“Do you think she’d go for it?”
“Only one way to find out.”
Hailey tapped her chin. “I’ll run it past her next time I go in.”
He tipped his pint glass back and took a healthy gulp. “You still haven’t answered my question. I really could use your help here.”
She pointed at his half-full glass. “How is it? Too foamy? Not enough foam?”
“Best pour I ever had.” He grinned again, and she rolled her eyes. He crooked his finger at her, and when she leaned in, he cupped the back of her head and hauled her mouth to his for one drugging kiss after another after another after another. Her head spun; her pulse skipped; her toes and most other body parts tingled.
When they broke the kiss, her erratic breathing matched his. His eyelids lifted languidly. “Come work for me. I’ll make it worth your while.” His voice was a decadent mix of satin and gravel that spoke to every corner of her body. It made her clothes feel too constricting. It made her want to shed them and climb him, to invite him to use her in unspeakable ways.
Hervoice, when she recovered it, came out in a Marilyn Monroe-esque whisper. “If you mean you’ll pay me off in kisses likethat, I’m your girl.”
He hovered his lips by hers, and they curved in a sinful smile. “Yeah, you are.”
Before he could capture her mouth and lay another mind-numbing kiss on her, she straightened and fanned herself with her hand. “Gotta get to the Loose Moose so I can call Kaylee and change.”
He chuckled. “You’re free to call her from here, but okay. And why are you changing?”
She twirled on the barstool and smirked. “I have a date.”
“If I get my way, that date’s turning into a sleepover. So pack your clothes ... or not. You won’t need them.” Cliff had used similar words only days ago, and her stomach had practically heaved. Funny how hearing them from Noah stoked a blaze of passion inside of her instead.
Hailey paced the LooseMoose’s inside perimeter while Kaylee’s voice came through the phone’s speaker. “Have you heard anything from the department yet?”
“Besides a letter outlining final pay and insurance details? No.” Even Dan Williams, her one-time most superior superior and stalwart advocate, hadn’t bothered to reach out. Lord knew what lies Cliff had told him. “But I did contact HR and set up an exit interview. That’s next week via video conferencing.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
“That I’m a disgruntled employee who was forced to quit when her incompetent boss assaulted her in acountyvehicle, and I have a big fat sexual harassment lawsuit I’m itching to file.”
“Oh yay! My baby sister has found her spine of steel again!”
“Yeah, I found it in the back of my closet and swapped it for the rubber one,” she deadpanned. Too bad she hadn’t had it available when Cliff had attacked her.
“Don’t be hard on yourself. You were in self-preservation mode, and you did what needed doing to get yourself the hell out of there. You’re safe now, and I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, Kayl.” Hailey had given herself the same speech and could finally buy into it. “Now I have to take down Cliff Meissner so he doesn’t try to hurt anyone else.”
Kaylee made a skeptical sound. “How are you going to do that, Hail?”
“I know what you’re thinking. It’s his word against mine, and we know how he’s got everyone bamboozled. Even though I documented the incident and took pictures of the damage he inflicted—which doesn’t look like much in the photos—I don’t stand a chance. But I might have something else on him.”
“Which is?”
Hailey dropped her voice, as if someone listened in the shadows. “Do you remember me telling you about Dell’s, the restaurant I inspected here last year?”
“The one you warned me to stay away from?”
“Yes. What I didn’t tell you was the owner tried to bribe me. Now get this: Cliff and I inspected that same restaurant the day before he shut down the Miners Tavern, and the whole setup was out of the norm.” Hailey went on to describe how Dell’s inspection had popped up in the database overnight and that Cliff had assigned himself the job.
“He never conducts his own inspections,” Kaylee exclaimed.
“Exactly. Now this ownerhatesNoah and has tried his damnedest to disrupt his business.” She filled Kaylee in on those details too. “The morning we were at Dell’s, Cliff and the owner were thick as thieves and wandered off alone while I did the entire inspection on my own. The morning before we went to the Miners Tavern, he had a ‘meeting’ in Fall River—even though he’d never been to the town before, so who the heck did he know to meet with? When I probed for details, he said it was none of my business. I checked when I was in the database, and the tavernhadn’t been flagged for an inspection, yet Cliff decided to investigate. I keep asking myself why. That’s not how things work.”
“So you think the ownerbribedCliff?”
