As we were leaving the building, I got that weird, spiders crawling on the back of my neck sense that I was being watched. I looked across the street, where a dark blue car pulled out of a parking spot and drove away. With the reflection of the windows, I couldn’t see who was inside.

  Frowning, I told myself it was probably nothing. After what went down at the treasure hunt, I’d developed more of an overactive imagination than normal. I had to keep reminding myself that there weren’t villains hiding around every corner. It was like when you watched a particularly scary movie and had to double-check all the windows and doors in your house before you went to sleep. Now I was constantly on the lookout, mentally checking all those windows and doors.

  “I just have to run to the ATM,” Damien said when we reached the deli. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  He went and Lilah and I stepped inside to join the queue. It was always busy in here during lunch, so I knew we had at least a ten-minute wait ahead of us.

  “So, what do you think of Damien?” Lilah asked and I glanced over my shoulder at her.

  “He’s great,” I replied, wondering at her forced casual tone. “I couldn’t have asked for a better replacement.”

  “Do you think he’s hot though?” she went on and my eyebrows rose.

  “You like Damien?” I questioned.

  She shrugged, a grin playing on her lips. “He has that whole bad boy thing going on, but he’s really smart as well. I didn’t pay much attention to him when he first started at the office, but the more I get to know him, the more I think I might have a bit of a crush.”

  I grinned. “Oh my God, this is so exciting. Do you think he likes you back?”

  “It’s hard to tell. But sure look, I don’t want to propose marriage to the bloke.” Lilah paused, a playful gleam in her eye. “I’m talking more of a…physical thing.”

  “Ooooh,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t be opposed to that.” She didn’t respond, instead giving me a sharp look to be quiet. A second later, Damien appeared, completely oblivious that he’d just been a topic of conversation.

  Later that day, Cameron was still out working on a case, so I decided to head home and order in some takeout for dinner. I was on my way to my car when I got that weird feeling again that I was being observed. I glanced around, but there was no one there.

  I shook my head at myself. Perhaps I wasn’t getting enough sleep. Cameron and I were keeping each other up a lot later than usual after all.

  Just as I lowered myself into the driver’s seat of my car, someone appeared on the other side and got in.

  “What the hell!” I shouted before a hand covered my mouth.

  “Be quiet, will you? I don’t mean you any harm.”

  I remained silent and she removed her hand while I stared at her in shock. “Christina?”

  “You weren’t expecting me?” she asked with a wry smile and I looked around, nerves fizzing in my stomach as I prayed for someone to come out of the office and see I was in trouble. I knew Lilah and a few others were still in there. If ever there was a time when I wished I could telepathically communicate with my best friend, then this would be it.

  “How are you even here? I thought you were in prison.”

  “Didn’t you hear?” she said, a pleased slant to her mouth. “That lawyer your partner hooked me up with got me off. I’m free as a bird. He really is as good as they say. It’s actually why I’m here. I came to thank Mr. Grant for the favour.”

  “Oh,” I said, frowning. “Cameron’s actually out on a case at the moment.”

  I was still unsure if I should relax. Had she really just come here to thank him? It seemed a little aggressive to climb into my car without being invited. I stretched out my arm, wondering if I could reach the small can of deodorant in my handbag. It was the only thing I could think of that might work as a weapon. She couldn’t hurt me if I was spraying her in the face with chemicals, right?

  “I was here earlier, too,” she said and I realised that’s who’d been watching me at lunch. It hadn’t been my imagination after all. “But then I saw him and got scared.”

  Now I frowned. “Saw who?”

  “The guy,” she said, bobbing her head meaningfully like I should know who on earth she was talking about. “Remember the one I told you and Mr. Grant about when you came to visit me? He broke into my friend’s flat and beat me up after I stole those rings from Harrington. I knew I’d remember his face if I ever saw him again.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, confused.

  Christina emitted a sigh, like I was being purposely obtuse. “You left your office earlier today with a guy and a girl. The guy was the one who beat me up.”

  Now I stared at her in disbelief. “Damien?”

  “Is that his name? He didn’t take the time to exchange pleasantries when he was kicking the shit out of me,” she replied sardonically.

  “But he…he’s our researcher…how—”

  Christina cut me off. “How long have you known him?”

  I quickly calculated the time in my head. “Around three months. He only started working at the firm recently.”

  “Well, did Harrington know you were sniffing around him before then? Because if he did, then he probably planted this guy at your office.”

  I stared out the window as my blood ran cold, remembering my old suspicions about Damien, and how he might be working for Harrington. Cameron and I had met Harrington at Treasures & Trinkets just before Christmas. We’d pretended to be an engaged couple shopping for rings, but we must’ve asked too many questions. He could’ve also seen me talking with Jamie outside the store that time, when I asked where he’d gotten the shiner.

  So, Harrington had been keeping tabs on us ever since, and Damien was…working for him? Worse yet, he was one of his thugs, a complete and total lowlife. I couldn’t believe I’d been right about him before. When would I ever learn to stop doubting myself?

  Then again, Damien was a very good actor. He had everyone at the office fooled.

  But why was he still keeping up the charade if his boss was in prison? Was he playing some kind of long game? And if he really was who Christina said, how the hell had he managed to fake his references and slip through our background checks without so much as a blip?

  “Look,” Christina’s voice broke through my frantic thoughts. “I don’t want to get involved. I only came here to says thanks. I’m trying to get my life back on the straight and narrow. I figure this is my second chance, you know? And it wouldn’t have happened without that fancy solicitor, so…well, you get the picture. I saw you with this guy and I thought I should warn you because he’s fucking dangerous. I might not be an angel, but it takes a real cold-blooded piece of work to beat up a woman like that.”

  Her words made the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I’d spent the last three months working side by side with a man who had no problem beating people up, breaking into their homes even. I’d trained him to take over my position and he’d been coming into the office every morning like a completely normal, well-adjusted individual.

  I levelled Christina with a grateful expression as adrenaline pumped through my system. “Thank you. I’ll let Cameron know you came. And I wish you the best with your fresh start, I really do.”

  Christina gave a curt nod. “Yes, well, I know where stealing can get me now, don’t I? I guess I have you to thank for that, too.”

  “I was just doing my job,” I said as she opened the door and stepped out.

  “You take care of yourself, Maisie,” she said and then she was gone. I sat in my car for a long few moments, panic setting in as I tried to decide what to do with this new information. When I saw Lilah leaving the office, I rolled down my window and called her over. She jogged across the street to meet me.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” she asked as I motioned her to get in the car.

  As quick as I could, I gave her the lowdown on Damien. Her face hardened and I could tell she wasn’t happy. Lilah didn’t give second chances, and she definitely didn’t take kindly to being fooled the way Damien had fooled us. There was also the fact that she’d recently developed a crush on him, and she had to feel a little ill at the idea of fancying a violent criminal. Then again, I doubted the chatty, smiling guy we worked with every day was the real him. It had to be a persona.

  “Do you have Detective Costas’ number?” I asked and she nodded, pulling out her phone. I could tell it wasn’t an easy call for her to make given their history. She quickly filled him in on what was going on while I texted Cameron. I knew he’d want to be here for this.

  “He’s on his way,” Lilah said once she ended the call. “Damien’s still in the office, so at least we know where he is. Do you think Christina will give evidence against him? She’s the only person we have who can attest to his crimes.”

  “I don’t know. She did seem pretty grateful to Cameron for hooking her up with that solicitor. Maybe she’d be willing to help us out.” I paused a moment to think. “He must be using a fake name. I always thought it suspicious that he insisted we’d gone to the same college, that he remembered me yet we never met.”

  “He was trying to build a rapport, establish a common ground with you,” Lilah said. “Con artists do it all the time. If we think a person is from a similar background to us, then we’re less suspicious. We might try to deny it, but it’s an inbuilt prejudice that we all have.”

  I thought of how he used to flirt with me, and how it felt fake somehow. Had that been a tactic to build a rapport as well? I felt icky thinking about how he’d tried to manipulate me like that.

  “How hard do you think it’ll be to discover his true identity?” I asked Lilah.

  “Not very. If he’s connected to Harrington, then he must be from around here, or at least one of the surrounding towns.”

  I nodded. That did seem like the most likely scenario. A few minutes later, Detective Costas showed up, followed shortly by Cameron. He pulled me into his arms, checking to make sure I was okay before we headed into the office.

  Miles passed us by. “Hey, is everything all right?” he asked, frowning and probably wondering what we were all doing marching back into the office after we’d already left for the day, and with a detective in tow, no less.

  “Is Damien still at his desk?” Lilah asked, her expression tense. I heard the edge in her voice and I knew she was taking Damien’s deception personally.

  “Actually, he just left,” Miles replied. “It was really weird. He was looking out the window and then he started packing up his stuff real quick.”

  The devious little bastard saw us coming! He must’ve known we were onto him with Costas present. I remembered how weird he’d acted the last time the detective had visited the office.

  “Which way did he go?” Costas questioned, his shoulders straightening.

  “I think I saw him leave through the back, which was also odd. Who wants to walk down all those flights of stairs?”

  Just like that, Lilah and Costas leapt into action, with Cameron and me following behind. Unfortunately, by the time we got back outside the building, there was no sign of Damien. His car was gone, too.

  “He might be headed to his flat,” I suggested and Lilah nodded.

  Costas drove us to the address Damien had given when he applied for the job. Luckily, I’d reviewed his resume back when we were conducting interviews, so I remembered it. We reached the building and Cameron made short work of picking the lock. Again, there was no sign of Damien and we didn’t find much in his flat either. There weren’t many personal items, just some clothes in the bedroom and a handful of toiletries in the bathroom.

  “This isn’t a home,” Lilah pointed out. “Everything about it screams temporary.”

  “It’s the flat of someone who might need to flee at the drop of a hat,” Cameron agreed.

  “You need to give me everything you have on this guy. Even if he’s been using a fake identity, there might be something there that we can use,” Costas said.

  “I’ll bring the files over to the station,” Lilah replied. “I’m not letting this tricky bastard get away from me.”

  Costas raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise on his face. “You want to work together on this?”

  She glanced at him in determination, but she sounded reluctant when she replied, “It couldn’t hurt to have your help.” Clearly, she didn’t relish the thought of working with Costas, but she wanted to get Damien more than she wanted to avoid the awkwardness of being around her ex.

  Costas’ mouth tensed like he was trying not to smile. “One more collaboration for old times’ sake then?”

  Wait a second, they’d worked together on cases before? I seriously needed to quiz Lilah on exactly how she and Costas met in the first place.

  Cameron slid his hand into mine, his voice a husky rasp in my ear. “Come on. Let’s get you home. We said no more side investigations, didn’t we? Besides, it looks like these two have Damien covered.”

  I shivered, goose bumps rising on my skin as I turned and pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. “You’re right,” I whispered, anticipation coiling inside me at the prospect of what Cameron planned on doing with me once we got home. If the dark look in his eye was anything to go by, I was in for an extra special treat.

  “Come on,” Costas said, interrupting my sexy thoughts. “I’ll drive you all back to your office.”

  I was still holding Cameron’s hand as we walked outside, and I glanced up at him with a smile. Before we were together, I might’ve been freaking out over Damien way more than I was right now. Instead, I was happy to take a back seat and let Lilah and Costas figure it out.

  In this man, I’d found a confidence I never knew I had, and in me, he’d discovered the ability to let people in. I was still happy-go-lucky and, let’s face it, he was still a bit of a grump, but we’d changed for the better and I couldn’t wait to see what the future had in store.

  Epilogue

  The Party: Take Two

  December 13th

  (Nine months later)

  Personally, I thought it was bad luck to hold a party on Friday the 13th.

  Even so, I sat at the bar, watching my co-workers get tipsy and pull some serious moves over on the dance floor. I hoped none of them made the misguided decision to go home together at the end of the night.

  Then again, misguided decisions could sometimes lead you to finding the love of your life.

  My eyes went to the door when Cameron walked in. I wasn’t sure if other people felt it too, but he had a magnetic energy that was so precisely him. Let’s just say, when Cameron Grant tried to walk by you, you moved out of the way.

  It had taken some convincing to get him to come to this party, especially since he’d only attended last year because Georgia had blackmailed him into it.

  “But it marks our one-year anniversary,” I’d pleaded. “You have to come!”

  In the end, he’d given in to my endless pestering and agreed to attend. I pumped my fist into the air in triumph, while he laughed and called me a goof and we spent the next hour making out on the couch.

  “Is this seat taken?” he asked with a crooked smile.

  “I don’t believe it is,” I replied, leaning over for a brief kiss as he slid onto the stool next to me. His hand came to rest on my knee and I couldn’t believe that I still felt tingles every time he touched me, even after all these months.

  Cameron asked the bartender for a whiskey and another gin and tonic for me, since I was almost finished with my first. They were the exact same drinks we’d had at last year’s party and I was hit with a whack of nostalgia.

  He lifted his glass for a sip, taking a look over at the dance floor. “Looks like Lilah and Theo are having a good time.”

  I nodded. “I’ve barely seen Lilah outside of work these last few weeks since they got back together. They must be enjoying their honeymoon period.”

  “They seem happy,” Cameron commented and I smiled fondly.

  “Yes, they do.”

  For the better part of the last year, Lilah and Detective Costas had been working together to track down Damien. When they finally found and arrested him (long story), it was a relief to everyone at the office. Georgia had since established a much more involved and in-depth procedure for employee background checks. Truth be told she was quite stressed out and embarrassed over the whole thing since the firm actually completed background checks for clients as one of its services. Anyway, we ended up hiring Rosa Avila as our new researcher. Yes, the same Rosa Cameron had wanted to hire from the start. He was still feeling pretty smug about the whole thing.

  “So,” Cameron went on, his attention searing me. His gaze homed in on my lips for a second before dancing across my cheeks and jawline, dipping down to my collarbone. I loved how he took me in so completely sometimes. It stole my breath. My eyes wandered over him, too, focusing on the strong lines of his shoulders. He’d taken off his suit jacket and I always enjoyed admiring him in a well-fitted shirt.

  “So?” I nudged questioningly when he didn’t continue.

  “I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what to get you for Christmas this year.”

  “You have?” I asked, somewhat shyly. It was a wonder how he still managed to make me shy. This man knew every inch of my body and every part of my soul. He accepted all of me as I was, and yet he could make me blush with nothing but a glance, a softly whispered compliment.

  “I actually decided to take you on a trip,” he said and my eyes widened.

  “You did?” Why was I only able to speak in questions tonight? The way Cameron was looking at me frazzled my brain.

  “We’ve been together a while. I think it’s about time I took you somewhere nice. Besides, the weather’s terrible in England this time of year.”

  My heart picked up a steady pace as excitement took hold. The idea of going abroad with Cameron, wandering around an Italian piazza or relaxing on a beach in Spain would be a wonderful way to spend Christmas.