Lee nodded and propelled me with a hand at my back toward a hallway.

“Can you get Indy outfitted with a belt, stun gun, taser and spray?”

Yikes. What did I need all that for?

I decided not to ask.

“Sure thing,” Dawn answered, clearly ever-helpful.

We walked down the hall and into Lee’s office, which was more of the same but with a bigger desk. I was shocked when I entered, it was obsessively neat and tidy. A sleek coffee mug sat on a leather coaster on the desk, the mug shiny clean. A laptop also was on the desk, closed and positioned perfectly at an angle to the side. Fancy leather and wood desk accessories adorned the top as well, but they were empty except for a pencil holder filled with perfectly pointed pencils and one folder sitting in the in tray.

“This is scary, you’re a neat freak,” I said.

Lee walked behind the desk, opened the laptop and hit a button. “Dawn keeps it like this.”

That was not surprising.

“I bet she does.”

Lee’s eyes came to mine. “I’m not exactly in the business that allows me to keep open files on my desk.”

Hmm.

Locking away confidential files is one thing. Keeping your boss’s designer coffee mug shiny clean is another. I gave myself one guess as to who bought Lee that mug and that guess was Dawn. I wondered if it was a thanks-for-the-great-sex gift or a wish-we-were-having-great-sex gift.

I didn’t answer Lee. I made a show of studying the cowboy print on the wall and decided not to tell him that it was likely that Dawn would clean his Crossfire with her toothbrush if he asked.

Knowing Lee, he probably already knew.

“She’s dating a Bronco linebacker,” Lee told me, as ever, in my brain.

“Un-hunh,” I told the wall.

There was a big difference between dating a guy who, on Sundays a couple seasons of the year, played at being a tough guy, badass while wearing pads and a guy who simply was a tough guy, badass. The linebacker may get big bucks but he was not the real thing and, anyway, Lee wasn’t hurting money-wise, that was certain.

When I looked back at Lee, he was studying the file but he had the eye-crinkle going.

I was amusing him.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

He didn’t even look up. “You’re jealous.”

As if!

“I am not!”

He shook his head but didn’t answer and kept scanning the file.

“Lee, if you think she doesn’t have the hots for you, you aren’t as clever as I thought. And if you’ve already screwed her, you really aren’t as clever as I thought.”

He closed the file, dropped it on the desk and moved around it, toward me.

“Dawn’s organized, cordial, always on time, willing to do overtime at a moment’s notice and doesn’t get flustered easily. I know she’s attracted to me but she’s my employee and she’s a good one. No way I’d touch her. You don’t shit where you live.”

He was backing me up across the office and doing his disarming straight talk thing. I had to admit I was a little pleased Lee hadn’t sampled his receptionist. Not only would it make things potentially difficult for me in future, it was tacky. Though, thinking about it now with a clearer head, she wasn’t his type.

“All righty then,” I said when the backs of my legs hit a leather couch.

His hand went to my jaw.

“You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“I wasn’t worried.” This was almost not a lie. Dawn was pretty but she was super-thin. Lee liked a woman with curves, always had and (hopefully) always would.

“No?” Lee asked, his eyes warm, his face wearing what had become a familiar soft look, a look I’d only ever seen him give to me.

Still, he didn’t believe me.

“You like booty, not bony. She’s pretty and all but not exactly your type,” I told him.

As if to prove me right, his hands went to my ass.

I pressed my hands against his chest. “Are we gonna do some of that kickass PI stuff now?”

Lee was leaning into me. “In a minute.”

I was having trouble staying upright, Lee was pressing into me, his hands on my behind, and he was looking at me with melty-chocolate eyes. His intentions were clear.

“Um, excuse me, but the door is unlocked, anyone can walk in and we have a renegade coffee guy to catch, we don’t have time for this. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking of fucking you on my couch.”

Holy crap.

I did a full body tremble, starting at the toes and going up.

“Lee! We have things to do, places to go, butt to kick and we’re in your office with Dawn just down the hall, for goodness sakes. What if she walks in with my stun gun?”

He let me go, walked to the door, locked it and came back.

I scooted away but he hooked my waist, pulled me back and gave me a bit of a shove so I fell to the couch. He followed me down.

“I can see why you haven’t found Rosie or the diamonds yet. You’re easily distracted.”

He was nuzzling my neck.

“Yeah, you’re distracting,” he agreed readily. “Not to mention, I rarely get into the office, I prefer being out in the field. I hate sitting in this office,” he said this to the space below my ear and then moved his head to brush his lips against mine. “From now on, when I have to be in here, I can look at this couch and remember having a piece of your sweet ass on it and the time will go a fuck of a lot faster.”

Yikes.

I should have been horrified, maybe, or offended. Instead I liked the idea of him thinking of me in his office, even that way or maybe especially that way. I liked the fact that he told me, matter-of-fact. It wasn’t a roses and champagne compliment but it worked all the same.

“Oh, all right,” I gave in on a sigh, wrapping my arms around him and he kissed me but I could swear I felt his body shaking, like he was laughing.

* * *

After we broke in his couch, I used his private bathroom while Lee checked his e-mail messages, made some phone calls and once I had all my clothes and hair back in order, we walked out of his office. He was going to give me a tour and he took me down the hall in the opposite direction to reception.

There were several doors and he opened the one next to his office. It was large, held an exercise bike, a treadmill, a set of free weights, a flat screen TV and a big, comfy couch.

“This is a room for downtime, waiting or on call.” This was all he said before he closed the door.

He turned across the hall and opened another door and I peered inside. It was a bathroom, two sinks under two mirrored medicine cabinets. There was a double-front, free-standing cabinet with glass doors showing one side stacked with towels, the other side holding male toiletries like shaving cream and deodorant (okay, that was all the male toiletries, but males don’t have a lot of toiletries and from what I noticed, Lee, nor any of his men, were into primping and putting shitloads of product in their hair) but was mostly taken up with various medical supplies (this I found slightly alarming but I set it aside). There was also a toilet in a stall and a big tiled space with two shower heads, open bays. All of this was pristine clean and new-looking.

He closed the door while saying, “When you’re in the office, you use my private bathroom. This is males only.”

I felt a weird thrill that he gave this instruction, using the word “when”. Maybe the next visit would include me walking down the hall when someone opened the door to the bathroom with open shower bays. Maybe I should bring Marianne here, it might change her life. I was beginning to think Dawn was a very clever girl (even though I still didn’t like her and definitely didn’t trust her).

“What does Dawn use?” I asked.

He gave me a look.

“Don’t know, don’t ask.”

We walked further down the hall, he opened the door to a small room that was lined with about a dozen lockers, a big, fireproof cabinet with an electronic lock and a kitchenette at the end. No explanation needed for this room and I was glad to know where I could find the coffee.

Then he turned and knocked twice on a door, slid a fob across a pad on the side, a green light went on and he opened the door.

Woo hoo!

Now we were talking.

The nerve center.

We walked into a room with a bank of, like, a gazillion television screens on one wall each with a DVD recorder beneath it, underneath that a console full of buttons and knobs. There were several multi-line phones on the console. Another wall held radios stacked in inset shelves. I could hear the police-band squawking quietly. Two guys were sitting in the room but there were four chairs. Most of the television screens had visual, but a few were blank. Against the wall opposite the screens, there were a couple of desks that were a heck of a lot messier than Lee’s, with folders, papers, empty pop cans and dirty coffee mugs.

Huh.

I had my proof about Dawn.

Both men were sitting with their sides to the door, both men turned when we walked in and both men grinned when they saw me. I had the weird, uncomfortable feeling they both knew what happened in Lee’s office ten minutes ago.

“Indy, this is Monty and Vance, I think you boys know Indy.”

Say what?

“Hey, Indy,” Monty greeted. He had a blond military cut, a well-maintained body with a laid back posture and I was guessing he was about ten years older than Lee. He was still grinning at me and he lifted his hand and pointed a finger at a bank of four screens, all of which had visual on different angles of the inside of Fortnum’s.

Ah-ha.

Now I knew how Lee would think they’d know me.