City of Strangers (Luis Chavez Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

“You look down on everything as if you’re in a—”
    “Yeah, I figured that’s what it meant,” Oscar snarled, cutting the woman off midthought. “I’m not a five-year-old.”
    Miranda shot Oscar an aggrieved look, but when he offered no apology, she turned it on the third member of their party, Helen Story.
    “Should we look upstairs?” Helen offered, acting in her official capacity as Oscar’s realtor. “We haven’t seen the rooftop deck.”
    “Yeah, let’s see the deck ,” Oscar snapped, turning from the window.
    He caught Miranda eyeing Helen with a strained look but didn’t care. Helen raised a placating hand and followed him to the steps. When Miranda moved to come up as well, Helen stopped her with a smile. The agent got the picture and hung back.
    “This is it!” Oscar announced once he reached the deck. “You can look back into the canyons, turn around and see all the way to Catalina, downtown, the beaches. This is dramatic. This is what he wants.”
    Helen smacked his arm.
    “Who were you trying to impress with that cock-of-the-walk routine down there?” she asked.
    “You, obviously,” Oscar said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in for a kiss. “Is it working?”
    “No,” she said, scowling, then kissed him back. “Maybe a little bit, but we need Miranda.”
    “Oh, do we ?” he asked.
    “Yes. She lives in this neighborhood. This is her territory. There’s never inventory up here, so you want to be that real estate investor she—”
    Oscar cut her off with another kiss. He loved this woman. Loved this woman. Every ambitious, California, daddy-pleasing, white-bread, sun-kissed cell. But every so often he needed to remind her that he was the man, something he doubted her deputy DA husband-in-name-only ever did. As she shifted to acknowledge his hard-on, but without any real invitation to do something about it, he stepped away.
    “Okay, so we make her happy,” Oscar agreed. “How do we do that?”
    “This house is way overpriced, but we go in at the asking price anyway,” Helen said. “If it gets competitive, I’ll confide in her what your top bid is and say I’ll drop my commission to make it work without suggesting she drop hers. That’s when I say ‘cash.’”
    “But won’t we lose money on the resale?” Oscar asked.
    “No, if you play it right you’ll break even. But then you’ve got someone like Miranda slipping you leads in hopes of making another cash commission.”
    Oscar smiled and put his arms around Helen’s waist. “How much time before she comes up here?” he asked, nodding to the rattan sofa on the far side of the deck.
    “You’re crazy,” Helen said, brushing his hand away, albeit without much force.
    “Come on,” he cajoled. “We’re about to pay three million dollars for this house. We should be able to use it once before handing the keys over to our new partner.”
    He slipped a hand under her shirt and felt her heart quicken. He knew the answer was still no but liked the effect he had on her body regardless.
    “You’re ridiculous,” Helen said, voice barely a whisper, as she pulled his hand away. “But behave yourself and maybe— maybe —I’ll come up with some reason why we have to come back and see the house on our own.”
    Goddamn, I love this woman.

    “Are you hearing me?” the red-faced businessman, a Mr. Jim Jakey of Compass Bank of Fort Wayne, Indiana, thundered. “This was supposed to be billed to the company. When they reserved the travel, they should’ve paid for the room.”
    Zhelin “Tony” Qi, the hotel’s front-end manager, smiled placidly in the face of the tantrum. Behind the businessman stood three of his junior colleagues, all of whom could not have looked more embarrassed. The trio obviously knew their boss had made a mistake. It was telling that none came to the man’s rescue.
    “The rooms were reserved by a corporate card,” Tony explained without a hint of condescension. “But we were