Page 23 of Undercover Desires

I snap my fingers to get her to focus again. “She’s an undercover cop trying to take us down from the inside,” I explain, my frustration bubbling over again at the mention of the situation. The words leave an unpleasant taste in my mouth. I slurp down more coffee, trying to disguise it, but it doesn’t matter how delicious Moreen’s coffee is, nothing can get rid of the bitterness. I feel so betrayed by her, even though I barely know the girl.

“What the hell? She looks so sweet,” Hazel exclaims, her surprise and disbelief clear. She hasn’t had the best experience with cops either.

“Yeah, I wonder why she got the job. Reader is smart. Luckily, we’re more cunning, and Kobe worked out who she was,” Jett explains to her, catching her up.

Hazel looks at me, her expression shifting to understanding. “So that’s why you ditched your date with Summer. You were working.”

“Ah, yeah. That and Summer’s not my type. Tell her I don’t want another awkward double date,” I reply with a touch of irritation. I have no idea how I agreed to it.

“Summer’s so pretty, though, and smart.” She looks me over like she might just be able to change my mind. I shake my head a definite no. “Oh, I get it, not slutty enough for you, hey, Kobe? I warned her to stay away from you.” She shakes her head, disappointed in me. I let her know I have no interest in her little friend. A week ago, hell yeah, she would have been a hot one-night stand, but now, nothing. Maeve’s right; the only one I want is the girl I can’t have.

“Hazel, focus. This is important. You keep this to yourself, okay? You just make friends with her, and if she lets on anything you think is important, you tell Jett,” Leo advises her, keeping our little chat all business. He’s been out of the house for more than an hour and is probably chomping at the bit to get home to the missus.

“Got it,” Hazel says, her tone more serious now.

“She’s smart, Hazel; you need to be careful,” Jett warns, his concern for her obvious. They’ve been through so much together, and their bond is unbreakable. He cares more about her than anyone, a fact clearly visible in the way he gazes at her. It’s pretty messed up, but Hazel is growing on me. So, if we have to have a new chick in our little family, I guess I’m happy it’s her.

“You know I can look after myself,” she tells him confidently.

“Jett, we need you to see what you can find out about Reader. What’s his motive for hiring her to watch us? There’s nothing to see here. He did his search of the place last year; he knows we’re squeaky clean. I want to know exactly what he’s after,” Leo instructs him. I cansee he’s nervous about it, especially with a baby on the way. He has a lot more to protect now.

I take a hearty bite of my sandwich, its flavors exploding in my mouth. But then, something unexpected catches my attention—a flash of white from across the street. Arabella is out in her front yard, dressed in a T-shirt and short denim cutoffs. Shit, she’s a picture in that outfit. I block out the rest of them and focus on her as she struggles with her hose, trying to drag it across the front of her house. She gets it to where she wants it, then goes back to the tap and turns it on. She trots back over to the head of the hose and squeezes the handle. Nothing comes out of it, so she inspects it closer. Squeezing it again, the nozzle bursts off the top, and water streams out everywhere, soaking her. I burst out laughing, nearly choking on the mouthful of sandwich I had just shoved into my mouth.

“What’s so funny?” Jett inquires.

I can hardly talk, so I simply point toward Arabella, who’s now drenched and sputtering, trying to control the rogue hose. The water has soaked through her shirt. “Should I go help her?” I chuckle. This is the best damn lunchtime show I have seen in a long time.

“Stay the fuck away from her, Kobe. This will all only work if you stay away from her,” Leo warns, his anger simmering close to the surface.

“I meant because it was so funny. I have no intention of fucking a cop.” I laugh, still unable to control myself.

But as I watch her trying madly to stop the chaos, it’s all I can think about. She’s a drowned rat, her long hair plastered to her face, her shirt so wet I can see her bra. All I can think of is how much I want to throw her over my shoulder, march her straight into her house, andstrip those soaking clothes off her, then fuck her until I don’t feel so tangled up inside anymore.

The nostalgic feeling I had the other day washes over me again. It makes my heart race in the strangest way. I search my memories, trying madly to place it, but I can’t come up with anything that makes sense. Why is my past a black hole of nothing? Did the first twelve years of my life not really exist, or am I just so fucked up I can’t place any of it?

CHAPTER 10

ARABELLA

Another matchbox car. Iturn it over to see if it has Graham, my father’s name, scratched into the bottom of it as well. Sure enough, there is a name, but this one isn’t my father’s. This one says Duncan. Maybe he was a little friend of my father’s, and they buried their cars together. I rinse them off under the hose and set them aside.

It’s going to take me a year at this pace to sort out the mess here. It’s early morning, but if I don’t get on this and do a little bit each day, I’ll never get on top of this place, not with working two jobs. The only benefit of working at the club on top of my day job is that the extra cash has me catching up on my debts more quickly than I had originally thought I would. But this yard isn’t going to clean itself, and after the drama I had on Monday, with the hose deciding to explode in my face, I lost the time I had set aside for the front yard clean-up.

“Morning,” says a pretty girl with green hair as she passes by my house, walking with a friend.

“Morning,” I say back with a wave, trying to place her face. That hair, I’ve seen it before somewhere recently. They keep walking, and I dig out another mammoth weed from the front lawn and throw it in a bucket. Then it hits me, that’s Jett Rivera’s girlfriend. I met her on my first shift at the club. And the girl she’s walking with is the one who was on a date with Kobe. I remember Kobe saying she lived around here. She might be someone good to know.

I drop the trowel and go inside, cranking up my laptop. What was her name again? H something. Harriet? No, Hannah? Hazel! That’s it, Hazel someone?

I scroll through my file on Jett, finding the most current report on him. He was hospitalized after a home invasion gone wrong at Hazel Martinez’s place. I search her name through my database. She was previously married to the notorious leader of the King gang before Detective Reader’s team killed him in a standoff. The girl has a type, I guess, thugs. From one criminal empire to another.

I make my way back out to the front yard, where the garden is in dire need of attention. The sun beats down, casting a warm glow on the neighborhood. I love this time of year. Longer days mean I can fit a little more into my day. As the girls come walking back past, I position myself closer to the curb and stand up, ready to stop and chat with them. Do the friendly neighbor thing. Or at least that’s how I want it to come across.

“You’re the new girl from Queen of Hearts, right?” Hazel asks with a friendly smile.

“Sure am,” I reply with a smile of my own, though internally, I can’t help but think that this girl now knows where I live. Damn, I should have thought about that earlier.

“Thought it was you,” Hazel continues. “We just live over there in the new apartment building. I’m Hazel, and this is Summer,” she introduces them.

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