decide if he was the luckiest son of a bitch alive, or she was the unluckiest. She supposed that was probably an odd thought considering his home had just burned down, but he’d survived, which was pretty damned lucky to her mind, and now he was getting her bed. Bastard.
“You know,” Mac said suddenly. “I feel safer already just at the idea.”
“I’m sure you do,” CJ said, rolling her eyes.
“Well, it’s all settled, then,” Mrs. Vesper said happily. “I’ll just get that cot, shall I?”
“Don’t be silly, Mrs. Vesper,” Mac protested, jumping to his feet when the old lady started to get up. “You can’t possibly carry the cot. Just show me where it is and I shall fetch it back.”
CJ watched the older woman lead Mac away, and then stood up with a sigh. She started to head toward the stairs, only to turn back for her half-empty teacup and a cookie. After a hesitation, she then grabbed two more cookies to take with her as she left the kitchen to go to her room.
CJ had never been the neatest person on the planet. Okay, the truth was she was a slob, she admitted to herself. It was hard not to admit it when she stepped into her room and saw the mess she’d left behind when she’d headed out earlier. CJ had driven down here in jeans and a T-shirt, but had decided to change to a more professional look before heading to the police station. She’d changed her mind at least three times about what to wear, tossing her clothing about as she pulled them on and stripped them off. In the end, she’d decided on a white blouse, dark blue pantsuit jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots. Not everyone’s idea of a professional look, she was sure, but that was one of the things she liked best about the SIU: they weren’t stringent when it came to a dress code. At least her boss wasn’t.
After years of climbing in and out of her police uniform, a more relaxed dress code was something she enjoyed. For the most part. Right now, though, CJ almost wished the SIU had a standard uniform as well. At least then she wouldn’t have such a mess to clean, she thought as she set her cookies and tea on the table in the sitting room of her suite and then rushed about, gathering her bra and panties, jeans, her T-shirt, and two different pantsuits. She was just rushing toward the double French doors leading into the bedroom when the door to the hall opened.
Hoping that neither Mac nor Mrs. Vesper had spotted her and her stack of clothes, she tossed them into the open suitcase on the bed and quickly zipped it closed. She then carried it out to drop next to the table where her laptop sat open, before turning to watch Mac wheel in an ancient cot. Honest to God, it looked at least fifty years old. It was one of those rollaway beds, where the ends folded up for easy storage. Closed as it was right now, she couldn’t see the whole mattress, but what she could see didn’t look promising. It had definitely seen better days, and CJ bit her lip, worrying over just how comfortable it would be.
Not that it mattered, she supposed. Comfortable or not, she was stuck with it, so CJ gave in to the inevitable and hurried over to shift furniture so that the cot would fit in the room. In the end, she didn’t have to move much. Shifting the couch and end tables toward the dining table a bit left enough room for the cot to be positioned in front of the door. Although it only left a couple of inches for the door to be opened before it would hit the side of the bed.
“There,” Mrs. Vesper said with satisfaction as Mac straightened from setting up the cot. But her smile disappeared nearly as quickly as it had appeared when she saw the stained mattress. “Oh, dear, I suppose you will need sheets,” she muttered, and turned to the door, only to find it didn’t open enough for her to slide out.
“Just a minute, Mrs. Vesper,” Mac said, and quickly closed the rollaway bed again so she could get out.
“I’ll be right back,” she assured them in a whisper, presumably to avoid disturbing the other guests, and then she slipped out into the hall and hurried away.
CJ eased the door shut behind