Point of Attraction by Margaret Van Der Wolf Page B

in. He’s
gauging just how far the thief had to enter to reach Raggs, Georgie
thought.
    “As you can see,” Georgie said. “It’s
almost a total blind spot from the shampoo bar. That’s why our
money drawer is locked when we’re all back there. We each have a
key.”
    When the chime pinged, it didn’t take
much to read the change in Mason’s face and she explained where
they had found the chime. Nick too lost his impish humor, and
though he tried to hide it, his eyes met Mason’s, but neither said
a word.
    “The girls and I thought
the same thing,” Georgie said, letting them know their secret was hardly that.
“Whoever it was must have been watching and waiting for the right
moment. I just don’t understand, why? No money taken. Just
Raggs?”
    Neither man said anything while Mason
wrote in his notebook, then looked at Nick.
    “Mr. Underwood, when I run you through
the system, will we find anything we shouldn’t? It’s best you tell
me now before I make my report.”
    “Actually, you’ll find my name
nowhere,” Nick started out before Georgie could stop him. He ran
his fingers through his shaggy blond hair, gave her a glance, then
looked to Mason. “I don’t exist, you know.”
    “What?” Mason let his sight slid to
Georgie. When she shook her head, waved a hand, and closed her eyes
that she’d heard this far too many times before, he turned his
attention back to Nick.
    “I think my parents were,
you know, one of THE
spooks .” Nick said.
    Mason drew in a deep noisy
breath. “ THE spooks .”
    Nick leaned toward him as
though to share a great secret. “You know,” he whispered, deep
furrows forming between his brows. “Black SUVs? C I A spooks.” Nick stressed each of the letters in the
acronym for Mason to pick up on it. “Protective custody and all
that?” He spread his hands to wipe away the murmur, “The
never-were.” “Stop. You need to stop,” Georgie told Nick. “Can you
please be serious here. Can you?” She gave Mason in a silent please be patient with him plea. “Let me know if you need me to sign anything. I have to
go start my perm.” She walked past Nick with only a hopeless stare
through narrowed eyes.
    “What?” Nick asked with that perfected
innocence. “It’s true. Georgie Girl, you know it’s
true.”
    Georgie waved a dismissing
hand.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter seven
     
    “Will you please stop?” Georgie begged
Emmee, at the end of the day.
    “Are you telling me Officer Montgomery
wasn’t someone you’d want to wake up next to? Or... better
yet...”
    “Emmee, I’m warning you. Stop this...
this... whatever this is you’re trying to do.”
    “Getting you a guy and all
the bennies that
come with it is what I’m trying to do here, Boss Lady.”
    Georgie threw a damp towel at Emmee,
but the stylist easily caught it before it hit her face and tossed
it in the salon washer. “Let’s get this place ready to go in the
morning,” she told Emmee, then bit her lower lip, knowing she’d
have hell to pay when Emmee and Brandy found out Officer Montgomery
was in her writing class and had already been to her house. “I, for
one, am tired and ready to go home.”
    “You can’t deny he looked mighty fine
in that uniform,” Emmee went on, totally into her playful taunting.
“And that gun.” Emmee formed a perfect 0 with her lips and rolled
her eyes. When she got in this mood, those eyes resembled amber
glass in the sun. “Oh, my.” She fanned her face, and this time,
Georgie hit her target with another throw of a damp
towel.
    “Don’t damage the make-up,” Emmee
laughed.
    “I like Nick,” Brandy said, with a
pout, arms crossed beneath her small breasts as she leaned on the
doorless threshold of the supply room watching them.
    “You would,” Emmee said, spreading
detergent over the towels in the washer and closing the lid.
“Towels set and ready to go in the morning.”
    “Doesn’t Nick have the cutest