Authors: Amber Hughey
“I thought you had a plan, genius. Matt said you were the big guns, and what kind of big gun doesn’t have a plan?”
He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. “Hey,” he said lightly, “
I
never said that I was the big guns.”
“Whatever, big gunner. If you’re leaving it up to me, you probably shouldn’t,” she warned, shaking a finger at him slightly. “Remember, nothing illegal.”
He shook his head with a smirk, “Nothing illegal? How about nothing
too
illegal?”
“There aren’t levels of illegality,” she replied, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Sure there are,” he retorted, “This type of illegal will get us the information that we need to track down the people who are responsible for making her disappear. For making Sam disappear. You do
want
to find that out, don’t you?”
She huffed out a sigh, knowing he was right. Plus, she reasoned, it wasn’t like she was a cop now. She nodded before replying, “Fine. If I get caught-“
“You won’t get caught because you’re not going to do anything. I am,” he stated firmly. “I’m not leaving it up to you. I’m going to do what I do best.”
“Charm your way inside, then sneak off, break into the records room, and sleuthily make copies before returning to your previous location, all while remaining undetected?”
Seeing the perturbed look on his face, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“How did you know that?” he demanded, trying not to join her laughter.
“C’mon, Gabriel, I read. A lot. That’s the plot of at least a dozen good mysteries. And James Bond
novels, I’m sure. Plus, I’m a former cop. It’s not exactly rocket science.”
He just passively stared at her. “Well, as long as you know the plan.” He opened the door for Amalia, waiting for her to enter before following sedately, already planning his next move. As he approached the small window at the front counter, he flipped his internal charm switch. He approached the receptionist with his best charming smile.
“Gary Knight,” Gabriel said, showing the receptionist some ID from his wallet. “I’m with the Department of Health and Human Services. I have an appointment with Marcus Sykes.” He said, recalling the name of the Doctor on Patricia’s envelope. He glanced at his watch and sighed, “I’m sorry I’m running a bit late, but could you let him know that I’m here?”
The receptionist called Marcus’s line, but hung up without a word being exchanged. “I’m sorry; Marcus is at lunch right now.”
Damn, so much for that idea, he thought sourly. Changing tactics, he leaned forward, the sides of the small window blocking the view of his wings. “Would it be possible for me to wait in his office? Promise we won’t be a bother,” he finished with a charming smile.
Her eyes looked him over like a choice cut of meat, Amalia noticed sourly, not liking it. She tugged at his elbow, and said in a nasal voice, “Mr. Knight,
we have other appointments to make. If Mr. Sykes isn’t here…” She trailed off as she glanced at her phone.
The receptionist barely gave her a glance, focusing her attention on Gabriel. “Let me phone my supervisor.”
“Thank you,” Gabriel purred, pouring on the sex appeal.
The receptionist’s eyes grew wide, “let me call my supervisor. I’ll-I’ll-I’ll just be a minute,” she stuttered, picking up the phone, and clumsily dropping it back on the cradle before successfully making the call.
“Of course,” Gabriel said, leaning against the small counter, smiling at the woman warmly, careful to hide his teeth. He’d enjoyed not having to hide them around Amalia, and having to consciously hide them again felt a bit awkward.
Stuttering briefly, she talked to her supervisor. She looked at Gabriel and flushed, naughty thoughts obviously running through her head. “She’ll be right down.”
“Thank you,” he replied, rewarding her with another sexy smile. She looked him over, finally settling her glance on his wings, her eyes wide with amazement. The angelus weren’t exactly rare, but in a small town like Bright Ridge, it was very unlikely that they’d see more than one or two a year. Amalia, he noticed, looked particularly surly at the attention
he was getting. He smiled to himself. Jealously suits her, he decided. He fired her a quick wink, and was gratified when her cheeks colored slightly.
The receptionist sighed as the door to the rest of the lab opened, a woman dressed in a blue dress, with a white lab coat standing in the doorway, looking a little annoyed. The pinched expression left her face when she saw Gabriel, though she wasn’t quite as enamored with him as the receptionist had been.
“I’m Gary Knight,” he introduced himself and reiterated what he’d told the receptionist, “This is my colleague, Kendra Moore.” Amalia shook the woman’s hand. The woman introduced herself as Jennifer Jameson.
“Follow me, please. This is the break room,” she apologized to him, “but it’s the best I can do for you, as Marcus won’t be back for a few minutes, and I don’t feel comfortable letting you in his office,” she said, gesturing towards the office area beyond the waiting room.
He nodded, understanding. He was just happy they’d gotten this far. He had no idea how he was going to get around this Jennifer woman, seeing as she wasn’t quite as flustered over him, but he maintained his confident appearance. Fake it til you make it, his sister Aimee had always said.
Normally, he thought sourly, he would have had everything planned out, to the inch. This was
one of the rare times he’d have to wing the entire thing. Fun fun.
Following her into the lounge, he took a seat on a bench next to an old TV while Amalia stood awkwardly by the fridge. Crossing her arms in impatience, she stared at Gabriel. He studiously ignored her, perusing an old copy of US Weekly. With an audible sigh, she figured that Gabriel’s ‘plan’ was going to take a lot longer than he hoped. Well, bully for his plan. She had one of her own.
She glanced around before whispering conspiratorially to Jennifer, “is there a bathroom here?” She could feel Gabriel’s gaze on her, feeling the charm that he’d unleashed on the receptionist directed at her. He hadn’t shared any plan with her as to
how
they were going to retrieve the files, so she improvised. She’d done it enough when she was a cop, she surmised, that she could probably do the job as neatly as Gabriel.
“Right around the corner, second door on the left.” The clipped reply came from Jennifer, her gaze still on Gabriel. “You go, and we’ll get started on the paperwork. We should only need your signature on the visitor’s log on the way out.”
Amalia nodded and walked out the door. She went to the bathroom, and spent a few moments wasting time. She heard footsteps walk past the bathroom, the clicking of heels telling her it was probably Jennifer. Checking her phone for the time,
she looked at the door. With a tight smile, she quietly went back into the hallway.
Glancing around, she went to the door across the hall from the office labeled “
Records
”. Damn, she said to herself as she tried the door. Locked. As expected, she thought grimly. So, where to find the key? she asked herself as she quietly wandered around the small office area. She heard footsteps coming her way, and she darted into a small alcove filled with boxes. She pressed herself tight against the boxes. Just enough room for herself; the person wouldn’t see her unless they looked sideways.
Watching Jennifer walk past her, she saw the shadow of a door shutting just down the hallway. Quickly jogging over, she barely caught it, easing herself in the darkened room. Pulling out her phone, she used the dim light to look around the room. She rifled through the desk drawers, and finding nothing but Twinkies, d a can of Coke, and several hundred mechanical pencils, most bereft of lead. She left the desk, disappointed. Narrowing her eyes, she tried the filing cabinets, but she found the first two locked. Third time’s the charm, she thought triumphantly to herself as she searched them. She found two loose keys, no labels.
Grabbing them both, she forced herself to calmly walk back to the records room. The first key didn’t fit, and she almost got it stuck in the lock as she wiggled it around. The second key slid in like it was
made for the lock and easily turned. Slipping inside the small room, she had full access to most of the records the facility kept. Quickly reading the shelf labels, she found the records for the “H-J”. Flipping through them, she found Patricia’s records. She glanced at them and decided it wasn’t worth giving herself a headache trying to decipher them or the medical codes that were abound on in small print on the various pages.
She laid them out on the small table in the room, and using her cell phone’s camera, took a picture of each page. Multiple pictures of some of the pages she thought were more important.
Putting the pages back in order, and the record back where she retrieved it, she went back into the hallway, glancing around before softly shutting the door. Hearing another set of clacking heels, she bent over her shoe, fiddling with the lace as if it had come untied.
Jennifer loomed overhead. Amalia could feel the woman’s gaze upon her back, and her heart started to pound at the thought that she’d nearly been caught exiting the supposedly-locked records room. “Are you all right?” The woman’s voice was shot through with annoyance and the question sounded insincere to Amalia’s ears.
Amalia nodded and stood up, trying to quell the quivers that the rush of adrenaline had created. “Yes, sorry, I just tripped on my lace.” She shrugged.
“For some reason, I can’t keep them tied longer than a few minutes. I think my cat unties them for me, most times,” she added with a clumsy smile.
The woman smiled as she replied, “my cat does the same thing. That’s what made me go to shoes that don’t have laces. If I have a pair with laces, she eats them.”
Amalia laughed in unison and commiserated about the trouble with cats as Jennifer escorted her back to the break room where Gabriel sat, still filling out pages of paperwork. As Jennifer left the room to retrieve keys that would take them to the restricted area containing Marcus’s office, Amalia turned towards him with a triumphant smirk. “While you were busy in here hitting on anything with two legs, some of us were busy getting into the restricted area without supervision. I got what we need,” she boasted softly, wiggling her phone in his direction.
He felt his jaw drop slightly at her audacity, and then a swell of adoration and jealousy rose in his chest. If he wasn’t sure how he felt about her before, he sure as hell was now. He coughed and tried to act nonchalant, as if that was what he had been planning all along.
He pulled out his phone. As Jennifer came back in, he smiled apologetically at her as he shoved the phone back in his pocket. “I’m terribly sorry to inconvenience you, but I’m needed back at the office ASAP. Some kind of emergency with staffing and
rats - ? Again, I’m so sorry,” he said, reaching out to shake her hand, rather enjoying the disgusted look on her face when he mentioned ‘rats’.
She gave him a queasy smile, and ignored the proffered hand, looking askance at it as though it was already infested with a hairy rodent. “Then we’ll expect to see you again?”
He nodded in agreement, black curls pushed away from his face by a quick motion. “Of course. Just have Marcus give me a call when he can. Our meeting can’t be postponed for too long. Kendra, we’d better hurry.”
Amalia nodded and followed him out to the car. Sitting in the car, snorts of laughter escaped from her mouth. “What kind of emergency has to do with staffing and
rats
?”
He looked at her, amusement abundant in his gray eyes. “If someone said that to you, would
you
argue that they needed to stay for a meeting?”
Shaking her head, she buckled the belt, still grinning. “Oh,” she added as she felt something hard poking her hip. Shoving her hand in the tight pocket, she smiled ruefully as she pulled out the two small keys. She held them up and saw Gabriel’s eyes widen. With a chuckle, she rolled down her window and tossed them out, watching them bouncing on the pavement.
They were back at Matt’s house just before nightfall, the moon already hanging in the sky, while dark clouds made it perfect for a witch or two to fly by. Lucy greeted her like a crazed maniac the way Shelties tend to do. What, did they think their person was gone forever once they went out the magic door? Amalia was nonetheless glad for the enthusiastic (if a little
over
-enthusiastic) greeting. She gave Lucy a tight squeeze before setting her down on the floor to be a bother to the rest of the household as she wound in and out of moving legs.
Gabriel ignored the hyperactive dog after giving her a brief pat, and sat down with his laptop at the small table in the kitchen. He held out his hand expectantly.
“Oh,” Amalia said, “you want this? Something about the pictures on it that yours truly brilliantly managed to snag?” She held out her phone, just out of reach, teasing him with a smile and a wiggle of the phone..
“Oh? And if I was planning on having you do that anyways?” Gabriel asked, knowing that he hadn’t had a plan past getting in there.