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

"In the guest house just at the bottom of my road," she admitted.

Barking grinned, as though not entirely surprised with her answer.

"Sir?" she queried, wondering what had amused him.

"Hmm, well, that's good," he went on, "you can keep an eye on him there then." He went then to move out of his chair but stopped and seated himself again, adding , as an afterthought, "He knows he can't stay there for long though, doesn't he? If he thinks he can just waltz back here as though nothing has changed, he's going to be very disappointed."

She finished a sip of her drink and placed the glass back on the desk. "I know sir, those were almost my exact words to him."

His grin grew.

Charlie always did know how to put him in his place.

"Once…" Barking pointed twice towards the ceiling, "… they get wind of this, they'll send him packing; they weren't exactly over the moon about his last little stunt," Barking stressed.

"I shall relay that message to him again," she answered.

Nevertheless, Charlie didn't really want to dwell on the thought of Luke disappearing out of her life again. All she needed to focus on now was getting him out of this mess. Anyway, Luke was anything but predictable. What he was going to end up doing after all this was sorted out, was anyone's guess.

"About these mobsters, Sir," she pushed, "if the Borelli's, the mob from New York, are involved with them, then arresting Borelli could prove to be a considerable chink in their armour."

Barking was already ahead of her on that. His only concern now however, was keeping Luke under control.

"Do you think you could get enough evidence to bring these Yankee Mafia down?" he asked.

She nodded, "I think I could, Sir."

"Hmm," he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I don't want Luke anywhere near this though," he pointed to her. "You find these men, and Luke is not to know where they are, under any circumstances," he stressed. "I'm not having Luke go rushing in there like Raging Bull!"

"Of course not Sir, that goes without saying."

"Right, well, you get working on this then Charlie. If this all ends nicely," he continued, smiling, "with a little luck, they might put more Mafia cases our way."

Charlie pointed out tentatively, "Wouldn't that stretch your already rather heavy workload, Sir?"

"That lot out there could do with some stretching," he replied. "And besides, cases of this high priority could be just what this branch needs right now. Who knows, this little section might even go international," he winked at her, holding up his glass.

She looked impressed, picked up her glass and clinked with him.

Charlie was amazed at how well Barking had finally taken this. She wondered if he would feel quite the same, however, when he found out about the buried body!

 Luke was frustrated. He needed to go hunt down Jackson, and quickly before any more trouble erupted, but instead he was stuck there at the guest house with no car. What was taking them so long? Okay, so they had only been gone fifteen minutes or so but… He pulled back the curtains once more and scanned the fields and surrounding countryside. Somewhere out there, Roberto had been murdered. Then a thought hit him as he remembered something that Doug had said the night before. That was it; he was going back to the club. At least he could find his way there without a car and maybe get a step closer to getting his hands on the evidence he so badly needed. 
On his way out, he bumped into Mrs Bennett in the hallway and she stopped him by placing a light hand on his arm. 
"Hello Mr Luke. I haven't seen much of you at all since you arrived. You haven't even tasted my home cooking yet young man," she reprimanded playfully. 
He gave a small laugh. It had been a while since someone had referred to him as a 'young man.' 
"Yeah, sorry Mrs B. I've been busy visiting a friend who lives nearby. We've been catchin' up; you know how it is." 
She grinned. "Yes, I know. This friend, it wouldn't be Miss Charlotte, would it?" 
Luke was slightly thrown for a moment. How did Mrs Bennett know? 
"This is a small village Mr Luke; not much goes unnoticed," she went on. "And didn't I hear a female voice last night?" She gave him a knowing look. "Against the rules of course, but," she sighed, "I was never one to spoil a bit of romance. She's a lovely lady." 
Phew, seems like Mrs B was still oblivious as to what they had really been doing. 
He nodded. "Yeah, she is," he agreed. 
"How long will you be visiting for?" she asked. 
"Dunno. Actually, I was kinda thinking of stickin' round here for a while…" 
Mrs Bennett's grin developed again. 
"… Gonna need somewhere more permanent to stay though. You know of anywhere close by?" he asked. 
"Well, as you can see, there isn't much around here. Most of the buildings in this vicinity are owned by the proprietor of the Country Club down the road. He's a good friend of Miss Charlotte's actually," she answered. 
Of course, he remembered Charlie saying that she had bought her house off Doug. 
"Does he own any houses round here he rents?" he asked. 
She smiled. "Yes, as a matter of fact he rents two houses nearby to holidaymakers; one is opposite the post office about a mile from here, and the other…" There was that cheeky grin again. "… is next door to Miss Charlotte's house." 
Luke's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Living next door to Charlie? Yeah, now that was an interesting prospect. 
A smile developed from him to match Mrs Bennett's. 
Besides, just the thought of how much that would bug Charlie in itself was enough for him to want to move in there. 
"Now, I can't guarantee he will agree to rent you that house though Mr Luke because he likes to reserve it for visitors to The Club, but perhaps you could get Miss Charlotte to persuade him," she went on. 
Nah, he'd sort it out himself, and he knew just the bargaining chip to use too. 
"Thanks Mrs B, you're an angel," he said, reaching forward to plant a kiss on her cheek before he turned to leave. 
She smiled and touched her cheek. 
At the door, he paused for a second and turned to shout out, "I'll be back lunchtime to try that home cookin' of yours, Mrs B." And then he was gone. 
"Such a nice gentleman," she said to herself. "Aah, young love," she whispered wistfully. 
XxXxXxXxX 
When Luke entered The Club, he headed straight for the garden area, since it was the place he knew best and seemed to be where people congregated. 
There were a few people sitting at the tables where he had first seen Charlie a couple of days ago, and across the lawn, near the bar area, there were some members of staff busily clearing up the last remnants of the evening before. He decided to head towards them to ask if anyone knew where Doug was. 
As he approached the bar, he became aware of a guy slumped over it, his head resting on his arms. On closer inspection, he realized that the guy was Eddie. 
Luke placed on hand on his back. "Hey, you okay?" he asked. 
Eddie jumped up and turned to see Luke standing next to him. Eddie's face lit up with surprise. 
"Hi, yes I'm okay thanks sweetie, well, sort of. Just a tinsy bit hungover," he sighed, reaching wearily for a bottle of water that was on the bar in front of him. 
"Good night last night then?" Luke replied. 
"Yeah, after work parties, great at the time, not so great the next day," he came back. 
"You gotta work today?" 
"Unfortunately yes, but I'm counting the hours till I clock off later and then I have the whole of tomorrow off. I'm going to lock myself away and do absolutely nothing. No booze involved!" Eddie exclaimed. 
Luke laughed. "Good plan. Listen, I'm looking for Doug, you know where I can find him?" he asked. 
Eddie looked up at him inquisitively. "He's probably in his office. Ask Hannah at the reception and she'll call him for you." 
Luke smiled. "Thanks, keep drinkin' that water," he advised as he turned to head for the building again. 
Hannah informed Doug that Luke was there to see him and Luke was told to wait in the garden café for Doug; he would be there shortly. 
On his way back out, he passed Eddie again carrying a tray full of glasses. 
"We have to stop meeting like this," Eddie laughed. "Did you find him?" 
Luke took a seat at a nearby table. 
"Yeah, he's comin' down," Luke replied. 
Eddie balanced the tray on the table. 
"Where's Charlie?" he asked. Luke reached across to pull the precarious looking tray further onto the table. Eddie gave up and fell onto a seat with a groan. "I will get some work done at some point. Is she okay?" he went on. 
"Yeah, she's gone to see Richie," Luke informed him. 
Eddie pulled a face as though he wasn't impressed. "How long you staying here for?" he asked. 
"I dunno, I might stick around for a while," he replied, glancing about the gardens. 
Eddie smiled. "That will be nice; Charlie and you can spend some time together, catching up. I'd have loved to have known her when she was an agent, such an exciting life," Eddie replied dreamily. 
"Yeah, but it aint all a bed of roses; it can be dangerous too," Luke answered. 
"Yes, I suppose, but exciting too, eh? I'd like to be a cop. What do you think?" Eddie said, sitting upright and straightening his ruffled clothes, "would they let me into the force?" 
Luke didn't look convinced and replied, "You'd have to do a hell of a lot of training first." 
He sighed and seemed to wilt in his chair again, "Yeah, they said the same about being a firefighter. Ooops, got to go; here comes Doug," he said, jumping up suddenly and reaching for the tray. "Catch you later." 
As he watched the comical Eddie rush away, he laughed to himself. 
Luke stood to greet Doug as he approached the table. He held out a hand to him and they shook before sitting. 
"Thanks for comin' down," Luke said. 
"Not a problem," Doug answered, "I could do with a break anyway. Would you like a coffee?" he offered. 
"Sure," Luke replied. 
Doug beckoned over a waitress and ordered two coffees. 
"What can I do for you?" Doug said, turning back to Luke. 
"Well, I've kinda got some free time on my hands and I got to thinkin' 'bout the security issue you got here. I guess, I just can't stop workin'," he laughed, " never off duty." 
Damn it, he was trying to give a reason for being so interested in Doug's security but he had the awful sense that he was sounding kind of dumb in front of Doug. 
Doug didn't seem to react to Luke's comment and simply watched him thoughtfully, waiting for him to continue. 
"Yeah, so anyway, I don't think this place is secure enough at all. Anyone can just wander onto the premises," he warned. 
"Hmm, you could be right there; we had a stranger here last night. Did you know anything about that?" Doug asked. 
Woa, Luke had to be careful here. Was Doug testing him? 
"Yeah, I did hear people talkin' 'bout that," he