Read Online Investigating the Hottie by Juli Alexander - Free Book Online

brows. “You are a tasty little morsel in that dress.”
    “You sure are a rat. No, a pig.” Christie turned my way, dismissing Nic. “It’s progressing. The man never contacts anyone, so we’re going to up the pressure. Today, I slipped a few phony late registrants into the mix. One of the names definitely got a reaction. Tomorrow, I’ll flirt with him all day, and then demand he take me to dinner.”
    “We’ve got his office, home, and car tapped. It’s only a matter of time.” Nic smiled at Christie. “And today, I found some chemicals in his house that prove he’s the guy with the truth serum formula.”
    “Why don’t you just arrest him?” I asked.
    “We want his accomplice, too,” Christie explained. “Otherwise, he could just sell the formula himself.”
    “So, don’t you have to watch him all the time?”
    “We are. We’ve got a tracking device on him.” Christie pulled a compact from her purse and handed it to me. “Open it.”
    I did. It looked like that squiggly multicolored blush/base/powder stuff that turned to a normal color when you brushed it on.
    I glanced over at Christie.
    “Look closer,” she said.
    As, I stared at it, the brown portions started to look a little like a road map. In the center, a lone green fleck moved slightly on a pink square.
    “He’s in the chemistry building,” Christie said. “He’s the green speck. The orang-ish square is his house. The dark brown is the bar.
    “Cool. It tracks him on this map,” I said.
    Christie grinned. “Looks like a normal compact at first, huh?”
    “Yeah,” I said, closing it and handing it back. “So, does Nic carry the makeup thingy too?”
    “Not if I can help it,” he joked. “There’s a cell phone version, too. But for women like your aunt, high maintenance women, the make-up makes more sense.”
    He really knew how to get to her.
    “Pretty big talk coming from a man who wears make-up,” Christie said.
    What?
    Nic glared at Christie. “Only when the mission requires it. You know that.” He turned to me. “She knows that.”
    “Maybe she likes to bring it up because you’re a little sensitive about it,” I suggested.
    “Maybe,” he said. “Too bad I can’t tell you about the time in Manhattan that she—”
    “Nic!”
    “But I can’t because that whole episode,” he paused to torture her, “was classified.”
    “You’re darn right it was.”
    “But someday. When time passes, it’ll get declassified, and I’ll retire, and write my memoirs, and…” He took a long sip of his Coke. “Then we’ll see.”
    “You wouldn’t.” Christie lifted her glass and held it near him.
    “You have an arsenal of weapons, and you threaten me with water?”
    “I can’t threaten you with anything else. It’s against regulations.” She lowered her drink. “Of course, there is that little thing that happened to you in New Orleans last year.”
    Nic’s eyes narrowed. “You weren’t even my partner then.”
    “No, but the story got around.” Christie broke into an evil grin.
    “You heard about . . . ” He glanced at me. “It?”
    Until I saw Christie’s expression, I’d never gotten that whole cat-ate-the-canary thing.
    “No, I saw the footage.”
    Nic frowned. “They were supposed to destroy that.”
    “I guess it got intercepted.” She bobbed her head to the side and pressed her lips together. “Too bad.”
    Nic glared at her for a moment before saying, “Truce?”
    “Truce,” Christie agreed.
    They shook on it.
    The pizza arrived, and we leaned back so that the waitress could put it on the table.
    “Thanks,” Christie said.
    “Can I get a to-go box please?” Nic asked. “A small one.”
    “Sure,” the waitress said. She went off to find one.
    “Now that you’ve both rudely talked about stuff that you can’t tell me about… ” I teased.
    “Sorry,” Christie said. “We get a little—”
    “Carried away sometimes,” Nic finished.
    I just looked at them. “You’ve gotta be