Golden Trail

Chapter Nine Proceed with Caution

The next afternoon, Layne sat at his desk and flipped open his phone.

Using his thumb, he typed in, “Management office, The Brendel. Number. Now.” Then he sent the text to Rocky.

He clenched his jaw and flipped his phone closed.

You were my first kiss, my first everything.

Her words from last night sounded in his head.

He was, even as pretty as she was, he was her first kiss and her first lover. For her eighteenth birthday, he gave her a pair of emerald-cut emerald stud earrings, her birthstone. She’d given him her virginity.

He was her first date, her first kiss, her first boyfriend. She had friends and she was popular at school but she didn’t date, never got close to a boy, until him.

And she let him in immediately. Out of respect for father, but mostly for her and because of her inexperience, he’d played it cool the first year and he’d taken great pains her first time. He couldn’t say he was entirely successful. He could say he made her come before he caused her pain so at least she knew she had something to look forward to.

And she looked forward to it. Christ, it was like breaking a seal then what was held in exploded all over the place.

But she’d never even kissed a guy, until him.

He’d never thought about it, not once, except to thank his stars and consider himself lucky.

Now, he thought, what the fuck was up with that?

He flipped and twisted the phone around in his fingers and stared at his desk, jaw clenched, mind filled not just with last night but with a lot of shit, a lot of shit from the last three weeks and a lot of shit from nearly two decades ago and he only looked up when the security beep sounded.

His eyes went to the monitor and he saw Merry, a white coffee cup in each hand, coming up the stairs.

Answers.

He’d called Merry half an hour ago and told him he wanted a meet but he didn’t tell him why. But Layne was going to get answers and he loved Merry but if his friend held out on him, after the shit that came out of Rocky’s mouth last night, Layne would resort to any means necessary.

He kept flipping his phone around in his fingers as he heard the front door open and close and then he saw Merry coming through the door to his office. He was smiling but he got one look at Layne and his brows went up.

“I’m guessin’ you aren’t havin’ a good day,” Merry remarked, walking straight in.

“You’d be guessin’ right,” Layne agreed.

Merry put Layne’s coffee in front of him and sat opposite him, lifting a leg to hook his ankle on his knee.

“Well, join the club, brother. Today is officially shit,” he declared before he sucked back some joe.

“You got problems?” Layne asked and Merry nodded.

“But let’s get your shit outta the way first. Why’d you call? Somethin’ up?”

“A lot of things are up. It sucks I got shot because it delayed me hiring a receptionist. I got so much up I can’t fuckin’ keep track of it all.”

“Break it down for me, brother.”

Layne palmed the phone and leaned back in his chair. “Stew’s shit is tied to Carlito.”

Merry stared at Layne a second then his eyes rolled to the ceiling. “Oh boy.”

“Damn straight,” Layne said.

Merry’s eyes rolled back to Layne. “You know how much he’s into him for?”

“I don’t know shit. Jasper saw Carlito take a collection at the house.”

Merry’s face grew dark, his ankle left his knee and he sat forward, putting his coffee cup on Layne’s desk. “Tell me you are fuckin’ shittin’ me.”

“I’m not.”

Merry looked toward the floor, breathing out, “Motherfucker.”

“You know Stew? He play the dogs or is he sittin’ a game?”

Merry looked back up. “Dogs. Before Gabby, Stew was at the track every weekend. Since her, I’m guessin’ he’s at the track every weekend she’s workin’.”

Layne nodded. “Right.”

“I don’t need to tell you, a collection at the house –” Merry started.

Layne cut him off. “He’s in deep.”

“Okay then, I don’t need to tell you bein’ in deep with Carlito –”

Layne cut him off again. “Isn’t fuckin’ good.”

“That man would break his grandma’s fingers if she borrowed a five spot to buy some cat food and didn’t pay it back on time,” Merry concurred.

“I don’t give a fuck about Stew or how deep he is. What I give a fuck about is that this shit is comin’ to the house my boys live in and my ex has been workin’ her ass off to keep nice for them and that I’ve been sending money for twelve years to keep over their heads. I want his ass out. I wanna know what he’s into Carlito for and why, they’re gettin’ so far behind for so many months, this shit isn’t goin’ away. Jas says he saw Stew hand over an envelope stuffed full. Where the fuck is he getting that kind of cash and if he’s handin’ that shit over, why is the pressure still on?”

“I know it’s Carlito, I got some boys I can give calls. I’ll run this down for Colt and Sully, Mike and Sean too. We’ll see what we can shake out,” Merry offered.

“Good,” Layne replied.

“Sorry you gotta deal with this shit, brother but I’m afraid I gotta lay more on you,” Merry told him.

Layne stared and didn’t say a word. He had other things to talk to Merry about but he’d take whatever Merry had to dish out and move to the important shit later.

So he invited, “Lay it on me.”

Merry sat back. “Well, this morning, I got word from a friend, who has a friend who’s been hired by Jarrod to investigate you and Rocky.”

There it was. Rocky was right.

“Not a surprise, Merry, I saw him taking pictures into Rocky’s house when I was there last night. She called it, knew exactly why he was there. The only problem with that shit is he’s usin’ up money she should get in the divorce settlement with this garbage. He’s got a girl who looks like she kissed her teenage years good-bye about a month ago in his bed and Rocky has been outta that house for months. Her bein’ with me isn’t gonna get him shit.”

He watched Merry’s lips thin then he said, “She would call it, seein’ as I phoned her during her lunch hour to give her the head’s up and then I got her to share what she’s not been sharin’ with anyone but Dad.”

That did not sound good. Raquel shared everything with Merry. If she was keeping something from him, it was something bad, as in, something that would make good ole boy Garrett Merrick go ballistic.

“What?” Layne asked.

“Where should I start?” Merry asked back.

“Garrett,” Layne said low.

“Okay, first, he’s moved their money. All of it.”

Layne’s back straightened in his chair. “Come again?”

“Drained their joint accounts, bank, investment and liquidated stock portfolios. Opened up new accounts in his name only and deposited the money there.”

That didn’t come up in his searches.

“When?” Layne bit off.

“Last week. She started buyin’ shit for her apartment, he cut her off. Started there, she found out on Saturday when she tried to buy something that he cancelled her credit cards. She only has two but they’re also joint and he’s cancelled them both.”

“Fucking shit,” Layne ground out.

“Unh-hunh,” Merry nodded.

“What the fuck are her attorneys doing?”

“What they can, which isn’t much since he’s refusing to meet. You know, brother, the wheels of justice don’t roll, they grind. Their court date isn’t for five and a half months.”

“He can’t take all the money like that, Merry,” Layne clipped.

“He can until the powers that be tell him to give it back,” Merry returned.

“You’re wrong, Merry, he can’t do that. He pulls this shit, Rocky’s attorneys can move to have his assets frozen.”

“I’m right, Layne, because Dr. Astley isn’t just Dr. Astley. Why do you think their court date is buried for five and a half months? She’ll be lucky to see that, big man. They’ll postpone and delay until she’s desperate. He doesn’t just make money, he comes from it. These boys who got Roc’s life in their hands aren’t in his pocket, they grew up together. They’re brothers, brother, like you and me.”

“Goddammit!” Layne exploded, pushing back and out of his chair, curling his fist around his phone, he turned to the window and stared out at Main Street, his fists to his hips.

“I’m guessin’ from that reaction she didn’t share with you,” Merry noted.

“No, she didn’t share,” Layne told the window. “She said he was playing dirty, she just didn’t say how.”

“Now you know.”

Layne made a decision and turned to face his friend.

“Names,” he growled.

“What?”

“You said he was bangin’ every nurse on staff, I want names. I want the name of every woman he even looked at too long since two seconds after he laid eyes on Rocky.”

Merry smiled and it was cruel. “Not enough paper in the ‘burg for that list, Tanner.”

“I’ll order a box for you on-line, have it delivered to your condo.”

Merry nodded, still smiling but the cruelty had gone out and humor had seeped in.

“You might find time to walk across your street,” he suggested. “Natalie Ulrich isn’t Dr. Astley’s biggest fan considering he’s not just a dick, he’s an arrogant dick and, if he isn’t bonin’ the nurses, he’s givin’ them shit. Emma’s friends with Natalie and Emma tells me Natalie’s in throes of ecstasy that Rocky’s Merc is in your drive. Apparently, she’s big into romance novels and she’s thinkin’ one’s playin’ out on her very own street.”

“Natalie just got scratched on the top of my to-do list,” Layne muttered and his phone chimed in his hand.

He dropped his head, flipped it open and saw that Rocky had sent him the number. Nothing else, just the digits.

Fuck.

He flipped the phone shut, tossed it on his desk, sat back down, looked at Merry and got down to the important shit.

“Remember when I told you everything was fine between me and Roc?” he asked and watched Merry’s body get tight right along with his jaw.

“Yeah.” The syllable was forced out.

“Well it’s not.”

Merry closed his eyes and whispered, “I knew it. Fuck.”

“I need answers, Merry.”

Merry opened his eyes but he might as well have kept them closed because he wasn’t giving a thing away.

“Do not shut down on me, brother,” Layne warned, his voice low and quiet.

Merry looked him in the eyes and then whispered, “I can’t, Tanner.”

“You will, Garrett,” Layne returned. “Somethin’ is not right and we can’t move forward unless I sort that shit out.” Merry shook his head. “I’m not askin’ you, I’m tellin’ you, I need answers.”

“Layne, I can’t give you answers.” Layne opened his mouth to speak but Merry leaned forward quickly. “I want to, right? Okay? I want to. But, seriously, she would not be pissed if I gave those answers to you. She would be gone. Not gone as in take off and move to Canada gone. Gone for me. She’d cut me out, Tanner. No joke. She would cease to exist for me and, big man,” he leaned further forward, his eyes glued to Layne’s, “you know how that feels.”

“She’s in pain,” Layne informed his friend and Merry’s eyes closed again. “Look at me, goddammit.” Merry’s eyes opened. “I have no clue how to play this and the plays I’ve been makin’ either do not work for her or they don’t work for me.”

“Only advice I can give is proceed with caution.”

“No shit? Thanks for that, buddy, that helps a whole fuckin’ lot,” Layne clipped.

“You didn’t hear me, Tanner,” Merry said quietly. “Proceed with caution and the operative word in that is proceed.”

Layne felt his chest get tight. “What?”

Merry sat back. “I can’t give you more.”

“You can and you will.”

“Tanner, seriously.”

“Yeah, Garrett, seriously.”

“I can’t –”

Layne leaned forward. “We went out to Swank’s, Saturday night. I walked into my house with her after, knowin’ the biggest fool thing I could do was ask her to stay for a drink at the same time thinkin’ about nothin’ other than how to get her to stay for a drink. We walk in and the lights go on and we find out a friend of mine from LA was payin’ a surprise visit. She’s standin’ there wearing practically nothing but shoes and a smile. Rocky sees her, she’s so fired up to get the fuck out of there, she fell during her run for the door, went down so hard she sprained her wrist. Before she left, she looked at me, Garrett, she looked at me with pain and tears in her eyes and they weren’t from hurting her wrist. That pain… that pain in her eyes shone from her fuckin’ soul. I’d get it the next night when I threw her leavin’ me in her face and she threw Gabby in mine. I’m tellin’ you right now, people do not hold onto this shit. Not for this long. It’s like it happened fuckin’ yesterday. I understand that pain I saw because I feel it every goddamned time I look at her. It’s been eighteen fucking years. That shit is not right. There is something I do not know, something that matters, it mattered then and, brother, it still matters now.”

Merry stared at him and there was pain in his eyes too, Layne saw it, pain for Raquel and pain for Layne.

“All I can tell you, Tanner, is that leaving you broke her.”

“Then why the fuck did she leave?”

Losing it, Merry slammed a fist into his armrest. “I can’t tell you, damn it!”

“Why?”

“I just can’t.”

“Why?” Layne roared.

“I can’t tell you!” Merry roared back. “But I’ll tell you this, leaving you broke her but she did it for a reason, buddy, she did it for a good fuckin’ reason. All right? Then you knocked up Gabby and I get that, I’m a man, I get it. Even Dad got it. Rocky did not. What was broken shattered. I watched it, Dad watched it, we couldn’t do shit about it. She didn’t pick up the pieces, man. She’s never picked up the pieces.” Merry leaned toward the desk. “You wanna know why Jarrod Astley is bein’ such a dick?” he asked but didn’t let Layne answer, he kept talking. “Because he had heaven in his hands, he knew it, but it was floating just above his reach. It was right there, in his hands, but he couldn’t touch it. She never loved him. She picked him because he was a dick, she knew he was a dick and she knew she could hold herself clear of that. That didn’t mean he didn’t want her but she never gave herself to him. But the fucker didn’t try. He did everything wrong because he’s an asswipe, that’s his problem. He might have been able to get in there if he wasn’t such a dick. But he was. He’s the type of man who doesn’t see his own faults, he blames others and he blames Rocky and, I’ll bet my pension, brother, he also blames you. No one in this ‘burg over fourteen years old doesn’t know the Raquel Merrick and Tanner Layne bittersweet love story, with Roc workin’ at that school and bein’ how she is, that lore is passed on the first day of freshman class. And Astley’s had that in his face for more than ten years.”

Listening to Merry, Layne’s chest was moving like he’d just finished a two hundred yard dash but even with all he was getting, he was still getting nothing.

He informed Merry of that fact. “All you’re givin’ me is more questions, Garrett.”

“Then find out the answers, Tanner, but the only place you can get them is from Roc and, like I said, proceed with caution, but, fuck, man, whatever you do, for your sake and hers, just… fuckin’… proceed.”

They stared at each other and Layne heard what he was saying.

But he wasn’t twenty-four and life wasn’t that simple.

“I got two boys who could get caught up in this shit, brother,” Layne said softly.

“I hear you,” Merry replied, just as softly.

“I put the effort into this, it goes bad, I’m not the only one gets kicked in the teeth.”

“I hear you.”

“With that reminder, you got different advice?”

Merry shook his head and repeated, “Proceed.”

“Shit, man, do you know what you’re tellin’ me to do?”

Merry held his eyes. Then his face went funny in a way Layne couldn’t read but the only way he saw it was fear.

“I’m givin’ you a bonus,” he whispered and Layne felt his chest squeeze as he waited for Merry to go on. “Those wounds she’s got, they bleed and they bleed deep. Only once did those wounds dry up and that was for three years, twenty-one years ago.”

Layne closed his eyes.

He opened them again when Merry spoke and he saw Merry was standing, coffee cup in his hand.

“You heal her again, Tanner, you got my eternal gratitude,” he whispered then smiled, it was small and it was shaking. “And I’ll throw in my Harley.”

Then without another word, he left Layne’s office.

Layne turned his head and, on the monitors, he watched Merry walk down the stairs.

Then he sat back in his chair and rested his head on the back of it to look at the ceiling.

He closed his eyes.

Then he made a decision.

He grabbed his phone, flipped it open and called the management office at The Brendel, identified himself as Rocky’s boyfriend and told them to get their security firm to her apartment to set up the sensors and change her locks. They demurred, he convinced them.

Then he disconnected, scrolled down his phonebook and hit go on Devin Glover, a PI he’d worked a variety of cases on a variety of occasions in a variety of locations. Dev was long in the tooth; he was a spy during the Cold War; he taught Layne everything he knew that was worth knowing; and he was the best friend Layne had ever had.

When he disconnected from Dev, he texted Rocky. “Sensors will be set up. Contacting you. I’ll be there when they do it.”

He was in his SUV, navigating his development when his phone chimed.

Rocky’s text, “Fine. I’ll let you know.”

He drove to his house, parked in his drive but didn’t bother with the garage door.

His text back, “My place. Tonight. 6. T is making Hamburger Helper.”

He was walking across the cul-de-sac to Natalie’s house when he got her quickly returned text.

“Sorry, papers to grade. Tomorrow. Six.”

He smiled at the phone, flipped it shut and lifted his fist to knock on Natalie’s door.

He checked it because it swung open before he could connect.

“Hey Tanner,” she smiled.

“Natalie,” he smiled back. “Got a second?”

She moved back, opening the door.

Layne walked in.

“You set up?” Layne said into the phone.

“Your couch in your office is shit, boy,” Dev said back.

“I offered to put you up at a hotel,” Layne reminded him.

“Hotel beds are shittier than your couch,” he shot back.

Dev would know, he’d slept on enough of them.

“Tomorrow night, at dinner, you meet Rocky, you’ll quit your bitchin’,” Layne told him. “And once I introduce you to the boys, you can have the couch in the living room.”

Dev could be intense, his mood always unpredictable and Layne was working, not around to run interference during an introduction to Jasper and Tripp and he didn’t want Dev showing up at the house and doing something, which Dev would do, and freaking out his sons. So he left Mimi the key to his office and gave Dev his security codes.

“She a looker?” Dev asked, his curiosity piqued. Dev was sixty-four years old and still a ladies man.

“You remember Eva?” Layne asked.

Silence for a beat then, with disbelief, “Better?”

“Oh yeah,” Layne answered.

“Fuck, boy,” Dev muttered then disconnected without a good-bye.

Layne threw his cell on the seat next to him. He’d just sealed the deal on his latest case and he’d been right, it hadn’t taken long, less time than he expected. He just had to pull together the file, hand it over, send the invoice and get paid and he was glad to be rid of it. It was sucking all his time. Billable hours but, with all the stuff raining down on him and Rocky, he needed to be shot of it and was pleased as fuck he was.

The entrance to his development was coming up on his right but he didn’t indicate. He’d called Jasper earlier to tell him to set up pasta bake for Keira on Tuesday but they were on their own that night and he’d see them in the morning. He also shared he was spending the night over at Rocky’s because her security was shit. Jasper didn’t ask questions but, after informing him of this fact, Jasper’s voice took on a “you the man” tone.

Layne looked at the clock on his dash. It was after midnight and he reckoned Rocky wouldn’t be real fired up to answer her door to him at that hour.

Or, possibly, any hour.

But he couldn’t give a fuck. He’d sleep on her couch tonight. Tomorrow and for as long as it took, he’d work on getting in her bed.

Or Rocky in his.

And eventually both.

He was just passed the entrance to his development and about to flip his indicator light on to take the left into Rocky’s complex when he saw a Mercedes of her make, model and color pull out in front of him and when his eyes swept the plates, he saw it was hers.

“What the fuck?” he whispered, moved his fingers from the indicator, kept a distance and followed.

His eyes went back to the dash. Twelve oh nine. Where the fuck was she going at twelve oh nine?

He followed her into town, she turned left on Green, he trailed her and drove passed her when she turned into the Christian Church parking lot.

“Fuck me,” he muttered, now knowing what she was doing out at twelve oh nine. He swung the next left, continuing to mutter, “Rocky, baby, I find you lookin’ for trouble, I’m gonna turn you over my knee.”

Layne rounded the church and blacked out his headlights as he took the alley and entered the church parking lot from the back. He saw her Merc parked in the far corner under a tree. At least she’d parked smart, with the tree shrouding her car from light and her vehicle being black, you had to be looking to see it.

He scanned the lot and the church and saw no Rocky.

He parked by her car, unbuckled his seatbelt, leaned to his glove compartment and pulled out a Maglite and a pair of black leather gloves. Then he got out of his car, pulling on his gloves and walking through the parking lot like he, personally, owned the church and he found the side door slightly ajar. She hadn’t left it that way on purpose. The latch hadn’t caught when she slipped through.

He opened the door just enough to steal through and stood still, no alarm, no beeps warning him to enter the code. He turned and saw the white of the security box by the door, the panel looking in the dark like it was hanging down. He flipped on his Maglite, shone it on the box, saw the panel was hanging down but didn’t see any wires protruding. He traced the door with his Maglite and found the sensors on the door, their wires intact. He leaned into the security box and saw the lighted display saying “unarmed”.

How did she disable the alarm?

He moved cautiously through the vestibule outside the sanctuary and remembered coming to this church with his mother. He hadn’t been there in years. He also remembered Rocky came to this church with Merry, Cecilia and Dave. And lastly, he remembered, when Cecilia died, Dave quit bringing the kids.

He kept the Maglite pointed down but forward and made his way through the vestibule, saw it and stopped, flipping off the Maglite.

There was a windowed room but the window was internal, no windows to the outside. Layne tried to remember and he thought it was an office, the windows facing into the vestibule. From it, a dim light shone.

He moved there, around the corner to the opened door and saw Rocky sitting on a desk chair, a file in her lap, her head bowed over it, deep in concentration, her gloved hands moving the papers, a small Maglite between her lips.

He felt at the wall and switched on the light.

She let out a small scream and pushed back, rolling the chair across the small room and slamming against a filing cabinet, her head snapping back, the Maglite falling out of her mouth and clattering to the floor as she stared at him with lips parted, eyes huge.

“Hey sweetcheeks,” he greeted.

“What are you…” she swallowed, looked out the window into the vestibule then back at him. “What are you doing here!” she hissed.

“Funny, that’s what I was gonna ask you.”

She flipped the file shut and stood. “Layne, turn out the light!”

“No windows to the outside, no one knows we’re in here, no one can see the light and I need it so I can see you when I throw you over my shoulder and,” he leaned forward and barked, “haul your ass outta here!”

She jumped toward him and lifted a hand. “Keep your voice down!” she whispered.

“Baby, no one knows we’re here!”

“Okay, so keep your voice down because you’re freaking me out!”

He leaned back and crossed his arms on his chest. “I know what wouldn’t freak you out, Roc, bein’ at home in your bed where you’re supposed to fuckin’ be.”

“Layne –”

“How’d you disable the alarm?” he asked.

“Disable the alarm?” she asked back, looking confused and, fuck him, he was pissed but he had to admit she looked cute.

“Yeah, Rocky, it’s a church but every place has shit to steal. This place has a security system. How’d you bypass it?”

“I punched in the code,” she told him.

He stared at her.

Then he repeated, “You punched in the code.”

“Well…” she said, “yeah.”

“How’d you get the code?”

“Layne –”

“Are you not gettin’ that I don’t let shit go?” he asked. “How’d you get the code?”

“Well…” she trailed off and looked into the vestibule.

“Raquel,” he warned.

Her eyes shot to him. “Okay, well, do you know Sharon Reynolds?”

“Do I need to know her for this story to go faster?”

Her eyes narrowed but she kept talking. “She works in the office here.”

“And?” he asked when she didn’t go on.

“And, she also works in the office at the school. She’s part-time for both.”

“Ah,” Layne said, his head tipping back and his gaze hitting the ceiling.

“Anyway,” Rocky said sharply and Layne’s eyes went back to her.“I remembered her complaining once that the pastor is a security freak and changes the alarm codes so often she never remembers them. She comes in every once in awhile when no one is around and has to punch them in and she’s gotten them wrong so many times and set off the alarm, now she writes them down and keeps them in her wallet.”

“Reason one for the pastor to be a security freak and reason one to lose his office lady,” Layne noted.

“Layne!” she snapped.

“So, you got the code how?”

“I, um…” She stopped and bit her lip.

“Baby –”

She interrupted him quickly. “When everyone in the office was at lunch, I went to her desk and got into her purse.”

“Fuck me,” Layne whispered.

“No one saw!” she cried.

“Okay, how’d you get the door open?”

“Shouldn’t we be, I don’t know, taking pictures of the personnel file or something?” she asked.

He dropped his arms and took a step toward her.

She took a step back, putting her hand up and saying quickly, “Okay!” She dropped her hand and explained, “Sharon’s always losing her keys. She’s famous for it. She leaves them everywhere. It’s crazy. So, um… while I was in her purse, I uh… kinda nabbed them.”

Layne closed his eyes.

“It’s okay,” she assured him and he opened his eyes. “She was going on and on this afternoon about how she,” Rocky tucked the file under her arm, lifted her hands and did air quotation marks, “lost her keys and tomorrow I’ll just,” she did air quotation marks again, “find them.”

All right, it was safe to say he was done.

“Rocky, what’d I tell you about this shit?” he asked.

“Layne –”

“Put the file back and get your ass to your car.”

“Layne –”

He leaned into her. “Do it or I carry your ass to your car.”

“I think he’s doing something to the girls,” she whispered and Layne leaned back.

“Come again?”

She shook her head and stepped forward. “I heard it today, in the bathroom, two freshmen talking through the stalls. One of them is Alexis McGraw. She’s a pretty little thing but about twenty years older than she actually is. She comes to Youth Group here and I heard her bragging about sharing her gum with the Youth Minister.”

“So?”

“It had been chewed.”

Oh fuck.

“And they didn’t use their fingers when they handed it off,” Rocky finished.

Damn.

“Could she be lying?” Layne tried but not holding much hope in the attempt.

Rocky took in a breath. “She’s older than her years and she’s dying to grow up and she’s obvious about being impatient for that to happen. So, yes, she could be telling tales but with that, and the rest of the stuff I’m hearing, I can’t sit on this but I also can’t start a witch hunt either if it’s just a bunch of overenthusiastic kids who really, really like Jesus.”

Layne studied Rocky while his mind went over what he knew.

That ‘burg was in the bible belt and religion was vital to that community but that didn’t translate to the roster of the Youth Group at the Christian Church that had been skidding by with around ten or fifteen members for the last thirty years adding over fifty new recruits in the last six months, most of them girls.

Fuck.

Layne made a decision, turned to the copier just inside the door and switched it on.

“What are you doing?” Rocky asked.

He turned back to her and held his hand out for the file. “We could take pictures, sweetcheeks, but it’d take forever, the copies would suck and we got a copier right here. Hand me the file and see if they keep attendance records for Youth Group.”

She stared at him a second, eyes wide. Then she gave him the dimple. Then she handed him the file and whirled around, her ponytail flying, and opened a filing cabinet drawer.

“I don’t see anything here,” Rocky noted and Layne looked at the back of her head.

He was sitting on her couch sifting through Youth Group rosters and making note of names and how attendance wasn’t inching up, it was shooting up, the vast majority of new recruits female.

Raquel was cross-legged on the floor beside his leg, head bent, the back of her neck exposed, an opened bottle of fancy-ass beer in front of her and she was reading through the personnel file on TJ Gaines, the Youth Minister.

“You’re not gonna see anything, Roc, especially if it’s bogus, not until I run his shit through my systems at the office tomorrow,” he told her.

Her neck twisted and her head tilted back to look up at him.

“Do you think we should go back tomorrow night, set up camera surveillance or something?”

Yep, she was cute.

“No, we aren’t gonna do shit. I run him tomorrow, I find dirt or even that he lied on his application, I turn it over to Merry or Colt or Drew and they run with it.”

“That’s it?” she asked, sounding disappointed.

He grinned at her and somewhat lied. “Baby, on TV, they make my job look exciting. Most of the time it’s done either sittin’ at a computer or sittin’ somewhere else. The action man shit is a stereotype based on total fiction.”

Her eyes dropped to his middle and, to hide what that said, she quickly turned and grabbed her beer, tipping her head back to take a sip.

When she put it down she turned back to him and asked, “What if there isn’t any dirt?”

“There isn’t any dirt, we go deeper.”

“Cameras?”

“Cameras are expensive, it’d take forever to set them up, I’d need the feeds to come into the office, I’m not set up to do that and I don’t have the cash to get set up so I’d need recording devices which are bulky, therefore hard to hide, and someone would have to go and collect the DVDs. Each time I go in, I court gettin’ caught. I’m good but the law of averages on that kind of operation are never on your side. And, I go that way, I got hours of DVDs to watch, most of the shit on ‘em not worth watchin’, and I don’t have hours to waste.”

She turned her body toward him and rested her bent arm on the couch beside him. “So what do we do?”

“Again, we don’t do shit, sweetcheeks. I’m workin’ this case because you’re worried and what I’ll do is send in undercover recruits.”

Her brows shot up. “Undercover recruits?”

Layne leaned down, reached around and grabbed her ponytail, giving it a gentle tug as he got close to her face. “Jasper or Tripp. I’m thinkin’ Tripp. He’d do good at bein’ a Jesus Freak. Not to mention, the Youth Group is filled with girls. He’ll be all over that.”

Tripp would be all over that for the girls but mostly Tripp would be all over it because his old man asked him to do it and Layne would let it slip that it was a favor for Rocky.

Her eyes got bright and she whispered, “That’s brilliant.”

He let her hair go, handed her the rosters and she took them. “Your job is to look over those rosters and call me tomorrow with Tripp’s target.”

“His target?”

He nodded. “A girl, on those lists,” he tipped his head to the papers in her hand, “who’s been goin’ to Youth Group awhile. Not a new kid, someone who’s been around, could have seen things, heard things.”

She nodded.

Layne went on. “And she has to be open to Tripp. A shy or plain girl who’ll be flattered at attention from a kid on the football team.”

She shook her head. “I’m not setting up some girl to –”

He put his finger to her lips and she fell silent but he felt her lips part under his finger as he watched the intensity shift into her eyes.

In about a week, or, hope to God, sooner, he’d kiss her after seeing her eyes get like that.

Now, he took his finger from her lips.

“I’ll coach Tripp, he won’t leave her high and dry. This is a friendly operation with no collateral damage.”

She was still looking at him with that intensity in her eyes when she whispered, “Okay.”

“Now, it’s late, baby. Go get me a pillow and a blanket and go to bed.”

Her back went straight and she asked, “What?”

“Get me a pillow and a blanket, I’m sleepin’ on your couch tonight.”

She looked at the couch then at him. “Why?”

“Because it’s after one in the morning, I’m wiped and you don’t have any security sensors on your doors.”

She looked at the doors then at him. “But –”

“Go get me a pillow and blanket.”

“Layne, you live five minutes away. You could be wiped and still walk that far.”

“All right, sweetcheeks, I can also walk as far as your bed. You got two choices, get me a pillow and a blanket or I walk upstairs to your bed.”

“But –”

“Three seconds.”

“Layne!”

“One.”

“This is stupid,” she hissed.

He started to get up. “Two.”

“What about –?”

“Three,” he pushed up further but she shot up, her hands going to his shoulders to press him down.

When his ass was on the couch, she muttered, “I’ll go get a pillow and a blanket.”

Then she whirled around and ran up the stairs.

Layne watched her ass move as she did.