Sitting back in his car parked near the university’s main building, Sawyer settled in for what could be a long wait, as Naomi fidgeted in the passenger seat, regularly glancing at the leather-strapped watch in her wrist. Since it was the weekend, there weren’t many people milling around, which was good for them. Still, Naomi looked nervous, and he couldn’t exactly blame her.

Smelling like his soap, with her blonde hair tucked behind her ears, she managed to look radiant despite her anxiety and lack of sleep. Clad in simple black jeans, ballet flats and a gray t-shirt, she looked like any woman running errands on her day off.

But it also ripped away any façade that she might have usually put up. Hair not done, no make-up on, fresh out of his shower – it created an intimacy between them, despite the fact they were practically strangers.

Sawyer kept her in the corner of his eye as he watched the university building for people coming and going.

“You must have gone on a ton of stake-outs in your day, huh?” she asked.

“I had my share,” he replied.

“But you’ve never broken in and stolen something before,” Naomi said.

“Not entirely true,” he admitted.

He could have just said ‘no’ and that would have been the end of it, but sitting around in silence only made him overthink things. And there was something about Naomi that inspired honesty in him.

She had laid it out there, from demons to her parents’ murder, after all.

“What?” Naomi’s eyes widened, and there was a certain excitement to her voice. “Were you undercover with a gang of thieves or something?”

“Nothing that thrilling, I’m afraid,” he chuckled. “It was in my days as a PI, not as a cop.”

“Now that sounds distinctly illegal,” she replied. “What was the case?”

“I don’t usually talk about my cases…” Sawyer started.

“I’m betting you don’t usually stake out universities to steal archaeological artifacts, either,” she raised a brow at him. “Nothing you say leaves this car, promise,” she made a gesture of crossing her heart.

“All right then,” he said, leaning back in his seat. “This was over two years ago. I’d only just moved to Tempe, and gotten my office set up, when this woman came in. I could tell she didn’t really want to talk to me. She was embarrassed. But as she said, she didn’t see any other choice.”

Naomi rested her elbow against the door, listening intently. She had that quality of making your words seem important. So he went on with his story, the memories flooding back easily. He never forgot a case, or a name.

“Her name was Jillian. She had been with her boyfriend, on and off, for almost five years. But she wanted to call it quits for real this time. There was just one problem,” he said, Jillian’s round, pleasant face coming into his mind’s eye.

He had barely paused, when Naomi already leaned forward in her seat, eager.

“What? What was the problem?” she asked.

“Kyle – that was her boyfriend – was, now how do I put this lightly… An asshole. I found that out for myself after some surveillance, as if what Jillian told me wasn’t enough. And back when things had still been new and exciting between him and Jillian, they had made a home video of sorts.”

“Oh no,” Naomi’s eyes widened. “Like a sex tape?”

“Yup,” he nodded. “Stuck on a thumb drive, somewhere in Kyle’s possession. That was his leverage.”

“Gross,” Naomi’s face scrunched up. “To blackmail your girlfriend with something like that… What a sociopath. So he was practically forcing her to stay with him, or he’d release the video?”

“That was pretty much it,” Sawyer confirmed.

A woman strolled out of the university building, walking over to a man who seemed to be waiting for her. They strolled away, hand-in-hand, walking down an empty street. There was still no sign of any lab workers, or any deliveries.

And with the fragility of a thousands-of-years-old statue, Sawyer figured its arrival wouldn’t be hard to miss. It wasn’t something one carried inside in a paper bag.

So he carried on with his story, while Naomi hung off his every word. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, it occurred to him this might be the longest conversation he had had with someone in a while.

“Jillian had given up finding the thumb drive, and she thought that even if she did find it, she couldn’t know if he had copies or not. So, she wanted me to find something on him that she could use,” he said.

“Ah,” Naomi remarked. “The old nuclear stalemate approach.”

“Exactly,” Sawyer nodded. “I researched Kyle, went through his record – a couple of drunk and disorderlies – looked through his social media. Then, I surveilled him. From his sales rep job to his favorite fast food places and strip clubs.”

“That must have been fascinating,” Naomi commented.

“Kyle did like his routine,” he chuckled. “But, after a month of tailing him, the only thing I really found him guilty of was being a scumbag. Most everyone around him already knew that, so that was of no use to Jillian.”

“That’s where the breaking and entering part comes in, I bet,” Naomi nodded.

“I was getting frustrated, to say the least, and Jillian was still trapped,” he replied.

Naomi was no longer looking at her watch, or drumming her fingers, or squirming around in her seat. It seemed the reason they were parked outside the university building had been wiped from her mind as she listened to him tell the story.

And if his sordid tale of blackmail and criminal activity helped her take her mind off things, he was happy to know he had plenty more where that came from.

“Now, I’m not proud of this,” he told her, “but yes, I did break into Kyle’s apartment, while I knew he would be at work. I don’t even know what I hoped to find. I went for his laptop, first. And you can probably guess what I found on it.”

“The video,” Naomi nodded. “But you knew he must have had copies. Deleting it wouldn’t have done any good.”

“You’re right,” he agreed. “Now, I had opened the file before I knew what it was. If it had been labeled ‘homemade sex tape’ for instance, I probably wouldn’t have even clicked on it. Jillian deserved her privacy. And it was a damn good that I did open it. Because when I saw the video, I realized I didn’t need to delete anything.”

Raising her brows, Naomi studied him, anticipation clear on her face. Sawyer let the silence carry the suspense as he suppressed the grin tugging at the edges of his mouth. It was fun to keep her hanging, literally on the edge of her seat.

“Oh, come on,” she chided him with a small laugh. “You have to finish the story now. I’m dying over here.”

“The video started how you might expect – Jillian and Kyle kissing in his bedroom, with the camera propped up somewhere opposite the bed. But just as things started to get hot and heavy… The camera tumbled over, landing in a sea of cheap carpet.”

“No,” Naomi exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth. “You’re kidding.”

“Turns out, Jillian herself had never even watched it. She was too embarrassed. Kyle got up from the bed first, and propped the camera back up. As far as Jillian knew, it had been there the entire time,” Sawyer replied.

“Now that sounds more like a true crime show than reality,” Naomi tilted her head at him.

“Exactly how it happened,” he said. “Promise,” he added, crossing his heart like she had before.

They both laughed at that, and Sawyer found it way too easy to forget they were on a stake-out, and not on a date. Even the fact that that particular thought crossed his mind was enough to jar him out of the moment.

There’s a reason I like to go it alone these days… he thought, looking at Naomi smiling at him in the passenger seat.

Ironically, his animal side didn’t appreciate the lone wolf approach. His wolf seemed to have taken a liking to Naomi in particular. And what was there not to like? Not only was she gorgeous, she was also smart, a loyal friend, and someone who didn’t back down when she had her sights on something.

Just the combination to get me in trouble…

“What?” Naomi asked, still smiling, and he realized he had been staring at her for a good couple of seconds.

“Nothing,” he replied, turning his gaze back toward the university, just in time to see a van pull up.

Origin Laboratories the painted lettering read, and that meant story time was over.