Secret Identity (What's Her Secret?) (3 page)

Two nights ago, she’d been there having a drink after a particularly frustrating meeting with Boone, and she’d remembered about Greg Mazzeo going there and had gotten curious. With her, boredom and questions always tended to lead to action. So she’d made a point of venturing out of her normal haunt into the dance area to watch for him.

But before she’d been able to spot him, he was touching her on the shoulder to get her attention then asking her if she’d like to dance.

And what a dance it had been…

“I was kicking myself that I never got your name or number the other night, thinking it’d be a shame if I never saw you again. And now, here we are. Small freaking world, isn’t it?” Greg cocked his head. “Never would have pegged you as a Cici, though.”

“Oh?” Sienna quirked her lips, trying not to smile. “I’m not exactly sure how to take that.”

“I take it you guys have met,” Jay interjected, and the sarcasm dripping from his tone made Sienna’s smile drop as she shot a sharp glance at the heretofore cheerful employee. “Which is great and coincidental and will make a fun story to tell your grandkids, but we should all probably get back to work.” He sent a tray clattering into the stainless steel sink.

Startled at Jay’s abrupt change in mood, Sienna stared at him, wondering what had set him off. She finally nodded. “Good point. We’ve been back here a while. Crap, I hope no customers are waiting.”

“I don’t think so. I didn’t hear the bell, and trust me—I’m tuned into it,” Jay grudgingly reassured her. Nevertheless, he led the trio down the hall at a fast clip to the front area. Sienna was glad to see that, as he’d predicted, no one was at the counter, though just then the door chimed and a woman dressed for the office came in.

Jay walked around behind the counter and that left Sienna standing somewhat awkwardly with Greg near the front door. The door chimed again—this time it was a trio of teenagers.

Sienna knew that Greg didn’t have another delivery here until the day after tomorrow. “I’d better get back to work.” She knew that any sort of overture at this point would be too much too soon, but it was a bit disappointing that they’d barely exchanged a dozen words.

“See you later.” Greg gave her a wink then backed out of the door with his dolly.

Rather than watch him head to the truck, she forced herself to turn away and hurry behind the counter. She started a couple of shots of espresso and moved to take Jay’s place steaming milk so he could go to the register. He gave her an unreadable look, and she knew she was going to have to figure out soon what had caused his one-eighty.

As they worked efficiently but quietly together the rest of the work day, Sienna had plenty of time to think. Something having to do with Sienna and Greg knowing one another seemed to really bother Jay. Was it due to some concern about an employee being too friendly with a service provider? Did he have a crush on Greg—or, God forbid, on her?—and was jealous of their connection? Or was there something more to it—something having to do with the criminal activity in and around the building?

She’d kept an eye on his interactions with customers all day. He had a phenomenal memory and evidently a lot of regular customers. Many times he’d call out the order to her before the customer had even walked in the door. He was friendly with most, a bit more genuine with some…and nothing about any of his actions or contact with people gave her anything to go on. It was frustrating as hell, but she could be patient.

Just before closing, a pair of men walked into the shop and Sienna made sure to keep her face neutral. It wasn’t any hardship for her team to come and check in with her and multitask by getting coffee at the same time. It could be the routine stop-in they’d planned, or something might have happened with the case. She’d know when Ty ordered.

“What can I get you, officers?” Jay asked when they got to the counter.

Sienna was glad she was behind Jay because—damn—he’d made them as cops on first sight? That was pretty impressive. Tyson and Boyd barely reacted but she knew from long experience working with them that they hadn’t expected that either.

“Biggest cup of house brew you got. No sugar, room for cream,” Tyson said decisively. The code they’d worked out ahead of time told her that they hadn’t spotted anything unusual during their surveillance, nor had they learned anything new in the investigation, but they had some not-urgent information to give to her at some point. She relaxed a bit.

“Dark roast, regular house or the daily special?” she asked. That wasn’t part of any code—more about needling Tyson about his boring drink choice under the cover of doing her job.

Ty’s eyebrows went up and he smirked. “What do you recommend?” Now that they were down to just a coffee order, he was going to fuck with her. He was enjoying the spectacle of her serving him way too much.

“Well, if you’re going to put cream in it, probably the dark roast or the special”—she could see his next question forming on his lips and headed him off—“which is the Kenyan fair trade today, in case you were wondering.”

He looked a bit disappointed that she’d spoiled his fun. “Dark roast.”

Boyd continued to scan the menu long enough that Sienna already had Tyson’s drink ready and Jay had rung him up. “And you, sir?” he prompted.

“Umm…”

Oh, God
. She was going to kill him. Problem was, she knew exactly what he usually drank but wasn’t in the position to say anything or give away that she knew him.

Jay maintained his pleasant, expectant expression, though by now Tyson had wandered over to top off his cup with half and half and Sienna was about to throw an espresso cup at Boyd’s balding head.

“Would you like some suggestions?” she prodded.

“Uh. Well, I’m actually kind of set on what I like…”

“And what would that be?” Jay asked patiently.

“Sorry. Your menu is just different from the places I usually go…”

Enough was enough. “Why don’t you tell us what you order at your usual coffee place and we’ll tell you how to get a similar drink here?” Sienna was proud of how calm—and even a bit disinterested—her voice sounded to her ears.

“Oh, sure.” Boyd smiled with relief. “That’s a great idea, miss. Thank you. I usually order an extra hot, grande white chocolate mocha with an extra shot and a pump of caramel. With whip. At…Starbucks.” He whispered this last as though speaking the name of the coffee giant might get him kicked out of the café.

Actually, in some indie coffee houses around town it might.

Sienna grimaced—she had tried a sip of his concoction once and it had about put her into a diabetic coma. “Yes, sir. We can absolutely do that for you.” Though she wasn’t sure why he would want to do that to himself. She got the triple espresso going then started steaming the non-fat milk as a compromise since Boyd was always trying to lose weight. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

The guys also bought a couple of scones, which were obviously both for Boyd since Tyson didn’t eat gluten. Once they’d paid and left, Jay glanced at the time. There were only a handful of people sitting around, all by themselves and all on their laptops or other devices.

“We’ll be closing up in five minutes,” he announced.

There was a flurry of motion as customers started to gather their stuff and unplug cords. Jay walked over to the neon ‘Open’ sign and switched it off. He returned to the counter. “I’ll walk you through closing.” They were the first non-drink related words he’d said to her since Greg had left.

“Great,” she replied, then, because her character would have definitely got the message by now, she went on, “Hey, Jay, can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” he said, while pulling a cart out from where it was tucked by the wall. He opened up the pastry display case from the back and started pulling plates of leftover baked goods out one by one and setting them on the bottom shelf.

“Did I offend you in some way? I mean, I thought we were getting along pretty well, then all of sudden you got really quiet.”

Jay went still and pressed his lips together. “Sorry about that.” He went back to working without saying anything further and it didn’t escape her notice that he hadn’t answered the question.

Sienna sighed then let it drop as she looked around for something to do.

She worked on pulling the carafes and fixings. Meanwhile, the last customer had filed out. Jay went over to the door and locked it up behind her, then drew the blinds on all the windows as well as the door. He must have felt her watching him and said, “I always close them down right away, otherwise people see you working in here and they’ll knock on the door to try to get a last-minute drink.”

“Really? Even though we’re obviously closed?”

“Yeah.” He gave a reluctant chuckle, seeming to loosen up a bit now that they were talking again. “It’s almost irresistible for some reason to the types who think they’re pretty special. Happens all the time.”

“And of course they want something super complicated.”

“And don’t tip.” Jay grinned at her, and she smiled back, glad that they’d regained some of their earlier ease with each other.

They finished the clean-up of both the public area and the kitchen working in tandem, then Jay headed back to the office with her, each of them carrying one of the boxes Greg had left earlier.

“I usually do the bank deposit on the way home then just bring the receipt back the next day and add it to the credit card machine closeout.” He picked that up and waved it at her, placing it deliberately on the inbox tray sitting on Harlan’s desk. “He goes over the previous day’s books the next morning. Sorry, I don’t know everything about that part, though I’m sure you can call him if you need help.”

It was the opening she’d been looking for. “Yeah, I thought I’d stay here and get oriented, if that’s okay with you?”

After a couple of seconds, Jay nodded. “Sure. You’re the boss. Well, the boss’ niece anyway.” They both laughed. “Come on—let’s get this stock put away and I’ll get out of your hair.”

Jay opened the storage closet and kick-shoved the boxes inside, maneuvering them over the thick industrial mat.

“You could really use that mat out front by the machine. My feet are killing me.”

Jay nodded. “You get used to it. Harlan said this one actually used to be out there but it was hard to keep clean so he just stuck it in here. Comes in handy during inventory, I guess.”

They loaded the shelves with the non-perishable supplies then Jay grabbed the empty boxes and nodded at her to go out of the narrow space ahead of him. “I’ll break these down and stick them in the recycling…unless you need them?”

She shook her head.

“Okay then.” Jay put on his jacket and picked up the bank deposit bag with the cash they’d counted out of the till. “I’m off. I’ll see you tomorrow?” he checked.

“I’ll be here.”

He gave her one last small smile of farewell then walked down the hall. After a few moments, she heard the chime as he opened the front door. Just to make sure she was alone, she went partway down the hall and was able to watch as Jay locked the door behind him, then headed toward the side of the building with the alley.

She mentally tracked him as there was a slight noise near the back, alarmed door that was probably him at the recycling bin. Then just normal city sounds.

Sienna waited a few more minutes then re-entered the office. She knew that the computer was a plant. They’d seized Harlan’s and replaced it with a duplicate that would show a record of any use. However they’d had to leave most of the paperwork in place to avoid suspicion.

She was pretty convinced that Jay wasn’t knowingly involved in Harlan’s dealings, but until she was one hundred percent sure, he would need to be kept in the dark.

Okay, paperwork
.

Sienna had just opened the right side file drawer when she heard a knock that sounded like it was from the front door.

Christ, people, we’re closed
.

A second, louder knock came, and she narrowed her eyes, wondering if it was Boyd and Ty, though she didn’t think they’d risk drawing attention to themselves after hours this way. She rose and walked partway down the hall to where she could see the front. The sun shade obscured the person from view, but from the silhouette she knew instantly that it wasn’t Boyd or Tyson. Or Jay, for that matter.

Making a quick decision as the third knock came, she stomped into the café and threw the deadbolt. The door opened about six inches before she stopped its progress with her boot.

Was Greg here to pick up where they’d left off at the club, or for a less savoury reason? “We’re closed,” she pointed out unnecessarily, her heart hammering, whether with adrenaline or something else she didn’t know.

Greg looked down at her foot blocking his entrance then trailed his gaze slowly back up to meet hers again. “I know.”

Sienna swallowed, almost feeling that perusal as a physical touch as it brought back memories of the other night. “What are you doing here?” she asked him, standing her ground.

“We need to talk, Cici.” His serious tone was far removed from his flirty joking around of earlier.

Ugh—again with that name
. But the name reminded her of her team, who might very well be watching this unfold. And his demeanor and the way he’d said he ‘needed’ to talk had piqued her curiosity.
Damn it
.