. Mateo wished that he had visual so he could see this tool instead of just hearing him, but all he had was audio.

The distinctive ding, the one that indicated they had arrived at a floor, rang out.

“I’m on the seventeenth floor, the Penthouse,” the man’s voice dropped an octave, “If you’d like to have a drink, here’s my card.”

Mateo waited. He
didn’t hear Raiza respond audibly but he could just about guess the smile that Mr. Elevator Tool had just received from her. It was one of Mateo’s personal favorites. It started slowly, assessing, then built to a grin. The tilt of her lips conveying that she knew a sexy secret, one that if you were lucky – like win a trillion dollars in the lotto lucky – she might just tell you. It wasn’t a promise smile. It certainly wasn’t a guarantee smile. It was a sliver-of-hope smile.

Actually, it
may not even technically be classified in the ‘smile’ category. It was barely more than a smirk. Still it
always
made Mateo feel like a pimply teenage boy who was getting attention from
hottest
girl in the school. Not that he would know what that felt like. He had never been a pimply teenage boy. But still, he figured that must be what they felt like.

“Hey.” Matteo heard another man’s voice. This one sounded young and the familiarity in his greeting led Mateo to assume that this was her contact.

“Hi J,” Raiza’s voice sounded…soft. Very un-Raiza-like.

“Here you go, Rizy. You have an hour tops,” the young man instructed.

“Thanks.”

Mateo heard the sound of rustling clothes. They were probably hugging. Then the contact continued, “Did you hear Tia Margie’s in the hospital?”