Little White Lies

hundred?”

Cael and James snickered as she did the same.

“Ninety-five so far.” Maggie leaned toward Stuart who sat just a foot or so away from him.

“Be careful what you do, I got a gun-”

“Uh, no. You don’t.” She twirled his semi-automatic around her finger.

Stuart slid his chair back with a force that bumped it against the wall. His hands moved about, and he patted himself down. “How-”

“I told you Stuart, she’s very talented,” James said from his perch against the wall.

Wyatt walked back into the room as Maggie handed Stuart his weapon. He turned to Stuart, switched to Charley with one eyebrow cocked, and with his cell in hand, he pointed between the two of them before he faced the floor.

“What’s up?” Cael stood at rest against the wall, arms across his chest. His low-hung jeans gave him a casual air, but Charley knew his mind worked overtime.

Wyatt popped back up. “Ah, that was Sheila. She apologized for being unavailable earlier. Apparently, my department head has called a six o’clock meeting, and Sheila’s been trying to get me out of it with no luck. She sent the tap record, too. There was a log-jam on our end, and she had to get it from the phone company.”

“You have to leave?” Charley asked.

“Yeah, but I’ll be back in plenty of time.” Wyatt checked his watch. “I’ve got an hour to get downtown. The meeting can’t last more than an hour or two, three tops… so I’ll be back by nine, ten at the latest.”

“I don’t like the feel of this. It’s too convenient,” Cael said. “Your assistant calls you out of nowhere with this?”

“I don’t, either.” Charley clung to the back of the chair, her nails biting into the wood.

“Sheila doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Wyatt waved away the undercurrent of worry. “She’s been my assistant for four and a half years. She’s loyal and dependable and-”

“Doesn’t like Charley,” Lily said.

Wyatt twisted toward Lily. “Why would you say that?”

Lily shrugged. “Girls know these things.”

“And I kinda knocked her over with Wyatt’s door.” Charley turned her head away from the group.

“You what?” A mischievous smile lit Maggie’s face.

Charley knew the opportunity to prove she’d messed up would be far too great for Maggie to let go. “She was in the way, and I was mad.” Charley waved it away as Wyatt had. “I apologized. End of story.”

“She’s involved.” Maggie leaned back in her chair. “I’ll lay money on it. Who else knew the two of you were together? Who else would warn you, Wyatt?”

James fished in his wallet. “I got twenty.” He laid it down in the middle of the table.

“I got ten.” Cael laid it on top of James’s.

“I’m in.” Stuart dropped his own ten as Maggie added a twenty.

Lily shook her head, opened her eyes wide. “Too rich for my purse.” She laughed.

“I got fifty says she had nothing to do with it.” Wyatt dropped his bills.

***

“Be careful.” Charley stood on the threshold, Wyatt’s back to the outside. She held his hands at her sides, her fingers entwined with his.

“I’ll be back in time, I promise.” He laid a kiss at the edge of her lips.

“Never promise what you can’t guarantee, Wyatt.” She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his. “Just be careful.”

The intensity of the kiss reached south. They’d be apart for a few hours, he’d return, they’d get to the park, and the bad guys would go to jail. The manpower had been allocated; Detective Bland had assured them of it.

Afterward, they’d start their life together.

“You better go. Don’t want you to be late.” She patted his chest.

“Nine o’clock.” He ran a finger down her nose and tipped up her chin for a more subtle and sweet kiss. “See you then.”

He knew she watched him walk away. Her gaze burned into his back. He returned the wave she offered as he drove out of their drive.

All we gotta do is get to midnight, and all this will be over.

Wyatt followed the curve of the road. The narrow lanes and tree-lined paths took him through their small town and out onto the freeway to the inner sanctum of the big city. He maneuvered around a school bus, sped up- reaching seventy according to his dash-and changed lanes so he could keep up with the faster traffic. He slowed as the cars around him did the same. The freeway at rush hour did not bode well for a timely arrival.

At least I’m going against the flow.

He checked his rearview mirror and the sides before he changed lanes again. Cars filled the road and moved left and right like mice in a maze. Which goes faster? Get in it and get the cheese.

As he neared his exit, he shifted to the right and, with a hundred other cars, slowed to a stop. The light before him blinked yellow, police directing traffic right and left. Wyatt inched forward with the rest of traffic. Once through, he punched the accelerator. The cause of the odd delay remained a mystery. He’d still have to find a spot to park and walk to his Director’s office.

“Six o’clock meeting, my ass,” he said out loud as he changed lanes again. Behind him, blue lights spun, adjusting from light to dark as the bulb inside rotated.

“What the hell?” Wyatt watched through his rearview mirror.

He pulled out of the way of cars that streamed by in an attempt to either get in or out of the city’s limits.

The cruiser pulled in behind him with two people in the front seats. The passenger door opened. One occupant exited. The uniformed officer stopped at the back of the trunk and wrote something in a notepad before he walked around to Wyatt’s window, which had already been rolled down.

“Was I going too fast?” Wyatt didn’t turn but continued to watch in the side-view mirror.

“Wyatt?” Detective Bland asked as he reached the window.

Wyatt smiled. This will be easy to get out of. “What are you doing on patrol, Bland?”

“Rookie training.” Bland shook his head.

“For the city police? I thought you hung with the town folks.” Wyatt chuckled.

“I trained for a number of years, so when the city has new recruits and not enough trainers, they ask me to pinch-hit. They asked me to run Trent through a day’s worth of work before I pack it in for tonight. We’re all set, still?”

Wyatt tapped his fingers on the wheel. “S’far as I know, yup.”

“Great. Well, shoot, Wyatt. I’m supposed to be showing our driver the ropes. I thought I recognized your car, so I offered to get out first and see. I can’t really give you a ticket.”

Awesome.

“That’s good because I don’t know what it would have been for,” Wyatt said.

Bland laughed. “Speeding. This is a new trap. But don’t tell anyone. Limit dropped to twenty-five two weeks ago. Damn government needs their money.”

Wyatt shook his head. He hadn’t seen a sign anywhere. “Gonna let me go?”

“Yeah, sure. But can I impinge upon you? Let us follow you to your destination then allow Officer Trent to go through the motions of a stop.”

“Yeah, sure. I’m just heading up to the Hail Street parking garage. Late meeting with the bosses,” Wyatt said.

“We’ll follow ya.” Bland saluted and walked back to his car.

Wyatt pulled his Mustang out into traffic. The two followed, lights off. He maneuvered into the garage and circled around until he reached the third floor. With his car parked next to the elevator, he could make quick work of the jog to the office after he let Bland use him as a guinea pig.