Hot as Hell (5 page)

“Y
ou really don’t need to walk me back to my room.” Lexy made her pronouncement as they left the party and rounded the corner onto the well-lit stone path.

Then again when they passed the indoor pool.

And once more as her building came into view.

“Noah?”

“I heard you the first twelve times.”

“So you’re ignoring me.”

“That pretty much sums it up.”

They followed the trail from the public area to the dome-shaped buildings that housed the sleeping quarters. Lexy had a private room near the back of the resort and facing towering rock formations. Noah’s key fit the door two rooms down.

Now that he had tracked her to Utah, no way was he venturing more than a few feet away from her. That probably meant he had a long hike ahead of him in the morning. Good thing he spent the afternoon in the gift shop dropping a month’s salary on clothes and supplies he did not need in order to get up early and take a walk he would rather skip in favor of sleeping and engaging in other bedroom activities.

He also had about a thousand other things to do. Gray wanted to expand Stuart Enterprises from corporate security to include personal security. Since Noah was the guy in the office who set up the protocols and devised the plans to protect information and professionals, the bulk of the workload relating to the new project fell to him. Would have been easier to get that work done if his files had not disappeared.

Then there was the blackmail problem. Noah needed to be in the office, working to save his ass, not trailing Lexy across the United States.

And he had to work in time to kill Gray. Some best friend Gray turned out to be. He could have helped, at least given some insight into Lexy’s bizarre actions. Instead, Gray told him to take a few days off and track her down. Not exactly helpful advice.

Apparently developing a sales plan to protect rich people, dealing with a blackmail threat, and winning back a stubborn fiancée were not enough things for a guy to do. Now he had to add “choke the shit out of Gray” to his list.

“You ready to tell me why you’re here?” he asked.

“Still here for a vacation. That hasn’t changed.” She walked with her arms behind her back and her fingers en-twined.

Probably a way to keep him from holding her hand. “I’m still not buying it.”

“I’m too tired to fight with you.”

“Words every man waits to hear.” He gave in and touched her. Resting a hand on her elbow did not qualify as the kind of caressing he wanted, but it was a connection of sorts.

They moved up the three steps to stand at her door. The last time he felt this awkward he was fifteen, totally green and hell-bent on convincing his seventeen-year-old neighbor to let him do more than touch her breasts. Worked then. Wasn’t working now.

“This is my room,” she said.

“Also fine words to hear from a woman.”

“Then you’ll love these.” She reached around his hip and put her hand on the doorknob. “Good night.”

He slammed his hand against the doorjamb like a human barricade to keep her from going one step farther. “I’ll wait right here until you unlock the door.”

“It’s not locked.”

He turned the knob. The door opened with a short squeak.

Her lazy way of watching out for her safety ticked him off. “Has the desert heat rotted your brain?”

“If this is your idea of a pass, it’s worse than anything Tate tried.”

She pivoted to Noah’s side, but he moved to block the entire doorway. He knew he had to stand in her path or risk having her stalk inside and leave him on the porch.

“Anyone could wander in there,” Noah said in the calmest voice he could muster.

“Do not yell at me.”

So much for thinking he was in control of the situation. “You’re lucky I’m not shaking some sense into you.”

She snorted. “Oh, please.”

As usual, she took his threat for what it was. Empty. Thanks to her stubborn streak, getting her attention usually resulted in putting her on the defensive. But he needed to make his point. If she planned to keep the door open for anyone to enter, then he would be awake on her floor instead of trying to sleep back in his room.

“Since your family runs a security firm and makes a living telling businesspeople how to protect their information and people, I would think something as simple as locking a door would be obvious to you.”

“We’re not in San Diego.”

“What, there’s no crime in Utah?”

“Look around you.” She swept her arm across the quiet landscape. “There’s nothing out here. Unless a coyote is in there taking a nap on the bed, I’m fine.”

“Until it pounces on you and rips your throat out.” The images running through his mind filled his stomach with an icy dread.

“Stop lecturing me.”

He rubbed both hands over his face as he tried to figure out the best way to get through to her. “You are so frustrating.”

“Whatever you say,
Mr. Charm
.”

“You lock your door at home in La Jolla despite the fact you live in a gated condo complex where there’s barely any crime.”

“Of course I do.”

Her ready agreement made him nervous. With anyone else he would have thought he won the argument. Not with Lexy. She always moved one way when he expected her to move another.

“Then what’s the problem here?” he asked.

“I forgot.”

His mind went blank. “You…?”

“Forgot to lock the door.” She crossed her arms over her stomach. “Humans do forget things sometimes.”

She had him to the point where he did not even know what they were arguing about anymore. “So you know you should lock the door?”

She peeked inside the dark room. “I’m not an idiot.”

“Then why are you fighting me about this?”

“Couldn’t help myself. You get bossy and my innate need to fight surfaces and takes over.”

He blew out the breath he had been holding. “In other words, you didn’t want to admit you made a mistake.”

“That doesn’t sound like me.”

“Of course not.” He grabbed her arm when she started to walk into the room.

“What’s wrong now?” she asked.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Going to bed.” She brought her face to within inches of his. “Alone.”

“Not until I check the room.”

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “You promised to stay outside unless I invited you in.”

“Implied in that promise was the condition you would act rational and lock your damn door. You didn’t, so I’m coming in to check everything out.”

“What are you going to do if you come face-to-face with that coyote?”

“Tell him to find another room.”

She glanced into the dark room then looked at him. “All right. You have your invitation. Five minutes.”

“This will take two.”

“Because you’re a recon expert now?”

While he did not find his past all that relevant to their future, after the divorce issue came up he had made a silent promise never to lie outright to Lexy. With his varied history and her snotty remarks, keeping that vow got harder each day.

“Sort of,” he mumbled hoping she would not hear him.

When all signs of amusement disappeared from her face, he knew she had. “You have got to be kidding.”

“Technically recon is not the right term.”

“Is there anything about your past I do know?”

“That I proposed, you accepted, then you got bitchy and broke it off.”

“Do your room check before I kick you.” She pointed at him. “And if I kick, I’m aiming for right below the waist.”

“Not nice.”

“Consider it part of my bitchy side.”

He flicked on the light just inside the door. Rather than wait outside and otherwise not drive him insane, Lexy followed him. He crossed the threshold, she crossed the threshold. He took a step, she took a step. He stopped, she stopped.

To put an end to her shadowing, he made a quick move that sent her crashing into his back. “I can handle this on my own.”

Tonight was not the first time he had walked into a situation and tried to assess the danger. After years in covert ops and working undercover, he did not need protection from someone wearing a dress.

“This is my room,” she pointed out.

“And as soon as it’s safe you can come in and do whatever you want.”

“Too late. I’m already in.” She cuddled closer.

Because he enjoyed the sensation of her body next to his and the light scent of flowers on her skin, he did not fight her. He also doubted danger waited just around the corner.

Standing just inside the entry with her plastered against his back, he scanned the oversized room. Light blue walls. Blue comforter and pillows. The brochure said something about the color being a reminder of the sea. Since the resort sat in the middle of the desert, the water image did not make a lot of sense in his view. If people wanted the beach, they should go to the damn beach.

The closet door stood open. Clothing littered the bed and stuck out from the drawers. All sorts of files were stacked on one corner of the desk. Bags took up position on the other.

“I like what you’ve done with the place,” he said.

“It’s fine.”

“Looks like someone tossed it.”

Noah recognized the disheveled state. Lexy’s extra bedroom at home had the same boxes-stacked-on-boxes, clothes-all-over-the-floor, crap-everywhere look that grew more severe whenever she felt anxious or confused.

For an organized and meticulous woman, she decorated the unused bedroom in a style only a burglar could appreciate. There was not so much as a pillow out of place in any other room in her house, at her marketing business, or in her car. But that bedroom resembled a high-school locker room.

Not a surprise in light of how she grew up. Her parents saved and stacked and piled papers, boxes, and anything else they could find around the house until all that remained was a thin strip of carpet leading from one room to another on which to walk. Lexy called the condition hoarding. Noah thought it was just plain nuts. How two healthy, smart, financially well-off people could live in such cramped, dirty, and odd conditions stunned Noah. And why Gray and Lexy continued to run interference so the family secret remained just that did not make any more sense to Noah.

“You trying to find something, or did you just think the room looked better turned inside out?” he asked.

“Just had some trouble picking out the right outfit to wear.”

He had heard the excuse, even that defensive tone, before. After almost two years of knowing her, analyzing her family, and talking with Gray about his parents’ issues, Noah knew better. This went deeper than simple messiness. This was a sickness. One that edged up on Lexy now and then.

Noah wondered what had Lexy so anxious right now. He hoped it had something to do with missing him.

“Let me guess, you needed something light to wear because it was
a hundred degrees
outside,” he said trying to ease the tense look on her face.

“For the fiftieth time, it was not that hot today.”

“Then the clothing explosion must have something to do with you wanting to find a dress to impress me. You did, by the way. The bright blue color is damn hot.”

“I thought hot was a bad thing.”

“Not in this case.”

“You can go now.”

Tough talk from a woman who refused to give him eye contact.

“In a minute. Have to finish the check first.” And stall his exit as long as possible.

He stepped up to the bed with her right on his tail. On the opposite side of the bed sat a desk and chair. After that was a sliding glass door to the porch followed by nothing but red rock towers and the vast nothing beyond until you hit Las Vegas.

He walked over to check the locks on that back door. “Everything looks—”

The rest of his comment slammed against his throat. He blinked twice as his brain processed the scene in front of eyes. He expected a mess. He did not expect this much of a mess.

She bumped against him from behind again. “Is there a shoe out of place?”

“Call 911.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know you think I have a sloppiness problem, but you don’t have to get dramatic about it. No one trashed the room. I really did leave it looking like this when I went to dinner.”

“Not in this condition.”

Squashed between the double bed and the chair was a man and a whole lot of blood. Even Lexy’s family, with all its eccentricities, did not keep dead people lying around.

“What is wrong with you?” She raised up on her tiptoes. At five-ten, seeing over his shoulder was not tough.

“Make the call.” Noah hoped the firm voice would get her moving because he needed a few more seconds to digest and analyze the facts and figure out what happened.

Her mouth fell open. “Is that…?”

“Yeah.”

“But he’s—”

“A dead guy on your floor. Yeah.”

Her mouth stayed open. Wide open. “Oh my God.”

“It’s okay.”

“Not if he’s dead!” She shook her head. Any harder and things would start rattling loose in there.

Having her see the blood and lose control helped spark him into action. Grabbing her shoulders, Noah walked her backward until the bed blocked her view of most of the body.

“Make the call, honey,” Noah said in his most comforting tone.

“Are you sure he’s dead?”

Noah had seen dead. He knew dead. This guy was definitely dead.

“I don’t see a knife sticking out of his back, but yeah.”

Lexy’s eyes were big enough to take over her face. “Who…Why my room?”

“We’ll figure that as soon as you call the police.” He rubbed her arms for a few seconds to ward off the chill shaking through her.

“Where are you going?” she asked as she made a frantic grab for his hand when he tried to break away.

“To double check.”

“You mean he might be alive?” She sounded more horrified at that possibility than at the thought of the guy being dead.

“No.”

“Then leave him alone.”

Noah pushed her in the general direction of the telephone. “You stay right over here.”

Without disturbing anything, Noah crouched down and pressed his fingers against the other man’s neck. Nothing flowing or moving in this guy.