Flirting with Danger by Bev Hardy (digital e reader TXT) 📖

may have spoken too soon! She guessed that calm, organized and proper were on hold in her life for the time being.

 

The problem was that trouble just never failed to find him... or was it the other way around? Anyway, now he'd brought trouble into her life and she felt... strange, she didn't feel anxious about it, although she bloody well should! See what a bad influence he was already having on her? Well, she'd just have to keep him well and truly in check, help to sort out this mess, and then send him on his way again. Yes, that's what she was going to do.

 

He pulled the car to a halt with a jerk and they both felt a thud from the back seat, an unsettling reminder of what was there.

 

Charlie put her hands to her face. Oh, God, what the hell was she doing?

 

"You aren't gonna go to bits on me now, are you?" Luke asked, watching her suspiciously.

 

She dropped her hands. "No Luke, don't worry about me. I'm used to this kind of thing. I become accessory to murder on a regular basis."

 

Oh hell, she was working herself up; he'd seen the signs before.

 

"Look," he said, getting out of the car and leaning on the open door to talk to her, "I didn't exactly plan this ya know."

 

He disappeared from sight and then reappeared a moment later. "You fancy giving me a hand with the stiff?" he asked.

 

"Oooh yes Luke," she said, opening the door and sliding out, "such a treat. You really know how to show a girl a good time, don't you?"

 

Luke had opened the boot of the car and was already struggling to lift the body from under the arms by the time Charlie joined him near the back seat. The man had been of medium height, dark gelled hair, in his thirties she would say, black bomber jacket and jeans, and he bore the lone, red hole to the head of the bullet that had killed him.

 

Charlie grabbed hold of the man's legs and guided them out of the back seat, whilst Luke pulled him out. Finally, she had hold of his shins as they carried him to the boot of the car.

 

"Ya see Charlie, with me you get excitement, intrigue, mystery..."

 

"And prison," she finished for him.

 

"See, there you go again Charlie. With you it's all negative, negative, negative."

 

"Well... I'm positive that I don't ever want to do this again. Is that positive enough for you?" she said, finally positioning the legs into the boot.

 

They both stood, staring down at the body.

 

"So, now what?" she asked, gesturing to the corpse.

 

Luke took a deep breath, pondering the dilemma. Amusement bubbled up inside him then as he had a thought.

 

"Charlie," he began, placing an arm around her shoulder.

 

"What?" she asked dubiously, glaring down at his hand with a frown.

 

Luke took the opportunity of their close quarters and her distraction to glance down at her dress. From that position, he could at least see more skin down the folds of material, and the slight suggestion of cleavage in their somewhere.

 

"I don't suppose you have a big chest..."

 

He paused and she swung her head to him, her eyes widening. His gaze swiftly rose to her face.

 

"...freezer," he finished with an innocent look.

 

She smiled sarcastically and calmly took hold of the hand on her shoulder, peeling it from her.

 

"Adams, if I did have a chest freezer, I wouldn't let you put your body into it," she smiled sweetly.

 

Luke lost his battle to stop a grin from developing across his face. That sounded so funny, especially coming from Charlie.

 

His eyes, full of fun and amusement, moved over her face.

 

God, she liked his eyes.

 

No! No! No she didn't!

 

Charlie abruptly moved to slam the boot shut. "So, you're on your own on this one I'm afraid. Now, I'm going back to find Richie," she announced.

 

The smile quickly slid from his face.

 

"Wait," he said, placing a hand on her arm as she turned to move away. "Listen Charlie, seriously, it looks like the Borelli's are behind this. If that's the case, they must know I came to see you. It aint safe. These men are monsters."

 

She sighed. "Okay, well I'll be sure to sleep with a gun under my bed then," she replied, moving to turn from him again. Again, he halted her.

 

"With the Borelli's, a gun won't be enough," he insisted.

 

She growled. "Fine," she said, shrugging his hand off her arm. "What do you suggest then?"

 

He gave her a look as if she should know.

 

"You're going to be my body guard are you?" she laughed, leaning with one hand against the boot of the car and placing one hand on her hip. "Adams, I'm not putting you under my bed!"

 

"I'd rather be on it." The words had come out before he could stop them. Charlie didn't look amused, but Luke couldn't stop himself from continuing.

 

"Course, it'd be a bit of a squash ... what with the three of us in there," he said, feathering two fingers down her arm that was outstretched towards the car. "I take it Richie boy would be in there?"

 

He was unbelievable! He was trying to find out if her and Richie were sleeping together! Right, she'd had enough.

 

In one swift movement, she'd caught hold of the hand that was fondling her arm, twisted it behind his back, which forced him to turn with his back to the car, where she pinned him, his arm still bent in her grip.

 

"Wooaa!" he exclaimed in shocked surprise.

 

God, he'd forgotten about feisty Charlie. Hmmm, but he could definitely get used to her!

 

"Listen to me Adams," she said, moving her face closer to his, "And listen very carefully."

 

He was listening! She had his attention alright! He wondered if it was wrong to be extremely aroused at that point.

 

"First of all, you respect my relationship with Richie." She stopped to look for some kind of confirmation. He glared back at her. What did that mean? Did he agree?

 

Luke was trying his hardest not to show in his expression how much he was being affected by the feel of her thigh between his legs, her torso pressed against his stomach and her chest inches from his.

 

"And secondly," she went on, "You let me know every, tiny, single solitary detail about this investigation. You go off on your own on the warpath with this and I swear, I'll go to the police with everything I know. Got it?"

 

"Got ya," he agreed.

 

"And lastly, I help you out with this and then we say goodbye and go our separate ways," she finished, finally releasing him and walking back to the front of the car.

 

He felt suddenly bereft from her withdrawal, not only her sudden physical absence, but the thought that she really wanted to say goodbye to him.

 

He watched the incredibly smooth skin of her back disappear as she slid into the car seat again.

 

There was not a chance in hell he was letting them say goodbye! He'd bring her round eventually, somehow.

Chapter 4

Her heart raced and her body began to tingle the more their eyes remained on each other. He really was enjoying himself.

 

"You know, I was thinking, the club has surveillance," Charlie pointed out when Luke got back into the car. “It’s not the most up to date equipment, but they do keep the footage on discs.”

 

Luke's face lit up with hope. "Well, let's go check out the discs then," he said, starting up the car and moving slowly back down the track. “You know where the equipment is?" he asked.

 

"Yes, it's in the director's office," she replied.

 

"You know where that is?" he questioned.

 

"Of course," she said, as if he should have known that.

 

By the time they returned to the club, the sky was beginning to darken and the reception area was practically deserted. The receptionist looked up when they entered, but Charlie simply waved to her and led Luke past her desk and down a corridor, to the end where the lifts were located.

 

"Well, that wasn't too difficult," Charlie said, as they entered the lift and she pushed the button for the top floor.

 

Emerging, she led Luke down another corridor towards the only door on the top floor, at the far end.

 

"It's just up here," she said, pointing ahead.

 

"This director guy, won't he be in there?" Luke asked.

 

"No, he's not here on Sundays," she informed him, reaching into her bag to pull out a set of keys as she walked.

 

Luke eyed the keys with surprise. "You have keys to his office?"

 

She turned briefly to glance at him. "Yes, we're friends."

 

"Friends?" he echoed, raising an eyebrow.

 

"Yes Luke friends, I'm with Richie, remember?" She tutted, turning her head back.

 

"Hey, I never said nothing," he replied defensively.

 

"Hmm, but I can just imagine what was going through that overly active brain of yours Adams," she reprimanded.

 

"Oh, I have all sorts of thoughts you don't know about Charlie," he came back, running his eyes up and down the sight of her in that backless dress right in front of him. Hell, that dress was going to be the death of him!

 

"I bet. Please keep them to yourself," she said, finally stopping at the door and slotting the key into the lock.

 

They entered a large room, which was dominated by a heavy wooden desk, leather sofas and all number of sporting motifs and photographs decorating the wall. Charlie threw her bag down onto the desk but moved past it to open the door of an adjoining room. Luke followed.

 

"It's over there," she said, gesturing to another smaller desk with the surveillance equipment on it.

 

Charlie hovered by the door, nervously eyeing the first door for evidence of anyone approaching.

 

Mindful of how important the surveillance evidence could be to him, Luke rushed to the desk. He quickly found the eject button on the equipment and pressed it, but turned his attention to an open folder of other discs while he waited for the equipment to respond. He flicked through the pages of the folder, slipping out the last few discs.

 

"Hurry up," she urged.

 

"Right, let's get outta here," he said, minutes later, but looking up in confusion to see Charlie backing into the room.

 

"Charlie?" he questioned.

 

She stopped, frozen to the spot in the middle of the room. Lifting a finger to her lips, she indicated for him to be silent.

 

"What?" he mouthed to her.

 

"I'm sure there are people out there?" she mouthed back.

 

From behind the desk, Luke pointed to the adjoining door, hoping that she would get there first. She began to move slowly towards it, with the aim of closing it without the people who were clearly heading down the corridor seeing. Pushing it, so as to leave just a crack to look through, Charlie cautiously peered into the first office. It couldn't be the director; who on earth was it? She knew this would happen. It was just typical! The last thing she wanted was to get caught sneaking around the director's office. Eager to also see, Luke stood behind her. Placing one hand on the wall, and the other on the door frame, he reached to look over her head.

 

There was a man and woman in the other room, speaking in hushed voices. Sounded like they were up to something. Maybe they had something