Spying On The Boss. Janet Lee Nye
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doing it. It’s an attention-grabbing gimmick, nothing more. Our service is beyond excellent. Now, come on and let me show you how to properly clean a house.”
Wyatt, who had been cleaning house since he was twenty and his mother became ill, was a bit offended by that...until they started. He’d known the work would be mostly physical: mopping, sweeping, vacuuming. He wasn’t prepared for the military-level precision with which DeShawn went through a house. He could clean a house twice as well in half the time Wyatt could do his own home.
By lunch, Wyatt was beginning to wonder what he could report to Marcus. Every client they’d seen so far had been an elderly couple. Surely they weren’t buying drugs or sexual services. Even the idea that Sadie was running the cleaning service as a front to some criminal business was hard to believe. Front operations were usually poorly run. Most attention went to the criminal activity as it was the more lucrative. Fronts were only that—fronts, barely functioning covers. The Cleaning Crew was no front. It was a thriving business.
“So, how’re you liking it so far?” DeShawn asked over lunch.
Wyatt smiled at him. “It’s good. Pretty much what I expected.”
“You’re picking it up very quickly. Better than most, trust me.”
“Probably the military training. I like order and plans.”
DeShawn’s eyes lit up. “You were military?”
“National Guard.”
“Did you get sent over?”
“Two tours in Afghanistan.”
“Can I ask you some questions?”
“Sure.” He braced for the usual questions from young men who thought war some exciting real-life version of the video games they’d grown up playing.
“I’m thinking of joining after I graduate next year. I can go in as an officer but I can’t decide which branch. The air force appeals to me, but with my engineering degree, some have said the army might be best. What do you think?”
Wyatt dropped the french fry he was holding. Whoa. Okay. This kid was serious. “I’m not an expert on all the different branches. I was in the Army National Guard. There was a demand for engineers. Mostly for rebuilding. What do you want to do with your degree? Say you enlist, do your twenty years and retire. What experience would you want to have to transfer to a civilian job?”
“Structural engineering.”
“So compare what’s available in each branch to what jobs are comparable in the civilian market, and go with that.”
DeShawn lifted his hand. “Boom! Right to the center of it. Thanks, man.”
Wyatt did the fist bump thing and grinned. This made him feel a little better about the whole undercover-and-lying thing. He’d maybe helped this guy. “Let me ask you a question now.”
“Shoot.”
“Sadie said everyone went out with a partner. But you don’t. Neither does Josh. Why’s that?”
“There are only a few of us who go solo. The ones who’ve been here the longest. We have the older client lists. The clients Sadie had back when she worked alone. Before there was a Crew.”
Wyatt nodded. That wasn’t going to help him much. He needed to get in with the newer clients and newer employees. See what was going on with them. He gathered up the remains of his lunch and followed DeShawn to the trash bin. This is only day one; give it some time.
They finished up just after three and headed back to the office. Sadie was in the back room, filling out the next month’s calendar when they went in to put the books away. Wyatt felt his heart rate amp up a few notches at the sight of her. The jeans and T-shirt hugged her curves and her hair was down, loose curls spilling to the center of her back. She turned and smiled as they walked in.
“Hey. How’d it go?”
“Good job with this one, boss.”
Sadie’s gaze moved to him and he felt every inch she looked over. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. Picking it up so fast, he probably doesn’t need a full two weeks. In a month, he’ll be ready to go solo.”
Wyatt grinned at DeShawn. This was good. Yes, take me off orientation early. Put me on a team with one of the new guys. “It helps when you’ve got a great teacher.”
DeShawn held out a fist and Wyatt bumped it. “Tomorrow.”
“How’s Julietta doing?” Sadie asked after DeShawn left. “I’ve been thinking about her. Is she okay after what happened?”
Wyatt blinked and stared for a moment. People usually avoided talking about Jules. It was messy and painful. “Yeah,” he said. “She’s okay. I was expecting it to be like a dam breaking but she hasn’t said anything more. I called her therapist and told her what happened. She said to let Jules lead the way on when she wants to talk about her mother.”
Sadie pressed a hand over her heart. “Good. I was so afraid I said something wrong and made it worse.”
“No. The therapist said you did perfect. Didn’t make a big deal out of it. So thank you again.”
“You’re welcome, but it wasn’t anything I did. She chose the moment. I haven’t forgotten about the curls. I’ll grab something from Walmart and show you how to use it sometime this week.”
“That’d be great. Anything else I can do for you?”
The faint blush on her cheeks was interesting, but he only caught a glimpse before she turned back to the calendar.
“No. See you tomorrow.”
FOUR DAYS INTO the job and Wyatt was starting to feel really horrible about this investigation. Between the morning interactions and midday resupply runs that allowed him interaction with other teams, Wyatt was getting a better idea of how the Cleaning Crew operated. There wasn’t anything going on. Better work ethic, better gimmick, better management and leadership. That was it. Marcus was going to have to accept the facts.
He consulted his kitchen cheat sheet. Clean microwave, inside and out. He glanced around to find it. They were in a large, gorgeous home on Albemarle Point overlooking the marsh and the Ashley River. The kitchen was huge. It had two stoves and the biggest refrigerator he’d ever seen in his life. So, this was how the other half lived.
The front door opened and his pulse kicked up a beat or two when Sadie called out. She could really get him going. For all the good it did. Sure, I know I was lying to you and spying on you, but do you want to catch a movie or something? He shook his head. She was the first woman to catch his eye since Victoria had walked out on him. And with the way she’d responded to Jules, a little chunk of his heart was trying to get in on the action.
“Hey, boss. What’s up?” DeShawn called from what he’d told Wyatt was the atrium. Looked like a sunroom to him, but fancy houses needed fancy rooms, he supposed.
“Checking in on you. How’s it going?” Sadie’s voice.
“It’s going. No problems.”
“Great. Where’s the FNG?”
Wyatt snorted out a laugh, one echoed by DeShawn. “Where’d you learn that?” DeShawn asked.
“Josh. He said it meant former National Guard.”
DeShawn came into the kitchen with Sadie trailing behind him. DeShawn was laughing too hard to say anything. Sadie stopped and put her hands on her hips, her cheeks going from pink to red. Black eyebrows drew together over those denim blue eyes. Good God, she’s gorgeous. And sexy. And completely out of the question.
“Damn it. I’m