Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [50]
“You sure know how to show a girl a good time.” Faith shot Caine a saucy grin before hopping out of his car and marching into the building.
Yuri bent down and gave Caine a questioning look.
Caine rested his forehead against the steering wheel, looking like a man who was near the end of his rope.
“You okay?” Yuri asked.
“I need a drink,” he muttered.
“I’m off duty in two minutes. Mind if I join you?” Caine shook his head.
Twenty minutes later, they were seated in a bar, drinking beers. “So what’s with the strange getup?” Yuri asked.
Caine looked down at his geeky shirt and sweater vest. He’d forgotten he was wearing them. He peeled the vest off and stuffed it in his backpack. The plain white T-shirt was more his thing. “I was doing some undercover surveillance work tonight.”
“With Faith?”
“She insinuated herself into the situation, yes.”
“So you and Faith were together on some undercover mission?” Yuri said. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Yeah, me too. I also can’t believe I told you about it.”
“Hey, I’m a fellow Marine. You can trust me.”
“I can’t believe you’re a doorman/actor now,” Caine said.
“And I can’t believe you’re no longer in the Corps.”
“It wasn’t an easy decision.” Caine took a healthy swig of his Corona right from the bottle. No fancy microbrewery beers for him. The Mexican beer had been his beverage of choice since his boot camp days at Camp Pendleton outside San Diego. That seemed like a lifetime ago now. But the things he’d learned there had been ingrained into him so deeply there was no changing them now. “Not easy at all.”
“I’ll bet.”
“I did it for my dad. Left the Marine Corps, I mean.”
“You said Faith’s dad was responsible for his death.”
Caine nodded and swallowed another swig of Corona down a throat gone tight with emotion. “That’s right.”
“What happened?”
Caine wiped the condensation off his bottle with his thumb. “Jeff West accused my father of a crime he didn’t commit.”
“I thought Faith’s dad was a private investigator not a cop.”
“That’s right. He was investigating a case involving corporate fraud. He thought my dad was guilty. He was wrong.”
“So your dad was arrested?”
“No.” Caine was finding it harder and harder to swallow. “My dad couldn’t take the shame of being falsely accused. He committed suicide. An overdose.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“What made West think your dad was guilty?”
“A shoddy investigation.”
“So what’s next?”
“I prove my father’s innocence.”
“And that’s why you and Faith were on that stakeout. Did the perp show up?”
“Okay, you’ve been watching way too many police shows.”
“So now you and Faith are working together to clear your father’s name?”
“I wouldn’t put it exactly like that. Has she talked to you about me?”
Yuri just smiled.
“Come on, Gunny. I’ve known you longer than she has.”
“I don’t pass on intel. What you say to me stays with me. Ditto for what she says to me.”
“So she has talked about me. I knew it.”
“I heard she dumped her drink in your lap last week.”
“Who told you that?”
“I know one of the servers at the Sushi Place. I have a lot of contacts in the Streeterville neighborhood.”
“Did you meet that asshole fiancé of hers?”
Yuri nodded.
“So what did you think of him?”
“He was an asshole.”
“What did she see in him?”
“Who knows? He was smart and polished.”
“I can’t believe he left her at the altar that way. Do you think she really loved him?”
“Well, she was going to marry him.”
“Yeah, I know but maybe . . .”
“Maybe what?”
“I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. It’s none of my business. I need to stay focused on my father’s case.”
“Hard to do when Faith is working on it with you.”
“She is a distraction,” Caine admitted.
“I can imagine. I remember you telling me once that women got in the way if you let them get too close.”
“Right.”
“Do you still feel that way?”
“Affirmative.”
“Well, I’m certainly in no position to be giving you romantic advice. I’ve been married twice and divorced twice. The Marines and marriage don’t always make for a good partnership.