Page 17 of Sawyer
He ended the call before Reid could call him on his shit. Reidwasn’t stupid. The man knew the difference between acknowledging he’d received the message with a ‘copy that,’ and agreeing to obey the command with a ‘roger that.’
Back at the house, he put his phone on silent and hit the shower. Twenty minutes later, he was ready. Grabbing his keys, he headed back to Videotopia. He’d been a team player for six damn years, and it had ended with Jaxon getting stabbed.
There were absolutely times when a team was necessary. The minute Jaxon got stabbed, this ceased to be one of those times. It was time for a more clandestine approach. There was no doubt in his mind he could get the information they needed. One way or another.
Nothing inside him wanted to hurt Lele. She may have made bad choices, but she’d also been hurt. He was beginning to question her level of involvement, but she was no hardened criminal. He had to separate the truth from the lies about who was responsible for sending Jaxon to prison. And he had to do it now.
CHAPTER 7
Instincts honed by years of service told him his conversation with Lele would have to wait. There was something in the air. Something was off. He sat in his car behind Videotopia and watched the camera feed on his cell phone so that he could keep an eye on Lele.
He didn’t think she’d be meeting someone at Videotopia, but he wasn’t willing to take that chance. She was at the bar most of the time, but she kept walking in and out of blind spots.
Half an hour later, he was about to give up and go inside when he saw movement behind the building. A man wearing a dark polo shirt, jeans, sneakers, and dark shades walked to the back door and knocked. While waiting for the door to open, the man continuously looked around. The window tint would make it impossible for the man to see him in the car, especially with sunglasses on, but he slid down a little just in case.
A few minutes later, the door cracked and the man began to speak animatedly to someone behind the door. He checked the camera feeds to no avail. Damn it. That was the problem with having to place cameras quickly. There were always blind spots.But this one was in a hell of a bad place for it. Had someone spotted the cameras and knew where to stand.
Pulling up the other interior cameras on his phone, he scanned the main room and the kitchen. Lele was nowhere to be seen. Damn it. He hadn’t heard or seen her motorbike, so she was here somewhere. Was she the other person behind the door?
He watched the conversation as it seemed to grow more heated, at least on the part of the man he could see. Finally, the man pulled a small package from his pocket and tossed it to whoever was with him. Sawyer ducked down again when the man stalked back to the front parking lot and drove off.
Sawyer wasn’t worried about figuring out who the man was. At the very least, the front camera would get the license plate. Maybe it would capture a picture of the man’s face.
Right now, he needed to get inside and figure out where Lele had been when she should have been at the bar.
Swinging the door open, he stepped back inside. He stood waiting for his eyes to adjust to the low lighting.
“Back so soon?”
Lele walked in from the right side of the main room, opposite the kitchen. There were two places she could have been. The restrooms were on that side, along with the back exit.
He walked straight to her and pulled her in for a hug. She stiffened for a few seconds before relaxing in his arms. God, she felt good there. The perfect fit. She could rest her head on his chest, her ear to his heart. For some reason, that felt like a sign. Which was completely ridiculous.
He held her close and breathed in her scent. “I was worried when I didn’t see you. Where’d you go?” That she didn’t try to pull away from him was a good sign.
She shook her head. “You’ve only been gone a couple of hours. I haven’t gone anywhere. I’ve been right here prepping and cleaning, just like I said.” She nuzzled against him. Wait. Was she sniffinghim? “You smell like pine trees. Did you leave to go for a walk in the woods?”
“Something like that,” he said. “You smell like lemons and lilacs. Is that a perfume?”
She laughed, and it warmed him more than the sun he’d been standing in a few minutes before. She had a beautiful laugh, and that was too bad because he had the feeling she hadn’t laughed much in her life. Nothing felt more important in that moment than changing that.
Everything in him told him she deserved a life filled with joy. Now he just had to prove it.
“It’s about as close to perfume as I ever get. I’m wearing Ode do Lemon Lysol and Clorox Scentiva Lavender with a touch of Jasmine. It suits me, don’t you think?”
Eyes narrowed, he purposefully deepened his voice. “Are you teasing me, little girl?”
Her eyes, on the other hand, widened, and her breath hitched. A red flush crept up her chest. She liked that.
His smile was wicked. But hey, he felt wicked. “Do you know what happens to Little girls who tease?”
She shook her head, whispering, “No. What happens?”
“They get kissed.”
Her chin dropped in slow motion, leaving her lips in a perfect O. “They do?”
He lowered his lips so his breath caressed her cheek. “They do.” And then he pressed his lips to hers.
