CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO- SIG

Although Finch’s timing leaves much to be desired, it actually works out well so that we can talk outside.

“How’s it going?” he asks.

“Fine as hell until you showed up.”

Finch grins, his rusty-red eyebrows shooting up as he cups his hands over his mouth to light a cigarette. He takes a couple of puffs before commenting. “I sure as shit hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I’ve got this. Don’t worry about my end. How’s it going with you?”

He shrugs, turning to stand shoulder to shoulder with me as he casually surveys the street, picking out a stray piece of tobacco from his mouth and flicking it to the ground. “I hope something pans out. I’m not making much headway. Tonin’s got his trusted guys and the rest of us just don’t get told shit. Just the basics.”

“What about that warehouse?”

Finch shakes his shaved head. “Tellin’ us he’s converting it into a few studio apartments. Total bullshit, but…whatever. Keeping an eye on it anyway.”

“I’ll get something from my end. Don’t worry.”

Finch’s eyes flicker down my bare chest and back up. “Looks like you’re working your…angle pretty damn hard.”

I can’t stop my big grin. Before Finch showed up, I was very, very happy with how things were progressing on my end.

“Nothing stands between a Locke and his job.”

“His blow job, you mean?”

I fake punch Finch in the gut. He reacts by shrinking his abdomen away. “Oh-ho-ho! Getting slow, old man.”

“You wish, puppy.” He flips his half-smoked cigarette into the grass and exhales a cloud of smoke away from me. “Don’t forget to check your messages, man. They copied me on the files you requested. Some pretty interesting stuff in there. Turns out your sweet ‘contact’ has a not-so-sweet rap sheet.”

I frown. “I already checked her rap sheet. It’s clean.”

Finch’s eyes narrow on me. “Maybe hers is, but the sealed one’s not.”

“Hmmm,” is my only response.

“Be safe, man,” Finch says, holding up his fist. I bump it with my own. “I gotta roll. Big party tonight. Criminal ballroom blitz.”

“I’ll keep doing what I’m doing,” I say.

Finch nods and throws back over his shoulder, “Hey, seriously man, check your email before you go playing in that pond too much.” With that, he climbs in his car and drives away.

What did he see in that damn file?

I head back inside, closing and locking the door behind me. I’m anxious as hell to get back to my play date. I know, however, when I find Tommi perched nervously on the end of the bed, fully dressed and picking at her fingernails, that playtime is officially over.

I don’t even give her a chance to freak out over what almost happened. I walk right to her and scoop her up, plunking her back down on my lap. “It’s sunny and hot as Hades outside. Why don’t we go by your house and let you change into some shorts then we go get Travis? I have the perfect idea for how to spend the afternoon.”

“I probably shouldn’t,” she says, dodging my eyes, stiff as a board in my arms. “I told Lance I wasn’t feeling well. If he finds out…”

“How the hell would he manage that? I’d know if we were followed. Or did you forget that I’m his eyes on you?”

“No, but…”

“No buts. It’s either that or I hold you down until you’re feeling like you were five minutes ago and I take advantage of that.”

Her big, green eyes snap up to mine. There’s panic in them. Dammit. “That can’t happen. That shouldn’t have happened. Sig, when I came home today, I was going to try to figure out a way to get you out of my life.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you complicate things. You complicate things that are already incredibly complicated.”

“Then let me help you uncomplicate them.”

She pushes against my chest to get up. I let her go easily.

“I don’t need help. I already know what to do.”

“And what’s that?”

“Stay away from you.”

“Don’t say that,” I say, rising to my feet and reaching for her hands. “If you try to tell me that we’re anything less than spectacular together, I’ll know you’re a damn liar.”

She sighs. “I told you I wouldn’t lie and I won’t. But this,” she says, taking one of her hands from mine to wave it between us, “us–we are the problem.”

“This can only be a problem if we let it. And we won’t. We’ll be careful.”

“It’s not just that. It’s everything. I think about you too much. I’d rather be with you than with Lance. You make me dread spending time with him and that’s not good. I can’t live like that.”

I can’t help smiling. “I don’t see how that’s a bad thing at all. Because I really want to spend more time with you.”

She growls, frustrated. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. This is all fun for you, but it’s not fun for me. It’s torture. It’s just making me miserable. And I can’t afford to be miserable. I can’t afford to screw this up.”

I stare down into her frantically beautiful face, reaching up to cup her flushed cheeks. “Why can’t you? What does he give you, what does he do for you that I can’t?”

She closes her eyes, shutting me out. “I told you I wouldn’t lie, but there are some things I can’t tell you.”

“Tommi, I’ve told you that you can trust me. When are you going to believe me?”

“And I’ve told you that I don’t trust anyone.”

“Not even Lance?”

“Especially not Lance.”

“Then why, Tommi? Why be with him?”

“I wish I could tell you.” Her expression is remorseful and I believe her. “I really do. But I can’t.”

“Then I’ll wait. Until you can.”

“That just won’t work, Sig. Not for me.”

“Well, staying away from you won’t work for me, so I say we compromise.” She starts to speak, but I cover her mouth with my hand. “Let me finish. My job is to keep eyes on you. I don’t want to lose my job. You don’t want to have someone you can’t trust take over for me, right? That would make it even harder on you. No matter what, we are both in the perfect situation, so why ruin it? This is what I say we do: I’ll keep my eyes on you, but my hands off. You let me spend time with you, under the guise of doing my job, and we’ll all be happy. I won’t make it any harder on you until you’re ready to trust me. Deal?”