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“And what can you offer us?”
“Strong back. Strong work ethic. Good organizational skills. Eye for detail. And I know how to handle a hysterical woman.”
She grinned. I’ll bet you do know how to handle a woman, hysterical or not. She forced those thoughts from her mind. Employee. Employee. If he passes the testing, he’s going to be an employee. Her brain was with the program. Parts south, not so much.
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_6c1d8d6f-ea75-5c22-abfd-39d26587fc5b)
AS THEY PULLED into a parking space in the upscale apartment community, Wyatt saw a guy sitting on the stairs. He wore the Cleaning Crew uniform of jeans and white T-shirt and when he stood, Wyatt noted he was about his own age. Since most of the employees seemed to be college age, this made him feel as if he might actually fit in. The man walked toward them as Sadie climbed from the car. Josh, he remembered she’d said.
“I haven’t even finished. She kicked me out. I left everything.”
Sadie put a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. Is she still crying?”
“No. She’s sitting in the living room and holding it. It’s creepy.”
“What did you say to her?”
“Nothing. I told her I thought something was wrong with the cat. She came in and starting screaming. I asked her if she wanted me to bury it or something.”
“Or something?”
Josh shrugged. “It’s a cat. The hell do I know what to do with a dead cat?”
“And I’m supposed to know?”
“You’re the boss.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake.” She glanced up at an apartment door on the second floor. Frowned. She looked at Wyatt. “Do you know what you’re supposed to do with a dead cat?”
“Bury it or something,” he said. He kept a straight face but put a humorous tone to his words. It was a risk, but the chance to get on the good side of one of Sadie’s guys couldn’t be missed. Josh snorted out a laugh. Her frown deepened and he felt a stab of worry.
“I see now why you left out problem-solving skills on that list you gave me.”
His worry subsided at the sarcasm in her voice and the exasperated roll of her eyes. It disappeared when Josh hooked an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Sadie. That’s what everyone thinks you do with a dead cat. Bury it.”
Wyatt watched as Sadie’s expression changed to a careful neutral. Putting on her game face. She drew in a deep breath and let it out. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting to find, but Sadie Martin wasn’t it. She was younger than he’d expected. And pretty. Her hair was tangle of black curls, barely contained in the ponytail spilling half way down her back. Her skin was a delicate shade of white that was rare in this southern climate and showed off her dark blue eyes and full lips. He’d heard the term Cupid’s bow before, but now recognized it in the shape of her mouth. He liked it.
“Wyatt?”
Come on. Pay attention. You’re here to get a job, not get laid. “Yeah?”
“Come on upstairs with us. I’ll talk to Heidi while you and Josh collect his stuff. If it seems like I’m going to be tied up awhile, I’ll have Josh take you back.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
She shook her head while staring up at the apartment door. “I hate this.”
“Dead cats?” Josh teased.
“Pain.”
Wyatt followed her up the stairs. She paused at the door, her head lowered. With a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and went inside. She crossed the room to sit beside the woman cradling the body of an orange-and-white cat. “Oh, Heidi, honey,” she crooned. She hugged the woman who burst into a fresh torrent of tears. “Poor Rosie.”
Clearly, whatever reservations she’d had about dealing with the situation were gone. Her compassion was real. He’d seen enough fake compassion, doled out some of it himself when he wore a badge, to recognize the real thing. Sadie’s hand reached out to pet the cat and Josh turned away with a jerk. Wyatt followed him into the back room where he helped him gather the various supplies he’d left behind.
Heidi told Sadie how Josh found the cat and came to get her. Sadie’s voice was warm and sad. “She just slipped away from us.”
He was crossing the living room when Sadie let out a small laugh. “Remember when I first started cleaning for you? How she would follow me from room to room and we started calling her Inspector Rosie?”
He slowed his steps to look at the two women. Sadie had one hand on Heidi’s shoulder and the thumb of the other stroked over the cat’s cheek and ear. And damn if Heidi didn’t laugh, too. “Oh! And remember the time she hid in the closet and you thought she’d gotten outside and we spent an hour searching for her and when we came back in, she was sitting on the couch staring at us like we were crazy?”
Back in the parking lot, he helped Josh load the equipment into his car. Josh closed the trunk and leaned against the car. Wyatt pegged him to be late twenties. Dark hair and a strong build.
“You a new guy?” Josh asked.
“Don’t know. I was there for my interview when she got your call.”
“Sadie’s good people. You could do worse for a boss.”
“What about the clients?”
“Pretty cool. I mean, I know it seems weird. People think they hire us like we’re strippers or something. But it isn’t like that. Sadie screens the clients pretty well. Most of them know we do a good job. Having a guy clean your house is something to brag to their friends about.”
“So, no, uh, problems?”
Josh shook his head. “She’s got strict rules for us and the clients. It’s the one thing that will make her go ballistic. Instant termination if you break the rules.”
“That’s good to hear. I don’t need a hassle. Just a paycheck.”
He’d done some digging and what Josh was saying was consistent with everything he’d heard about the Cleaning Crew. They both looked up as Sadie came out of the apartment. She hurried down the stairs. Those luscious lips were pressed together in a tight line and he could see the tension in her shoulders. He wanted to touch her. “You were doing great up there,” he said.
“Thanks. Do you want the job?”
“Yes. Unless I have to bury the cat. I’d have to negotiate a bonus.”
He smiled when she laughed and her shoulders relaxed. Yes, those lips looked much better loose and smiling.
“There’s still testing to do before a final offer.” She turned to Josh. “Take him back and tell Molly to get started on the paperwork. I’m taking the cat to her vet so they can arrange a cremation. Oh, and have someone take Jack out.”
She held out a hand and smiled up at him. He shook her hand. His fingers tightened against hers for a second at the pleasant jolt of the touch.
“Welcome aboard,” she said.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
If only he wasn’t lying about everything. He was starting to feel bad about it.
* * *
SADIE PULLED INTO the parking lot and rested her head on the steering wheel for a moment. She’d delivered the cat to the vet. Freaking out the whole way, worried she’d get a ticket and have to explain why she had a dead cat in the car. She’d never had a pet until Jack, and it had taken everything she had to touch the too-still body of poor little Rosie. But one thing she understood quite well was the pain of being left alone. She had gone back to check on Heidi afterward. Found her tearful but coping. She wouldn’t go long without a cat. By tomorrow, she’d be looking at adoptable cats on the SPCA website.
She climbed out of the car and as she did, her eyes passed over the brick facade of the building. She still had trouble believing she owned the place. It wasn’t fancy, just a cracker box–style brick house, but it was hers. She’d bought the house six years ago after running the business out of her apartment for three years. The two-story brick building had been empty and neglected for several years. The stretch of Savannah Highway it sat upon was a short ride to downtown Charleston and the location—and price—had been perfect. She’d converted the second floor into an apartment where she lived and the downstairs was the Crew’s office.
A warm sense of pride and accomplishment filled her. She’d built this. Starting with her first job as a housekeeper, she’d put aside money and cultivated a customer base, hoping to one day work for herself. To be running the most successful, most sought-after maid service in Charleston blew her mind. And terrified her. Didn’t they know that every day she was winging it?
Jack barked happily when she let herself in the front door. He skidded down the hall and crashed into her. Eighty pounds of shaggy fur, lolling tongue and stupid. She grabbed his head between her hands. “Who’s a good boy? Who’s the best boy?”
His entire body wagged out his answer. Molly laughed from her desk. “And you wonder why he won’t behave for you. You encourage bad behavior. Jack. Sit.”
And he sat, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth and his tail swishing across the floor. Sadie leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “I think you’re the best boy,” she told him. “Granny Molly is just a meanie.”
“Your new hire is still in the back, taking the personality tests. I called his references, they check out. Told them to expect a call from you.”
Sadie took the handful of mail Molly held out to her. “Anything else?”
“Deanna Carter—”
“No.”
“—asked if you’d reconsider.”
“No.”
“Says she was under stress and is—”
“No.”
“—taking medication and has her issues under control.”
“Don’t care if God Himself writes her an excuse. She groped one of my guys. No.”
Molly held up her hands in surrender. “Only relaying the message. Don’t get mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m still mad at her.”
She bit back several colorful words. There was a new hire in the back. A new hire she wasn’t sure she should hire. He was too...too much. She went to her office and tossed the mail on the desk. Get it together. You can’t deny a man a job because he makes you remember you’re a woman. You’re an adult. You’re a professional. Deal with it. She pulled the band out of her hair and shook out the curls, running her fingers over her scalp, trying to ease the brewing headache. An unfamiliar creak on a hallway floorboard was the only warning she got before Wyatt appeared in her open doorway. He stood with an easy, relaxed confidence and it made her wonder what it would take to rile him up a bit. And the thought sent a delicious little wave of pleasure through her. She tossed the hair band on her desk and squared her shoulders. “All done?”
“I think so. Hope so. My eyes are about to fall out of my skull. Not used to staring at a computer for so long.”
He turned as she approached the door so she brushed lightly against his arm when she passed. Apparently all he had to do was stand there to rile her up. She shook her head as she walked down the hall. He followed and she swore she could feel his gaze on her back. She did what she always did when flustered—reverted to business mode.
“Have a seat,” she said, waving at one of the tables set up as desks. She remained standing until he sat. Only then did she sit across from him. “There’s a reason we do so much testing. The results will be calculated and I’ll get a report.”
“Seems to be pretty standard with any job application these days,” he said.
“True. It’s for everyone’s protection. My business model is a bit odd, some might say. So I make sure everyone, employees and customers alike, are on the same page about the services provided.”
He leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table and distracting her with those tanned, muscled forearms, lightly dusted with sun-bleached blond hair. “And those services are?”
She snapped her eyes back to his. “We clean. Period. The end.”
“I understand you perfectly. Do the customers? I recently got custody of my eight-year-old niece. I’m her only living relative. I can’t afford any kind of accusation.”
It took a moment for her to answer. Eight years old. Only living relative. Her heart raced and she drew in a slow breath. She clasped her hands together, staring down at her fingers. She cleared her throat and forced the corners of her mouth up into a smile.
“A lot of our clients have been with me since before the Cleaning Crew existed. New customers come primarily from referrals. All new clients have a sit-down interview with me and they have to sign a behavior agreement as part of their contract. Employees sign one also.”
He rocked back in his seat. “That’s pretty thorough.”
“When we were first starting out, a woman made accusations. She fairly quickly confessed she’d made up the entire incident. She’d developed a crush on one of our guys, and when he did not reciprocate, she tried to get him fired by lying.”
She stopped there. It still made her furious. She took a few deep breaths so she could talk without her volume climbing to shouting range. “Even though it was straightened out right away, it scared me. Max was a college kid majoring in education. If there had been some sort of crime reported against him, it could have landed him on the sex offenders list and he would never have been able to get a job as a teacher. It could have ruined his entire life. So I take this very seriously.”
“Good. Exactly what I want to hear. I need a job and a paycheck. I don’t need to risk my future and my niece’s future.”
She stood and he followed suit. “I think you’ll be fine. I’ll get the results and call you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_9b8cf58c-06bc-5254-ba53-d61b400c65da)
THE DAY WAS pleasant and Wyatt would have chosen the outdoor seating, but Marcus Canard had already taken up residence in a corner booth at the Citadel Mall location of Sesame Burgers & Beer. The lunch crowd was beginning to thin out which troubled him a little. People in large noisy crowds were less likely to eavesdrop.
Wyatt hesitated, studying Marcus for a moment. He wore the Southern gentleman’s casual uniform of khakis and a polo shirt. But everything was a bit off. The shirt stretched over a too-large gut and one collar was frayed. The fabric of the khakis was stiff and shiny. By his appearance, he wouldn’t seem to fit with the business elite of Charleston, but he did.
He’d first noticed it when he’d been summoned to the office of Henry Moody to meet Marcus. The contrast between Henry’s Old World grace and Marcus’s crude appearance and speech was almost comical. Until you realized they were both rich and powerful men. And in the business world, money and power were all that really mattered.
Wyatt had taken this assignment when he really didn’t want to. The work he did for Henry’s insurance company was his main source of income. He couldn’t jeopardize that relationship. Not with Jules’s welfare to consider. So he was stuck with Marcus Canard. He crossed the room, pulling on his bland cop face.
“Did you get the job?” Marcus asked around a mouthful of fries as Wyatt sat across from him.
“Start on Monday. It’d be helpful if you told me exactly what it is you’re looking for.”
“Anything. I know that gal isn’t running a legitimate business over there. And what’s with the guy thing? Is that a gimmick or are those boys doing more than mopping?”
Wyatt corralled his irritation while he gave the waitress his order. Clients usually knew exactly what they wanted him to find. When he turned back to Marcus, he had it mostly under control. “You think there’s something illegal going on, then?”
“All I know is she charges twice what I do, and for what? So a good-looking guy can clean your house? Who cares what he looks like?”
A spark of interest flared at that and Wyatt leaned forward. “You think she’s running a male-prostitute service?”
“Why not? Women can pay for it now, too, right?”
“My preliminary investigation hasn’t turned up anything. Not even a rumor.”
“Find a rumor. Find something. Find anything. I want her out of business.”
“Why?”
“That’s nothing you need to know to do your job. Just do it.”
