Then I stopped thinking and watched in horror as Tex banged the portafilter on top of the espresso machine. Monty hit a button and the police band was drowned out by Tex’s voice shouting, “Fucking steam! Give me some more fucking steam, you monster!” Which was followed by Duke shouting, “It only gives as much steam as it gives, man!”

Wonderful.

Now I knew why they were both grinning at me.

I looked away from the current frightening goings-on at Fortnum’s to check out Vance.

Vance was younger than Lee, but I was guessing not by much. He had shiny, straight black hair pulled into ponytail, a lean body and fabulous bone structure and coloring of a Native American.

Oh, and he was seriously hot.

Yep, I was definitely going to have to bring Marianne here, and probably Andrea and more than likely, Tod.

It was like Chippendales but better.

I found myself captured by Vance’s good looks and watched as he and Monty exchanged glances over Tex and Duke’s exchange.

Vance’s lips were twitching. He thought Tex was funny.

Vance looked up to me and caught me staring. I gave him a tilty-head smile and he smiled back, all white teeth against dark skin.

“Hi,” I said to him.

His smile widened.

Mm, yum.

Lee’s hand curled into the waistband of my shorts.

Oopsie.

Monty and Vance turned back to the monitors and I looked at them too. There was an angle of the foyer of Lee’s condo building and his empty parking spot in the condo garage. There was also an angle of the reception area where Dawn was on the phone (likely tearing me apart to one of her girlfriends) and two screens showing the Nightingale Investigation parking spots. I was pretty much praying at that point that one of the blank screens didn’t show a visual on Lee’s office.

There were eight screens showing various things, mostly inside, some had people in them both at home and in offices.

Lee started talking. “We used to do security. Even though it paid well, it was boring as hell. Made employee retention difficult.”

“Won’t have a problem with retention if we keep monitoring your store. It’s like watching a sit com,” Monty said, his voice heavy on the amusement.

Great.

Monty turned to me. “We asked Dawn to do a transcript of your speech about El Salvador, Mom and Pop shops and the American way and we e-mailed it around. Hank isn’t even on the payroll and he was awarded honorary employee of the week for taking duty on you that day. I would have paid to see his face when he walked into that pot farm.”

Double great.

Not only did Dawn do the transcript, I could be sure she made certain to e-mail it to Lee.

Not to mention the fact that I was break in the day entertainment to Lee’s troops.

Lee let go of my shorts and said, “Fortnum’s will be wired for awhile and we need to get a camera on the front door.”

I looked back at him and his eyes were moving along the screens and I got the impression he didn’t miss a trick.

He briefly glanced at me then back to the screens. He was being professional but I also got the feeling he was ticked about something and trying not to let it show in front of the guys.

“Currently, we do mostly investigations, mainly corporate, embezzlement, fraud, theft. We pick up some domestic investigation, only high-income, usually gathering evidence to substantiate adultery or other incontrovertible grounds to get large alimony and settlements.”

“Usually poking the nanny,” Monty put in. “That’s fun to watch.”

“Depending on the nanny,” Vance spoke for the first time, his voice deep and rich, his eyes off the screens and on my legs, saying he wouldn’t mind watching me get poked if I was the nanny. I was also hoping he wasn’t communicating he didn’t mind just watching me get laid by Lee.

Yikes.

Though, you had to admit, he had balls checking me out in front of Lee.

Lee kept talking. “Staff does rotation in here, depending on what assignment they’re on. That way they don’t have to sit in a windowless room very often and can keep sharp doing field work.”

Lee started to move me to the door and I called, “Later, guys.”

Both looked at me, Monty gave a small wave, Vance grinned. I wondered if I would see the guys later, like, say, Lee had a company picnic.

“Do you have cameras in your office?” I asked Lee when he closed the door.

“Nope.”

Thank God.

“Tell me about Monty,” I went on.

“Monty’s an ex-SEAL, knee injury took him out, the only guy who takes five shifts in surveillance a week. He manages the room. He comes in if we have any field operations, most of which he plans because he’s good at it. He’s been married twenty years, has five kids and may look mellow but even with a bum knee, he’s a serious guy you do not want to mess with.”

Yikes.

“Field operations?”

“Sometimes, end work on a corporate investigation. Mostly when we work with the PD or Feds.”

“What do you do with the police and the government?”

Lee didn’t answer.

I didn’t push.

“And Vance?” I asked.

“Vance is the master of multi-tasking. He’s off the rez, a recovering alcoholic, ex-con, grand theft auto. He has quick hands, quiet feet, can make himself invisible, is an excellent tracker and can do anything with cameras and electronics. He usually traces skips but he also does a lot of our wire work. He wired Fortnum’s. I would have given him the new skip but he just bought himself a week in the surveillance room. As for you, if you look at him like that again, I’ll cuff you to the bed and only let you go for bathroom breaks.”

“Jeez, now who’s jealous?”

I said it out loud, but I meant to think it and might I add that this was a habit that was becoming alarming.

My comment was a big mistake.

Without warning, Lee’s hand closed on my upper arm, he opened the locker room door and pulled me inside. He slammed the door shut behind us, shoved me against the lockers and came up on me so there wasn’t room to move.

I looked up at him, about to say something but thought better of it because his face was Badass Angry.

“Something to learn about me, since you haven’t already taken it in,” he said in his scary, calm voice, “I recognize I’ll have to put up with you receiving attention, I’ve no problem with that. I’ve had a lot of practice. What I don’t like is that you flirt as easily as you lie, it’s second nature. You’re gonna have to make an effort to stop because I don’t like it. I especially don’t like it when you do it with my men, they have to keep focused and we’ve already established you’re distracting. It’s okay for me to think of fuckin’ you on my couch. I don’t want it shoved in my face that Vance’ll be thinkin’ of fuckin’ you in the surveillance room or on his Harley which he no doubt saw you starin’ at like you’d do anything to be astride it.”

“So that’s Vance’s Harley,” I said. Yep. Aloud. Again.

Lee came even closer and his body pressed me back into the lockers.

“Lee, move back,” I warned, beginning to get pissed off.

He didn’t move.

So, I went into being full-fledged pissed off, wedged my hands between us and shoved.

He still didn’t move.

“It’s harmless,” I told him.

“Does it feel harmless to think of me workin’ late nights with Dawn?”

I blinked at him, confused. After the mind-bogglingly good time we had on the couch, I was way over any upset about Dawn.

“Well, yeah,” I said.

He stared at me, his face stony.

“For goodness sake, she’s not your type. Vance is cute, for certain, but he isn’t my type.”

“From a decade of keepin’ close watch, I wouldn’t say you had a type.”

It was my turn to stare at him, because that was just plain insulting.

Men were so stupid and Lee was at the top of the list.

I mean, didn’t he just admit this morning to reading my diary?

Didn’t he realize I only had one type and that type was him?

Wasn’t he the one who told me I was in love with him and I’d eventually admit it?

We were together. Finally. Liam and India together, even moving in for goodness sakes.

This was something I was going to have to get used to when I had time to wrap my mind around it. Truthfully, unlike nearly everything else in my life, it was coming naturally and it was one of those few things I didn’t have to process at length with Ally, Andrea or Tod and Stevie.

Did he honestly think I was going to screw it up by engaging in some by-play with one of his men?

“You’re an idiot,” I told him.

His eyes narrowed and that scary muscle jumped in his cheek.

“What did you just say?”

“You… are… an… idiot,” I repeated. “Think about it and when you’re ready to apologize, I’ll listen. But I’ll accept an apology now for the insult you just dished out.”

“How about you explain,” he suggested in a way that was clear it wasn’t a suggestion.

“No explanation, but I’ll give you a hint. In all my vast experience of men through what you consider was India’s Decade of Slutdom, I’ve never, not once, even so much as had a toothbrush at another man’s house.”

He just stared at me, he didn’t get it or was too angry to process it. And he wasn’t moving and still had me pinned to the lockers. I was forced to explain further and I got a little carried away.

“I had one at yours after the first night I stayed there. Okay so it was in your stash, but it’s a toothbrush, Lee! One use and it’s mine. And we hadn’t even done it yet! Not to mention undies in your drawer and wearing your t-shirts.” I put my hands on my hips. “And sleeping at your house, like, all the time. None of that, never with another guy, never, never, never. Huh! Get it now?”