Lover Undercover (McCade Brothers 1)

No, she needed to stay close. But how? As long as Stacy’s blinding yellow Bug remained parked in the lot, Trevor and Ian and most everybody who worked at Deuces would know she hadn’t left yet. Mind in mid-whirl, inspiration struck. She’d leave now, park the Bug at the diner across the street, then walk back to Deuces and sneak inside before Vern locked up for the night. From inside the back door she could watch the parking lot and keep an eye on Trevor. No one would be the wiser.

With her own plan devised, she quickly changed, tossed her costume into her bag, hefted the bag onto her shoulder, and then stopped short. Dang it, she had to calculate her tip-out and give it to Vern. The chore was going to burn precious time. Would she still have enough of a window to move her car and make it back to Deuces before they locked up for the night? She glanced at the clock on the dressing room wall. It would be tight. Very tight. She dug her lockbox out of her bag, furiously totaled her tips, and deducted the proper percentage. Cramming bills into the front pocket of her jeans, she opened the dressing room door…and ran straight into Ginger.

“Whoa, slow down, Snowflake.” The redhead gave her a concerned once-over. “I saw what happened tonight. Are you okay?”

She nodded, ashamed her charade generated yet more unnecessary worry. “I’m fine. I just really have to get out of here.”

“After what you’ve been through, I totally understand. Anything I can do to help?”

“Actually, yes.” She pulled the bills from her pocket and thrust them at Ginger. “I’d owe you a lung if you’d give my tip-out to Vern and tell him I took off.”

Ginger laughed her husky, inherently sexy laugh and took the money. “Don’t give it another thought. And keep the lung,” she shouted at Kylie’s retreating back. “It’s your teeny-tiny gnat ass I want.”

She wished she had time to joke around, but she didn’t. One thing for sure, Stacy really needed to give these women a chance. Her sister was missing out on some quality friends by keeping them at arm’s length. She hurried to the exit at the end of the hall and yelled back, “My ass is yours.”

Ginger laugh followed her out the door. “That’s what I like to hear.”

Kylie shook her head. Despite her nerves, a smile took control of her lips.

Her luck held. She moved her car to the other lot and made it back to Deuces without attracting any attention. After waiting several minutes in the shadowy corner behind the back door, it swung open and she saw Gary and Ramon walk out. They never glanced her way when she slipped around the door and inside before it slammed and locked.

Ducking into the utility closet at the end of the hall, she waited. Benny walked out with Ari, Lee Ann, and Ginger. The last of the waitstaff filed out, and then, finally, Vern. Now she moved to the back door and peeked through the narrow window at the nearly empty parking lot. Not a lot to see, just a few people getting into their cars. Minutes later she peeked again. Aside from Trevor’s Yukon, she saw nothing. No Ian. No Trevor. No unnamed shadow moving nefariously along the perimeter.

Frustrated with the limited view she had from her vantage point, she contemplated opening the door a few inches. Just then, her ringtone chimed from the depths of her bag and echoed like a siren in the silence. Crap! Why hadn’t she thought to turn off her phone? Could they hear it outside?

She dug the dang thing out of her bag and whispered, “What?”

“Where the hell are you?” Trevor demanded in his tough cop voice.

“I’m at home.”

“You’re not at home. Detective Hernandez called me from his position across the street from the club. He saw your car in the diner parking lot.”

Shit. “He’s mistaken—”

“No, he’s not. I’m standing right beside it as we speak. Exactly where I’m not supposed to be at the moment. What are you up to?”

“I’m hungry. I’m getting takeout.”

“Yeah, right. You’re taking this call from the world’s quietest diner. Kylie,” he sighed, and the edgy sound cut a guilty trail through her conscience. “Where are you?”

Now she sighed. “You’re not goi

ng to like this.”

“Where. Are. You.”

“I’m, ah…inside Deuces.”

“Goddammit.” The slam of a palm against a metal surface punctuated his curse, and she hoped Stacy’s car didn’t have a dent in its roof.

“Nobody knows I’m here,” she justified. “I’m not in the way. Did you really expect me to just go home and get a good night’s sleep knowing you were wandering the parking lot with a big bull’s-eye on your head?”

“Kylie, I—nobody—did a sweep of the building.” Although his breathing told her he was on the move, his voice remained carefully calm. For whatever reason, this caused her nerves to stretch tight. “What if you’re not the only one hiding in there?” he went on. “What happens if our guy is holed up inside the club?”

Fear’s icy fingers tickled her spine. She hadn’t thought about the killer hiding inside the club.

“I’ll tell you what happens,” Trevor went on in the face of her silence. Leashed fear strained his words. “He trips over you on his way to take me down. Get out of there. Right now.”