Page 61 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

FORTY-ONE

JOSIE

Dinner is painfully long, partly because it’s an upscale, multi-course dinner, and partly because, despite his insistence that he couldn’t have dinner with me, Daniel never leaves the table, sharing each dish with me off one plate— my plate.

I fight a cringe each time he reaches across the table to take a bite of my food, smiling wide at me like this is normal.

I was right.

To Daniel, this is a date.

Still, it’s my job, so I tough it out, knowing the more time Rory has in there, the better, ensuring she won’t be interrupted.

Finally, though, things start to get interesting when a familiar redhead comes over, a tight smile on her face.

She doesn’t even look in my direction, just stands beside Daniel with a tight grimace before tipping her head to the door.

“Daniel,” she says. “I need to talk to you.”

He sits up a bit straighter, and his face goes a bit pale. “Tanya, I’m with a guest.”

Her jaw goes tight, and she gives him a forced smile. “It will just take a minute,” she says, again not looking in my direction.

Daniel looks from Tanya to me, and I smile and nod.

“No worries,” I say. “Work comes first.”

He gives me a grateful smile before he reluctantly stands and follows Tanya, who doesn’t even look back at him.

“Daniel is leaving with Tanya,” I say low as I lift my glass, pretending to take a sip. “He is leaving the restaurant through the main entrance.”

“Tracking it,” Rowan’s voice says in my earpiece. He’s probably in his office watching the feeds. “They’re going…” There’s a pause before he speaks. “Into a supply closet.”

“Ooh, interesting. One we bugged?”

“Yes,” he says. I put my glass down and look around the room, putting a hand to my mouth and pretending to rest there.

“Rory, how are you doing?”

“Almost done with the office,” she says. “Going as fast as I can.”

“Please. I’m dying of boredom.”

“He doesn’t seem to have much personality,” Rowan agrees, and I smile behind my hand.

“Unlike you?”

“I think you know damn well how much personality I have,” Rowan says low. Heat runs through me in response.

“Ugh, gross, you two,” Rory says. “I’m on the line.”

“If you finish faster, she could leave and—” Rowan starts, and I have to roll my lips between my teeth to hide my laugh.

“Rowan, I could absolutely ruin you if I wanted. Don’t push me,” Rory threatens, and Rowan laughs. He laughs . It warms me through, just the sound of it.

“I’m joking, I’m joking,” he says.

“A fucking comedian,” Rory grumbles.

“He’s heading back in,” Rowan says, all humor out of his tone. Tanya is…headed to the lobby.”

“Got it,” I say, straightening as Daniel comes back in with an apologetic smile on his lips.

And a very pink cheek. Almost like he was slapped.

“Everything okay?” I ask as he sits, then shrugs.

“Oh, yeah. She just…” He looks around like he’s looking for someone who will tell on him before he lowers her voice. “She gets jealous.”

I tip my head. “Of what? Me?”

He smiles then, wide and confident. “I mean, anyone would be jealous of you,” he says. “But anyone I give a lick of attention to.”

“Why? You’re just coworkers, right?”

A blush creeps over his cheeks. “Well…we hooked up once,” he says. I call bullshit internally as he continues. “But I think she’s more into me than I am into her. She had just gotten out of a pretty serious relationship, and I don’t think I should have taken her up on her offer.”

“I totally understand that,” I say with sympathy, though Tanya just shot to the top of my list. If she’s jealous of Daniel, who seems to flirt with everything that moves, she would have motivation to make his job a misery.

Daniel changes the subject quickly, and my— our— main entrée comes out, and we fall back into the same pattern of boring conversation. I’m trying to drag every moment out of dessert and praying I won’t have to convince Daniel to have an after-dinner drink with me when I get confirmation.

“Rory’s done,” a voice in my ear says, gravelly and hot.

A thrill runs through my body, both at his tone and the fact that we’ve completed another step in our plan.

It’s why I love this job: the excited thrill that runs through me when we accomplish something, the insane endorphins that rush through me.

I usually hop on a treadmill or do a workout when I feel it, but the idea that I have a more than willing companion here to burn off this excess, excited energy sends that feeling buzzing higher.

“Get out of there as soon as you can. Meet me in my room.”

My pulse skyrockets at his tone, filled with promise and need and desire.

Oh, I am so getting it good tonight.

“That was phenomenal,” Daniel says, knocking me out of my haze as he sits back with his hand patting his stomach.

“It really was,” I agree, despite the fact that I had one bite of the chocolate cake. I don’t even care: after Rowan takes care of me, I know he’ll take care of me in another way, ordering a dozen different room service meals for us to pick at. “Thank you for a wonderful night.”

“It doesn’t have to end here,” he says, leaning forward with a suddenly smarmy smile on his lips.

“We could continue it, head to the bar, get a few drinks, see where the night takes us.” I fight the curl of my lip, and I’m grateful my hands are in my lap because it makes it easier for me to grab my napkin and place it on the table.

“I’m off in,” he says, looking at his watch. “Twenty minutes.”

I check my watch and give him a faux sad look. “Unfortunately, I have an early bedtime. Thanks for the offer, though. Maybe next time?”

He looks disappointed, but I’m already standing, and making a scene wouldn’t be a great look, especially not when he’s supposed to be working .

“Oh, uh. Yeah. That would be…that would be great.”

He stands as well, moving around the table toward me. “I’ll be at the pool early tomorrow morning. Maybe I’ll see you there?”

“Wonderful. I’d love to,” I say. He puts out two arms to give me a hug, and I awkwardly reach up to shake his hand.

Before he can take it, there’s a shout from the kitchen, then more shouts echoing throughout the restaurant we’re in.

My head snaps around, looking for what’s causing the disturbance before I hear it.

“A mouse!”

Except it’s not just a single mouse skittering through the restaurant and, presumably, the kitchen.

It’s at least a dozen tiny, furry little things, squeaking as they run along the floor of the restaurant.

Guests scream, and dishes fall as people panic and quickly move toward the exits.

A woman even gets on a table like some kind of cartoon, though my gaze moves right to Daniel, assessing.

That’s when I see he is sitting on the chair, feet up, arms around his knees in fear, like he’s afraid one of the surprisingly cute mice will climb up his pant leg.

Sighing, I mentally cross out Daniel.

“Oh my god, they were everywhere ,” I say, walking into our room a few hours later.

Rowan is stuck downstairs, once again having to appease guests, deal with the police, update his previous report, and handle an exterminator.

This time, however, he’s on our team, so we know anything he sees or hears will come back to us.

Right now, I just want a shower to wash away the tiredness of the night.

“Oh, good, you’re here,” Rory says. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“Find anything?” I ask.

Rory tips her head, neither confirming nor denying. “No pings or emails to Tanya or Daniel leading up to or during the sabotage.”

“You bugged Tanya as well?”

She waves her hand over the housekeeping uniform she’s wearing. “Her work devices, yeah. With this outfit and Rowan in my back pocket, I can pretty much bug any room.” She clicks a few more times before turning the computer toward me, where a screen displaying a storage room appears.

“Should I be nervous?” I ask, a brow lifted at her ominous tone, and she shakes her head.

“No, no. It’s just…” She hits play, and I can hear low sounds outside of the room.

“Is that one of our cameras?” I ask, and she nods in confirmation.

“Right outside the restaurant. Time stamp is six forty-one.” I open my mouth to say something but close it when Daniel and Tanya walk in, Tanya’s jaw tight and angry, Daniel looking clearly annoyed.

“What the fuck is that?” on-screen Tanya says, throwing an arm toward the door once Daniel closes it behind him.

“What?”

“That guest ,” she says. “The one whose tits you can’t stop looking at.”

Oh . So they’re fighting about me .

“Tanya, baby—” he starts with exasperation in his voice.

“Don’t you, Tanya, baby, me, Daniel. I can’t believe this.”

He steps closer to her and sighs, but she steps away.

“It’s part of the job! I spilled water on her, and I offered to comp her dinner to make up for it. She’s flirty—I didn’t want to insult her and get a negative review!”

I smile to myself at my successful flirting, but a small part of me feels bad because I hate it when I seem to get in the middle of a relationship.

“You think I’m really that stupid, Daniel? I know you, remember. I know how you work.”

“If you’re going to be such an uptight—” He doesn’t get to finish what is clearly going to be a rude insult, because a ringing slap on his cheek cuts him off.

Honestly, he deserved it.

“You’re out of your fucking mind,” he says with a shocked shake of his head. “This is over.” And then he leaves to go back into the restaurant. I remember him touching his cheek a bit when he returned, seeing the pink mark, and putting the pieces together.

For a moment, I thought he and Tanya had left to set up the mice, but considering he was only gone for a few minutes during dinner and we have footage to show his every step, I don’t believe he could be the one who actually let the mice go, which lowers him on our suspect list, if not removing him completely.

But Tanya moves a bit higher on the list when she sniffles in the staff room and then takes in a deep breath and puts her shoulders back, as if gathering herself.

“He’s going to regret this, fucking with me,” is all we can catch before she’s out the door. We sit in silence after Rory pauses the video, indicating there’s no more to this stream.

“It seems like they’re dating, or at least she believed they were,” I say, remembering Daniel saying they hooked up and she thought it was more.

“He’s a flirt. We’ve seen him flirt with half a dozen guests by now, not including Rory and me.

If Tanya gets jealous every time she catches him, and she throws a tantrum, maybe that’s it.

You heard her say he’s going to regret fucking with her.

She could easily have left that room and released the mice. ”

“Agreed,” Rory says. “Plus, it’s definitely not Daniel. When I went in there, I was able to bug his transmission and copy his hard drive. He was the one who referred us to Annette.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

“It seems he used our services for his ex-wife two years ago. When he realized no one could explain the issues at the resort or pinpoint the source, he suggested the Mavens to Annette.”

“No fucking way,” I whisper. “How did you find that?”

“With Rowan’s help, I have access to the email server for the company. He sent the email on the night of the fire.”

I sit down next to Rory and let out a heavy sigh. “If it were him and he knew we were efficient, he wouldn’t have suggested we come to investigate. Does he know it’s us? ” I ask, waving a hand between myself and Rory.

She shakes her head. “No, I don’t even know if he is aware that Annette took his suggestion.”

“Do you think he suspects Tanya?” I ask, thinking out loud.

Rory’s face looks contemplative for a moment before she shakes her head.

On the bright side, we can reliably knock out Daniel as, at the very least, the person executing the sabotages, since he sat with me the entire time except for a few minutes near the beginning of the dinner.

“I also found this once I got back to the room and started digging,” Rory says, pulling up another screen.

“I haven’t been able to get much from the cameras that have been altered, but I did manage to find this hidden on some backup of a backup of a backup in the cloud.

” She hits play, and I see a clip of a man in a dark hoodie, head down, leaving a room with a bag, something large sticking out of it.

“Is that…?” I ask, my heart pounding excitedly.

“The room that was broken into? Yes,” Rory says with a smile.

“Oh my god,” I whisper, leaning closely. “Who is it?”

“I can’t determine that, but I do think…” she says, moving screens and showing me a screen grab. “I had Demi clear this up.”

“That’s a camera,” I say excitedly.

“I think it’s why they went into that room. Someone had stashed it in there. The Barlows had checked in early the previous day, so they needed to get in and get the camera before it was found.”

“That’s why nothing was taken,” I say in awe. “We need that camera.”

Rory gives me an apologetic look. “Unfortunately, I can’t find any other clips with hoodie man in them.”

I groan. It feels like we are so close, but nothing is giving us what we need to close this case, or at least take the final steps to do so.

“We’re close, Josie,” Rory says sympathetically.

I smile at her, and the way she knows exactly what I’m thinking. “ I know, I know. I just…we’re so close, but we also have nothing. Just a lot of loose ends.”

Rory shrugs. “That’s the fun of it, babe.”

I glare at her, and she lets out a laugh.

“Come on. Let’s scroll through more tape until your man gets let out and you can go back to his bed.”

And really, who am I to argue with an offer like that?