Nerds Like It Hot (Nerds, #6)(7)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

"Lex seemed to think this was the right uniform. I went along with it, because as we all determined last night, Lex is a better judge of what’s nerdy and what’s—"

"Give it a rest, Dante." Lex held out the Victoria’s Secret bag. "I hope these work."

Now that the attention was back on her underwear, her cheeks warmed. "I’m sure they will. Thanks for doing that." She was torn between chagrin and fascination. No man had ever made such an intimate purchase for her. It had a certain bonding effect.

"You’ll like them," Dante said. "I double-checked everything on the way over here."

"Which I tried to prevent him doing." Lex glared at his partner. "But I was hit with heavy traffic."

"It’s okay," Gillian said. She thought it was cute that Lex was taking such a protective stance toward her underwear.

"See?" Dante smiled in triumph. "I told you she wouldn’t be upset. And let me assure you, Gillian, that’s primo stuff. I didn’t know the Lexter had it in him to pick something that sex—" He caught his partner’s warning look. "I, uh, mean, that nice. Really nice. Say, where’s Cora?"

Cora bustied out of her bedroom pulling a suitcase that barely fit through the door. "Right here. I see you’ve been shopping."

"Lex handled it," Dante said. "I would give anything for a video of his shopping experience."

"And we need to be going," Lex said.

"Yes, we do." Gillian stuffed the bag into a zippered pocket in the front of the suitcase. "Tell me how much I owe you."

"It’ll be calculated as part of their fee," Cora said. "Lex is right. We need to get this show on the road."

"Yes, ma’am," Dante said. "Just let me get my forklift so we can load your suitcase."

"Smartass." Cora laughed and turned the handle of the suitcase over to him. "You can’t catch a fish without bait."

"Then you must be stalking a whale." Dante pretended to stagger as he pulled the suitcase toward the door.

"Hold it." Lex stepped to the window and pulled aside the curtain. "Before we go out there, let’s make sure we don’t have company."

Just like that, Gillian stopped smiling. She might feel a tingle whenever she looked at Lex. She might find Dante’s teasing funny. But the bottom line was that these two hadn’t been hired to keep her amused. They’d been hired to keep her alive.

Lex moved away from the window. "Cora, take a look. Tell me if the car parked two houses down belongs to anybody you know, or if the guy sitting in the driver’s seat seems familiar."

"Sure thing." Cora edged over to the window and peered out. "I don’t know that car or the guy sitting in it."

"Damn. I was hoping you’d recognize him."

"Lex, dear, I wouldn’t recognize him if he lived next door. I don’t keep track of the neighbors. I have a life to live, you know."

Lex glanced at her in surprise. "You used to keep track. Hell, we had Christmas block parties, trick-or-treating on Halloween. Everybody knew everybody."

"True, when your parents and Dante’s parents still lived around here. Everyone got older, grew up, moved. I have a bunch of new neighbors, but I’m not the kind to show up at the door with a welcome casserole."

Dante laughed. "No, I guess not. I remember you used to give out Godiva for Halloween. Which we didn’t value nearly enough at the time."

"So we don’t know if someone’s watching the house or not." Lex moved back to the window. "But I can’t imagine why a person would be just sitting there in the car on a hot August day. Looks suspicious to me."

"Let me look." Gillian walked over to the window, which put her in close proximity to Lex. He didn’t smell like a nerd. She didn’t really know how a nerd was supposed to smell, but she doubted they’d choose such a manly aftershave, one that made her think of dark woods, a secluded cabin, and two people nak*d on a bearskin rag.

"That’s a good idea." Lex’s voice sounded a little rough around the edges, as if his vocal cords had been affected by … well, thoughts of sex.

She glanced up at him, startled. Was he a mind reader? "What’s a good idea?"

"You checking out this guy. You saw the man who was at the studio last night. Do you think that’s him?"

"Oh." For a minute there she’d thought the two of them were occupying some alternate universe where they could indulge their passions. "Right." Her senses were on high alert from standing so close to Lex she could hear him breathing. Trying to block his impact, Gillian looked out the window.

The black sedan was two houses down, and the man in the driver’s seat had dark hair and sunglasses. He could be the man she’d bumped into, but he also could be somebody’s noncustodial father sitting at the curb waiting for his kids because this was his week to have them.

"I don’t know," she confessed at last. "It’s possible, but then again—"

"Then again, all mobsters look alike," Dante said. "I can say that because my ancestors actually came from Sicily, so it’s like a Polish guy making Polish jokes."

"You don’t look like a mobster," Cora said.

"That’s the point," Dante said. "Mobsters come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. You have your blond mobster and your dark-haired mobster. You even have your red-haired mobster."

Gillian stared at the car. The longer she did, the more nervous she became. "I don’t think we should take any chances."

"Neither do I," Lex said. "So let’s mix this up. Cora, I think you need to drive your car and leave first with Dante. Take your suitcase and Gillian’s. You can act like he’s your boy toy for the weekend."

"I don’t have boy toys!"

"Nobody said you did." Lex continued to watch the guy in the black sedan. "We’re trying to throw this guy off the trail, if he’s even on the trail in the first place. So if it looks as if you’re going off on a trip with Dante, we’ll have more time to see what happens with the sedan when you leave."

Dante nodded. "Good plan. Come on, Cora. We can do this."

"Well, of course I can do it. I just didn’t want anybody to think I actually operate that way. I prefer mature men."

"Hey!" Dante bristled. "Are you implying I’m not mature?"

"Of course not." Cora patted his arm. "You’re mature for your age. You need a little more seasoning, is all. Gillian, let me have your suitcase and we’ll be off." She walked over and took the handle of Gillian’s small rolling bag. "So you two will follow later?"

"Yeah," Lex said. "But we might give it some time, so we confuse the issue if the guy’s still there."

"Don’t forget that Gillian looks a lot different," Cora said.

"Oh!" Gillian had been so involved in thinking of the potential mobster who might be waiting to gun her down if she stepped out the door that she’d forgotten about her Marilyn disguise. "I guess you’re right. If I take off my glasses, I might not be recognized."

"And you won’t be carrying a suitcase, as if you were trying to escape somewhere." Lex nodded. "This might work."

"All righty, then." Dante trundled Cora’s big suitcase back toward the kitchen, where a door opened into the garage. "Call us in a little while to let us know what’s happening."

"Right," Lex said. "And when you go out there, make a show of it. Let Cora back the car out and then you put the suitcase in while it’s sitting in the driveway. Act chummy."

Cora paused at the door and turned. "Which is exactly what you and Gillian should do, too, Alexander. Excellent ploy."

Lex hesitated. "You’re probably right." Gillian’s heart rate climbed the charts.

AS CORA BACKED HER MERCEDES OUT OF THE garage, Lex positioned himself about five feet from the window so he could see out without being seen. He also worked hard to ignore Gillian’s presence in the suddenly small living room. His plan had seemed like the only logical one, but it had left him alone with a woman with the power to distract him from his job. Just his luck she was the job.

"What’s the sedan doing?" she murmured.

The sound of her voice skittered along his nerve endings, setting off a longing he had no business having. "Nothing so far." He took note of a slight scuff mark on the front bumper. That would help him identify it if it showed up again anywhere else.

Changing the focus of his attention, he watched as Dante loaded the suitcase in the back of Cora’s car. Cora got out and openly flirted with him. Then she pinched his butt.

Lex laughed.

"What?" Gillian moved up beside him. "Cora goosed him."

"That would be Cora. Give her a role and she’s ail over it. The woman has chops, even after all these years."

Lex felt the need to make conversation to diffuse the effect of Gillian’s perfume on his libido. Logically it couldn’t be her perfume, of course. She had to have borrowed some from Cora.

But borrowed or not, the scent of it made him think of where she might have dabbed it on her nak*d body. He’d had reason to think of her nak*d body ever since his shopping trip to buy underwear. That silky stuff with the lace trim would be covering and supporting places he shouldn’t think about, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

Maybe discussing Cora would give him some relief. "How did you and Cora hook up in the first place?"

"A TV special about two years ago. She came out of retirement because it was a charity thing for Alzheimer’s research."

Lex vaguely remembered it. "Wasn’t it a Christmas special?"

"Exactly. She was the her**ne’s wacky grandmother who was starting to slip mentally. I love her earlier work, so I specifically asked to do her makeup. She seemed pleased by that, and… we got along."

Lex felt a stab of guilt. "I’ll bet she was lonely. Dante and I should have stopped by more often. She always said we were like the grandkids she’d never had, but… life gets in the way."

"She didn’t seem particularly lonely or pathetic."

Lex appreciated the protective urge that prompted that comment. "No, I’m sure she didn’t. That would never describe Cora. Well, there she goes with Dante, her boy toy."

"And the guy in the sedan?"

"Not moving, damn it." Lex blew out a breath. "I was hoping he’d follow them."

"He’s waiting for me, though, isn’t he?"

The slight tremble in her voice socked him in the gut. He wanted to put his arms around her and promise she’d be safe, but that would be instant insanity and might not be a promise he could keep. So instead he glanced at her with a smile. "Maybe he’s waiting for you and maybe he’s waiting for some other reason. Don’t let it spook you. We’ll work this out."

She responded with a smile of her own. "I’m sure we will."

He would have to armor himself against that smile of hers. "We might as well sit down and relax." He walked over to an easy chair, to eliminate the possibility of them both choosing the sofa. "I’d like to give the guy time to get bored before we walk out the door."

"Boredom would be good." She took the sofa. "I doubt if a person’s aim is half as good if he’s bored."

He sat up straighter as he realized her fear was far more specific than he’d imagined. "Okay, hold it right there. You’re not about to get shot."

"I know you’ll try to keep that from happening, but—"

"Correction. I will keep that from happening." Somehow. He’d never figured on putting his life on the line when he agreed to be partners with Dante in this PI business, but here he was, in charge of keeping this gorgeous creature alive and well. The challenge of it was exhilarating. And he realized in that moment that if he lived through this assignment, he could never go back to insurance fraud.

Gillian leaned forward, her brown eyes earnest behind her wire-framed glasses. "I don’t know what your fee is, but it can’t be enough to justify taking a bullet for me."

"It’s not always about the money." He loved saying that. The statement made him feel brave and true, a Superman type who stood for justice and the protection of innocent women and children. Insurance just didn’t have that kind of payoff.

"But you don’t even know me."

"You’re important to Cora, and Cora’s important to me. That’s enough."

She clasped and unclasped her hands in her lap. "I don’t want Neil to get away with this."

This was news, and it scared him. It was all fine and dandy for him to make like a hero, but if she tried any heroics, she could get herself killed. "Look, once you’re safely out of the country, then you can—"

"What if that’s too late? What if he’s completely disappeared by then?" She looked frightened, but determined, too. "Instead of heading off on this cruise to try and save my neck, I should go to the police and tell my story."

"And then what?"

"There’s always the witness protection program." She didn’t say it with much conviction. "I suppose."

She took a breath and pumped more enthusiasm into her voice. "They could create a whole new identity for me and move me to the Texas Panhandle where I could work as a checker in a neighborhood grocery store."

"I don’t think you start out as a checker. There’s training and staff."

"You’re right. Plus that’s too high-profile. I could be recognized. I’d probably have to get a job on an assembly line screwing widgets into thingamabobs. If it’s high tech and I have to wear some sterile suit and a mask, so much the better."

"Sounds sort of grim."

"But not as grim as death. And maybe I could put Neil behind bars."

"Listen, Gillian…" He hesitated. He was also a fan of justice and nailing the bad guy, but he’d be happier if the system worked better. "It’s your decision, but Phil Adamo has quite the network."

"Maybe people exaggerate about that."

"It’s possible, but I wouldn’t want to take that chance. I don’t have a lot of faith that the witness protection program would do the trick in this case." As ill-prepared as he felt for this job, he still didn’t want to turn her welfare over to some faceless government agency that would relocate her to suburbia and give her a job screwing widgets into thingamabobs. She’d always live with the threat of somebody blowing her cover.