Tell Me No Spies (2 page)

“So you do bookkeeping
for Sirius Dynamics?” His gaze was a little too piercing, and I
felt my gaze slither sideways despite myself.

“Yes,” I replied, with
perhaps a shade too much emphasis.

“But you work with
Clyde.”

I could tell he was
trying to puzzle out why a bookkeeper would hobnob on a daily basis
with a computer analyst.

“Yes… I do some
computer work, sometimes, too.”

Ray’s face brightened.
“Really? What’s your area of expertise?”

Shit. All I needed was
to get into a technical discussion that would reveal how little I
really knew about modern computer systems.

“I… help out with some
of the network stuff,” I hedged.

“In the secured
facility,” he prompted. “I saw you going in there a few weeks
ago.”

Shit, shit, shit!

“Uh, sometimes, yeah.
But that was for some, um, bookkeeping stuff for one of the special
projects. I have to work down there when I’m doing bookkeeping. Um,
for the special projects, I mean. Because they can’t bring stuff
upstairs.”

He contemplated me for
a few moments. “Don’t take this wrong, but you need a better
cover,” he said at last.

I blew out a breath
through my teeth and resisted the urge to yank a couple of handfuls
of hair. “I’m just a bookkeeper, Ray, okay?”

“Okay. But you should
come up with a more convincing story.”

“I wish I could, but
I’m really just a bookkeeper.”

He opened his mouth
and closed it again when one of Spider’s sisters poked her head out
the door. “Come on inside, Dad. Clyde’s going to open his
presents.”

I sucked in a breath
of relief. “I really have to run now. It was nice talking to you.
Tell Spider I said happy birthday.”

I scuttled out to my
car and fell into the driver’s seat, groaning and rubbing my
pounding temples in the friendly darkness. Christ, I needed to get
better at that. Spider’s dad was brighter than most people, but it
was only a matter of time before others started asking the same
inconvenient questions.

Sprawled under my car
the next afternoon, I let fly with a few colourful expletives when
some of the blackened oil poured over the badly-placed frame member
and missed the drain pan.

“Everything okay?” A
cheerful male voice made me jerk with shock, nearly smashing my
forehead on the chassis.

“Shit!” Heart
pounding, I scuffled across the concrete on my back and peered out
from underneath the Saturn at my neighbour, Tom Rossburn.

I blew out a long
breath, thankful it was him and not somebody trying to kill me. I’d
left my gun in the house when I changed my clothes. Stupid. I
should know better by now.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean
to scare you,” he added.

“It’s okay. Could you
hand me that roll of paper towels, please?”

He glanced at my
oil-stained hands and tore off a couple of sheets. “Do you need
more?”

“No, that’s fine.
Thanks.” I squirmed back under the car and wiped up the mess, doing
a bit of deep breathing to dissipate the unnecessary
adrenaline.

When I emerged again,
he gave me his attractive crooked smile. “Do you need a hand?”

“No, I’ll just let it
drain for a few minutes and then button it up.” I wiped my hands on
the paper towel he offered and surreptitiously checked him out,
enjoying the view.

The colour of his
denim shirt accentuated his sky-blue eyes, and the rolled-up
sleeves revealed tanned, sinewy muscle. Even from a couple of feet
away, he smelled like sun-baked cotton and sweet, fresh hay. He
hadn’t turned around yet, but I knew from previous dedicated
observation that the rear view of those faded jeans and cowboy
boots was drool-worthy, too.

I did my best to
project casual neighbourly interest. “I saw you up there with the
truck earlier. How’s it going?”

“Fine. I just dropped
by to let you know I finished loading the bales from your
eighty.”

“Thanks!” I beamed at
him. “I’m so glad you could do that for me. Let me know what your
expenses were.”

He waved a hand.
“Forget it.”

“No, we had a deal.
Split the expenses, split the profits when you sell the bales. And
I still think you should take more than half. You’re doing all the
work.”

“But it’s your land,”
he objected.

I propped my fists on
my hips and frowned at him, and his crooked grin came back. “Okay.
I’ll write it out and drop it off tomorrow.”

“Good. Thanks.” I
wiped my hands again on my coveralls and headed for the beer fridge
that was just one of the many things I loved about my deluxe
garage. “Do you want a beer?” I pulled out a cold one and waved it
in his direction.

“No, I better not. You
go ahead though.”

I unzipped the hot
coveralls and shimmied out of them gratefully. As I tipped a long
swallow of ice-cold beer down my throat, I caught Tom surveying my
clingy shorts and tank top with undisguised appreciation.

“How’d you like to go
out for drinks tonight instead?” he asked.

“…Um.”

In the past couple of
months, I’d been more and more tempted to discard my ‘look, don’t
touch’ policy with him.

I gave myself a mental
slap to the head. Down, girl.

“I… uh.”

Goddammit, what would
a few drinks matter? We were neighbours after all. I should at
least make an effort to be friendly.

“Sure. That sounds
like fun.” I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth, but
it was already too late.

Tom’s face lit up, and
he gave me a full-on grin. “Great, I’ll pick you up at
six-thirty?”

Still time to back
out. Remember some pressing engagement. Do it, dammit. Say no. Say
it now.

“Okay. See you
then.”

Shit. I’m an
idiot.

At twenty after six, I
locked up the house and sank into the chair on my front porch with
a sigh. Several times during the day I’d stood with my hand poised
over the phone, ready to call Tom and cancel. And each time, I’d
turned and walked away.

I knew I should have
called it off. Never mind that, I knew I shouldn’t have accepted in
the first place. What the hell was I thinking?

As Tom’s truck drove
up the lane, I hurried down the steps and met him on the gravelled
turnaround I’d deliberately built outside the range of the
surveillance cameras that blanketed my house.

The weathered lines
around his eyes crinkled with his smile when I hopped up into the
big 4x4. “I’m really glad you could come,” he said. “I thought we
could go over to Blue Eddy’s, if that’s okay with you. They have a
live band tonight.”

“Oh… yeah… that sounds
great,” I responded brightly, trying to silence the voice in my
head that kept repeating, “Bad idea! Bad, bad idea!”

His smile lost a few
watts. “We could go somewhere else if you’d rather.”

“No, I love Eddy’s,” I
assured him. “The Saturday bands are always good, and the food’s
far better than the Silverside Hotel.”

Which was true. Those
were the only two licensed establishments in the tiny town, and
Eddy’s was practically my second home. That was the problem. We’d
be seen together.

Duh. Kinda like a
date.

I’m definitely an
idiot.

My heart was beating a
little faster than necessary when we walked into Blue Eddy’s. The
band wasn’t due to start until eight, so my usual table in the
corner was still free. I made a beeline for it and slid into my
favourite chair, my back to the wall while I surveyed the rest of
the bar. Tom sat opposite me, one eyebrow arched quizzically.

“Hi, Aydan!” The
waitress gave me a smile, and her eyes darted between Tom and me.
Shit, by morning the entire town would know we’d been out together.
I suppressed a sigh. “Do you want a beer?” she asked.

“Yeah, thanks,
Darlene.”

Her eyes lit up.

Shit. She knew I never
drank if I was driving, so now she had proof that we were together.
On a date.

Busted.

“Is everything okay?”
Tom was watching me with a faint crease between his brows.

I summoned up a smile.
“Of course.”

“It sounded like you
groaned.”

I shook off my mood
and forced a laugh. “No, that was my stomach growling,” I lied.
“I’m looking forward to some food and that beer.”

He relaxed and smiled
back at me, and soon we were laughing and chatting with our usual
easy camaraderie. I glanced up as Darlene arrived with our food,
and froze.

Tom turned in his seat
to follow my sight line, and we watched John Kane stride into the
bar. Head and shoulders taller than most of the patrons, he was
easy to spot. As usual, he wore dark jeans and a black T-shirt that
stretched across his broad shoulders and hugged his muscular arms.
He made his way through the crowd, seemingly oblivious to the
female heads turning to check out his killer body, strong, square
face, and short dark hair shading to grey at the temples.

I swallowed hard when
his gaze swung over to our table. His face smoothed into an
unreadable mask, and he nodded politely in our direction before
turning to take a stool at the bar, his back to the wall.

I thanked Darlene and
dragged my attention back to Tom. He was frowning again. “That’s
John Kane, isn’t it? The guy who…” he hesitated almost
imperceptibly. “…you work with?”

“Yes.” I changed the
subject and concentrated on Tom, my food, and my second beer. I
couldn’t help watching Kane out of the corner of my eye, and I
relaxed when he finished his meal at last and left soon
afterward.

A few beers and some
excellent music later, Tom and I emerged laughing into the parking
lot. As we strolled away from the lights of the bar, I caught Tom’s
arm. “Wow, look at that big cheddar-cheese moon! Doesn’t it make
you think of Halloween?”

He didn’t reply right
away, and I tore my attention away from the moon to glance up at
him. Warning bells went off in my slightly tipsy brain when he
smiled at me.

“No, I wasn’t thinking
of Halloween,” he said.

“Oh.” I let go of his
arm as if it was red-hot, but he caught my hands gently before I
could step back.

“I haven’t heard a
Harley around your place for a while,” he said.

“Um. No, not
recently.”

“Are you still
involved with Arnie?”

I ignored the sudden
pang and kept my tone light. “Yes, but he’s been busy lately.”

His callused hands
tightened a fraction on mine. “I think you’re better off without
him.”

“You just got a bad
first impression. He’s actually a really nice guy.”

Tom grimaced. “Yeah,
there a lot of nice guys nicknamed ‘Hellhound’.”

“It’s just wordplay on
his last name.” I made a none-too-determined effort to extricate my
hands. Standing so close, his clean outdoorsy male scent was
threatening to overwhelm my common sense. His grip on my hands was
warm and strong.

His voice dropped to
an intimate murmur as he looked into my eyes. “My ‘friends with
benefits’ offer still stands. If you’re interested.”

‘Interested’ didn’t
exactly cover the magnitude of what I was feeling. I did my best to
hide my internal struggle, and I was still trying to formulate a
reply when he leaned in and kissed me.

I was fighting a
desperate battle against the urge to take him up on his offer right
then and there in the middle of the parking lot when the sound of
Kane’s voice made me jerk away with a gasp.

“Aydan, I’m sorry to
interrupt, but we need you at the office.”

He didn’t sound sorry
at all. He sounded… dangerous.

“Oh.” My gaze
ping-ponged between Tom and Kane. They were both expressionless,
but I sensed the tension in them as they locked eyes.

“It’s eleven-thirty on
a Saturday night,” Tom said evenly. “I’m sure it can wait.”

“It can’t.” Kane’s
deep voice was hard. “Aydan, let’s go.”

I turned to Tom. “I’m
sorry, I have to go. Thanks a lot for tonight. I had fun.”

I was turning to leave
when he caught my arm lightly. “Aydan, you don’t have to go with
him if you don’t want to.”

Kane eyed Tom’s hand
on my arm. The small hairs lifted on the back of my neck, and I
pulled away quickly.

“I do have to go,
actually.” I blurted out the first semi-plausible explanation that
came to mind. “We’re right in the middle of an audit and we have a
deadline. We’ve been waiting on some information, and I told John
to call me as soon as he had it.”

“Oh.” Tom’s eyes
narrowed and his hands clenched into fists as he assessed Kane
looming beside me. After a couple of long seconds, he squared his
shoulders and gave us a curt nod. “Okay. If you say so. Good night,
Aydan.” He hesitated. “Call me if you need a ride home. No matter
what time it is.”

“Thanks.” The word
came out on a whoosh of breath I hadn’t realized I was holding when
he turned toward his truck.

I trotted after Kane
as he stalked to his black Expedition. We got in, and he sat
staring through the windshield for a moment. When he spoke, his
normally even voice had a distinct edge. “What the hell was
that?”

My temper flared, and
I wrestled my voice under control before responding. “A mistake.
Obviously.”

“I thought you told
Rossburn you weren’t interested in him.”

“I did.”

“So what the hell was
that?”

“A mistake. I made a
mistake, okay? He’s my neighbour, he’s been doing a lot of work on
my farm this summer, I was trying to be friendly and he got the
wrong idea.”

“You didn’t seem in a
hurry to tell him that.”

I clamped my teeth
together on my irritation and concentrated on releasing the fist
that I’d clenched unconsciously. “I… He took me by surprise. I
would’ve dealt with it.”

“You need to deal with
it tomorrow. Tell him you’re still scr…” he bit back his first
choice of words and continued, “…seeing Hellhound.”