Sharon Hartley - The South Beach Search

“I don’t,” she said.

“Then maybe a diversion, to throw us off track, or just an opportunity to make a quick buck. But I’ll send an agent to check out your pawnshop. I promise.”

“When?”

“May I finish the lunch you ordered for me?”

“Of course,” she said and took a sip of her tea.

Good thing peppermint is excellent for indigestion, she thought, because Reese looked as if he was in for a serious case of heartburn.

* * *

BACK AT THE federal building, Taki smiled at Reese’s secretary as they walked past her cubicle. She had a pencil stuck behind one ear and a pen behind the other. The poor thing looked totally frazzled.

“Sorry I’m late, Joanne,” he said and grabbed a stack of messages from her desk.

“Romero’s attorney is trying to reach you,” the secretary said. “And Agent Rivas has phoned twice. I canceled the three o’clock conference when you weren’t back. It’s rescheduled for tomorrow at four.”

“Thank you,” Reese mumbled as he entered his office.

“Wow.” Taki moved to the front of his massive desk as he stepped behind it, reading his messages. “I made you miss a meeting.”

“It wasn’t important,” he said, still shuffling through the pink papers in his hand.

As she sat in a well-padded chair, Taki watched Reese morph back into Mr. United States Attorney. He’d relaxed slightly at lunch, but on entering his office he reverted to all-business. Just like her father. Never enough time to get everything done.

He’d insisted she accompany him upstairs so she could hear him dispatch an FBI agent to the pawnshop, although she figured it was really because he wanted to keep her away from the place. But since that meant he was worried about someone besides himself, maybe there was still hope for Reese Beauchamps. She hoped so. Despite his arrogance and love of barking orders, she liked him, although she couldn’t figure out why.

She hated to think it was because he was so good-looking. What did that say about her? But he did have the most gorgeous dark brown eyes. If she let herself, she could stare into them all day. And she liked the way his thick brown hair sported just a little wave. If he let it grow long, it would be magnificent.

“Call your agent Rivas,” she said, disgusted with herself. “Then I’ll let you get back to work.”

“Right.” Reese dropped the messages on the desk, pulled a swivel chair toward him and picked up the phone.

To give him space while he spoke to the agent, she wandered around his large office with the fabulous view, examining various diplomas and certificates adorning the walls. Could pieces of paper tell her anything about the man?

She admired elegantly framed degrees from undergraduate school at Princeton and law school at the University of Florida. Her father had once wanted her to attend Princeton.

Without reading, she focused on the Old English script in a dignified plaque as a sickening realization shot through her.

That was the third or maybe fourth time in one afternoon that Reese had caused her to think of her father. Before today, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d allowed the soulless monster to creep into her thoughts. Being reminded of the past never did anything but cause her pain.

The two men didn’t resemble each other at all physically, but both attacked life as if it were an opponent to be wrestled into submission.

She resisted the urge to run out of Reese’s office.

She needed to stay far away from this man. It didn’t matter how good-looking he was. He behaved too much like her father and would destroy the serenity she’d fought so hard to create.

CHAPTER THREE

“GET BACK TO me on that right away, Javi. Yeah, thanks.” Reese deliberately made his voice loud so Taki could hear him. She’d been staring at his Juris Doctor degree for five minutes as if it held the key to the secrets of her quixotic universe.

When he replaced the receiver, she turned. Reese smiled at her, liking it much better when they were friends.

“He’s ten minutes from the shop and will call me right back. Do you want to wait to see what he finds out?”

“No,” she said. “I no longer think anything will come of that.”

“What?” Reese pushed back in his chair, causing it to squeak in protest. “But you insisted on checking out the lead immediately.”

“I know. The thing is...” She paused and looked out the window. “Well, after we left the restaurant our path took us by Jacques’s Hock, and I got a strong feeling that my bowl wasn’t there.”

“You drove by the pawnshop? Why didn’t you tell me?”

She met his gaze again. “You’d have just fussed about it,” she said with a graceful shrug.

“And you got a...a feeling that your bowl wasn’t there?”

She straightened her shoulders. “Yes.”

“What kind of a feeling? Explain.”

“How can you explain a feeling? I just sensed my bowl was not inside that building.”

Reese rose, thinking Taki the most illogical person he had ever encountered. How could she change her mind so quickly? “My investigator is already on his way.”

“Sorry. I was wrong,” she said, blue eyes troubled. Then she brightened. “But at least I admit it.”

“Yeah, at least there’s that.” Reese fought an impulse to warn her about relying on irrational feelings. “Taki, in my experience, facts work a lot better when searching for the truth.”

“Oh, I’m sure you think so,” she said, moving toward the door. “But I’ve learned facts can be manipulated. Twisted into something ugly.”

Reese came around his desk and stood beside her, wondering why he felt the urge to touch her, however inappropriate such an action might be. Would that be considered harassment in one of those previous lifetimes where they’d known each other?

Previous lifetimes? Yeah, sure. No doubt they’d known each other during the Civil War. Or maybe ancient Rome.

“Thanks for lunch,” he said. Taki had insisted on paying, reminding him that he was her guest. “I’ll let you know if anything develops.”

“Thank you.”

“Please don’t go to any more pawnshops, Taki. And I’m not ordering. I’m asking.”

She cocked her head. “And you even said ‘please.’”

“I’m serious,” he said, doubting she would listen. Taki existed in some mystifying world of her own creation where dangerous men like Romero didn’t exist. Too bad that world was total fiction.

“I promise.” She smiled, dimples appearing in her smooth cheeks, her face so serious and open that he knew she considered her promise a sacred vow. Without warning, she rose to her toes and brushed a kiss on his left cheek, her lips as soft as her promise. Her fresh scent, maybe jasmine, filled his senses, reminding him of sunshine and a gentle spring breeze.

“Thanks for worrying about me,” she said, hesitating an instant too long before pulling away, her breath warm and sweet on his chin. Reese closed his eyes against the thought of crushing her to him.

What the hell is wrong with me?

With his fingers pressed to the spot where her lips had touched, he watched Taki exit his office in her strangely elegant manner.

Talk about a breath of fresh air. Taki had blown into his life and shaken it up like nothing ever had. Treating what he knew to be fact as fiction, she made the impossible seem somehow believable.

Negative energy? Third eyes? Mysterious feelings? Ridiculous.

As his buzzer sounded insistently behind him, Reese felt as if he was coming out of a trance. The woman was sincere in her quirky beliefs, but a total fruitcake. He shook his head to clear it.

Damn, but she was a huge distraction, one he didn’t have time for.