Fay's Six

CHAPTER9

Fay slippedinto Lee’s room. Her heart hammered in her throat like a woodpecker going to town on the side of a tree first thing in the morning when everyone was sleeping, but the woodpecker didn’t care. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry.

All normal for someone who was about to search a colleague’s bedroom.

Not something she was proud of but she didn’t trust Lee’s motives.

She unbuckled his rucksack. He hadn’t unpacked. She wasn’t sure what that meant because she often didn’t put her clothes away when she wasn’t sure how long she was staying at someone’s house.

Or when she was at a hotel.

It always felt weird to settle in when it was temporary.

However, if she had something important that she didn’t want anyone to find, she put it somewhere she thought no one would find it.

She went through the contents and there was nothing out of the ordinary. Clothes. Though not many. Just a few jeans and a couple of shirts. One of which had an unusual oak tree on the chest. He had a medicine kit. Shaving materials. All the usual things a man would travel with.

His computer and tablet were set up on the desk. Carefully, she hit the power button on the laptop. The screen came to life.

“Of course it needs a password,” she mumbled, making sure she turned the screen back to black.

There was nothing else on the desk. No paperwork or magazines or books. Nothing on the nightstands. He hadn’t put anything in the chest of drawers or the closet.

Boring Lee.

Only, she knew that was surface shit. Lee might be one-dimensional, but he was still a complicated man with many layers. What you saw wasn’t what you got, unless you were a woman in power. Fay suspected if she were the little woman type, he would not only treat her differently, he might even respect her. It was all about belief systems with Lee.

She wished she could believe the only thing that bothered her about Lee was his sexist attitude, but there was something else that had crawled under her skin. There was a new anger that lingered in his eyes. It came from deep in his soul. Whatever it was, it haunted him and it was destroying him from the inside out.

Something didn’t add up, though. She’d met lots of men along the way who had issues with women in the field. They weren’t quite as vocal or adamant as Lee was about where women belonged, but they had opinions and weren’t afraid to express them. However, at the end of the day, most of them were happy to admit they were wrong when a female counterpart proved them wrong.

She knelt on the floor and looked under the desk.

Nothing.

She checked under the bed. Between the mattress and the box spring.

Still nothing.

Lee wasn’t only here to interview for the job. Something told her that he had other plans. The question was what?

And why?

Headlights flickered though the window.

Walker and Lee were home.

She scurried from the bedroom and raced through the house until she was in the kitchen where she found herself a bottle of wine and a glass. She quickly uncorked.

“Hey, honey,” Walker said as he strolled behind the counter. He took her into his arms and gave her one hell of an unexpected kiss.

Perhaps she should have known it was coming. They were still playing boyfriend-girlfriend.

“How was your evening?” He snagged another glass and poured them both some wine while Lee ducked his head into the fridge and helped himself to a beer.

“I spoke to Tuck,” she admitted.

“What did he have to say?” Walker handed her the glass.

“We need to be careful with the Javi Cartel. The feds have an undercover agent and an informant on the inside. They aren’t all that close to making arrests, but they are making progress.” She took a sip of her much-needed adult beverage. The tannins hit her taste buds like a wave crashing into the shoreline. “I also found out that the supplier that Randall used to get his drugs from did, and still does, work for the Javi Cartel.”

“Didn’t Randall deny he had any connections to Javi?” Lee turned one of the kitchen chairs around and straddled it. He flipped the top of a tallboy and took a hearty chug.

“He did. He still does,” Walker said. “He might not have known that was the product he was selling. He was really low in the supply chain.”

“Or he knew and was afraid to say anything.” Fay chose to lean against the counter, next to Walker. She pressed her arm against his, absorbing as much of his strength as she could.

“That makes sense for back then, but what about now?” Lee asked. “He didn’t seem too engaged in that conversation today. And from what I could find out, he’s a legit born-again Christian. He’s totally turned over a new leaf. No drugs. No women. Nothing but church and doing good deeds.”