Text Appeal (21 page)

She opened her mouth to protest and then thought it through. He was right. A sex tape of Charlie and a random woman wouldn’t be news…not unless they knew it was her. “Okay. Send me a text and let me know what you find out.”

Charlie smirked.
“As if I’d pass up an opportunity to engage those fingers.”

***

Martin
Griminski
was the second shift surveillance crew chief, and Charlie didn’t have to say a word to get conference with the man. He came out of the surveillance room, his round belly shaking with silent chuckles. In a red shirt that strained at the buttons, the man looked a little like Santa Claus but with a shorter beard.

“If it isn’t The Devil,” he said, smacking Charlie on between the shoulder blades. “I heard you visited third shift boys last night, and I think I know why.”

Charlie felt his cheeks heat despite himself. He was far from modest, but this was too much. “What happened to the footage?” he asked, forcing himself to move past his embarrassment.

Griminski
glanced into the control room a final time before closing the door. “Let’s go for a walk,” he said.

Charlie followed as
Griminski
led him out of Grand Escape and to a coffee shop a few doors down.

They were seated at a table before
Griminski
spoke again. “I’ve worked for Quinton Carter for a lot of years.”

Charlie sighed. “Listen, if you’re trying to establish what a lucky bastard I am that you’re talking to me at all, I already know. You don’t have to prove it.”

Griminski
chuckled. “We both know that Carter’s concern in this has little to do with the fact that he’s my boss.”

Charlie winced. Riley’s face had shown on the recording then.

“Did you know that Mr. Carter had another daughter?”

Charlie raised a brow. “Riley has a sister?”

Griminski
lifted his palms. “Sure, if you want to look at it that way, but they weren’t raised together. His other daughter was, oh, about twenty, twenty-two years older than Riley. In fact, she was dead before Carter ever adopted Riley.”

“Dead?”

Griminski
nodded.
“Murdered.”

“Jesus. I had no idea.”

“Yeah, well, it was only a news item at the time because of who her father was. She was trouble, that girl. Ran with the wrong crowds, was mixed up in drugs and the sex industry. Sounds bad to say it, but those of us who knew how she lived weren’t surprised. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Carter must have been torn up.” Charlie shook his head. “I don’t mean to sound like an ass, but I’m not following. What does this have to do with the missing video footage?”

“I worked for Carter back when his daughter Chelsea was running around. He couldn’t control her, and after trying only pushed her further away—he did what he could for damage control. And where did he have more control than his own casino?

“The rule was, if we had footage of his daughter doing something morally, legally, or ethically…questionable, the footage was pulled from the rest of the tapes and given to Carter.”

“So this procedure continued when Riley came along?”

Griminski
shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t really know. It’s never been an issue. Riley isn’t the free spirit her sister was. But when I saw her get on that elevator with you, I figured better to follow the old procedure and let the old man know I had the footage if he wanted it. I burned the DVD and deleted the footage from the hard drive.”

“So her father has it now?”

Griminski
looked at his watch. “Nope, I left him a voicemail and am still waiting to hear back.”

“I don’t suppose I could talk you into handing it over to me? I have a checking account that can be pretty convincing.”

“And risk my neck when Carter finds out there’s unaccounted for missing footage from last night? Hell, no. Dude, don’t worry. I’ll let him know the gist of the contents and he won’t have anything to do with it.”

Charlie let out a hard breath. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do. “Thanks for your time, man. I know you didn’t have to.”

“You’re right. I didn’t, but I figure we owe you for the way you helped
us
catch that woman last night. You really didn’t know her?”

Charlie shrugged. “No, I just have an eye for that kind of thing.”

“Huh. Well, if you ever leave poker, you might consider a job as a surveillance specialist. We can always use guys with eyes like yours.”

He waved away the suggestion. “Appreciate you thinking of me, but I don’t even have my high school diploma.” It wasn’t something he liked to talk about, but it was the truth. “I know your guys have minimum of two-year degrees.”

Griminski
leaned forward, studying him. “Don’t rule it out.”

Chapter Fifteen

Riley had decided to treat herself to an evening in her PJs. Her acrobatic penguin nightgown and the company of Jaws, who lay on the couch gnawing on a new rawhide, were the least she deserved after the week she’d had.

Her cell buzzed with a new text. The screen notification reminded her there was someone else she needed to clear the air with.

“Lace, we need to talk.”

Lacey looked up from her
People
magazine and frowned. “Okay. What’s up?”

Riley took the magazine from her friend, placing it on the end table.

Lacey’s eyebrows shot up.
“
Wowza
.
Important stuff.”

“I just got a text message,” Riley said, holding up her phone. Among other things she’d failed to do in the last twelve hours was fix the programming mix up on her phone. To illustrate her point, she positioned her phone so Lacey could see the screen that read: Text Message from Charles Spencer.

Lacey’s face said it all. Her eyes grew wide, her jaw dropped an inch.

Riley sighed. “So it
was
intentional.”

Her friend pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “What happened?”

Riley leaned back on the couch and looked at the ceiling.
“Some text messages.
Real harmless stuff at first, but I thought it was
Chaz
…” She swallowed, letting Lacey draw her own conclusions.

“
Ry
, listen. It was impulsive. I was programming your phone and their numbers are right there next to each other in your address book: Charles Singleton and Charles Spencer. At first, it was a mistake. I just swapped the numbers. When I realized what I’d done, I immediately went to fix it, and then…” She looked at her hands. “I decided not to fix it.”

“And proceeded to suggest I send
Chaz
dirty text messages.”

Lacey winced. “It was stupid.
Dishonest.
But I hate seeing you with someone who doesn’t make you happy.”

Riley
tugged at her ponytail. “You can’t just mess with my life.”

Lacey huffed. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to live with you? I see you spend every day trying to be this perfect daughter. You sacrifice everything to get your father’s approval, and what kind of life is that?”

Riley bolted to standing. “It’s
my
life.”

Lowering her head, Lacey frowned. “I love you too much to keep being silent. You have life and passion inside you. Why keep it bottled away?”

Riley couldn’t be mad at her friend. Not after what she’d seen at
Chaz’s
place last night. Would she have ever have learned the truth if Lacey hadn’t switched their numbers? Likely she would have, but when? After another two years of him leading her to believe their relationship was going somewhere? Would she have learned the truth after five years of marriage?

“Listen, I didn’t mean to push you on my brother. I mean, he’s sweet on you, but he might not be The One. I don’t want you to think—”

She stopped when Riley huffed. “I don’t think Charlie ‘the Devil’ Singleton is ‘The One’ for anyone, Lace. Finding ‘The One’ is like finding the perfect cup of coffee. Charlie’s more like a mimosa—a treat, an indulgence, but nothing you should plan on waking up to every morning.”

Lacey frowned.

“What?” Riley smiled. “That’s who your brother is, and—last I checked—he’s damn proud of it.”

“Maybe he just hasn’t found the right girl yet.”

Riley waved away Lacey’s protest. Lace probably liked to imagine her brother would eventually settle down, get married,
have
a couple kids.

Still frowning, Lacey sat back in her chair. “So, are you dating him?”

“Not
dating
.” Riley wasn’t sure what she would call what she and Charlie were doing. In fact, she wasn’t sure there was a name for it aside from
having hot sex in inappropriate places
.

“But you broke up with
Chaz
?”

Riley nodded.
“More or less.”

Lacey mumbled something, and Riley thought she might have said,
Well
, that’s good at least.

She took a breath, pushing aside the temptation to ask Lacey about Charlie’s paternity suit. If Riley wanted to know more—and she didn’t—she needed to go to Charlie, not his sister.

“I’m really sorry, Riley,” Lacey whispered. “It was stupid and I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Riley exhaled sharply and nodded. “Of course I do. But Lacey, that’s it, okay? No more running interference between me and the life I choose to live.”

Lacey chewed her lip. “Fair.” She nodded to Riley’s phone. “You going to answer that or do you plan to keep my brother waiting?”

Riley smiled and opened the text.

I can’t stop thinking about you.

The second her eyes ran over the words, she wanted him. Wanted to hear his voice, smell his scent,
feel
his hands on her. She licked her lips. Could she do this? Could she carry on with a man with whom there was no possibility of a future? Could she have a true affair just for the pleasure of it?

So, tell me more about these thoughts…
she wrote, taking a self-conscious peek at Lacey from the corner of her eye.

You, that bustier I bought you, and leather handcuffs. And that’s just the beginning.

She smiled. Yes, she could. Charlie would keep her on track. He’d remind
her what
this relationship was really about. She bit her lip as she typed her reply. Three sentences, two texts, and he had arousal turning slow circles low in her belly.
You keep mentioning these handcuffs, but I’m not sure I believe they exist.

Careful, Riley.
That sounded like a dare.

Maybe it was.

The silent seconds as she waited for his response were filled with the sensation of her nipples tightening and blood rushing between her legs.