A Hot Flash of Homicide by Dawn Dugle

Author:Dawn Dugle [Dugle, Dawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dawn Dugle LLC
Published: 2021-02-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

THURSDAY. AGAIN.

The sun streaming in through my window caused me to stir, but it was the smell of perfectly fried bacon that got me fully awake. I opened my eyes to find a gorgeous chiseled man sitting next to me with a tray full of breakfast, and - I smiled in surprise - a steaming hot latte! If it weren't for the throbbing in muscles I didn't know I had, I would be getting a sense of déjà vu.

"It's like déjà vu, all over again," I laughed. It was something my uncle said all the time that made absolutely zero sense.

"Good morning mi amor, I thought you'd like breakfast in bed."

"Where did you get bacon?"

"You probably don't remember me bringing in groceries last night, because you were pretty out of it."

I sipped my latte and looked at the clock. It was nine o'clock, and I started to get up for work until I remembered I was benched for the next day.

"Relax," Luke added pillows behind me so I could sit up. "Eat your breakfast and when you're ready, I'll tell you what's going on."

Ugh. When he put it like that, now I knew I couldn't eat bacon until I heard the story. I looked down at the plate and grabbed toast instead. "Listen, I can't enjoy bacon with that hanging over my head. So, you might as well talk. Let's start with why you lied to me."

Luke took a deep breath. "I never lied to you."

"You did from the very start!" I smacked my hand down on the comforter. "You even lied about your name!"

"I never told you my name was Luke Nelson, if you remember. When we were in the interrogation room and you called me Mr. Nelson, I told you to call me Luke."

I thought back. Damn. He was right. "Well what about everything else you told me? Are you really Claire's business manager?"

"I consult with a lot of businesses around the country. Most of them are tied to the government. Like right now, I'm consulting with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement."

That was not something I saw coming. "ICE? You work for ICE?"

Luke nodded. "Well, with ICE. I've been working under cover in one capacity or another for years. My area of expertise is breaking up smuggling. Drugs. People. Most recently, I've been looking into a crime lord using art shipments to smuggle drugs into and out of the country."

I sat back and gaped at him. "How does that tie in to Claire?"

"What I told you about Claire was true. I was her business manager and I do have a law degree, so I could help her with contracts when she started out. But that was all I planned to do, until the day she closed in on leaving her cousin's gallery."

"She found something suspicious?"

"Every third or fourth painting that would be shipped overseas would be stuck in customs for months, then returned, where it was once again stuck in customs. That meant she didn't get paid for her painting, because it was returned.

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