Tuesday morning, Khalil’s head came up when a knock sounded on his open office door. He stood and extended his hand. “Thanks for coming, Alonzo. And so early.” They’d been trying to schedule the meeting for over a week, and settled on seven this morning due to both their busy workloads. He gestured to the chair across from his desk.
Alonzo Wright gripped Khalil’s hand in a firm handshake, then sat. “Sorry it took me so long to get over here. Omar said you’re having some problems with your clients being overcharged?” Alonzo Wright had come highly recommended by Khalil’s pro football player brother-in-law, Omar Drummond. The private investigator had been instrumental in solving a scheme to ruin both Omar and Khalil’s sister Morgan’s reputations orchestrated by Omar’s former agent.
“No problem. I know you’re busy. And, yes.” He took a moment to explain the double charges. “I can’t figure out for the life of me why they’re happening all of a sudden. There were four last Monday when I called you and six more since then.”
“Have you changed your billing system recently?”
“No. It’s been the same since the day I opened the doors.”
“How many people have access?”
“Three—the manager, assistant manager and me.” Felicia had been with him for four years and he’d hired Logan Smith as manager a little over a year ago after his last manager relocated to another state. Khalil relayed that information to Alonzo.
Alonzo stroked his chin. “Unless someone’s hacked into your system, it sounds to me like you have a virus of the two-legged variety.”
He stilled. “You think it’s someone who works here?” He mentally went through all five personal trainers on his staff, but dismissed them immediately. None of them would do something like this. “I haven’t had any trouble with my staff, so I can’t see it being one of them.”
“Maybe not,” Alonzo said, leaning back in the chair. “But it can’t hurt to check them out. Do you mind if I look at your computer?”
Khalil stood and relinquished his chair. “By all means. Omar didn’t say you were a computer whiz.”
He smiled. “Just a little something I picked up along the way.”
He stood off to the side while Alonzo clicked away. He rotated his head to see the wall clock. His meeting with the production manager at the home safety company wouldn’t start until ten, so he had plenty of time. Today, he planned to arrive early and stop in the café. True, he wanted the cake, but he also wanted to see Lexia. Khalil hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her all week and the sound of her low, throaty voice played over and over in his head. He briefly wondered what it would be like to hear her calling his name as he...
“Your system is tight, man.”
The sound of Alonzo’s voice snapped Khalil out of his lustful thoughts. “That’s good news, isn’t it?”
Alonzo chuckled. “Yes, and no. Yes, because it means there’s not some nutjob out there stealing your clients’ information. No, because it could mean that—”
“That there’s someone here deliberately stealing money from the members,” he finished.
“Exactly.”
Again, Khalil tried to come up with a plausible scenario of why one of his employees would do something like this. “What do you suggest?”
He tapped a finger on the desk. “I can do a couple of things. One, I can install a program on your computer that will alert you if someone goes in and debits an account outside of the scheduled dates. I noticed that you have cameras installed outside and on both floors of the gym, but none in here. Are there any in the other offices?”
“No. It never occurred to me to put them in the offices because I don’t keep much in here and I have a lock on my file cabinet and drawers.”
“I’d like to install some, if you don’t mind. And when no one’s here.”
“I don’t mind at all. The gym doesn’t close until midnight. I’m not open on Sunday, but I don’t want to wait that long.” Unless Alonzo came before five in the morning, when the gym opened, Khalil would have no choice but to wait.
Alonzo rose to his feet. “Neither do I. The quicker we get on this, the quicker your people’s money will be safe. Let me check my schedule and work something out.”
“I appreciate your help.”
He opened the door. “I’ll give you a call later today or tomorrow.”
Khalil stood there for several seconds after Alonzo left. What the hell is going on? The intercom on his desk buzzed. He leaned over and pushed the button. “Yes.”
“Khalil, Anita Crowder is here,” the front receptionist said.
“Thanks. I’ll be right down.” Turning his mind to his client, he locked the office and went downstairs for the personal training session.
An hour and a half later, Khalil rushed back to his office to gather the drawings and reports for his meeting. His session had gone over by thirty minutes because he had to assure Anita that she would not look like the Incredible Hulk if she did some weight lifting. The woman had complained the entire session. Not until he showed her photos of other female clients he’d worked with, did she relax.
He still had an hour to get to his meeting and the drive from Fox Hills to the Wilshire District would take less than half an hour without traffic. However, with the sheer number of cars on the LA roads, that time could double. And he wanted to have plenty of time to stop in the café. He smiled. Yep, he was looking forward to seeing Lexia again.
As he’d predicted, the traffic was heavy and he made it with three minutes to spare. Khalil really hoped they’d complete whatever roadwork was being done near the building soon. It took ten minutes just to get into the parking garage. He was a stickler for time, so Lexia would have to wait.
* * *
Tuesday morning, Lexia yawned as she gently folded in chopped apples to her coffee cake batter and poured half into the prepared pan. She added crumb topping, the rest of the batter, a final layer of topping then put it, along with a second pan, into the oven. She told herself she hadn’t made the additional pan just in case Khalil showed up, but it was a lie. She’d also promised herself she wasn’t going to succumb to the urge to look him up on the internet and she had held up well over the past week. But curiosity got the best of her and, after washing her hands at the large double sink and drying them on a paper towel, she pulled out her cell and typed in his name.
Lexia expected a couple hundred hits but was stunned to see close to half a million. She clicked on the photo gallery and saw him in everything from shorts, T-shirt and running shoes to a tuxedo. However, the picture that had her attention was one taken a few years ago of him braced in a doorway, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs. Her gaze roamed over every perfect inch of his body, from the closely cut hair and goatee, to the slender well-defined muscles of his chest, arms, abs and thighs. He’d let the low beard grow in fully and she didn’t know which look she liked better. “How on earth does he keep his body looking like this?” she murmured.
“I knew you’d be checking him out sooner or later.”
She jumped and spun around. “Sam, you scared the crap out of me!” She drew in a calming breath. “Girl, you can’t just sneak up on me like that. I could’ve hurt you.”
Sam lifted a brow. “You didn’t have anything in your hands except that phone and, with that fine