Page 24 of Frankie and the Fed (Untamed Rascals #3)

J amie seemed off tonight. Her kisses, her touch, the way she spoke and looked seemed too desperate.

I didn’t know what to make of it. Did she know? Of course, she did.

It was all too easy to forget that she wasn’t just Jamie the Tour Guide. I’d let myself forget, not entirely, but in those moments when her lips touched mine and it was just us and pleasure. I could almost believe it was all real.

Maybe… maybe for me it was. I couldn’t ignore the lies between us, but maybe it didn’t matter who she was if this was real.

I swiped us into the warehouse, her hand clinging to mine. A sense of dread built in me as we walked, like whatever was delivered tonight had the potential to destroy what was building between us .

Silence hung heavily around us, pressing on the tenuous thread that connected us, threatening to snap it.

Jamie squeezed my hand and smiled at me. Maybe it was just me being paranoid, and nothing was wrong at all.

I smiled back, trying to squash whatever melancholic paranoia had taken over.

“It’s just over here,” I said too brightly. “Tom says the delivery guys are idiots who can’t figure out how to do things right, hence the midnight deliveries.”

“Why keep working with them, then?” she asked.

“How am I supposed to know what Tom’s thinking?” I didn’t want to give anything away. I needed to see what was in these midnight deliveries and how Jamie reacted to them.

She looked at me oddly, like I was a puzzle she couldn’t figure out.

Shit, maybe inviting her was a mistake. Maybe I should have insisted she stay in the planetarium so I could do this alone and not have to learn anything so we could keep living in this bubble.

A knock echoed around the warehouse, startling me out of my spiral.

“That would be them. I’ll go let them in. Wait here.” I gestured to the general area, just far enough away from the delivery that she would be safe in case she had nothing to do with this.

Regret weighed on me. I shouldn’t have brought her. What if I imagined her involvement, and I was putting her at risk?

But then there was that woman from that night. The more familiar Jamie’s face became to me, the surer I was that it was her. Did it matter? That was the ultimate question. More and more, I didn’t think it did. Her damn magic tongue.

I knew it was more than that, though. Jamie was—knocking came again, more insistent than before. I looked behind me. Jamie crouched just behind a shelf, staring at me expectantly.

I opened the door. Two men stood on the other side, different from the ones I’d seen before. Maybe. It was hard to tell. Either way, they looked at me expectantly.

“Where do I sign?” I asked, holding out my hand for whatever paperwork they had.

If this were skeezy shit, they would have fake papers.

I wasn’t sure what I could glean from it, but it might give me some clue, some answer that had been evading me.

If it were a real tracking slip, then Jamie would be absolved, she would have some other reason for being here that night, and we could be together.

My heart raced at the possibility of a future with her, one without my paranoia weighing me down.

They handed me a delivery slip. It didn’t have any useful information on it. Not even a company name. I wish I could take pictures, but that would be suspicious. They looked at me expectantly when I handed back the clipboard.Not a real packing slip. A rock settled in my stomach.

“Right. Silly me,” I said, playing dumb as I stepped back and opened the door wider for them to bring in a large box. “So, do this regularly?” Maybe if I got them to talk, they would spill something.

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how any of this worked or what Jamie’s part was in it all. Tom clearly had something to do with it, that much I knew, and since he was sleazy as shit, it could be anything. I needed more information.

They didn’t talk.

“Nice night. That looks heavy. What are we getting tonight?”

Still nothing. Tough nuts.

I turned and watched where they dropped the box.

Thankfully, they were so focused on their package that they didn’t notice the blonde head peeking out around the shelves.

I waved her back before they saw her. On the off chance that she was just a hot tour guide, I didn’t want them knowing she was here.

“Is that it?” I asked without really expecting an answer. “Did someone cut out your tongues?”

One guy snorted, but otherwise, they exited the door and brought in another box just as silently as the first.

While they unloaded this box, I slipped my phone out of the waistband of my skirt and took a few discrete photos of their van.

The light was out on the license plate, but the light that spilled from the door lit just enough for a partial look at it.

South Carolina plates, not unusual here, but still notable.

They left as quickly as they could, and I made sure I heard the van drive away before turning around to see Jamie walking around the shelves and straight to me.

“You ok?” she asked when she reached me.

“Pick up on my nerves? It’s not exactly safe to do these midnight deliveries.” I deflected from my actual concern. Although really, it wasn’t safe, and that was just another reason Tom was a bastard.

“Yeah.”I couldn’t help looking at the boxes. I shouldn’t look with her here, but… “I just need to check on the contents.”

I walked over to the wooden boxes and found a pry bar nearby, opening the first one on a slight groan. Damn. That was not easy.

“What did the museum get?” Jamie asked over my shoulder, her arm brushing my back ever so slightly as I moved the lid.

“Guess we’re about to find out.” I moved the packing peanuts and uncovered nothing. “What? No.” I dug into it more and then moved onto the next box. Nothing was there, either.

“They’re empty?”

“I… I guess they are.” I stood there confused. What the hell? “Let’s put the tops back on. Better to let Tom find them empty.”

“What was it supposed to be?” She reattached the top of one of the wooden boxes while I did the other.

“I… I have no idea.” I stood staring at them for too long. What the actual fuck was going on right now? “They were supposed to…” I didn’t finish my sentence, though. I couldn’t tell Jamie what I thought they were supposed to be.

“Come on.” She pulled me away from the boxes and out of the warehouse.

The night was over, the mood destroyed. Whatever had built between us earlier crumbled, as did any hope I had of accomplishing any goals I had set for myself.

Jamie kissed me softly at the back door to the museum, promising to have lunch with me tomorrow, but in the dark of night, nothing seemed right, and I couldn’t muster more than a nod.

In a fit of frustration, I went back to my office and pulled out my computer, deleting any evidence of my plan to figure her out or solve the mystery of what the fuck Tom was up to.

I clearly had everything wrong. My damn imagination and loneliness drove me to these insane lengths. I was making a fucking fool of myself thinking it was anything more.

I slammed my laptop closed and shoved it in my bag. I left the food in the employee fridge. I couldn’t take it home. I didn’t even want to take myself home, to my empty house, empty bed, empty life.