Seeing Is Believing Read online

  The only light on was what she usually left on, behind the counter. She knew Reed was up in the rafters in the back room, sitting and waiting. She'd driven by before she'd parked, and hadn't seen any cars outside. Since it was just after ten, she didn't think the bad guys would have shown up already.

  Leslie took off her shoes, then silently made her way to the door between the rooms. Her eyes gleamed with mischief at the imagined look on Reed's face when she showed up. She'd show him who was boss, that was for sure.

  Once inside the back room she hurried to the stairs, wincing when the first one creaked as she stepped on it.

  Reed's muttered cuss word made her smile. "Get your ass up here," he hissed. "And hurry up."

  She climbed the stairs quickly, moving off to the right. He lay on his stomach, his head turned toward the door.

  "Where's the baby?"

  "With a baby-sitter. And how dare you drag Tambi into this."

  "What I was trying to do was keep you out of here. I hope you know this puts you in some serious hot water with me."

  "Bite me." She lay down next to him, keeping her eyes trained on the door. "I can't believe you'd go to such lengths to keep me from here. That's a really crappy thing to do, if you ask me."

  "I was trying to protect you. This could be dangerous, you know. If we're discovered things could get nasty."

  "I don't plan on them seeing me. I don't know about you, but I can stay silent."

  "Really? Like you're doing right now?"

  She shot him an evil glare. "Listen, buster, I think you are the--"

  "Shush!" He put his hand on her arm and put his free finger to his lips. Then he mouthed the words, "someone's here."

  Her heart went into overdrive as she realized she'd shown up just before the smugglers. She swallowed hard, then looked over at Reed who shook his head in disgust.

  "Stay quiet, no matter what," he mouthed, and she nodded.

  The back door opened with a heavy thud and she prayed they hadn't broken the lock. But seeing the ease with which they entered made her nervous. She needed to invest in a security system, or at least a few deadbolts.

  "Wake the neighbors why don't ya?" The deep male voice made her strain to see if she could put a face with it. Reed kept his hand on her arm, pushing her back.

  "There's nobody around," a second voice answered. "Unless she's got mice. I hope not. I've eaten here quite a bit."

  "There's no mice," the first voice replied. "And there are the boxes, sitting there unopened. We're damn lucky."

  She could hear their feet moving across the floor, and then everything was silent. The first voice spoke again. "Did you bring the tape from the truck?"

  "No, I thought you were going to do it."

  "Go and get it. We want to make sure we're very careful so the boxes don't look like anyone's been in them."

  First voice stayed in place while second voice moved toward the door. When he opened it, the light from the streetlamp illuminated his face and Leslie gasped, throwing her hand over her mouth to try and hold in the sound.

  Second voice looked around, then hurried back to his friend. "Did you hear that?"

  "I didn't hear a thing. Go and get the tape so we can get this done and get the hell out of here."

  Second voice hurried across the room again, but Leslie could tell he was taking it slower than before. She was afraid to look out over the edge again, fearful he might be looking in her direction and see her watching him. If that happened, all hell would break loose, just like Reed said it would. She knew she was in for it once the two guys below were gone. Reed would probably yell at her for disobeying him, and part of her thought he might be right.

  The other part was sure she was right where she should be. After all this was her store, and she deserved to know what was happening, didn't she?

  It took the better part of an hour for them to complete their task, and Leslie was finding it hard to stay still. Once in a while she looked over at Reed, who had a small camera trained on them. She wasn't exactly sure how it would work with the darkness, but modern technology was a wonderful thing.

  If anything else they had a good recording of both their voices. The identity of the second voice still made her cringe with disappointment. It was very, very sad that he'd stooped so low as to do something like this, and to drag her into it by using her shop was even lower.

  When they were done going through their boxes, they carried their loot out to the truck and carefully pulled the door shut. Leslie started to stand but Reed shook his head, keeping her in place.

  About five minutes later he nodded and stood himself. "You never know if they're going to come back or not," he said once they were both stretching. "Running surveillance is not fun, and it can be very boring. Whose voice did you recognize?"

  "Pat Michaels. I went to high school with him, although he was a year behind me. He's working at the Whitehouse ranch right now."

  "And the other voice?" Reed was fiddling with the camera and sounded distracted.

  "I have no idea. It didn't register with me at all."

  He muttered something distractedly, then nodded and set the camera on a nearby table. "So, are you happy you disobeyed me and came down here to sit and do nothing."

  "I identified one of the bad guys, didn't I? I wouldn't call that nothing." She wanted to stick her tongue out at him but she knew it wasn't the adult thing to do. Still, his overbearing temperament where this situation was concerned was past ticking her off. She had a huge stake in how this turned out.

  "I could have done that with the tape I just made." He gestured to the camera, then put his hands on his hips and focused on her intently. The look in his eyes made her nervous, but she pushed it away. This was her store, after all, and she could do what she wanted in it. If he gave her any trouble she'd just kick his butt to the curb and he could conduct his investigation from the sidewalk.

  "You need me." She made sure her voice was deep, and gave off a sense of power.

  "You're right, I do. But that doesn't mean there aren't consequences to what you just did." Before she knew what was happening he'd spun her around and gathered her in his arms, lifting her up and carrying her toward the chair that sat near the far wall.

  She was over his lap within seconds, and when he tugged on her loose slacks and panties, and then gave easily, she realized exactly what he was going to do.

  "Don't you dare!" By the time the words were out of her mouth he'd already slapped her now bare ass. "You creep!"

  She fought against his hold but it did no good. His hand came down over and over again, stinging her bottom, the pain coursing through her and making her madder than she'd ever been in her life. Just who did this man think he was?

  "There's a reason I told you to stay away from here tonight." The slaps grew harder and she tried to scoot off her lap. He grasped her tighter, though, and delivered two hard slaps to each buttock. "Hold still!"

  "Screw you!"

  "You could have been hurt, badly, if they had heard you and decided to come up and investigate." The spanking kept up and tears stung her eyes. She would be damned, though, if she would let him see that. And since she was sure her emotion would show in a wobbly voice, she kept her mouth closed, too.

  "What I ought to do is take my belt off, give you a spanking you wouldn't soon forget. That would help you to pay more attention when I tell you something, wouldn't it?"

  "Go to the devil." She balled up her fist and slammed it into his calf. His yelp of pain was satisfactory, but before she could do it again he'd stood her up, gathering her hands behind her back in one of his.

  He immediately sat back down, holding her hands in the small of his back while his hand came down over and over on her now aching behind.

  "I swear, you'll regret this!" The pain was gone from her voice now, replaced by anger; a rage that ran deep inside her. Nobody had ever spanked her before, not as an adult, and it wasn't something she ever wanted to have happen again.


  When he finally slowed down, his slaps still landing but with less intensity, and frequency, she heard him sigh. His hand rubbed her burning buttocks and she tried to pull away.

  "Let me go."

  "Not yet. You need to realize why I did this. That gasp you let out could have given us away, and if they had found us, there's no telling what they would have done."

  "Pat Michaels is not a killer."

  "You think? Two hours ago, you probably would have told me he wasn't a drug smuggler, either. Am I right about that?"

  She didn't answer him because she knew he was right. She never would have thought Pat would have taken part in something like this.

  "When people do something like this, that is highly illegal, they don't want to be caught. When the chances are high that they will be caught, like tonight, they'll do anything to make sure it doesn't happen. And that includes murder."

  Fear raced through her with his words. Oh lord, he was right. She hadn't thought about it that way. She was just pissed as all get out at him for trying to exclude her from the stakeout. As realization sank in, her body started to tremble, and not from pain, from fear.

  He rubbed her bottom and she tried to inch away again, but he held her closely. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

  "Yes." She tried, and failed, to stand one more time. "Please let me go."

  "No. Not yet. I want to make sure you get the message." He started spanking her again, his hand falling right on top of the spots it had landed before, making her bottom ache more. She cried out in shock and pain but he didn't stop.

  "Next. Time. You. Will. Listen. To. Me." He punctuated each word with a hard slap on both buttocks, and when he was done, he delivered ten more, she knew because she counted them, trying to keep her mind off the agony now racing through her bottom.

  "Okay, okay! I get the message. Please stop, please!"

  His touch was soft now and he helped her to stand, turning her so that they were face to face, her with her pants and panties around her ankles, her behind throbbing from the spanking he'd just given her.

  "I hope I've made my point."

  "You've more than made it. If I didn't have to worry about the possibility of somebody accusing me of running drugs through my store I'd kick you out and never let you back in."

  The smile he gave her made her even madder than she'd been just minutes ago. She kicked out at him, then realized she was still half dressed. Her cheeks burning with embarrassment she pulled up her pants and panties, buttoned them and then turned toward the stairs. When she was at the top, she fixed an evil glare on him.

  "Don't you ever touch me again, and don't ever speak to me again, either, unless it has something to do with this case. That's the only thing I'm every going to say about what just happened. But I'm warning you, if it happens again, or if you break my commands, I'll contact your superiors in Dallas and make sure you're fired. I hope you understand me exactly the way you want me to understand you."

  Then she made sure her back was ramrod straight, and went down the stairs into the cold October night.

  Chapter Four

  For two days, Leslie went out of her way to avoid speaking to Reed. She was so angry with him she could spit nails. Her behind ached the full day after the spanking, but was fine now. The fact her body no longer ached didn't take away the mental pain she still felt.

  She would find some way to get back at him, she was sure of it. She just had to wait for the right moment to pop along. Of course he might by gone by next Monday, after the last delivery, which was just fine with her.

  Good riddance as far as she was concerned. Maybe she should follow through on her threat to call his superiors in Dallas, let them know what a cretin he was, threaten to sue unless Reed was fired. It was what he deserved as far as she was concerned.

  She wanted to kick him out of her cafe forever. But more than that she wanted the people using her store for their drop off point for drugs to be caught, and convicted. Convicting them was the tough part. They'd used Reed's video, grainy and dark as it was, to identify the second thief on Tuesday evening as Mark Sampson, a hand at the Whitehouse Ranch.

  Leslie had argued that since they had that information, they didn't need to use her store again. But Chester had said they were coming up with a plan, and she needed to be patient, and things needed to stay as they were. Chester convinced her she couldn't let on to anyone why Reed was really in town.

  It would be best, he said, to act as if they were seeing each other romantically, and things were getting hot and heavy. That might be tough to do, she told him, since they weren't even speaking anymore. When he'd lifted an eyebrow in question she shook her head, letting him know she wasn't going to spill the story.

  Leslie was pretty sure Chester had run to Reed for an explanation, and she was just as sure Reed wouldn't tell him. If there was one thing she'd give him credit for, it was the fact that he was discreet. He wouldn't give out details about the spanking, she was sure of it.

  Still, she knew Chester was curious, and she knew he would continue to dig. But he wouldn't find out what had happened, not if she could help the situation at all.

  On Friday afternoon, Leslie came out of the storeroom to find Reed sitting with Chester and his wife, Nancy. Leslie had always liked Nancy, who was a sweet woman who always tried to spread sunshine. Today was no different. When she saw Leslie she hurried toward her, enveloping her in a huge hug.

  "I'm so glad you're coming tonight. It's going to be cold, so remember to wear a nice warm jacket." She shivered for effect, then giggled.

  "Jacket?"

  "Yes, for the football game. Now, you and Reed are coming to our house first for dinner, around six or so. That gives us time to eat and get to the game in time to get a good seat."

  Leslie knew her eyes were probably bulging out in horror, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't a big fan of football, and high school football, especially six-man, wasn't her cup of tea, especially since it was supposed to be very chilly tonight.

  "Tonight?"

  "Yup." She turned to wave at her husband, who had called her name and then tapped his finger on the glass of his watch. "Gotta run. Remember to dress warmly."

  When they were gone, Leslie crossed to Reed, stopping next to him. "What have you gotten me in to?"

  "I'm sorry, are you talking to me?" He put his hands on his chest. "I thought I was persona non grata around you."

  "If you think I'm going to sit outside and freeze my butt off for your cover, you're sorely mistaken."

  "Are you really going to turn that nice lady down? Dinner will be delicious, and I promise to keep my hands to myself, even if we're cuddled under a blanket together to keep warm."

  "In your dreams. I'm not going."

  He stood and checked his watch. "I'm going home to shower. I'll pick you up around five thirty. How's that sound?"

  "Drop dead."

  His laugh made her want to slap him across the face. "That's what I love about you. You always know the right thing to say. See you tonight."

  The cafe closed early on Friday evenings, to allow everyone time to go home and eat and get ready for the game. High school football was a huge thing in Texas, and Leslie knew it. While she was in school going to the games was one thing, but since she'd been out of high school for more than ten years, she wasn't too thrilled about going to the game. And going with Reed definitely wasn't on her to-do list.

  She closed up the shop, wishing she hadn't let Reed talk her out of the new locks on the back door. He'd assured her the crooks already had what they wanted, until Monday that is, and wouldn't be back. She wasn't so sure, and the first thing she planned to do when this was all over was reinforce the locks on all the cafe doors.

  The drive home was quiet, and she had to pass the high school. Despite the cold, people were outside tailgating, cooking hot dogs and various other foods in preparation for the game. Despite the fantastic smell, she was definitely glad Nancy hadn't suggested that type of dinner,
because Leslie wasn't up for standing outside any longer than she had to.

  As that idea passed through her mind, she mentally head slapped herself. Here she'd been telling Reed she wasn't going, and when she passed the football field her first thought had been she was glad they were eating indoors, and not out.

  It would be the first game she'd been to in quite some time, and she was looking forward to it, if she told herself the truth. Getting out amongst the townspeople was good advertising for the cafe. And if she had to go with Reed to make things right, she supposed that would work out just fine. She'd just make sure she reminded him this was business, not pleasure. She was doing this to help with his cover, to support the idea he worked at the store because they were an item.

  When she rounded the corner of her street she was surprised to find his truck parked in front of her house. She pulled into the driveway, waiting for the garage door to open fully before pulling inside. When she came out he was waiting.

  "You're early," she said, shaking her head. "Why?"

  "Because I missed you," he said with a laugh.

  "Ha! More like you're afraid I would back out, and you wanted to be here early in case you had to talk me into going."

  His smile told her she'd hit the nail on the head. "Don't worry, I'm going because I like Nancy and Chester, not because of you. But I want to go inside and put some warm clothes on first."

  "You're not going to make me wait outside, are you?"

  "I'm thinking about it." She opened the door and gestured for him to follow her. She changed into jeans and a cable-knit sweater, making sure to put on a pair of flannel undies to fight against the cold.

  They had dinner at the Gross house, and she was very surprised to find herself laughing and joking at some of the things Reed said. She didn't want to like him, but as the meal progressed, she found herself enjoying his company. He told stories of cases he'd worked on, and how some cases were more interesting than others.

  "Sort of like right now," he said with a smile. Everyone laughed and he launched into another story about a divorcing couple and the mischief they'd played on each other, and how he'd recorded it as the wife's employee.