Page 30 of Fiona and the Fixer

“Got it.”

I blinked. It’d barely been ten seconds. “What? Already?”

“I’m that good.” I could hear his self-satisfied smile in his words.

“I don’t want to insult the size of your ego because I need you to keep working for me,” I muttered. I had him on retainer for whatever intel I needed dug up. If I was going to fix things for shady people, I always needed to know what I was walking into first.

“I’m that good, but I also got an immediate hit because she’s in the FBI database.”

I stared at her photo on the computer monitor. She looked like she was headed to paint pottery or something. What the fuck? “She’s a criminal?Her?She’s wearing a fucking cardigan.”

“She looks hot as hell in it, too.”

I wanted to reach through the phone and rip his head off for even noticing, but I was stuck on the fact that she was a criminal. A frying pan to the side of the head would have been less stunning. “She literally said she stopped the convenience store robbery because he was breaking the law. That’s like calling up the IRS and telling them they gave too big of a tax return.”

It made no sense. Sure, she was a stickler. Neat and tidy. Hair and makeup perfect. Pussy bare, which meant high maintenance, but wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. With a gun and with me. She did carry a weapon. She did have the moves. She did have lady balls and didn’t break into any kind of sweat under pressure. What the hell did the FBI have on her? Tax fraud? Card counting? Embezzlement?

“She’s not a criminal,” Nitro said, breaking into my thoughts. “It’s worse.”

I popped to my feet and paced the small office. “Worse?”

“She’s Fiona Whitaker, FBI Agent, Denver field office.”

16

FIONA

I drove backdown Candy Cane Lane and was forced to slow when Dottie waved to me from the sidewalk. It wasn’t as if I could pretend I never saw her since she looked like she was flagging a commercial airliner into a gate. Looking in my rearview mirror first, I pulled to the curb and rolled down the passenger window.

“Hello!” she said, seemingly thrilled to see me. She approached my car, a yellow lab beside her. Today she was in green joggers, but I doubted she jogged, a white collared shirt and a sun visor.

“Hey, Dottie. Who’s your friend?”

She smiled and looked down. The dog’s nose was in the air picking up a scent, but otherwise stood there waiting for Dottie to continue their walk. “This is Scooter.”

Scooter was the kind of dog that was so mellow, he probably slept twenty-three hours a day, chased a ball for the other hour and didn’t have much interest in anyone besides a crotch sniff or a scratch behind the ears.

“I was at my friend Lureen Vidor’s house a few doors down from yours.”

“That’s nice.”

“How’s your visit so far? Meet that romance book guy yet?” she prodded.

My mouth fell open and I stared at her wide eyed. I knew news traveled fast in small towns, and Dottie was proof, but this was a little ridiculous. She knew about me and Dax in the bookstore? I’d thought we’d been hidden pretty well, at least after the women customers left.

“Wh-what?” I asked.

“Did you find your hottie romance hero yet?”

I sagged a little in relief. “Nope. Not yet.” I’d found a hottie, but he wasn’t anything like a romance hero. What were those guys called… anti-heroes?

“If you’re all alone, you can come with me to my granddaughter’s T-ball game.” She looked left and right, then put her hand up to her mouth and whispered, “I don’t enjoy it because it’s boring as hell. All the kids do is pick their noses or dandelions from the field, but I can’t miss seeing my cute little Evie.”

I’d been on the Embezzlement Division’s softball team for three summers and ithadbeen boring as hell. The people I played with were grownups and they still picked their noses and none of them were cute.

“I… um, I have plans, but thanks.” I didn’t, but I’d invent something… anything not to go watch a bunch of little kids run around willy nilly.

She studied me in a way only older people could. “You haven’t eaten. I had a feeling you were one of those people who don’t cook by the way you attacked that rice dish. I’ll bring food by for you.”

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