I was pleasantly surprised to see Jenna at my door. “I hope it isn’t already tomorrow night. I haven’t even started to thaw anything yet.”
“Can I come inside for a minute?”
I could tell by the worried look in her almond-shaped eyes something was up. “Of course. Is everything okay?”
“No.” She walked inside and sat before continuing. “I’m afraid I can’t have dinner with you tomorrow night.”
Great Right when I start to make some headway with her, she takes a giant step backwards. It was time to turn up the charm if I was going to win my bet.
Erm…better make that close the case. Fuck it. Close the case and win the bet…
“Hey, I came on a little stronger than I should have last night, but I can assure you I’m not always like that. Some people actually think that I’m a nice guy.”
Jenna shook her head and made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “It isn’t that. I know I overreacted.”
O-kay. I sat next to her on the couch. “What then?”
“Blaine’s in some trouble with the law. Trista’s boss is defending him, but it looks like the Prosecutor’s office already has a strong case against him. Trista asked me if I would help her out tomorrow. You know, brainstorm and try to come up with a defense.”
Of course, the whore thing. I’d almost forgotten that Collin told me about that earlier in the day. I feigned surprise.
“Blaine’s in trouble with the law? I know I just met the guy, but he seems straight-laced to me. What did he do?”
“I don’t think that he did anything, but I haven’t seen the evidence yet,” Jenna said and shook her head. “Allegedly, he’s been running a prostitution ring out of his club. All I know is some of the girls are prepared to testify against him.”
“That doesn’t sound good. Are you sure he’s innocent?”
She sighed and slouched back into the couch. “No, but he has to be, for Trista’s sake. She loves him too much. It would break her heart if he was a criminal. She deserves better than that.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” As soon as I said it I realized Jackson the FBI Agent could help; however, Jackson the Consultant was only good if she needed her books audited. At least it got a smile out of her. Damn, she had a sexy mouth. It was the kind of mouth that gave a man ideas.
Perfect, I’m trying to convince her I’m not a cad while running my own personal little porno in my head. Thank God the woman couldn’t read minds or she’d be running away to the theme music of bamp-chicka-bow-wow.
“You could understand and give me a rain check on dinner.”
“Of course.” Chicka-bow-wowwwww. Ugh. Now porn music was stuck in my head. “I can cook anytime.”
She bit her lip. “Good. I can’t wait to see you in action. Um, you know, in the kitchen.” She stood abruptly, turning several shades of red. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got, um, stuff I need to…” She pointed at the door. “I’ll just let myself out.”
I allowed myself to smile once she left. Either, she was warming up to me or she had split personalities and this one had the hots for me. Either way, she was starting to feel like she could trust me. The craziest thing about this whole situation was, under other circumstances, I would have considered pursuing something with Jenna. In this situation, it didn’t feel right. This had to be about the case and the bet, nothing more. I couldn’t let myself feel anything for her, porno soundtrack notwithstanding.
But I could try to help her out.
After I made sure the door was locked, I went into the office where we set up my secure phone line. I couldn’t have picked a better condo from which to perform surveillance, putting the office in the farthest location from the door was a stroke of architectural genius. The phone rang once before it was answered.
“Get a team together first thing in the morning. I want to know exactly what Blaine Ranier has been up to.”
© 2009, Sydney Katt. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use of content will result in dragon attacks.
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Oooh…I can’t wait to see either!