G-Men: The Series by Andrea Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

sexy.
    “Don’t go there, Diamond,” Vince cautioned. “Bikers are bad news, babe.”

chapter 7
    The bus pulled over at my usual stop at the Park and Drive lot. The attendant was on duty until midnight, which gave me a sense of security. He waved as I walked past his station and went to my parking spot.
    This is where I parked my car on the nights I worked at Jewels. There was no way I was parking my Mercedes in the club lot, not to mention putting myself in a position to explain why I drove a Mercedes to begin with and then worked as a pole-dancer. It was much easier this way.
    I’d changed into my street clothes, leaving my hair and make-up intact until I got home. I had my wig case in the back seat.
    Hopefully, I could get into the bathroom off of the main hall and wash the makeup off before I faced Jack, provided he was still awake. He accepted my excuse that this was a girls’ night out with Becky and another mutual friend of ours, Annie. He hadn’t seemed to give it much thought, one way or the other.
    I had my routine down pat at the club. I parked my car downtown, then took a bus to the club, and caught the last one incoming at 11:15 p.m. One of the bouncers always walked me out. The bus stop was on the corner, and he waited until I was safely aboard. None of my co-workers knew much about me, with the exception of Janine. I didn’t have to worry about her. She was simply pleased that I wasn’t a twenty-something scatter-brain, as she put it.
    My mind drifted back to Slate for perhaps the hundredth time this evening. I shivered thinking of the way his eyes had skimmed over me with an almost appreciative look. My God! What was I thinking? He was probably younger than me, maybe still in his twenties. I needed to get over it. Those days of getting butterflies by fantasizing about bad-boy sex were over.
    Hell, for me they’d never begun. Maybe this was all about my lost youth. I quashed it from my mind for the time being.
    Luckily, Jack was in bed when I returned home. I showered downstairs and got into a comfortable pair of jammies, curled up on the couch with the remote, and fell asleep. For some reason, I didn’t want to sleep next to Jack.
    I was up the following morning to the sound of Jack banging around in the kitchen. I heard him mumbling something, which clued me in that he wasn’t a happy camper at the moment.
    I went up to the kitchen from the family room where I’d slept. There was a guest suite right next to it. I’d been tempted to start sleeping in there, just to see if Jack noticed.
    “Well,” he said with a hint of irritation in his voice, “it appears that my wife did, in fact, make it home last night. I was beginning to think I’d have to file a missing persons report with the local authorities.”
    “Were you worried? That’s new.”
    His head snapped up quickly to look at me. He hadn’t expected that I’d get flippant. I actually hadn’t intended for it to come out so sarcastically.
    “Actually, no,” he said, his tone every bit as sarcastic as mine had been. “I couldn’t imagine what kind of trouble you could have possibly gotten into with Becky or Annie.”
    He gave a slight smirk and continued filling the coffeemaker with water. “What’s for breakfast?”
    I walked over to the fridge and opened the door. Thank God we had some eggs. I hadn’t done much grocery shopping over the past couple of weeks.
    “Scrambled eggs and toast sound okay?”
    “I suppose it’ll have to be, seeing that it looks as if you haven’t been shopping in a while. What are you doing with your time these days, Sammie, besides working out and going to the tanning salon by the looks of it?”
    “I’m not tanning. It’s a spray tan that eventually wears off.”
    “Then what’s the point?”
    “I guess there isn’t one, Jack. I just thought it kind of looked nice. It’s just a healthy bit of color. I don’t think the technician overdid it.”
    “Let me make my point, Sammie, since you