Page 4 of Queen of Diamonds
“That one’s not someone you want to mess with, Spider. So do me a favor and stay out of his way. Okay?”
“’Kay. But he don’t really mean it, boss man. He just likes people to think he’s badass.”
It was impossible not to like Spider. With a few exceptions like Snake, the bikers had adopted Spider as their mascot. Somewhere in his late fifties or early sixties, Spider was the most naive and had the kindest heart of anyone Rand had ever met. Barely topping out at five-six, as bald as a billiard ball, and as scrawny as a toothpick, the man was a permanent fixture at Aces & Eights.
One of the things Rand liked best about him was that he didn’t belong to any of the clubs. Spider was just a funny, likable little man who the Gentry brothers had instructed Rand to look out for. Since stepping through the doors of Aces & Eights, Rand had kept Spider in his line of sight but had only had to rescue him for the first time tonight. Damn Snake to hell.
Rand leaned against the bar after Spider walked away, his gaze scanning the room, looking for trouble stirring. He’d learned early on that it was best to put a stop to anything brewing before it boiled over into an all-out brawl.
“She was asking about the previous owners,” Josh said, sidling up next to him.
“Who?”
“The gorgeous woman who came in a few minutes ago.”
Rand slid his gaze to her. She and her friend were heading for the door. Why would she be asking about the Gentrys? “Follow them, find out where they live.”
After Josh returnedwith two addresses—and why did it please Rand that the couple didn’t live together?—it only took a few minutes to have a background report on both of them. Aiden Calloway had one arrest for disorderly conduct, but the charges had been dropped against him and the other fraternity pledges for cavorting naked in a hotel’s fountain.
Kinsey Landon had also graduated from the University of Miami at the same time as her friend and now worked as a buyer for Summer Fashions. She’d been raised by a single mother in Jacksonville, Florida. From all appearances, the two had lived a quiet, simple life. Her mother had died last year. Almost twenty-four, Kinsey lived by herself in a ground-floor apartment on the edge of Coral Gables. Not the best neighborhood but not the worst.
She’d qualified for a partial scholarship—enough to cover her textbooks, but probably not much more than that—and had worked part-time at Summer Fashions until she’d graduated and had been offered the job of junior buyer. She didn’t have a record, not even one parking ticket. What she did have was a mountain of student loans to pay off.
“Exactly what did she want to know about the Gentrys?” he asked Josh. Anytime someone was nosy about a federal agent or three, it was wise to pay attention. Especially where the brothers were concerned because of their former undercover work. Even if it was someone as seemingly innocent as Kinsey Landon.
“She wanted to know if the owners were around, and when I told her I was one of the owners, she asked my name. When I told her it was Josh Sheridan, she seemed surprised. Then she asked if I knew anyone with the last name of Gentry. I almost told her no. Then I realized all she had to do was ask just about any of our customers to get a yes. So I told her they used to own the bar but had sold it to me and my partner.”
“Anything else?”
“The guy dropped her off at her apartment, didn’t go in. Then I followed him to his place. Why do you think she’d be asking about the brothers?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?”
“We should tell them.”
Rand thought about it for a moment. “No. Don’t say anything yet. It’s probably nothing, in which case, she doesn’t need the brothers’ attention on her.”
“I know I wouldn’t want their attention on me,” Josh muttered. “She seemed nice, so maybe she just heard about them and wanted to see them for herself. They’re like a legend, you know.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it.” Rand smiled at the baby agent. He was still too trusting, but he’d learn. For now he’d prefer that Josh forgot about Kinsey Landon until Rand could get a handle on why she was asking about the Gentrys.
“Go keep an eye on the animals. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“On it, dude.”
After Josh closed the door behind him, Rand logged in to the security cameras, and when he found the sequence where Kinsey and Aiden entered, he watched it through several times. Something about it was nagging him. It was on his fourth time of viewing it that it hit him. They weren’t a couple, not in the sense that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Their hand-holding wasn’t natural, nor did she look at Aiden like a woman in love or on the way to love. Her friend was protective of her but more in a brotherly kind of way. That shouldn’t please him, because Olivia had taught him to avoid beautiful women like the plague.
Where the devilwere her keys? Kinsey scanned her desktop where she usually dropped them when she arrived each morning. She scooted her chair back and looked around the floor. Nope, not there.
“Kinsey, the girls need some help out on the floor,” Corrie, her boss and the senior buyer, said. “We’re kicking ass with this sale.”
“Coming.” She’d have to look for her keys later. They had to be around here somewhere.
It was almost closing time, and she was still on the sales floor. There were only two women in the store now, both in the fitting rooms trying on clothes. Kinsey was tidying up around the register while the sales consultants refolded clothes and straightened racks. Corrie hadn’t been kidding. They’d killed it today with this buy-one-get-one-half-off sale. She groaned when Sebastian Summer sauntered in, a smirk on his face as he headed straight for her.
She tensed, gritting her teeth when he not soaccidentlybrushed his hand across her butt when he stopped behind her. He’d been doing that more and more lately, and she could no longer ignore it, even if it meant losing her job.
She turned, pressing her back against the counter. “Do that one more time, and I’ll file a sexual harassment report.”
