Diamonds Are Truly Forever: An Agent Ex Novel 2 (31 page)

Lucy’s eyes lit up. “Really? I’d love them!” She frowned and glanced at her watch. “Oh, darn. I’m on my way out. I have to run an errand off site. There’s no time to go back to my desk right now.”

She looked around the room and smiled as her gaze landed on the door to the bathrooms. “I’ll just stash them in the ladies’ room until I get back. Is that far enough away?”

“As long as I don’t have to go to the bathroom.”

“Excellent!” Lucy smiled. “Remind me to get them when I get back. Before I forget, the Plant Lady will be stopping by on her twice-weekly run today. Let her into the black-box area.”

“The plant lady?”

Lucy laughed, rolled her eyes, and described her. “Middle-aged, to put it kindly, overweight, cropped brown hair with streaks of gray, wears too much green eye shadow and too-bright red lipstick. Frumpy. And a little…” She twirled her finger by her ear to indicate whoo-hoo. “Always wears a uniform—green polo with the Plant Lady logo, tan khakis, a flower-patterned apron, and Crocs. She’ll be pushing a cart with a large water bottle and watering wand, and a bag for plant clippings attached. You can’t miss her.

“She comes twice a week to water and care for the indoor plants, including those in the executives’ offices. She has her own badge that lets her in. Just giving you a heads-up so you don’t hassle her. She has a mean streak. Just ignore her if she starts talking or singing to the plants here in the lobby. She says they like it. Though, believe me, the rest of us could do without it.”

“Wait a minute!” Staci said. “The Plant Lady has clearance?”

Lucy shrugged. “Of course.” She scooped up the vase of irises and carried it off to the bathroom. A few minutes later, Staci watched her dash across the lobby and out the doors.

As the doors closed behind her, Staci realized Lucy had left her phone on the reception desk. She grabbed it and ran after her, but she was too late. Lucy pulled out of the driveway onto the street and disappeared just as a small white van with
THE PLANT LADY
painted on the side pulled in.

Staci carried the phone back to her desk and sat down. Out of curiosity, she slid the phone open. What juicy contacts did Lucy have in here?

Staci really had been hanging around Drew too long. Visions of her iPhone recovery stick flashed through her mind. A little espionage seemed in order. Turnabout was only fair play, after all. The office gossip deserved it.

When the phone lit up, Staci hit the contact list and scanned it. To her surprise, the number listed for home was her mom’s landline number.

Realization hit her—this wasn’t Lucy’s phone.
It was Sam’s.

What was Lucy doing carrying Sam’s phone?

She had no time to consider that right now. She’d think about it later. She’d just been handed the spying opportunity of the decade. Well, maybe not the decade, but certainly the spying opportunity of her mission.

She bit her lip and glanced toward the doors into the offices. Sam had said he’d be in a meeting all morning. There was time!

The stick was in her purse. Sam’s phone still in hand, she bent over in her chair to retrieve her purse from the desk drawer, ignoring her desk duties.

“You’re new.”

Staci jumped and put her hand to her heart as she looked up.

The Plant Lady, looking exactly as Lucy had described her, smiled down at her. “Caught you texting on the job, did I?” She laughed.

Staci wondered if the woman had sneaked up on her on purpose.

She played along. Better to let the Plant Lady think she was texting than snooping. Staci smiled up at her and shrugged. “You got me.”

The Plant Lady laughed. “I like honesty.” She nodded to Staci’s teddy bear cam. “Nice bear you have there.”

“Yeah, he keeps me good company.”

“You desk girls are lucky. You get to decorate your work space. It’s against company rules to beautify my cart. No sense of personal style allowed in this job.”

Except for the layers of light green eye shadow. Staci tried not to laugh. An idea dawned on her. Fate was just handing her way too many golden spying opportunities. “My bear gets tired of just sitting here. Same old scenery. How’d you like to borrow him? Take him for a spin on your rounds? You can drop him back by on your way out. He’d love to see the plants. Your boss will never know.”

The Plant Lady grinned. “I’d like that. What did you say your name was?”

“Staci. Today’s my first day. I’m just temping here for a few months.” She grabbed the bear and surreptitiously turned it on to record as she handed it over. “And you are?”

“The Plant Lady!” She laughed as she grabbed the bear and settled it face-forward on her cart as if it were a live pet. “I’ll have him back before lunch.”

“You do that. Have fun!”

Staci watched the Plant Lady swipe her badge and disappear through the doors into the black-box area. It seemed like Attitude let anyone in. Except for her.

Too bad on them. She’d just gotten her little spy in. She hurriedly pulled her iPad out of her purse. She turned her back to the security camera Drew had warned her about as she logged in to watch her bear go for a ride.

She set the iPad on her desk out of camera and casual observer view, and pretended to be busy working. Her screen lit up with a bear’s-eye view of the interior of Attitude, Inc. Which was pretty much disappointing territory. Bland. Your basic office cubicles in boring shades of light gray. It didn’t look like anything worth breaking into, not to her eyes, anyway.

They had some nice plants, though. And the Plant Lady gave them loving care, singing off-key Justin Bieber tunes to them as she went.

Staci needed to multitask and focus. How did Drew do this spy stuff? Keeping one eye on the iPad, and one on the lobby, she pulled the recovery stick from her purse and plugged it into the USB port on her computer before attaching the cable it came with to Sam’s phone and into a second USB port.

On her iPad, the Plant Lady watered a ficus tree just outside a conference room. The conference room door opened.

Sam walked out.

Staci froze.

What!
What was he doing out of his meeting?

He walked past the Plant Lady, still in view of the camera. Another co-worker stopped him.

“I thought you were in a meeting?” the co-worker said to Sam.

“Forgot my phone,” Sam said, sounding irritated.

Uh-oh.

Staci crossed her fingers and clicked on the executable file that popped up to download the data from the phone.

Co-worker commiserated. “Hey, I still want to hear all about your latest fishing trip. Didn’t get lucky and get a four-hundred-pound shark jumping into your boat, did you? See that on the news?”

“Saw it. No, no sharks. Would rather have a big king salmon jump in.”

Staci selected the iPhone folder and watched the file transfer begin in apparent slow motion. Why did her computer have to be so slow? Damn, she heard the hard drive kick in and run. Did her computer have to run diagnostics now?

She bit her lip and crossed her fingers.
Keep him talking, buddy. Keep him talking!

“Lucy said you’re going fishing again this weekend. Up in Victoria,” the co-worker said.

Staci frowned.
Fishing? Lucy
would
know. But what about Mom? Does
she
know Sam plans to disappear again this weekend? And why would he be hiding his fishing trips from her?

A transfer box popped up on Staci’s screen. It had a line across it that turned green to show the progress.

It was only halfway complete as Sam slapped his co-worker on the shoulder. “Yep, heading to Victoria on Friday morning. Hey, I gotta run. We’ll talk later.”

Three-quarters of the way done.

The Plant Lady finished with the ficus and mercifully followed Sam as he went to his desk to look for the phone. Staci just hoped he didn’t think to come out to reception and ask for it in lost-and-found.

The bear cam caught Sam rummaging around his desk. As he did, he exposed a brochure of some sort. Staci got just the quickest flash of it before it fluttered to the floor. Sam bent over, picked it up, and stashed it in a drawer. The Plant Lady’s back was turned so she couldn’t see Sam’s look of fear, or apprehension, or whatever you want to call it, over that brochure. Something about it made him uncomfortable. Staci wondered if it held a key to his disappearances. Suddenly she had to see it. She had to get into the black box.

But there was no time to dwell on that. Sam left his cubicle. Staci had no idea of the floor plan of the building, but if she had to guess, she’d lay money that he was heading toward the lobby, retracing his steps, and possibly heading out to his car to look for the phone she was scanning.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Drew had sex on the brain all throughout the morning as he performed his marketing director duties, sitting through boring meeting after meeting. When he wasn’t in a meeting, he was speculating with someone or other about where Martel, who’d been known as Wade at the brewery, was and why he hadn’t shown up for work. As one of three brew masters, Martel/Wade was important to brewery operations. The staff was trying to track him down.

Good luck with that.

But back to Staci. Damn her for toying with him, pretending to seduce him, then pulling back like a simpering virgin. What was her game? One minute, she acted as if she still loved him and wanted him back. The next, she was as cold as one of her stepfather’s fish on ice.

But to be honest with himself, he faced a far greater conundrum, one of his own making. He was beginning to think, to contemplate, and believe it was possible, to make things work with her. Or maybe that was only wishful thinking.

*   *   *

A message popped up on Staci’s screen indicating the transfer was complete. Sam would be here any minute. Heart racing, fingers shaking, she disconnected Sam’s phone and set it on her desk. She dropped the recovery stick and cord back into her purse and closed the drawer just as Sam burst into the lobby.

Just in time, she slid his phone out of view and smiled at him, feeling a burst of victorious adrenaline. So this was the high Drew lived for? Unable to lie to herself, she had to admit it could become addicting.

Putting on her acting face, she shot Sam a confused smile, as if she hadn’t expected him to be charging through the lobby. “Hey, I thought you were in a meeting?”

“I lost my damn phone.” He appeared more agitated than normal. “Did anyone turn one in?”

She frowned, trying to look puzzled. “It’s been a slow morning. No one’s turned in anything. Sorry.” Which was the truth.

“I’ll try my car.” He stalked off.

Staci resisted smiling, fearing the security cameras would catch her glee. Sam didn’t suspect her of a thing as he headed out of the building.

Just after Sam left, Lucy burst in, looking frazzled and worried.

“Back already?” Staci asked.

“I got halfway there and realized I didn’t have my phone. Did I leave it on your desk?”

“There’s a lot of that going around. Sam just came by looking for his.”

Lucy, that thieving gossip, paled. Oh, Staci really was too mean. She held up Sam’s phone. “Is this it?”

“You’re a lifesaver!” Relief didn’t begin to describe the look on her face as she snatched it away from Staci. “You said Sam was looking for his phone?”

Staci nodded. “He went to his car to look for it.”

“I’m sure it will turn up,” Lucy said.

Staci was sure it would, too. When Lucy returned it.

Lucy had just left when Sam flew back into the building, cursing to himself.

Unsuccessful, of course,
she thought to herself.

“I’ll be in my meeting,” he said as he strode by. “If anyone turns my phone in, buzz conference room two.” He mumbled something about the general being unhappy he had to step out of the meeting and how he was going to have to kiss butt.

Good. That was a sight Staci would pay to see.

At that moment, the Plant Lady pushed her cart into the lobby and directly into the ladies’ room.

Maybe she’ll sing to the irises about not giving people headaches,
Staci thought. A girl could hope.

An instant later, too soon to have done much singing, the Plant Lady popped back out, minus her cart and badge. “Break time!” she called to Staci. “I need a smoke. Be back in fifteen to twenty.”

Fifteen to twenty?
Staci glanced at the clock and then at the lobby, holding down another diabolical grin.

Fifteen to twenty was just enough time for what she had in mind.

The desk would have to do without her for the length of a smoke break. She grabbed her black light and trusty makeup compact, and called to the security guard to watch the desk.