Free G-Men: The Series by Andrea Smith Page B

doing walking out here by yourself at night? I thought the bouncers saw you out safely after your shift.”
    “You seem to know quite a bit about what goes on here, don’t you?” I was lashing out at him, not sure why.
    He cocked an eyebrow at me quizzically. He wasn’t getting that I was out of sorts with him. Neither was I.
    “Look,” I said, trying to normalize my tone and body language so as not to appear to really give a damn about this man who, for some odd reason, intrigued me. “I’m fine. I’m nearly at the corner. The bus will be by shortly, no worries.”
    “I’ll wait with you,” he said firmly.
    “Why?”
    “It’s not safe for a girl to be out by herself this late and in this neighborhood.”
    “Yeah, I know. Lots of biker riff-raff hanging around lately, I’ve noticed.”
    He gave me a sardonic look with a slight rolling of the eyes, definitely not a biker reaction.
    “So you have something lined up later with Garnet?”
    “What’s it to you, babe? Do I sense some jealously going on?”
    “Yeah, right. That’s close,” I murmured.
    “Hubby waiting for you at the crib?”
    “Maybe.”
    He smirked, shaking his head. “You know, if you were my old lady, I wouldn’t let you outta my sight.”
    “Why’s that?”
    Before he could reply, the bus was slowing down and pulling towards the curb. He moved swiftly, pulling me up against him. His hand roughly tilted my chin upward. His mouth covered mine, his lips taking full possession of mine. I struggled against him momentarily, until my mind was fuzzy with desire and I didn’t want to resist.
    His tongue traced my lips and then entered my mouth, thoroughly exploring it with a sensual rhythm. He lightly nipped at my bottom lip. I laced my arms around his strong neck as I heard the hydraulic door to the bus open. He shoved me away gently.
    “Go home, Diamond Girl. You don’t belong around here.”
    With that, he turned on his heel and headed back to the club. I saw Garnet standing at the door of the entrance. She’d been looking for him…that was obvious. I turned and stepped onto the bus with shaky legs. His kiss had left me wanting more. I wasn’t sure why.

chapter 11
    I heard from Jack on Friday afternoon as I was lining up my dance costumes for my shift that evening. He wanted to make sure that I was keeping up with bill payments and to let me know he would be coming home for a week on Sunday afternoon. It was a short break in his schedule. Then he would be off again until he came home for Christmas.
    My parents were expected back before Christmas. I felt guilty for not staying in touch with them. My mother had always done everything my father had told her to do, and had done it exactly as my father had wanted it done. It bugged me as an adult, having seen how that felt. I resented the fact that my mother had never carved an identity out for herself. She had never instilled that need in me while I was growing up.
    Right now, I needed to concern myself with how I was going to get through the week with Jack home, while still showing up for my shifts. I’d totally decided against telling him I had a part-time job…period. I would talk to the girls to see if I could get one of the late shift girls to take my shift for three nights next week.
    I sat down in Jack’s office at the computer and pulled up the Excel spreadsheet he’d created for me that was titled, “Samantha’s Financial Records.” It was kind of an odd file name, but Jack was anal like that. He’d shown me how to go into our online banking with the password and pull up our joint account. I saw where a recent electronic deposit had been made for $9213.77. That seemed odd to me.
    I clicked on the transaction number to get the detail. It simply said “Cash” and referenced that it was an ATM deposit. The location was Manassas, Virginia. I decided it was probably one of the sales offices where Jack was conducting training. I wasn’t sure why a cash deposit of that