“Really?” His good-humored disbelief irked me. “Because I seem to make you cranky. Unless you’re a cranky pants by nature?”
“I’m not a cranky pants!” I stopped in the middle of the hallway and crossed my arms over my chest. I wasn’t as annoyed with him as I was with myself. I always seemed to go on the defensive in hispresence, and my habit of protesting against every second thing he said grated on my nerves.
He stood there, watching me expectantly. Clearly, I wasn’t going to get rid of him easily. And maybe I owed him an explanation, if not an apology.
I let out a resigned sigh. “Okay, so I’ve been a little grumpy with you. But that doesn’t have anything to do with liking you or disliking you. It’s just…” I took a second to figure out how to explain my jumbled feelings, or some of them, anyway. “I don’t like being a damsel in distress, and even though we’ve barely known each other for five minutes, you’ve already had to help me out of scrapes on multiple occasions.”
Wyatt nodded. “That’s a blow to your independent nature.”
“I guess that’s a good way of putting it.” I uncrossed my arms and approached the door to Rosario’s apartment.
I knew full well that there was more to my irritation and defensive attitude. What I’d told him was true, but there was also the fact that I felt this crazy ridiculous attraction toward him that was so incredibly inconvenient at this point in my life. Add to that the fact that he’d seen me in awkward and embarrassing situations several times already. He probably thought I was an amusing hot mess, and knowing that awakened lingering vestiges of humiliation, which then got me as prickly as a porcupine facing off with a mountain lion. He didn’t need to know about all that, though.
“Are you going to knock?” Wyatt asked.
I realized I was standing there, staring at the three gold numbers on Rosario’s door. “No.” I didn’t offer any further information.
“It’s just…this isn’t your apartment, so…”
I glanced at him. The knowing, amused glint in his eyes raised my porcupine quills again.
“You know exactly why I’m here,” I said.
He slid his hands into the pockets of his pants. “I’ve deduced that you learned something at the cocktail party that made youdecide to search somebody’s apartment while they’re otherwise occupied.” His smile was a little smug. “I’ve also deduced that you don’t know how to get inside without a key.”
I fought against the urge to remain prickly. The sad fact was that he was absolutely right, and I was running out of time. The cocktail party might wind down at any minute.
“Do you know how to get in without a key, Sherlock?” I asked with only a slight edge to my voice.
His grin widened. “And here I thought you might never ask.”
He reached into an inner pocket of his tailored suit jacket and removed what I thought at first was a wallet but then realized was a small carrying case for lock-picking tools.
First Theo and now Wyatt. Was lock picking a common skill that I’d somehow missed learning in school?
Wyatt slid out two of the tools and handed me the case.
He paused before getting to work on the lock. “If I’m going to help you with breaking and entering, I think it’s only fair that you acknowledge we’re investigating this case together.”
Several emotions flew into an instant wrestling match inside of me. I didn’t want to need his help yet again, and I didn’t want to keep fighting my attraction to him, but I really wanted to keep my promise to Mrs. Nagy. To do that, I needed to get into Rosario’s apartment. And as much as I didn’t want to admit it, the foolish part of me wasn’t the least bit disappointed about the prospect of spending more time with him, even though I knew I should remain wary of him. After all, he’d been at the Mirage around the time of the murder, and he’d now inserted himself into my investigation. Was it really because of his grandmother and his lifelong desire to be a detective? Or was he hoping to steer the investigation in a direction that pointed firmly away from him?
I had no clue what reason he’d have to kill Freddie, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one. I’d have to stay on my toes if I was going to have anything more to do with him.
Wyatt waited, the tools held loosely in one hand. Those darned coal-like eyes of his flickered with amusement, and I feared he could see all the different thoughts spinning around in my head.
“Fine,” I said eventually, knowing we couldn’t afford to waste any more time. “We’re on the case. Together.”
Chapter
Eighteen
Wyatt, it turned out, was even more skilled at picking locks than Theo. I had only a few seconds to admire the deft movements of his strong hands before he had the door open. That was probably for the best, since my mind was tempted to stray into X-rated territory, imagining what else those skilled hands could do.
It’s the champagne,I lied to myself again.Blame it on the champagne.
I handed the tool case to Wyatt and slipped into the apartment, but not before glancing up and down the hall to make sure no one was watching. It was a good thing that the Mirage didn’t have security cameras in the hallways. In fact, the building had only two cameras, one in the lobby and one outside the rear door that led to the alley. I wasn’t even sure if they worked.
Wyatt followed me inside and quietly shut the door behind us. My fingers tapped nervously against my leg, and I had to fight to still them. Maybe it was for the best that Wyatt and I were working together—at least for now. With two of us to share the task, the search would take half the time, and I definitely didn’t want to spend a second longer than necessary in Rosario’s apartment. I really wasn’t good at breaking laws, or even rules. Sure, I’d sneakedout of the house a few times as a teenager, but I’d always required a couple of swigs from Jemma’s flask of liquid courage before I could actually climb out the window, and that was only partly because I had a terrible fear of jumping from any height greater than about four feet. Not that we’d ever jumped from the second-story window, just from the tree outside the window.
