Page 25 of Mike

Undercover cop? Bounty hunter? Operative with a government agency? Private dick? The list could go on and on, but Mike figured that until the intriguing mind and cock tease wanted her intel known, he wouldn’t get anything out of her.

Still, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t dig around in her brain for everything else he wanted to know. He watched her carefully. She was a cool one.

She grimaced as Alvero Deluthe arrived, ordering her to sit on Mike’s side running board while he squatted to clean the gravel out of her chin. Mike’s alarm went off again when she plunked her ass down. He pulled out his phone and killed it.

Other than the woman’s facial displeasure at the goings on, she didn’t flinch.

“So. Elle.” Mike couldn’t stop poking the blonde hornet about her fake name. “Being a server, and I use that title loosely because we both know it’s bullshit, why didn’t you come to me directly, or go to the police when you heard about the plot on my life?”

“Plot?” Four men on scene bellowed out the word while Welker simply nodded. Welk, quick on the uptake, had clearly already figured out that Elle had installed the surveillance. The man hadn’t had a chance to run ID on the cameras he’d removed yet, but now that Welk knew who was responsible, it might make his job easier.

“Stand down,” Mike groused at his angry posse. “Listen,” he sighed. “There are some things I’ve neglected to tell the team, but because of what I assume our new friend here is going to reveal, I’ll give you guys the short version.” He’d come clean to the rest of the team over supper tonight.

Mike drew in a deep breath. “Mellie walked out on me and the kids about a year ago for some young dude she met at work.”

Eyebrows went up, but incredulously, no one interrupted.

“Our divorce was final six months ago, and since then, the kids have reconciled with her. I speak to her on occasion when it’s absolutely necessary, but…I figured we’d all moved on.”

“Right. You moved on except you kept it a secret.” Kyle, in particular, looked sour that he’d been kept in the dark. Mike understood. They’d formed a friendship outside of work, and Mike had kept him out of the loop.

“Yeah. Because I felt…” He looked over at Elle who was studying him closely. “…like an idiot,” he admitted, not liking his dirty laundry aired. “Apparently Mellie had been seeing the asshole behind my back for several months, and I was clueless. Also, he’s ten years younger than me. Which means my ego was a little…bruised.”

“I get it, LT,” Doug commiserated. Of all his team members, Doug had lived the toughest life, and understood keeping fucked-up-shit closed down. “Don’t feel like you have to explain any further. But tell us, what’s this about a plot?” Doug gave Elle the hairy eyeball out of habit that he once wasn’t very trusting of the female population.

“You want to tell it, Elle?” Mike quirked his mouth, glad to have the “I’m a loser” talk done and out in the open.

The woman nodded as Alvero prepared a syringe. She made a moue of displeasure. “Stitches?” she asked him.

“Only two or three,” the team medic replied.

She snorted. “Then forget the numbing shlick. If I’m going to feel one ‘little pinch’ from that needle, or a few more as you sew me up, I choose door number two.”

Alvero stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. “It’s your face.”

“It is. And I’m not vain, so don’t worry. A scar won’t bother me.”

“Regardless,” Alvero countered, his tone amused. “I’m going to make the stitches as neat as possible.”

“Go for it.” She thrust her chin up before she began her explanation for Mike’s teammates. “Okay. Here’s the skinny. I work at a bar north of here, and overheard this Melanie chick and her sperm bank discussing ways to kill a person of interest. They mentioned poison and a few other methods before determining that truck sabotage was the most efficient and undetectable path to take. It wasn’t tough to find out that Mike was the intended victim once I had the woman’s name and heard the rest of the conversation about a life insurance policy and a will.”

Mike grimaced. He’d kind of hoped that wouldn’t come out, but realized it was germane to the story. To give them credit, not one of his buddies gave him shit about it. At least for now.

“You’re the one who put up the cameras on Mike’s property, and tagged his truck,” Welker stated, getting back to facts.

The rest of Mike’s friends and teammates stood there taking it all in, their heads on a swivel between Mike and the captivating conundrum.

“Yup. That was me.” Again, no apologies from Elle, just a barely detectable wince once Alvero got started with his needle and thread.

“Which brings us back to my question,” Mike gruffed, staying put even though he wanted to hold her hand in the worst way while Alvero fixed her up. “Why did you keep the info from me and the local authorities?”

Elle looked pained for a moment, but not physically. She was clearly determining how much she should reveal.

He’d give her that. Mike was intrigued enough to relish pulling everything from her…eventually.

“There’s a lot I can’t tell you,” she began, “but suffice to say, I’m working an…op right now, and I’m not at liberty to divulge any details regarding my role, who I work for, or what I’m doing in Maine. Therefore, if I’d brought the authorities in, or contacted you to give you deets regarding your ex’s scheme, I would have been hard pressed to keep my anonymity, and believe me, a lot of shpit is riding on me staying undercover.”

She looked pretty satisfied with her explanation, and with the snip of Alvero’s scissors signaling he’d completed his face-fixer-upper.

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