Page 16 of Hiding Hollywood

The coffee maker had to be at least thirty years old and took Addie, with a degree in computer science, a solid ten minutes to figure out. She pushed her glasses up on her nose as the machine gurgled and the smell filled the kitchen. The age of it didn’t seem to matter, though, because the cup she poured from the glass coffee pot tasted perfect. Right along with the dollar store brand creamer Mrs. Dempsey used.

She leaned against the kitchen sink, looking out over the backyard, taking a sip. No computer. No boyfriend. No job. That’s what the future looked like. She had to find a way to connect toWhite Rabbit. To letMiss Alice, her no-nonsense boss, know when she’d be able to take another job. Without Brian’s financial support, she would need the income. She had plenty of savings, a lot actually, but she liked earning money. Having a job like hers gave her purpose.

Mrs. Dempsey said they had a computer in the house. There was an outside chance that it wouldn’t take too much work to get it up to snuff. She could install a few additional safeguards. A new firewall. If they kept the computer in an inconspicuous place, she could use it at night when everyone else slept.

Not to hack. She’d have to rebuild the security system to do that. But she had to contactMiss Alice. Now, she needed a cover story to gain access to their computer without drawing any suspicion. Some days she hated that her life was full of so many lies.

The lies helped keep people safe, including herself. And the job paid very well, but she didn’t do it strictly for the money. She accepted the money because it made the risk worthwhile. Her reward came from knowing she helped society in her own way. The information she passed on toMiss Alicehelped rat out the evil in the world. To date, she helped put seventeen criminals away. Crimes ranging from sex trafficking to drugs. She’d also exposed several crooked politicians. The small lies to innocent people like Ms. Tanya were worth it.

The door opened, and Cameron stepped into the kitchen. The permanent scowl in its proper place looked a little more severe today. Not many men could rock the angsty-look and come across that sexy. It was like the Wolverine and Edward Cullen rolled into one. Perfectly Cameron.

Addie smiled as wide as she could and tried to have a happy tone of voice. “Hi ya, Deputy.”

He paused, a wariness clouded over his face before he bobbed his head like a teenage girl. “Hi ya, Addie,” he mimicked.

Ugh, she wanted to tell him off.

His gaze ran down to her feet and back up again. He motioned up and down her body. “This isn’t your typical look.”

She tugged at the hem of her long tee shirt. Every jokingly harsh comment from Brian swirled through her mind.

His humorless cloud disappeared long enough to see the first flicker of interest in his eyes. She wasn’t even wearing lipstick. Or shoes. Black exercise pants and a tee shirt. How long had she dreamed of him looking at her as something other than Trevor’s little sister?

“I like your glasses. They look like the ones you used to wear the last time I saw you.”

She snatched them off her face, embarrassed she’d forgotten about them. “You’re a real comic, Cameron.”

His eyebrows drew together, and he stopped advancing. “I wasn’t joking.”

She shrugged a shoulder, completely insecure but hoping it came across as indifference. “Whatever. I’m headed back to my room.”

He made a big show of sweeping an arm toward the hallway, that cold shoulder she’d grown accustomed to back in place. “I’m sure you have a tough schedule ahead of you, picking out nail polish and washing your hair.”

She took a steadying breath. Last month, she’d infiltrated a diplomat’s private email account, uncovering not only two illicit affairs with women within his own office, but the smuggling of goods for resale on the black market.

But, of course, all she did was wash her hair. Jerk. “I do other things.”

He poured himself a cup of coffee and took a drink, looking far too smug at his incorrect assessment of her. His eyes dropped to her freshly painted toes. “Like what?”

A switch flipped in her brain despite her ratty clothes and lack of makeup, pulling the cloak of her artificial personality around her before his words cut too deep. Those assumptions hurt worse coming from Cameron than they did from Brian.

Two slow steps brought them together. She had his full attention.

Her heart rate spiked. That didn’t happen with other men. That never happened with Brian.

She wrapped both hands around the mug he held, around his own hand, bringing the rim to her lips, taking a sip of the black coffee.

The shield between them dropped away. The sexual energy amplified as his gaze burned straight to the pit of her stomach. Her fingers lingered, brushing along the back of his hand, down his wrist before falling to her side.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she paused at the breathless sound of her voice until she had it under control. “I need to wash my hair.”

She turned and walked to the hallway, well aware that she was walking away from the one man that switched her sex drive from autopilot into hyperdrive. One man. No one else since him, in the past fifteen years, had come close.

The slam of the mug on the counter made her jump, but she kept walking.

“You don’t even live in the real world, do you? Do you have any idea how serious the charges are against you? You can’t flirt your way out of this situation like you do with the rest of your life.”

Annoyed at her lack of control over her own body’s response, she held up her hand and flicked him off as she left the room.

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