No Place Like Home: The Coming Home Series, Book 1 Page 2

  Clicking the link to the airline tickets seemed so harmless. She took a bite while she waited for it to load.

  Kia’d already selected dates and times. A week’s vacation with her best friend and back home in Buffalo where it wasn’t a thousand degrees sounded really nice. She didn’t actually have to go to the carnival. She didn’t have to talk to Trane either. Or even tell any of the snooty kids she went to school with it was really her.

  She could be anyone she wanted to be. Or the girl she always wanted to be. The cool one. The popular one. The one everyone wanted to be friends with.

  Or she could just be her new and improved self whom she absolutely loved.

  Before she lost her nerve she filled in her information and tapped the Purchase Tickets button.

  “Well, kitty, looks like I’m going home in a few days.”

  Home.

  The word caught in the back of her throat and she finally realized how much she’d missed New York.

  She scooped up the kitty and took her bowl to the sink, then snatched her phone and headed to the bedroom.

  “Let’s start picking clothes. I’ll set outfits on the bed and you can lie all over them and cover them in kitty hair. Sound like a plan?”

  Meow.

  “I knew you’d like it. One of the many reasons I love cats so much. Predictability.”

  Meow.

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

  Chapter Two

  “I want a fucking easy button.” Coletrane Johnson glared at his computer screen and cursed again, not so under his breath.

  “When you find one, order two. I’m pretty sure you’re gonna need it for this case.”

  Cole swiveled his chair toward his partner, Grant, standing at his door. Without concealing his what-the-fuck face he voiced what had been rolling around in his head for the last hour. “It’s Thursday, otherwise known as the fourth coming of Monday, and in three weeks…seriously? Three weeks? The D.C. office expects us to have this case wrapped up in three fucking weeks?”

  “Yup.”

  “How in the holy hell do they expect us to do that? We’ve been working this case for two years. Two. Years.” Cole got up to walk away from his workstation or he was going to punch it. He finger-combed his dark brown hair out of his face and tugged on it hard for a few seconds before letting it go.

  “They see the writing on the wall just like we do.”

  “They’ve been cock-blocking us on this investigation since it started. Human trafficking from Canada into New York State isn’t a new business. Yet they’ve hamstrung us at every turn. I’ve had to cut through so much red tape it’s the only color I see anymore.”

  Grant used his most official voice. “The FBI has to follow the proper procedures especially when we don’t want a jurisdictional pissing contest between ourselves and Canada.” He walked in and set a cup of coffee on Cole’s desk. “And you know this case is anything but normal.”

  Cole shrugged and grabbed his coffee, popping the top off. He snatched a sugar packet from his desk drawer and swirled it in. “True. When two different factions of traffickers decide to merge there’s bound to be a bit of paperwork. I’m just frustrated at the lengths of bullshit we’re still swimming through even after we infiltrated both cells.”

  “You really are a rock star for putting all of that together and taking them down simultaneously. Seriously. It was epic. So the bigwigs in D.C. really shouldn’t be that far off the mark on getting this wrapped up. We already have the bad guys in custody.”

  “But they’re never the top dog, you know? There’s always someone higher up to take down. It’s like with each one we break apart it’s three steps forward and two steps back. Not to mention all of the assholes waiting in the wings to step into place with other people being out of the game.”

  “Hey, at least it’s not two steps forward and three steps back. One asshole at a time. Hasn’t that been our mantra since we got through Quantico?”

  Cole nodded and sipped the hot coffee, willing it to seep into his veins as quickly as possible. He had so much work to do and not enough sleep to get him through.

  “Dude?” Grant snapped in front of his face. “You with me?”

  Blinking didn’t exactly get him there so he stretched his head from side to side. “I’m here. As much as three hours of sleep gets me. And thanks for the coffee. The tar in the break room is going to eat a hole in my gut.”

  The smile that lifted Grant’s mouth didn’t bode well. “Addyson keep you up last night?”

  Denying it wasn’t going to make his partner go away so he decided the quickest way to get him off his back was to own it. “She keeps me up every night. I’ve never seen so much energy in such a perfect little body.”

  “I tried to warn you. Oh how the mighty have fallen.”

  “Everyone tried to warn me but when I laid eyes on her I was done.”

  “Meh. I’m going to hold on to my bachelor status as long as humanly possible.”

  “And I’m going to throw the biggest party this town’s ever seen when the day comes and you have to hand over that card.”

  “It’ll never happen, and the biggest party this town’s ever seen is coming up in what? Twenty-four hours? You can’t top that carnival.”

  Cole scrubbed a hand down his face, wondering where he was going to find the patience to deal with people at the carnival. He enjoyed helping the hospital, especially after what happened with Addyson, but his tank was running on fumes. He took another swallow of coffee and pondered calling Kia and telling her he just couldn’t do it.

  That actually sounded like a great idea. They had to have enough people for the carnival with how many volunteers he saw on the list.

  “That look terrifies mere mortals such as myself.”

  Cole glanced up at Grant again and smiled while moving over to his desk to call Kia. “Something just came up so I’m going to cancel my plans with the carnival.” The phone lit up right as he reached for it. It was the receptionist for the building and he hit the speaker button.

  “Yes, Margaret?”

  “Agent Johnson, there’s a Charlie here to see you. No appointment but says it’ll only take a couple minutes of your time. Do you have time or should I tell them you’re busy?”

  “No, I don’t have time but send him up anyways. I could use a few minutes of distraction.”

  “Yes, sir. Right away.”

  “Who’s Charlie?”

  Cole hung up and faced his partner again. “No clue, but it has to be better than staring at the load of emails waiting for me. I’m going to be here for hours trying to clear them out and it’s already…” He glanced at his watch. “Two o’clock.” Picking up a folder on his desk, he asked, “Hey, do you have the latest interview of Pierre Lanclos on your desk? I need it for—” Thankfully he looked up and discovered his partner staring down the hall past his office. Definitely not listening to anything he had to say. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Uhh…”

  “Umm, what? Dude, you remember you’re in the FBI, right?” Cole stepped around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks.

  Damn.

  “Hello, hot girl.”

  At least his partner saved him from making an ass out of himself because he was half a synapse away from making the exact same comment.

  Blonde chick. Double hot with curves in all the right places. His dick took notice too. Not what he needed. Especially not with Addyson in the mix now.

  The woman looked at a piece of paper and then up, catching his eye as he ogled her. She jerked a tiny bit and paused as she stared at him.

  In his defense, he couldn’t help it. In a simple purple sundress with a streak of the same shade in her hair, she was stunning. He couldn’t look away. She hesitated for a second or two and then advanced toward him again.
<
br />   “Agent Johnson?” she asked as she held out her hand.

  “Cole,” he answered somewhat automatically as he took her hand. “Call me Cole.” Shut-up, dumbass, she probably gotcha the first time.

  “Cole, not Trane?” Her smile lit up her face and he thought it looked a bit familiar. But surely not. He would remember her if he’d met her before.

  Then what she actually said infiltrated his last few functional brain cells that hadn’t migrated south for the summer. “Ugh. No. Not Trane. Just Cole.” Letting go of her hand was a hell of a lot harder than he expected it to be.

  “And I’m anyone you want me to be,” Grant offered up like the playboy everyone knew him to be. He took her hand before she actually offered it.

  “Grant. His name is Grant,” Cole added under his breath, not at all pleased with how he couldn’t stand the thought of Grant touching her hand any longer, much less touching anything else while they were a bit more horizontal.

  “Nice to meet you, Grant.” She smiled again and didn’t seem at all fazed by him, even as he kissed her hand. Discreetly she extricated it after a second and turned back to Cole. She almost looked nervous.

  Hmmm…

  “Since you know the horrible nickname I got saddled with in high school, I’m highly curious to know what brings you here today.”

  “I’m so sorry to just barge in like this. Kia told me where to find you and asked me to drop a packet of info off for the carnival tomorrow. She most certainly didn’t let on this was an FBI field office, nor that you were an agent with said FBI.”

  He literally almost shushed her as she spoke. His brain just wouldn’t kick on. Stunning didn’t do her justice at all. Calling on quite a bit of his training, he replayed the tape of what she said and stepped to the side of his doorway. “Come on in so we can go over the info.” She stepped past him just as Grant opened his big mouth.

  “Weren’t you going to cancel going to the car—”

  “Thanks for the info, Grant. Still need that Lanclos file. Let me know when it turns up.” No, he didn’t wait for any kind of response. Yes, he shut the door in his face.

  Cole turned around and stood up a bit straighter. His attraction to her hit him square in the gut. She was somehow even prettier the closer he got to her.

  “Here’s the packet of info you need.” She shoved it at him, and if he weren’t mistaken, she seemed unbelievably anxious.

  He took it from her, but slowly, and he made sure to touch her hand before she snatched it back. “Charlie. Is that really your name?”

  The way she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear was endearing. “A nickname.”

  “Is that what you went by in school? I just can’t place you.”

  “No. Seems neither one of us liked our nicknames in school. Though I don’t see why you didn’t like yours. What’s wrong with Trane?”

  The folder slid across his desk when he tossed it down and then he shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for her again. “Well…”

  Her smile mesmerized him. “That bad, huh?”

  He chuckled and tried to figure out a not-horrible way to explain it to her. “Pretty bad. Have you ever heard of pulling a train on someone?”

  “Oh my gawd.” She took a step away from him.

  “No no no!” He followed her and held up his hands, waving them between them. “It’s not that bad. Mostly. I kissed a lot of girls growing up and the guys I hung around with were all young and dumb. They thought kissing was the same thing and with my name they decided it was perfect. We didn’t learn what it really meant until a couple years later, but unfortunately I was stuck. I couldn’t get rid of it until I went into the academy.”

  “Bet you were happy. Being able to reinvent yourself like that.”

  “Reinvent. I’d never really thought about it that way. But you’re absolutely right.”

  Her shy smile tugged at his heart, which needed to shut the hell up. “I know something about that.”

  “So you know who I am but I don’t know who you are.”

  “And we’re going to keep it that way.” She moved around him and headed toward the door.

  “Why?”

  Hesitation made her stutter her words. “It’s…uhh…getting late and I have a lot of packets still to deliver. Plus, I’m sure you have tons of work to do. Can’t imagine you get much downtime around here.”

  He glanced at his computer screen. He really needed to get back to it. He didn’t have time to talk to her, nor pursue her. His plate was full. Overflowing even. And he had Addyson. So he opened his mouth to tell her it was nice meeting her and maybe he’d see her at the carnival. “Want to go out and we can catch up? That way you won’t feel like you’re interrupting and I can concentrate on you.”

  What?

  Her eyes went wide and her fingers wrapped around her purse strap as if he were some kind of pod person. “Like a date?”

  “I’m kind of out of practice but I’m trying to be all suave so you’ll take pity on me and say yes.”

  “Charming, too.”

  He decided to own it. “Normally not.”

  “Really?”

  She sounded skeptical or hopeful. He didn’t know which, but he sure as hell wanted a chance to know more.

  “Really. So what do you say? Would you like to go out with me? We could do dinner. Maybe a movie. We could make a whole evening of it.”

  “I’m only in town for a few more days. Truly just to help Kia with the carnival and then I’m gone again.”

  Most of him nodded and thought that sounded perfect. A no-strings-attached something. Then she’d be gone and he wouldn’t have to upset his life. “How about tonight? I know it’s a Thursday and I don’t know what your plans are. But we could grab food at Mario’s and then see what happens after that. Hopefully I won’t bore you too badly with my stories. And I could really use a night of distraction.” Yeah, it came out as a bit of a come on, and he was glad he did it too when he noticed a blush spread across her cheeks.

  “You’re an FBI agent. For me to drop off an envelope with a few papers in it I had to go through a metal detector, be patted down and have my purse contents searched. I have a feeling boring is not going to be our problem.”

  He wanted to ask her all sorts of questions.

  What was your name in high school?

  What are you helping with at the carnival, so I can make sure to be there?

  Can I pat you down?

  How far down does that blush go?

  The last one. That’s the one he really wanted to know the answer to. His fingertips tingled at the mere suggestion that he might get to touch her again later. But he kept it simple and stuck with the easiest question. “What time should I pick you up? And where?”

  He gave himself the benefit of the doubt that she’d say yes, because he certainly wasn’t giving up until she agreed.

  She glanced at her watch and then back up as she nibbled her bottom lip. “How’s seven?”

  “Perfect.”

  “You said Mario’s, right?”

  “Sure did.” He nodded once and walked to the door, swinging it inward to open it, though he hated to let her leave.

  As she stepped past him he offered his hand, she took it automatically and her cool fingers heated his blood for some reason.

  “I’ll meet you there at seven. I bet it’s going to be busy.”

  “Always is around carnival season.”

  She smiled, took a few steps away and then turned back. “It’s been a long while since I stepped foot into Mario’s. What should I wear?”

  “What you have on is perfect. Nothing fancy. Just good food and good company.”

  “That I can most definitely handle. Till tonight, Mr. Johnson. Oh, excuse me! Agent Johnson.”

  In short order she’d turn
ed and walked away.

  And he most definitely watched her.

  He expected her to saunter as if she were on a catwalk. Prowl away like a porn star would, that’s what he waited for. But she didn’t. Not at all.

  Another one of his office mates, Daniel, stuck his head out of his office to stare at her. Then Ralph, and Fernando.

  Eric.

  One at a fucking time down the hall they leaned out to follow her progress as she walked. At the end of the hall she glanced back, and then again as she stopped to stare. She seemed genuinely surprised they were looking at her. Quickly all the backs of his buddies’ heads disappeared, leaving him standing there.

  He might have been drooling.

  Maybe.

  Hopefully she stood too far away to see.

  Half the fun of watching was getting caught. So he winked at her and leaned against the door frame. Looking cool was secondary to concealing the hard-on that immediately sprang to life as he watched her walk away.

  Her smile as she disappeared around the corner? Damn. And the giggle he heard a couple seconds later had to be her.

  Double damn.

  As he stepped back into his office, he adjusted his cock. Stifling his groan took complete focus. Reacting to a woman this strongly hadn’t happened to him in a long time.

  “Who in the hell was that?” Grant didn’t waste any time.

  Thankfully he had just enough time to sit and hide the evidence of what she did to him. “Charlie.”

  “Yeah, I got that much from the meet and greet. But who is she?”

  “A friend.” Yeah, it was a bit of a stretch, but it sounded good.

  “With benefits, I hope?”

  Nice and awful to know he wasn’t the only one drooling over her. “Don’t know yet, but hopefully.”

  Chapter Three

  “Fuck. That dress.”

  Charlie barely stopped from crossing her arms over her chest as she approached the table at Mario’s where Trane—Cole was already seated. He stood as she stepped up to the table and kissed her cheek. His fingers were warm on her arm and she shivered before she could stop herself.