Trouble (B-Squad 2.75)

She gave him a haughty look and pushed her plate away. Stubborn woman. Only place she liked to be told what to do was in bed--and even then sometimes it got a little dicey.

"They think I have something of theirs."

"Drugs?" he asked.

It seemed the obvious choice considering what she did for a living, but judging by the fire in her brown eyes as they narrowed and the snarl that curled up on one side of her full lips he'd chosen poorly.

"No," she retorted with enough attitude to all but give him the single finger salute. "Believe it or not I'm not packing our most popular HEA brand of marijuana to my high school reunion in Texas because that would be illegal."

Testy. It looked good on her. Always had. Every time she'd gotten all riled up that summer, they'd spent fucking each others brains out on any flat—okay, any—surface, the wildest times had always happened when she'd gone all spitfire on him. His cock thickened against his thigh and he had to shift in his seat. Her not-so-subtle glance down and smirk confirmed she hadn't missed his maneuvering.

&nbsp

; Fucking A.

"So what do they want?" he asked.

She shrugged. "No fucking clue."

Okay, she didn't trust him to help. That was as obvious as his half-staff hard-on, but he had one week left on the job and he wasn't about to let his jurisdiction go to shit because of some out-of-town trouble hot on Leah's ass. She knew something, she just may not know it. Time to figure it out.

He crowbarred his brain out of the gutter and put it into cop mode. "Where were you before you got to Catfish Creek?"

"Fort Worth to see my mom," Leah answered. "She and my stepdad bought a house there after Shana graduated."

There were five Camacho girls—besides Leah there was Ariella, a bush pilot out in Alaska or somewhere like that; the twins, Meira and Dalia, who had a ranch in Montana; and the baby, Shoshana, who, according to the Catfish Creek gossip mill, was getting a degree at UT—and one brother, Isaac, who'd been a year behind Drew in school. Isaac was a former military special ops type who was in Fort Worth now working with B-Squad Investigations and Security. Drew had run into Isaac several times while he'd still been working in Fort Worth. All of the Camachos had done like Leah and had gotten out of Catfish Creek as soon as they'd graduated—exactly like Drew had done until that call that came from his mom had dragged him back to town.

"Anything weird there?"

"Beyond the normal Camacho craziness?" Leah laughed. "Not much."

Okay, that knocked out his first and second theories. There had to be something though that would bring in heavyweights on Leah's ass. "After that?"

"I went to the car rental place," she paused, her eyes rounding with excitement. "Now that was weird."

His cop instinct started buzzing. "Explain."

She did, giving him a quick rundown of the sweaty guy at the rental car place who'd given her a free upgrade to the Aston Martin. Then, in the middle of describing the shady experience, she stopped dead and smacked her palm against the table.

"No fucking way," she exclaimed. "That thing can't be real."

Failing to come up with the same answer she had, he asked, "What thing?"

She sprang out of her chair and grabbed her purse, fishing out a wad of cash and tossing it on the table. "I've gotta go."

Oh, hell no. He clamped his hand down on the handle of her suitcase. She wasn't going anywhere without him. "You mean, we've gotta go."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Fine. Come on."

They hustled out of The Hamburger Shack and he followed her to Vazquez's Auto Care while she ignored every question he hurled at her. Once there, they hurried up to the sidelined Aston Martin parked in the garage, opened the passenger door, and searched inside the empty glove compartment.

"Hey, Jorge," she hollered to the owner, who was watching from the corner. "Did you guys grab the stuff out of the glove compartment when you cleared out the interior?"

"Yep." Jorge nodded. "It's in the big envelope I gave you."

Without another word, she pulled a manilla envelope out of her purse and opened it up. Then, she took out a goofy pink bag with a unicorn on it and emptied its contents into her palm. It was the biggest fake diamond he'd ever seen. At least, he figured it had to be fake.

He took a closer look. "That can't be real."