Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries, 1)

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lily got home to find a squad car parked at the door and immediately came up to find out what was wrong. After assuring her everything was okay and there was nothing to worry about, she went back to her apartment, and after a while, everything got quiet. Along the street, people returned to their homes, lights switched off, and dogs were brought inside. After one last look outside to make sure the cops were still at my door and awake, I went to bed with the carving knife under the pillow, and had a restless night.

  Worry gnawed at me. Martin Dean was dead, so was his girlfriend, and the two goons who killed Dean were shot to death outside my apartment, with a note that may or may not have been intended for me. Someone had definitely left me a clump of dead thorns.

  The thing was, I was pretty certain the Finklesteins hadn't killed Dean's girlfriend. For one thing, they were too large and cumbersome. The man in the alley could run pretty fast. Plus, even though I hadn't seen him clearly that night, I could tell he wasn't either Twinkles or Knuckles. He was shorter and had hair. Somewhere in Montgomery, a merciless killer was still at large.

  I had a number of possibilities, and none of them reassuring. I made a mental list, working through the options. One, the man in the alley was behind Dean's killing, Tanya/Tallulah’s, and the Finklesteins. Except, I couldn't see why the Finklesteins were shot outside my building unless it was to scare me. But in that case, how did that man know who I was and where I lived?

  Second, the man in the alley only killed Tanya, and might have had a possible connection to everything else. Unless her murder was a massive coincidence.

  Third, I knew the Finklesteins killed Dean, but could their employer have killed them?

  Fourth, someone else killed the Finklesteins, except that seemed like too much of a coincidence as well. It was becoming unreasonable to think that the four murders weren't connected, since their common denominator was Dean. I just couldn't see how one person could be responsible for four deaths.

  Maddox picked me up in the morning and drove me to work after dismissing the officers who were replaced sometime in the night. We hadn't arranged to carpool, but truth be told, I was relieved to have the company.

  "How did you sleep?" he asked.

  "Badly." It wasn't just the murders that caused my sleepless night. Maddox played a part too. The kiss had been heavenly, reinforcing how yummy I thought he was. The occasional thought about Solomon also crept into my mind. "How do you sleep at night after seeing so much bad stuff?" I asked. I was trying to extinguish my mental comparison about the way they kissed. Me. Not each other.

  He smiled. "I'm overworked. I just keel over at night, then start all over again the next day."

  Vincent was exiting his car when we parked and got out two bays away. He ran his eyes over both of us, his forehead puckering into a cross frown. Saying nothing, he strode on ahead, although he did hold the elevator.

  "Carpooling?" he blurted, like he couldn't contain his curiosity anymore.

  "Car trouble. I had to call Adam for a lift," I lied.

  "Do you need a ride home?" Vincent asked hopefully.

  "No, thanks, Vincent. Besides, I don't think I’m on your way. My friend, Lily, is picking me up." That was a lie, too, but I didn't want it to look like Maddox was picking me up and taking me home. As the temp, being careful to avoid becoming office gossip, as well as not sleeping with the boss, was part of my job description. So far I had succeeded at both; staying on the edge of the former, while seriously wanting to do the latter.

  "Nothing's out of the way for you, Lexi," Vincent said, winking as we exited the lift. I thought he was flirting with me, but I didn't have the patience to play along today. I tried hard not to encourage him, but he was so hopeful, like a happy little optimist that truly believed there was someone special for everyone. There probably was for Vincent too, but I was not she. I would not ever be his honey.

  "You're sweet," I said. Vincent flushed, but smiled happily at me and zoomed off to his cubicle. I hoped he hadn't taken my kindness as encouragement, or more than what it was, which was simply kindness.

  "He's sweet on you," said Maddox, clearly not even remotely bothered. "Please don't marry him. It'll break my heart."

  "No chance of that."

  "Why?"

  "I have my eye on someone else."

  Maddox smiled down at me. "Anyone I know?"

  "Maybe," I said, arching my eyebrows at him, as I peeled away to my own desk. I slid my purse underneath and powered up. Busying myself by arranging my notepad and pens while waiting for the password screen to pop up, I entered it and looked down again at my handwritten to-do list.

  When I looked up, I shrieked and almost fell out of my chair seeing the screen. Instead of the generic background, big capital words spelled out “I'M WATCHING YOU.”

  Maddox's IM box immediately popped up.

  Adam: What?

  Me: Someone changed my screensaver.

  Adam: ?

  Me: Do that thing where you can see my screen.

  I waited a moment, then saw that Maddox was typing.

  Adam: Oh.

  Me: Can you see it? Who did that?

  Adam: I'll look into it.

  Me: I'm getting rid of it.

  I closed the IM window, and changed the screensaver back to the generic screen. It was bad enough that someone already deleted my files, but now they were in my computer leaving messages that they were watching me too. I hoped they weren't watching everything I was doing. That would be creepy as hell for me, and boring for them. Even worse, it made last night's note pinned on Knuckles even more frightening.

  I snuck a glance at Maddox, wondering if he thought the same, but his brow was furrowed as he concentrated on his screen. There was no way I could work without caffeine, so I went to the kitchenette and switched the pot on, too shaken to function.

  "Hey there. You need a caffeine boost too?" Vincent sidled past me, aiming for the coffee pot. He touched it with the back of his hand to check if it were ready, before pulling a mug from the open shelf above. "Pass the sugar, sugar! Hah!"

  I rolled my eyes and pushed the sugar over to him. "It's a caffeine type of morning," I said, ignoring his attempt at flirting.

  "You need a shoulder to lean on, I got two." Vincent patted one of them with a pasty hand.

  "That's very nice of you," I said. "But I'm just going to dive into work."

  "Maybe you want to get lunch later? A friend in need is a friend indeed."

  "That's very true, but I have a half day today."

  "Doing anything nice? Shopping? Spa?"

  "Hanging out with my brother." After Garrett dropped my brothers and Ted off, he called and promised to take me to the shooting range so I could try out some different guns. Apparently, after the events of last night, he pulled some strings, got some time off work and booked the range for today.

  Maddox had no problem giving me the afternoon off, especially after he heard I was going to be with Garrett. I hadn't told him exactly what we were doing though. I sensed he wouldn't be overly thrilled about me going to the range. After all, I was supposed to be avoiding danger, but I saw no harm in preparing for it, especially now that the threats were getting so much more personal. Plus, without requisite boyfriend status, he had no right to ask me not to do something, or expect me to answer to him.

  "Any plans for the weekend?" Vincent persisted. He tapped the spoon against the countertop. He tried to flip and catch it, but missed and the spoon skittered across the floor.

  "No. Not yet." So long as it didn't involve dead bodies, I was good. "You?"

  He retrieved the spoon and leant against the counter casually. "This and that. Going to try out that new barbecue place. Want to come?"

  "Oh, I..."

  "Lexi, make me a coffee while you're getting yours and bring it to conference room one." Maddox's voice boomed behind us and Vincent jumped. "Fast as you can," he added.

  "Sure. Coming right up," I said. I
snagged the pot as soon as the light clicked off and made our coffees, scooting away before Vincent could ask me out again.

  "Shut the door," Maddox said, barely looking up when I entered the conference room. I kicked it shut and placed the mugs on the table, sliding into a seat on the curve of the table, not quite next to Maddox, but not far away either.

  "Thanks for saving me,” I said gratefully. “Any news on the Finklesteins?”

  "Solomon is working on it. We're looking for the link between the brothers and whoever hired them. Let's hope someone got sloppy."

  "Okay. Good. Great." So, not great. Someone out there was probably pissed off that their hired thugs were dead, and that meant more people pissed at me. The rational part of my mind insisted that I had nothing to do with the goons' deaths, it could have been just a coincidence that they parked on my street. It was simply unfortunate that someone chose to shoot them there, right outside my building. The irrational part of me wanted to run home to my parents and hide under their bed. “What do you want me to do?”

  "Go back to work. Chat with the other employees."

  "What do you want me to talk to them about? The night Dean died?" I didn't remind him that he thought I should be off the case. If he didn’t bring it up, neither would I.

  "No, don't mention that at all. We're going to announce it tomorrow morning. Just talk about whatever you normally talk about. See if anyone's body language is off. Has someone developed a nervous twitch, or a guilty expression about something? Someone having secret phone conversations or acting like they’re doing something they shouldn't be."

  "Can't you do this stuff?"

  "I'm the boss. Everyone acts nervous in front of me."

  "I don't. Do I?"

  "You send me lingerie pictures."

  "That was an accident." I got up and grabbed my coffee, flashing him an indignant look. My hand was on the door handle, when he asked, "So what did you get?"

  "Hmm?"

  "Did you buy that lingerie?"

  "Like you don't already know. You forgot that you told me you can see everything I do on my computer."

  Maddox grinned. He looked really happy. "The lemon set is sexy."

  I rolled my eyes and walked out, trying not to imagine him looking at me while I wore it and nothing else. I spent the next five minutes Googling dating websites and dog houses, while hoping he got the message. Then it occurred to me that whoever else was monitoring my computer was probably getting very mixed messages about my personality. I shut the browser and pretended to work like normal.

  Through the morning hours until lunch, I made excuses to talk to everyone from Dominic, Bob, and Anne, to a few of the suits that occupied the other half of our office. No one seemed abnormal at all, though Anne tried to persuade Lily and me to give her burlesque troupe a chance. I resigned myself to finishing the spreadsheet Dominic begged me to do, emailing it to him just as Garrett called to let me know he was parking in the lot. I waved goodbye to Maddox and went downstairs, pausing in the lobby to text Maddox. I let him know I saw nothing out of the ordinary, just in case he hadn’t already used his detective instincts to work it out.

  Garrett took one look at my neat shift dress and heels and drove me home to change.