Diamonds Are Truly Forever: An Agent Ex Novel

As a steady stream of Attitude employees arrived for work, Lucy taught Staci the job. “Smile and greet them,” Lucy whispered to her as the mostly male workforce filed in. “Oh, they’re going to love seeing a young, pretty face out front. Pity you’re not single. This would’ve been such an opportunity for you.”

  She smiled at Staci significantly, leadingly, as if she was just waiting for the story behind Staci’s storybook reunion with Drew and the apparently reconcilable differences that led up to the separation in the first place. “There’s no chance of that now?”

  Staci shook her head no, tamping down her anger at Lucy for prying and forcing her to lie, and confront the realities of being single and on the prowl again. Not a single one of the men who streamed in caught her attention or made her heart flip. Not in the way Drew had the first time he’d smiled at her during the lunch date Bill had set them up on. Not the way he still did. Love chemistry was a fickle, unreliable science. Staci wished she really lived this fantasy cover life they were presenting to Lucy, the life where Drew was exactly who Staci wanted him to be.

  Lucy stared at her, waiting for Staci to say more.

  Finally, Staci gave in and, much as it went against her moral code, lied. “Drew and I are happily reconciled.”

  Lucy sighed. “Yes, your mom told me. Isn’t that romantic? I love to see love survive. There’s nothing more uplifting. You’ll have to give me all the details!”

  No way! Staci was not giving the gossip queen any fodder.

  She couldn’t believe her mom had already told Lucy anything. Linda had only found out two days ago.

  “Maybe later.” Staci turned and smiled at two men who’d just arrived.

  “Later then.” Lucy nodded and greeted another group as she pulled a pen from the pocket of her slacks. “We’ll go over the basics first—how to answer the phones, buzz visitors and employees who’ve forgotten their badges through the doors, and issue temporary badges.” She paused and took a breath.

  “You look overwhelmed already.” She smiled. “Why don’t I jot a few notes for you as we go over things?” She reached for a pad of paper.

  As she did, Staci recognized Lucy’s pen as one she’d seen at the spy store. It was the Audio Recorder 2000 rollerball with black ink. That tricky Lucy! Attitude was unknowingly letting her behind the dreaded doors with a recording device. And yet they didn’t trust Staci? She, at least, would only spy on Sam!

  Funny the righteous indignation of the spying life. Staci had to make sure she wasn’t mistaken about the pen. “Nice pen!”

  Actually, that was a little over the top. Her spy chatter needed work. The Audio Recorder 2000 was made to look innocuous, like a cheap, disposable pen so it wouldn’t call attention to itself. Staci watched Lucy to see if she blanched or developed a nervous tic, anything that gave her away.

  Lucy laughed, more of an anxious chortle, really. “This? It’s just your office-supply store variety.”

  “May I see it?” Staci couldn’t help herself. She was feeling an adrenaline rush from testing Lucy. “I have such a hard time finding pens that write well.”

  Lucy opened her mouth and shut it again without speaking. Ah-ha! Staci thought. This was the downside of these expensive spy pens. It was impossible to deny a reasonable request to borrow one, especially one that looked like a ninety-nine-cent cheapie. Lucy handed it over with obvious reluctance.

  Staci hefted it. Examined it. Stealthily found the button to disarm it and did. She scribbled a few lines on the pad of paper in front of Lucy and handed the pen back. “It has nice action. I’ll have to get one.”

  Lucy smiled weakly and, looking both relieved and irritated, resumed their lesson.

  By nine o’clock, Sam still hadn’t arrived. Staci asked Lucy about it. “Where’s Sam?”

  “We work on flex time. Employees choose their own hours. He’s one of our late arrivers. Never comes in before nine and always works late. He told me once he likes the quiet of the office after the bulk of the people have gone home.”

  Lucy would know. Staci was grateful she’d added the extra intel. Staci wondered if Sam worked late hours to avoid her mom?

  “Sam seems to travel a lot for Attitude. Who knew document control engineers would have to be on the road so often?”

  Lucy frowned. “Travel a lot? No, I’m sure you must be mistaken. Sam rarely travels for Attitude. But, like anyone who’s been with the company for thirty years, he has loads of vacation. More than he can possibly take and still get his job done. Except for the annual conference on document control held in Vegas, I’m sure any traveling he does is personal and on his own nickel.”

  Was that malice Staci detected in Lucy’s tone? It was almost as if Lucy enjoyed crushing Staci’s assumption. There was also a definite tinge of bitterness in her voice.

  Annual conference on document control? Come to think of it, Staci remembered her mom mentioning that one. Sam never took her along. Staci thought her mom was actually grateful. It sounded like a real snoozer.

  “That one’s coming up soon, isn’t it? Next month?” Staci tried to remain friendly, as she pretended to be unaware of the tension that had sprung up.

  “Yes.” Lucy cleared her throat, suddenly developing a nervous, guilty tic as she fiddled with her pen. And was that a flash of anger that crossed her face?

  What the heck? Staci made a mental note to look into that particular conference.

  “I’m sure you’re right about the travel. I’m probably confused,” she said to reassure Lucy. She didn’t want to lose her unwitting informant, especially now that she couldn’t go behind the closed doors to her left.

  A deliveryman came in, carrying a clipboard and looking for a pickup. Neither Staci nor Lucy could find it. Lucy called to the back and went off behind the closed doors to locate it. Staci took the opportunity to unpack her box.

  She’d barely armed and set her nanny cam bear on the reception desk when Sam strolled in. He carried a white glass vase filled with a large bunch of oversize, deep-purple irises. “There she is! Welcome to Attitude!” He set the flowers on her desk. “Your mother sent these in for you from her garden.”

  Staci froze, momentarily puzzled, and paralyzed at the mouth. Her mother would not send her irises. Linda knew their scent gave Staci a headache on first sniff. Would her mother forget? Try to ruin her first day of work? Not likely. Which had to mean … what? Her mom was sending her a coded message?

  Staci had been living with Drew too long. Her mother never sent coded messages. Was Sam lying, then? But why would he bring her flowers? Maybe he was a considerate old softie and didn’t want to admit it. Staci didn’t want to admit that, either.

  She forced herself to think like a spy, act naturally, and play along. “They’re gorgeous! You’ll tell Mom thanks from me?”

  “Sure will, kiddo.”

  She hated it when he called her kiddo as if she were five.

  He glanced at the clock behind her. “Damn! I almost forgot. I’m late for a meeting with my boss and a client.”

  Staci tried not to grin. She’d like to see the hurting-her-mother Sam get in trouble with his boss. Serve him right. “Important one?”

  Sam scowled. “One of those damn meetings with our impossible DoD client, a pompous general. I’d better run.” He slapped the desk. “You have a good day!”

  “Yeah, you, too.”

  Sam dashed to the glass doors and scanned his badge. As the doors opened for him, he called back over his shoulder. “I’ll be tied up in the meeting all morning, but if you need anything later, holler.”

  Uh-huh.

  The doors closed behind him. She stared at the treacherous irises. They were gorgeous and killer-headache-inducing. Two more seconds alone with them and she’d be in the break room, lying with a cold compress over her eyes. She had to get rid of them, fast.

  Lucy swung back through doors, carrying her cell phone and a white cardboard overnight envelope, labeled and ready for pickup. She set them down on the reception de
sk while she double-checked the package label and signed a release form for the deliveryman.

  When he left, she noticed the flowers. “Gorgeous irises!”

  “Thanks. My mother sent them in.” Staci decided she may as well keep up the lie until she found out what was really going on. “She must have forgotten I’m allergic.” Headaches qualified as an allergic reaction, right? “If you promise to cart them away immediately, you can have them.”

  Lucy’s eyes lit up. “Really? I’d love them!” She frowned and glanced at her watch. “Oh, darn. I’m on my way out. I have to run an errand off site. There’s no time to go back to my desk right now.”

  She looked around the room and smiled as her gaze landed on the door to the bathrooms. “I’ll just stash them in the ladies’ room until I get back. Is that far enough away?”

  “As long as I don’t have to go to the bathroom.”

  “Excellent!” Lucy smiled. “Remind me to get them when I get back. Before I forget, the Plant Lady will be stopping by on her twice-weekly run today. Let her into the black-box area.”

  “The plant lady?”

  Lucy laughed, rolled her eyes, and described her. “Middle-aged, to put it kindly, overweight, cropped brown hair with streaks of gray, wears too much green eye shadow and too-bright red lipstick. Frumpy. And a little…” She twirled her finger by her ear to indicate whoo-hoo. “Always wears a uniform—green polo with the Plant Lady logo, tan khakis, a flower-patterned apron, and Crocs. She’ll be pushing a cart with a large water bottle and watering wand, and a bag for plant clippings attached. You can’t miss her.

  “She comes twice a week to water and care for the indoor plants, including those in the executives’ offices. She has her own badge that lets her in. Just giving you a heads-up so you don’t hassle her. She has a mean streak. Just ignore her if she starts talking or singing to the plants here in the lobby. She says they like it. Though, believe me, the rest of us could do without it.”

  “Wait a minute!” Staci said. “The Plant Lady has clearance?”

  Lucy shrugged. “Of course.” She scooped up the vase of irises and carried it off to the bathroom. A few minutes later, Staci watched her dash across the lobby and out the doors.

  As the doors closed behind her, Staci realized Lucy had left her phone on the reception desk. She grabbed it and ran after her, but she was too late. Lucy pulled out of the driveway onto the street and disappeared just as a small white van with THE PLANT LADY painted on the side pulled in.

  Staci carried the phone back to her desk and sat down. Out of curiosity, she slid the phone open. What juicy contacts did Lucy have in here?

  Staci really had been hanging around Drew too long. Visions of her iPhone recovery stick flashed through her mind. A little espionage seemed in order. Turnabout was only fair play, after all. The office gossip deserved it.

  When the phone lit up, Staci hit the contact list and scanned it. To her surprise, the number listed for home was her mom’s landline number.

  Realization hit her—this wasn’t Lucy’s phone. It was Sam’s.

  What was Lucy doing carrying Sam’s phone?

  She had no time to consider that right now. She’d think about it later. She’d just been handed the spying opportunity of the decade. Well, maybe not the decade, but certainly the spying opportunity of her mission.

  She bit her lip and glanced toward the doors into the offices. Sam had said he’d be in a meeting all morning. There was time!

  The stick was in her purse. Sam’s phone still in hand, she bent over in her chair to retrieve her purse from the desk drawer, ignoring her desk duties.

  “You’re new.”

  Staci jumped and put her hand to her heart as she looked up.

  The Plant Lady, looking exactly as Lucy had described her, smiled down at her. “Caught you texting on the job, did I?” She laughed.

  Staci wondered if the woman had sneaked up on her on purpose.

  She played along. Better to let the Plant Lady think she was texting than snooping. Staci smiled up at her and shrugged. “You got me.”

  The Plant Lady laughed. “I like honesty.” She nodded to Staci’s teddy bear cam. “Nice bear you have there.”

  “Yeah, he keeps me good company.”

  “You desk girls are lucky. You get to decorate your work space. It’s against company rules to beautify my cart. No sense of personal style allowed in this job.”

  Except for the layers of light green eye shadow. Staci tried not to laugh. An idea dawned on her. Fate was just handing her way too many golden spying opportunities. “My bear gets tired of just sitting here. Same old scenery. How’d you like to borrow him? Take him for a spin on your rounds? You can drop him back by on your way out. He’d love to see the plants. Your boss will never know.”

  The Plant Lady grinned. “I’d like that. What did you say your name was?”

  “Staci. Today’s my first day. I’m just temping here for a few months.” She grabbed the bear and surreptitiously turned it on to record as she handed it over. “And you are?”

  “The Plant Lady!” She laughed as she grabbed the bear and settled it face-forward on her cart as if it were a live pet. “I’ll have him back before lunch.”

  “You do that. Have fun!”

  Staci watched the Plant Lady swipe her badge and disappear through the doors into the black-box area. It seemed like Attitude let anyone in. Except for her.

  Too bad on them. She’d just gotten her little spy in. She hurriedly pulled her iPad out of her purse. She turned her back to the security camera Drew had warned her about as she logged in to watch her bear go for a ride.

  She set the iPad on her desk out of camera and casual observer view, and pretended to be busy working. Her screen lit up with a bear’s-eye view of the interior of Attitude, Inc. Which was pretty much disappointing territory. Bland. Your basic office cubicles in boring shades of light gray. It didn’t look like anything worth breaking into, not to her eyes, anyway.

  They had some nice plants, though. And the Plant Lady gave them loving care, singing off-key Justin Bieber tunes to them as she went.

  Staci needed to multitask and focus. How did Drew do this spy stuff? Keeping one eye on the iPad, and one on the lobby, she pulled the recovery stick from her purse and plugged it into the USB port on her computer before attaching the cable it came with to Sam’s phone and into a second USB port.

  On her iPad, the Plant Lady watered a ficus tree just outside a conference room. The conference room door opened.

  Sam walked out.

  Staci froze.

  What! What was he doing out of his meeting?

  He walked past the Plant Lady, still in view of the camera. Another co-worker stopped him.

  “I thought you were in a meeting?” the co-worker said to Sam.

  “Forgot my phone,” Sam said, sounding irritated.

  Uh-oh.

  Staci crossed her fingers and clicked on the executable file that popped up to download the data from the phone.

  Co-worker commiserated. “Hey, I still want to hear all about your latest fishing trip. Didn’t get lucky and get a four-hundred-pound shark jumping into your boat, did you? See that on the news?”

  “Saw it. No, no sharks. Would rather have a big king salmon jump in.”

  Staci selected the iPhone folder and watched the file transfer begin in apparent slow motion. Why did her computer have to be so slow? Damn, she heard the hard drive kick in and run. Did her computer have to run diagnostics now?

  She bit her lip and crossed her fingers. Keep him talking, buddy. Keep him talking!

  “Lucy said you’re going fishing again this weekend. Up in Victoria,” the co-worker said.

  Staci frowned. Fishing? Lucy would know. But what about Mom? Does she know Sam plans to disappear again this weekend? And why would he be hiding his fishing trips from her?

  A transfer box popped up on Staci’s screen. It had a line across it that turned green to show the progress.

>   It was only halfway complete as Sam slapped his co-worker on the shoulder. “Yep, heading to Victoria on Friday morning. Hey, I gotta run. We’ll talk later.”

  Three-quarters of the way done.

  The Plant Lady finished with the ficus and mercifully followed Sam as he went to his desk to look for the phone. Staci just hoped he didn’t think to come out to reception and ask for it in lost-and-found.

  The bear cam caught Sam rummaging around his desk. As he did, he exposed a brochure of some sort. Staci got just the quickest flash of it before it fluttered to the floor. Sam bent over, picked it up, and stashed it in a drawer. The Plant Lady’s back was turned so she couldn’t see Sam’s look of fear, or apprehension, or whatever you want to call it, over that brochure. Something about it made him uncomfortable. Staci wondered if it held a key to his disappearances. Suddenly she had to see it. She had to get into the black box.

  But there was no time to dwell on that. Sam left his cubicle. Staci had no idea of the floor plan of the building, but if she had to guess, she’d lay money that he was heading toward the lobby, retracing his steps, and possibly heading out to his car to look for the phone she was scanning.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Drew had sex on the brain all throughout the morning as he performed his marketing director duties, sitting through boring meeting after meeting. When he wasn’t in a meeting, he was speculating with someone or other about where Martel, who’d been known as Wade at the brewery, was and why he hadn’t shown up for work. As one of three brew masters, Martel/Wade was important to brewery operations. The staff was trying to track him down.

  Good luck with that.

  But back to Staci. Damn her for toying with him, pretending to seduce him, then pulling back like a simpering virgin. What was her game? One minute, she acted as if she still loved him and wanted him back. The next, she was as cold as one of her stepfather’s fish on ice.

  But to be honest with himself, he faced a far greater conundrum, one of his own making. He was beginning to think, to contemplate, and believe it was possible, to make things work with her. Or maybe that was only wishful thinking.