“Oh, Luke knows you’re here,” Shirleen informed me and the way she said it gave me goose bumps and not the good kind.
As if he knew (which he probably did) that it was his cue, the door to the inner sanctum opened and Luke was there. A man I hadn’t yet met was with him, slightly older than any of the Hot Bunch, blond military haircut, piercing blue eyes and the standard-issue, Nightingale Hottie tight-muscled, zero-body-fat body.
I didn’t have time to check out the latest member of the Hot Bunch, I only had eyes for Luke.
He was feeling the same way. He did a full body sweep, rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms on his chest. Then he did a slight shake of his head like he couldn’t quite believe me but one side of his mouth curled up in a half-grin as if he thought I was amusing.
Really not the reaction I was hoping for.
“Hey,” I said.
“Shit, Luke, you don’t put a ring on her finger, I will,” the blond guy said.
Now, that was the reaction I was hoping for.
“You got a wife and five kids,” Luke told him but didn’t take his eyes off me.
“Oh yeah, for a second I forgot,” the blond guy replied.
It was then I realized I wasn’t breathing so I forced the air out of my lungs.
“Babe,” Luke said, still not moving from his position just inside the room. “You wanna tell me why Mrs. Conrad and her granddaughter are here?”
I stopped breathing again.
Shit!
Get yourself together, girl! Bad Ava shouted.
You made this plan, you have to carry it through. Be strong! Good Ava encouraged.
I started breathing again mainly because I had no choice.
“I figured it’s not fair I get to have my word with Noah since he did the dirty on both Mrs. Conrad and me. I asked her if she wanted to say a few things and she did. So I invited her to the party. You don’t mind do you?”
The blond guy burst out laughing.
Luke did not. “Yeah, I mind.” Luke, as normal, was brutally honest.
“Well, that’s not good,” I forged ahead. “Mrs. Conrad and Olivia came all the way downtown from Aurora. It’s tough for Mrs. Conrad to get around. It would suck if she made this trip for nothing.”
Luke tore his eyes from me, he looked at Winnie and without remorse he said, “This is a closed party.”
“Luke!” I cried. He was ruining my plan!
“Got it!” Shirleen yelled and everyone looked at her. She had her cell phone pointed facing our direction and a little picture of me was on it. “That’s a good one too. That’s so good, I may make it my wallpaper.”
“Shirleen, we’re in the middle of something here,” I told her.
“Oh yeah, sorry,” she mumbled, bent her head and started beeping more buttons on her cell phone, likely sending my photo to half of Denver.
I looked back at Luke. “Can we talk privately?” I asked.
“Nothin’ you can’t say in front of Monty,” Luke replied.
My eyes moved to the blond guy. “So, you’re Monty.”
“That’s me,” he said.
“I’m Ava,” I introduced myself though he probably knew who I was. Still, I didn’t want to seem rude.
“I know that, darlin’. I manage the surveillance room. We monitor Luke’s loft and we monitor Fortnum’s. Seen a lot of you.”
My mouth dropped open. Monty smiled. I felt the heat hit my face. Monty’s smile got bigger.
“You monitor Fortnum’s too?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” Monty said. “You can thank me later.”
I blinked before I asked, very, very stupidly, “For what?”
“For not showin’ Luke the video of you crawlin’ on all fours down the side book aisle.”
It was then Luke laughed.
Okay, abort plan, time for a new plan.
I turned to Shirleen. “I’m done here. We can leave. I need cookies. STAT.”
“Girl, I did not traipse around town, droppin’ off Tex, goin’ to your house to get your perfume –” Shirleen started.
“My house is two blocks from Tex’s,” I cut in.
“So? Then you had me callin’ everyone and their brother,” Shirleen shot back.
“You just called Olivia!” My voice was rising.
“Well, I didn’t do all that for you to give up at the first hurdle. Shit, girl,” Shirleen finished.
Argh!
I turned back to Luke. “Can we please speak privately?” I tried again.
He pressed his lips together, not with anger, more like he was trying to stop them from twitching. Then he said, “You got five minutes.”
He motioned toward the door and I walked through it then stopped. He passed me and I followed him to a door down the hall I’d never been through before. We went in and I saw it was an office, big desk, chairs in front, couch on the back wall; the same décor as the reception area. I stopped inside, close to the desk, and turned to Luke who’d closed the door behind us.
“You can’t stop yourself, can you?” he asked before I could say anything.
“What?”
“Cleared your debt this morning, less than eight hours later, they’re pilin’ up again.”
My eyes got wide. “What do I owe you for now?”
“Arrangin’ for Smithie to be taken out of a tree.”