the door and smiled.
“You bastard, your showing up at my office set off the chain of events that got me fired, and you expect me to help you?”
“You got yourself fired. And hello to you, too.”
“I didn’t come here to chitchat. Are you going to let me in, or should I just stand out here until I blow away?”
Nico stepped aside, images of the first time he’d seen her struggling with her skirt filling his head, her tempting proximity causing his groin to stir again. “Downside of living on the ocean. The wind can be a bitch.”
She turned on him and shot him a screw-you glare. “How about you say something more like, ‘I’m sorry you’ve lost your only source of income. I’ll be thinking of you when you’re living on the street.’”
“By the looks of that place, I’d say I did you a favor. Sit in a cubicle like that long enough and you’ll go insane.”
Her expression transformed for a few seconds, as if she was shocked by his observation. But then she recovered.
“I don’t need your career advice.”
“You didn’t come here to scold me about your lost job, did you? Because I have a feeling that Dottie chick is the one you need to scold.”
“No, I came to beg your forgiveness for breathing.” She leveled a smart-ass gaze at him that made him want to kiss her senseless.
He had to start thinking with the right head. Fast. She was too damn sexy when she was pissed.
“Could it be you want to see if I really know where Martin is?”
She shrugged. “If you know where he is, then why haven’t the police beaten down his door?”
She was smarter than he’d hoped.
“I’ve told them everything I know, but I’d say Martin has left the state and is no longer high on their priority list.”
“What you mean is, you don’t have a clue where to find him.”
“The way I see it, you’re in a win-win situation. Either you help me out because you want to find Martin as much as I do, or you help me out because you need to keep me away from your scumbag boyfriend.”
“So what if I agree to help you? Then what?”
Nico had asked himself that question many times already. He might have been able to take whatever information he could get from Skye and find Martin on his own, but he wouldn’t have much chance of getting close to him once he found him. Skye, on the other hand, was quite possibly Martin’s Achilles’ heel.
And even if she wasn’t, she was the best bait he could hope to find to lure Martin out of hiding.
“Then we go on a little trip.”
“Go where?”
“I can’t reveal all my secrets up front.”
“You expect me to just take off with you? Some guy I don’t even know?”
“Don’t I look trustworthy?”
“No.”
“Can you even trust your own judgment after dating a con artist?”
One corner of her mouth curved up, and Nico knew he almost had her.
“I might be willing to help except I’m broke, and I need to be looking for a job right now since I’m newly unemployed.”
Okay, so he wasn’t a heartless ogre. Another stab of guilt struck him that she’d lost her job, and in spite of his suspicions about her, he felt as though he ought to help somehow. “So you’re a writer. Can’t you get a job doing that?”
“Yeah, me and the five zillion other people who want to be writers. I can just go down to the book factory and fill out an application. They’re always hiring.”
“You live in L.A. Why aren’t you writing for Hollywood like everyone else?”
She pinned him with a look. “For one, not everybody wants to write for Hollywood, and second, it’s not that simple.”
“Okay, okay. I know writing jobs don’t grow on palm trees, but still, if you’ve got any talent, you should be able to get work.”
“Screw you.”
Nico held up his hands in surrender. “Guess I had that coming. Listen, if it turns out you aren’t involved with Martin, I’ll get you some face time with my next-door neighbor. He’s the CEO of a couple of TV networks. He’s always complaining about how there’s no talent in Hollywood.”
He could see the spark of interest in her eyes that she was probably trying really hard not to show.
“Okay, whatever. That’s not going to pay my bills right now.”
“I’ll cover your expenses until you can pay me back.”
Her expression transformed to suspicious, but she made no further protest.
“So it’s a deal,” he said before she could change her mind. “You might want to pack for hot weather. We’ll have to take a little drive.”
“How little?”
“We could get there in six hours or less.”
She seemed to be doing the math in her head. Six hours or less could mean driving to any number of places—San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Mexico, Arizona or anyplace in between.
“You have to at least tell me where we’re going.”
“Does it matter?”
“I might have a clue about where Martin is.”
Nico stared at her, daring her to look away. She didn’t seem much like a criminal, but then neither had Martin. He’d seemed like a regular guy, a friend even. And Nico was the dumb-ass who’d fallen for Martin’s story of needing a loan to get his business venture up and running and having an ex who’d ruined his bank credit.
“What’s your clue?”
“Did you bother to inspect this bra?”
Nico shrugged. “My expertise is in bra removal, not inspection.”
She tried not to laugh but failed. “So is that why you thought it might fit me?”
“For all I know, you like to stuff your bra with basketballs.”
Though he’d seen her coming and going from the cottage enough to know she didn’t bother with anything more figure-enhancing than a push-up bra, and she was sexy as sin regardless. The red bra had just been his excuse for coming to see her, and of course, he’d wanted to make sure she knew Martin had been anything but worthy of her affection, not only because of his thievery but
