“We can talk in my office.” She nodded toward to the back and brushed past him. “It’s quieter there, and we’ll have privacy. As you can imagine, I’d like to keep my customers out of this, if possible.”
Doug spun on his heels with Tom close behind. She stood waiting for him a few feet ahead, but once she saw him following, she continued toward the back of the club. As she wove her way effortlessly through the sea of bodies and slipped in and out of his view, he imagined for a moment that he wasn’t a cop, but simply a man following a beautiful woman through a club. Stalking her, and eventually claiming her, in the time-honored tradition of boy chasing girl.
She stood waiting at the other end of the bar, chatting with the pink-haired waitress. Doug watched the interaction and got the sense that their relationship was more than employer and employee. In fact, all of the people who worked here had a familial way in how they dealt with one another.
Doug sidled up next to Olivia as he and Tom stood by the end of the bar while she spoke with the punk-rock-looking bartender.
“These are the detectives I was telling you about,” Olivia said with a nod in their direction. “I’m sure they’ll have questions for you, Suzie, and Sadie. I want you to give them your full cooperation.” Olivia flicked her attention to Doug. “Gentlemen, this is Trixie. She’s not only my best bartender, but my friend, and she’ll answer any questions you have. She works every night and may have seen something that could be of use to your investigation.”
“What’s up?” Trixie shouted and leaned on the bar. Her dark eyes, lined with heavy makeup, looked them up and down. “I’d be happy to talk to you guys, but the stink from the overflowing garbage can back here is making me wanna puke.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Olivia said in a huff as she lifted the hinged section of the bar and stuck her hand out. “Give it to me. I’ll take it out.”
“I knew it.” Trixie laughed, tied off the overstuffed bag, and yanked it out of the can. “No one hates a messy bar more than Olivia,” she said as she handed it to her boss.
“Let me take that.” Doug grabbed it, and his eyes met hers, but she didn’t let go.
“You’re going to take the garbage out for me, detective?” she asked incredulously.
“Call me old school, but taking out the garbage is a man’s job.”
Her challenging gaze didn’t falter. “I assure you that I’m quite capable of handling this myself, and in case you haven’t noticed… I’m a woman.”
“I noticed,” Doug murmured.
For a moment, neither moved. Her green eyes glittered, and just when he was going to relent and let her take the damn garbage out herself, she let go of the bag.
“Fine.” She spun around. “Follow me.”
“Be right back, Tom.” Doug said without looking back.
Doug didn’t hear Tom’s response, or anything else for that matter. All he could hear was the thundering beat of his own heart. It was ridiculous to insist on taking out her garbage, at least by the standards of today’s society, but Doug was old-fashioned. He couldn’t stand there and watch the most beautiful, sophisticated, sexy woman he had ever laid eyes on carry a smelly bag of garbage into a crappy city alley.
He followed her down a narrow hallway to a black door with a red sign above it that said Emergency Exit. Olivia pushed it open and held it for Doug as he stepped through and tossed the bag into the banged-up green dumpster at the end of the alley. The sound of the door banging shut echoed through the dimly lit alley, and when Doug turned around, he found himself face to face with Olivia. Her distinctly spicy, feminine scent filled his head and heightened his desire.
“You’re quite the gentleman, detective,” she said quietly as her eyes locked with his. “Your mother raised you well. I should thank her.”
“Not really.” Doug’s jaw clenched, and his hands curled at his side. “She died when I was little. Don’t remember much about her.”
“I see,” Olivia said on a sigh. “Then I suppose I only have you to thank.”
As if reading his dirty mind, she leaned closer so that they were only a breath apart, and just as he was about to throw caution to the wind, she pulled back. She raised a finger to her lips and looked past him to the dumpster.
“Did you hear that?” She cocked her head and listened intently.
“I don’t—” She pressed one long finger to his mouth, silencing him, and making every inch of him harder than a rock.
“Quiet, or you’ll scare it,” she whispered.
Olivia dropped her hand from his lips and stepped around him. She made no sound as she moved across the pavement toward whatever it was that caught her attention. Doug watched her prowl toward the back wall, and as she squatted by the back of the giant steel structure, his fingers wound around the butt of his gun. He took two steps closer as she reached behind the dumpster, whispering soothing sounds the way one would to a baby.
A minute later, Olivia stood with a grin on her face and a dirty white and black kitten mewling in her arms. She whispered into the ear of the pathetic-looking creature, and she turned those large, soulful eyes to Doug. As she peered over the quivering ears of the orphan, his heart squeezed in his chest. He didn’t think she could get more beautiful, but he was dead fucking wrong, and he wished like hell he could trade places with that cat.
“I don’t think she’s hurt,” Olivia said.
She held it up and inspected it top to bottom as she walked past Doug to the door of the club. Olivia tugged the door open with one hand, cradled her charge against her chest with the other, and looked at Doug, who had not moved.
“I’m sorry.” Her face fell, and she spoke quickly. “You’re trying to run an investigation into a murder, and you’re wasting time with me throwing out garbage and rescuing stray cats. Please, come in my office while I clean her up, and I’ll answer any questions you have.”
Doug didn’t move but kept his eyes locked with hers as she continued to stroke the now quiet kitten’s head. This woman was an enigma. A total mystery. One minute she was a tough-as-nails businesswoman fighting for the right to take out her own garbage, and the next she was a complete sucker for a stray kitten.
“No problem.” He ran a hand over his hair and shook his head as he walked toward her. “I have no shortage of questions.”
They reached the door marked: Authorized Personnel Only, and she went directly inside with her attention focused on the cat. Doug followed her and closed the door behind him, but to his surprise he turned to find an enormous German shepherd standing in front of Olivia, guarding her.
The dog snarled, while the black and brown fur on his hackles prickled in warning, but Doug stood calmly staring the dog down. He learned a long time ago that if you showed fear, you were a dead man, and that was true whether you were facing man or beast.
“Van!” Olivia snapped her fingers, and the dog whined before sitting reluctantly at her feet. “No.”
The dog growled at Doug before he turned his attention to the tiny kitten in Olivia’s arms. He sniffed it and whined, his curiosity clearly getting the better of him.
“You’ll meet her in a minute. Go to bed.” She pointed to what was obviously the dog’s bed in the far corner, and he obediently trotted to it but shot Doug a look of contempt over his shoulder as he settled.
Van and Doug looked back to Olivia and the cat. She had gotten an old towel from a drawer in her desk and promptly cleaned the kitten off, which was met with a series of mewling protests. Doug watched her intently and so did the dog. Then to Doug’s great surprise, Olivia wrapped the kitten in the towel and placed it on the bed next to the enormous German shepherd.