Spirited Away. Angela Campbell
perfectly, which was a good thing since he’d had blond highlights and glasses in the last one. While the officer jotted down his information, Noah glanced toward the girl. He tried to guess her age. Late teens, he thought. Cute. Had great legs. Probably jailbait, knowing his luck, because he didn’t mess with teenagers.
He realized in a fleeting moment of self-consciousness that he was acting like a true male member of the West family, trying to judge how easy it would be to take a woman who’d caught his eye to bed. Well, so what? Something about her eyes had him rethinking she was at least early twenties. Not jailbait at all. This was a woman who stirred his blood, and there was no fighting heredity. Noah intended to find out more about her.
The officer grunted and handed the ID back. “Thanks for coming to help, Mr. West. Why don’t I walk you back to your house now?”
Not that he needed the escort. Didn’t take a genius to read this situation.
Noah tipped his head toward the young woman anyway. “I live in the two-storey stone house if you need anything while you’re here. See you around, Spider.”
She flashed him an awkward wave. “Seriously, thanks for your help!”
Officer Jack followed him to the edge of the yard before saying, “You lived around here long, Mr. West?”
Noah sighed and turned to face the man. Last thing he needed was to capture the attention of a snooping cop. “No. I’m renting the house across the street. Moved in a couple of months ago.”
The officer squinted against the early afternoon sun. “Tell you what. That young woman in there is special. Make sure you don’t get any ideas while she’s here. Got that?”
“Sure.” He held back the smile that would have betrayed the fact that it was too late.
“Good.”
The officer started to move away, but Noah couldn’t resist asking: “Her dad is a cop, right?” It was the only thing that made sense. It would be a helluva reason to keep his distance, but, then again, he loved a good challenge.
Jack nodded, but a smile played at his mouth as he opened his car door and looked back at Noah. “Not just any cop. Chief of police. You have a good day now, you hear?”
“Let’s see how long it takes to crack their system with this baby.” Smiling, Spider tapped ENTER on the script she’d spent the afternoon writing.
Leaning back on the sofa, she watched the computer code whiz past on the screen. A glance at her watch sent the thrill of victory racing through her veins. Thirty minutes earlier than she’d expected – new record. “Who’s awesome?” she asked the cat stretched out on the floor watching her. “I am. Uh huh. That’s right.”
Call her crazy, but it looked like Abbott rolled his eyes before he looked away. His tail thumped against the carpet. Translation in kitty speak: You’re a loser.
“Don’t be a hater, cat. You know I’m awesome.”
Well, except for that whole getting locked out of the house thing.
Spider loved her job, but it was still weird to think that Zachary Collins had hired her in the first place. She’d gone on the job interview to meet him and ask for his autograph more than anything. Not only had the gorgeous star of The Psychic Detective – now a private security guru – hired her to work as the cyber security specialist for his firm, but she was sitting on his sofa right now, drinking diet soda and about to log into Days of Adventure to kill some trolls on his big-screen TV.
Life was good.
Setting the laptop on the coffee table in front of her, she fired up the game console she’d brought with her. It only took a few minutes more while she waited for the multi-player game to connect to grab her controller and slip on the headset she used to swap insults and accolades with her guild.
No one in the house yelled for her to get the phone, do the dishes, or grab the laundry out of the dryer. There was no loud shouting at the football game on the television or chatter from the poker game going on upstairs.
Just sweet, awesome silence.
Oh yeah, she could get used to this.
Just as she was logging into her account, a knock at the door interrupted her. Yeah, but no; she wasn’t expecting visitors, and that’s how she wanted to keep it.
The pounding on the door intensified.
Yanking off her headset, she hurried over and peeked out. Kellan Murphy stood on the front porch.
She punched in the code to disarm the alarm and flung open the door. “What are you doing here?”
A brown blur whizzed past her, but Kellan snatched the dog’s collar before he could escape. Again.
Spider sighed. “You heard what happened, didn’t you?”
Charlie jumped up against the blond hunk in greeting, and Costello meandered over to inspect their visitor before sitting on the man’s feet. Kellan, another private investigator employed by Zach’s firm, glanced up from petting them, his forehead crinkled. “No. Something happened?”
Feigning ignorance, she lied. “No. Nothing happened.” With a shrug, she shut the door behind him. “Nothing at all. Just me and the boys hanging out. Getting lots of work done. That’s all.”
He arched a brow. “Uh huh.” His gaze dropped to her shirt, and he curled his sinfully gorgeous lips. “That’s a good one; I like that one.”
She glanced down at the royal-blue t-shirt she wore that declared: “Dear Math, I’m not a therapist. Solve your own problems.” It was one of her favourites.
“So, something happened?” Kellan asked, sauntering into the room.
“Guess what?” She pointed out the laptop. “I wrote a script for our new client. It’ll keep trying to log into their website with randomly-generated usernames and passwords. I should be able to run a report and tell them by tomorrow how strong their online security is, and how to fix whatever holes I find in there.”
“Sounds great.” The tall, muscular Adonis walked over to the couch, glancing around as if he was looking for evidence. He plopped onto the cushion beside where she’d been sitting and put his heels up on the coffee table. “So you want to order a pizza or something. Maybe watch a movie? I think The Lord of the Rings trilogy is on-demand.”
Watching LotR with an Adonis would normally not be an unappealing way to spend the evening – but seriously? Spider resisted the urge to stomp her foot and scream, “No! This is my time! My privacy!”
Instead, she crossed her arms and pursed her lips. Her voice was laced with accusation when she said, “You stopped by to check on me.”
His hands lifted. “Can’t I stop by and check on a friend?”
“You’ve never stopped by my house and checked on me before.”
“Well, I mean, you live with your dad…” He shifted uncomfortably. “Spider, come on. You’re a young girl who—”
“I am twenty-five-years-old!” She stomped her foot. “All of you treat me like I’m twelve or something.”
Each one of the hottie private eyes employed by the agency – Zach, Brian, Kellan, E.J. and even the freelancers – acted as if she was his little sister instead of another kick-butt and take-names colleague. Alexandra did too, but at least Spider had never had a crush on the woman. Truth be told, she’d always wanted a sister, so she didn’t mind Alexandra’s overprotectiveness quite as much as the men’s.
And to be fair, there was a lot about her they didn’t know.