Page 45 of Tell Me Your Desires
“Anastasia Grant,” Max continued as though Jaime didn’t have an existential crisis going on in her head. “There’s not a lot of background on her. She’s been working at the club for four years. Started when she was,” he paused to look at his notes. “Forty-nine.” He glanced over at Jaime. “That body? That face? I would have never guessed that age. Anyway, before that? Nothing.”
Oh, that body. Jaime clenched her jaw, her nostrils flared as she tried to keep her thoughts in check. Only she was struggling to actually do that. Anastasia had been… impeccable last night. The way she touched Jaime. That mouth as it lowered, and lowered, and—stop!“What do you mean nothing?”
“It’s like she didn’t exist before the club.”
“Are you saying her name is an… alias?”
“I’m saying there’s more to her than we know. And a background check turned up bupkis.”
Despite the turmoil going through Jaime’s mind, Max’s use of the word bupkis tickled her. Maybe it was a defense mechanism. If she didn’t laugh, she would cry. Or go fucking insane. Her hands shook, so she gripped the wheel until her knuckles were white. Thankfully, there was a Starbucks she could pull into and try to gather the courage to tell Max they were going to the wrong address.
“Coffee break already, Baros?”
“This is for you, my man. The way you bit my head off earlier… I think it’s best to get some caffeine in you before you go interrogating potential suspects.” That sounded credible, right?Max was an excellent detective, but he couldn’t possibly know what was happening inside Jaime’s head right now.
“Yeah, fine. Get me a Venti Americano.” Max returned to his notepad, reviewing whatever notes he had written.
Jaime went through the drive-thru and ordered, taking a chance on a black coffee for herself. She handed Max his giant cup and pulled into a parking spot.
“Can’t drink coffee and drive at the same time, Baros?”
“There’s something I need to tell you, Max.”
Jaime’s serious tone caught Max’s attention. “It can’t wait until after we’ve talked to Ms. Grant?”
Jaime shook her head. The longer she sat on this, the worse she would feel. “It has to do with… Ms. Grant. I, uh…knew her name. And I know that the address you have for her is bogus. I mean, it’s a real address, but she doesn’t live there. She rents it out.”
Max replaced the lid on his cup and put it in the cup holder before turning in his seat to look at Jaime. “Excuse me?”
Jaime sighed. Yeah, she’d fucked up. Monumentally, it seemed, but it was better to be upfront as much as she could be and hope that Max was too focused on cracking this case than on Jaime’s fucking idiotic behavior. “Look, I know you told me to leave it alone, but something about her… Anyway, I waited for her at the club one night.”Okay, so you’re not telling the whole story. Probably the best idea right now.“When she got in her car, I had Benson run the plates.”
She winced when Max merely tapped his tense fingers on his coffee cup.
“Go on,” Max said stiffly.
Jaime shrugged. “I went to the address. A family lives there. I thought it was her family, but the dude said his wife was out of town. Told me he rented the place through a company. It was another roadblock in this case, and it pissed me off. So, I, um,went back to the club. This time when she came out, I followed her home.”
“Jaime!”
“I know! But look, something is definitely off with her. Maybe we’re looking at this wrong, I don’t know, but I do know she took an indirect route home.”
“Maybe she made you. There aren’t many cars on the road at that time of night. Wouldn’t be hard to notice someone following you.”
The disapproval in Max’s voice was palpable. “She didn’t make me, Max. But think about it. Fake address, alternate route? What is she hiding?”
“Or hiding from.” Max took his pen out and jotted a few things down. “Did you talk to her?”
Fucking fuck!She wasn’t ready to havethatconversation with Max, not after all these revelations. “Nah, it was way too late to go knocking on her door when she got home. I just wanted to get the info we were lacking. I didn’t do a deep dive, Max. I literally found all this out yesterday.” Partial truths weren’treallylies, were they?Oh, you are so fucked when he finds out the truth.
“So when you said you were getting your head straight, you were going behind my back and investigating someone I told you to stay away from?”
“I’m sorry…”
Max held up his hand, cutting Jaime off. “Looks like your gut was right. I don’t like how you did things, but it was effective.” He gestured to the GPS. “Do you need that, or do you know where you’re going?”
“I…know where I’m going.”
Anya sipped her tea,staring out into her backyard. Her appetite was nil, and her motivation to get dressed and do something productive… even lower. She should have known what Jaime was up to. Why didn’t she? Was she so blinded by the idea of being with someoneasAnya that she missed the signs? Anya shook her head. No, sheignoredthe warnings. Jaime showing up at the club, paying for a session, making an excuse to follow Anya home. Anya had been so preoccupied with her attraction that she overlooked the warnings.
