Sleight Mistake

Chapter One “It couldn’t have been that bad,” Lacie Hart said to her best friend. “You’ve met my mother, have you ever known her to be speechless?” “It might have something to do with Bump,” Lacie said, eyeing Sorcha’s belly over the square aluminum table between them. “You’re six and a half months pregnant and you’re only just now telling your parents about the baby. Of course they’re surprised.” “We had to wait for Bruce to… you know.” Bruce Booth was Sorcha Reynold’s baby daddy. Their relationship had ended three months before Sorcha discovered she was pregnant. When she did, Sorcha sent Lacie on a mission to seek out Bruce, who had gone missing. Sending her to another of her exes, Sorcha had assured her that Seth Sheppard, PI, would help Lacie track Bruce down. Having never met Shep herself, Lacie had mistaken Ryder Stone—her now boyfriend—for Shep when she discovered him snooping in Shep’s office. The journey Lacie went on with Ryder did end with them finding Bruce, although they found him engaged in crime with Ryder’s best friend Jamie Wallace who then kidn*pped Lacie in a vain attempt to keep his secret safe. It didn’t work. Ryder found Lacie, although by then, Bruce Booth was believed to be dead and Jamie Wallace was arrested. It was only later when one of Jamie’s men, Eric, turned on him that they found out Bruce wasn’t deceased at all. “The bruises have healed and the statements are in,” Lacie said to reassure her friend. “Wallace’s bail was refused. It’s all a waiting game now.” The pair sat in this unassuming coffeeshop enjoying one of their frequent girlie lunches. Lacie had never been sure what was “girlie” about them, other than the gender of those present, but that was what Sorcha dubbed them. The sun was pouring through the huge windows at the front of the café, which was situated on a busy street in the center of town. Sorcha still enjoyed being a girl about town. She hadn’t quite come to grips with how motherhood might change her lifestyle. Lacie had no children and no experience with them, but even she knew that long, relaxed lunches would be a thing of the past as soon as Bump made an appearance. “How are things going at SW?” Sorcha asked, finishing her food, and wiping her hands on a napkin. “Are you going to finish that sandwich?” Lacie switched plates with Sorcha in answer to the question. “The sale’s done. Two weeks left until the exchange.” SW was also known as StoneWall, the company Ryder had run with Jamie Wallace for years before the whole debacle. “How’s Ryder doing with moving on?” Sorcha tucked into the remnants of Lacie’s lunch. “He spends most nights at my new apartment,” Lacie said. “I wonder why,” Sorcha said, her playful eyes glowed and her sleek smile giggled. Lacie averted her attention from her friend’s suggestive expression. “The SW boys are taking the hiatus as extended vacation time, though none of them are venturing out of the city.” “You’re still coming to the party at my parents’ house tonight, though, aren’t you?” “Yes, don’t panic. I said I would, didn’t I?” “Bruce says he’s got a family thing. Some baby daddy he is,” Sorcha said, gobbling down the food. “He’s not coming.” “I knew that,” Lacie said, rubbing the corner of her paper napkin between her thumb and forefinger. “That’s why I’m your date tonight.” “It will be the first time I’ve seen my parents since I told them about the baby. They didn’t seem very impressed with Bruce.” “You haven’t sounded impressed with him yourself recently.” “It’s difficult, he’s…” “He’s what?” Lacie asked. Their friendship had endured every negative experience they’d encountered and now that the friends were paired off, this should be a time for happiness. But from their conversations, she didn’t get the impression that Sorcha was enamored with the man she was supposed to be spending the rest of her life with. “I just don’t know…” Sorcha exhaled. “He says he’s always busy. I can’t get him to engage. He’s just… no fun.” “It’s grown up, though,” Lacie said. “That’s what you told me when you demanded that he buy you that diamond.” “Which he bought with his parents’ money, you should add”—Sorcha licked her fingertip to smudge up the crumbs from her plate into her mouth—“his accounts are still frozen. He has no money; he’s just freeloading now and I don’t think that even bothers him.” “You dumped Shep. You chose Bruce.” Sorcha had been decisive with the men in her life once it became clear that Bruce was alive. Being associated with the Reynolds family gave Bruce some credibility, but he still hadn’t found himself a job. “Shep was a loser,” Sorcha said, wiping her hands again. “He was as annoying as hell… he wasn’t a forever guy. But he was a lot of fun.” “You can’t compare Bruce to Shep,” Lacie said as Sorcha drank from her water glass. “You wanted different things from them.” “I know, but… do you remember what I said I would want from a partner?” “Fidelity,” Lacie said, sipping her water while watching a group of women enter the coffeeshop and take up position at three broad tables in the corner. “He hasn’t asked me to move in with him.” “You’re lucky,” Lacie said, switching focus back to her friend. “Ryder blew a gasket when I told him I was renting my place. He still smarts about it.” “That’s because he loves you,” Sorcha said, finishing Lacie’s sandwich. “You’re still not eating right.” Trying not to roll her eyes, she made herself smile because Sorcha meant well and didn’t know about how Ryder always hounded her about taking care of herself. “Ryder’s got you covered on that too.” “Do you ever worry about Ryder’s fidelity?” Lacie laughed, almost spitting out the water she’d just tipped into her mouth. “Sorry,” Lacie said, wiping her chin with her napkin. “You’re laughing,” Sorcha huffed. “You think the question is hilarious.” Sorcha dumped her napkin on the table and her petulant lower lip made an appearance. “You have to help me.” “Help you what?” “Bruce keeps disappearing,” Sorcha said. “Sometimes he calls, and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes I see him every day, then sometimes he’s nowhere.” “What are you thinking?” Lacie asked, but worried that she already knew the answer. “Do you think he’s getting himself in deep water again?” “No,” Sorcha said. “None of that was his fault. He’ll never get mixed up in crime again. Jamie Wallace certainly scared him straight.” “So what?” “You need to go to Shep.” Lacie’s wandering attention snapped back around to Sorcha. “You’re kidding. Please, tell me you’re kidding. We’ve been here before.” Sorcha held her palms open at head height and framed her expression of joy. “Yeah and look how well that turned out for you after…” her hands and her glee fell. “You know, other than the k********g thing.” “What do you want me to say to Shep? If you need information, Ryder will get—” “As long as you two are seeing each other, Ryder will be socializing with Bruce, and they’ve met. Bruce will notice Ryder watching him.” Lacie had followed through on Sorcha’s request for her to seek out Shep before. Back then, it sort of made sense as Shep was the only PI either of them had personal contact with. But since Sorcha had dumped Shep to go back to Bruce, Lacie had noticed how mopey her friend was and she’d feared that Shep was the reason, now it seemed she might have been right. “Ryder knows how to be covert. He presently has a team sitting around on their asses. They could help. But what do you want Bruce watched for?” “He disappears,” Sorcha said, rubbing her fingertip back and forth on an inch of the table surface. “And you want fidelity.” Lacie exhaled and leaned in. “You think he’s cheating on you?” “I don’t know,” Sorcha said and Lacie hated to see her friend look so defeated. “I’d like to know.” Lacie had to make sure that Sorcha knew she was playing with fire that could burn her if things didn’t turn out the way she wanted them to. “Are you sure you want Shep involved? He wasn’t happy when you broke up with him… again.” “That’s why Shep can’t know I’m involved,” Sorcha said and the way her eyes grew more alert and her tone lowered told Lacie that Sorcha had thought this through… maybe a little too much. “So why would I—?” “You’re a concerned friend,” Sorcha said with a shrug and open expression like she was showing Lacie how to react if asked the question. “My boyfriend is better at this than—” “Bruce knows Ryder, and Ryder’s got enough on his plate with the sale of the SW premises, and getting a new business started while trying to find somewhere else to live. Oh, and he has a girlfriend who demands his body at every opportunity.” Lacie couldn’t hide the width of her smile behind her glass. “He provides plenty of opportunity. I have to do my part.” “Look at you all happy and smiley,” Sorcha beamed. “If I wasn’t so insanely jealous, I’d be over the moon for you.” “You have the diamond and a child on the way. Your future is set. This is a time for you to be happy.” Sorcha’s happiness was important to Lacie. They’d been friends since college and been through a lot. Sorcha’s respectable family and Catholic upbringing made her believe that marrying the father of her child was her only option. They hadn’t been back together for more than a few weeks and the relationship had lost its sheen already… if it had ever had any. If Sorcha wasn’t enamored with Bruce now, Lacie couldn’t imagine her friend walking down the aisle carrying that kind of unhappiness. “Bruce and I haven’t had the time to… figure things out.” “Like how you feel about each other?” Lacie asked, considering this the most important question facing the couple at this time. “Ryder and I only had days together before I was abducted, but it was him I thought about constantly.” Losing some of her glum, Sorcha peered at her friend with curiosity. “How did you know that Ryder still cared? He could have hooked up with dozens of women while you were locked up.” “Wallace told me that you and he—” “After that I mean,” Sorcha said, glazing over the lies Jamie Wallace had fed to Lacie during her captivity. “After all the drama was done and when you two decided to make a go of it.” “I never asked him.” “You just…” Sorcha didn’t finish. She turned her attention to her water glass before she spoke again. “Either you’re super secure, or super naive.” Lacie smiled. “Could be either, I suppose.” “So you’ll find out?” Sorcha asked, some of her sapped color had returned now that she had been fed. “If Ryder had s*x while I was chained up?” Lacie asked, being deliberately obtuse. “No,” Sorcha said, rolling her eyes. “Go to Shep, hire him to find out if Bruce is screwing around on me.” “Have you asked Bruce?” Lacie asked. “I can’t do that,” Sorcha said as if this was the craziest suggestion in the world. “If he’s messing around, he won’t be honest, and then he’ll be super careful. I have to know.” “I can ask Ryder—” “Please,” Sorcha said, launching her hand over the table. “We trust Shep, and Bruce doesn’t know him. Please.” Lacie took a long breath. “Fine, I’ll go and see Shep, but he’s not going to be happy.” “Thank you,” Sorcha sighed. “And you can’t tell Ryder.” “What? Why not?” Lacie asked, snatching her hand back. “He’ll think I’m a nut,” Sorcha said with a dismissive wave. “Men never understand these things. Plus, he and Bruce will socialize for as long as you and Ryder are seeing each other.” “You’ve said that twice now. Why do you say it like that?” “I don’t see a diamond on your hand.” Lacie looked at her hand but thought better of telling Sorcha the story of conversations she and Ryder had on that subject. “Men understand that women have their secrets, especially between girlfriends,” Sorcha said. “You will do this for me, won’t you?” The main door opened and the man that swaggered in stopped every woman mid-chew. Whatever their previous task, it was abandoned when their drooling attention became more enthralled with his every stride. Sorcha was the exception; she was busy eyeing the muffins at the counter.