LOVE UNDERCOVER

Chapter 6

If unrelenting, unfeeling police detective Kavin was a shock to Thyme's system. Then overly flirty, doesn't want to leave the dance floor, tipsy police detective Kavin was hitting Thyme with a 10-wheeler truck.

It's not that Thyme forgot how wild Party-Kavin was or how frisky he could be.
In their school days, Kavin with a few shots in him was a kissing machine. He'd be kissing anyone and everyone on the dance floor. Or making out with someone or the other at dark corners of bars. Sometimes, if he was completely hammered there were times he'd even kiss Thyme - but that wasn't important. Drunk people were like that. Just part of the normal things best friends had to endure.

Tonight, it was clear that Party-Kavin was back.

Thyme let Kavin go about Earth's Mix.
Currently, he was dancing on a table top as a group of women cheered him on.  Thyme would normally be having fun too but he was tired and he had too many things to think about.

Kavin told him about the case on their drive here. It was a lot to swallow that he was being used by international drug dealers as a money launderer. And the worst thing was, Thyme has also been set up to be the perfect fall guy with all the evidence and the paper trail leading to his gallery.

Thyme should be concerned about his safety and he was - but he was also hurt. His pride was bruised. He avoided his family's business because one didn't become a real estate mogul without having to deal with a lot of shady personalities and corrupt politicians and Thyme wasn't built for that level of brown nosing. Plus he wanted to prove that he was good at something and he could make something succeed on its own. Finally step out of the family shadow.

He thought he was doing that. But apparently he was only successful because he was in business with criminals and was just too dumb to realize.

He takes a sip of whiskey and debates if he should be doing shots instead. He waves off the temptation. Thyme needed to keep an eye on Kavin. God knows that man will need to be carried away from this bar with the amount he was drinking.

So he goes back to swirling and thinking and watching. It was a good thing Kavin was so entertaining to watch that Thyme couldn't fully wallow in self-pity.

Kavin was apparently done with table tops and was now in the middle of the dance floor by himself simply swinging back and forth, a slow steady movement Thyme follows with his eyes except someone blocks his view.

He looks up and sees the smiling face of a very beautiful woman. She had hair with sections bleached pink and blue, eyes shimmering and big, her black dress revealing a tattoo near her hipbone and navel.

"Can I help you?," Thyme asks.

The woman's smile turns a little shy. "I'm Sarah. I saw you from across the room. I know girls don't usually do this but can I buy you a drink?"

Thyme is surprised and undeniably intrigued. Why not? It's one drink. "I'd like that."

Thyme stands up from the long couch he was sitting on so he could follow Sarah to the bar. She bites her lip shyly and offers her hand. Thyme hesitates but doesn't want to reject the sweet woman and so he lifts his hand to connect with hers when he is unceremoniously yanked back.

Another hand pushes Sarah's arm away.

Kavin?!

Kavin stares at Sarah with his bleary eyes. "He's taken."

Sarah is visibly confused. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. He's taken."

The poor, confused woman walks away as Thyme smiles at her apologetically.

"Taken," Kavin slurs as he jabs a pointy finger on Thyme's chest.

"Kavin, I told you. Gorya and I have broken up. I'm single."

Kavin shakes his head, a pout on his plump alcohol stained lips. "Taken."

Thyme sighs. No use arguing with a drunk man. "All right. I'm taken. Now, can you please sit down?" He tries to inch them closer to the couch.

"Dance," Kavin slurs. He begins to walk away but his coordination has long abandoned him. Thyme pulls him backwards to stop him from falling. Kavin finds himself leaning against Thyme, one of Thyme's arms secure around his waist. He stops moving allowing Thyme to successfully if slowly sit the both of them down.

Kavin leans back on the couch, head angled upwards. Thyme breathes a sigh of relief, a sleeping Kavin can't possibly start fights with the women in this bar. Sarah being the third one he'd practically pushed away tonight.

Thyme laughs to himself. For someone who didn't even like Gorya that much, Kavin was sure protective of that long gone relationship. But then again Kavin has always been protective of Thyme, he was one of the few - if not the only person - who ever saw Thyme as vulnerable. Usually, one glare was all it took for people to leave Thyme the fuck alone. But not Kavin. Kavin would roll his eyes at him and stick even closer.

Thyme knocks back his drink just as Kavin's head falls and lands on his shoulder. He looks at Kavin and for the millionth time wonders why he suddenly left all those years ago.

- - -

Olga looks at her phone.

S: Definitely together.

Olga taps her long, red fingernails on her phone screen.

She had Thyme followed today. Her suspicions piqued when she learned he was at a police station. But her tracker told her the man simply picked up his supposed friend and drove to one of those loud bars near Paragon.

It was then she decided to put Thyme to the test. The plan was simple, lure him away, slip a drug into his drink, and get him to talk maybe to slip. And if her operatives got close enough they could very subtly frisk him for a wire.

Olga based the operatives she picked based on Thyme's past relationship- slender, golden skin, innocent smile. But that had backfired spectacularly because each and every time, the policeman would shoo every one of them away.

She glances at her screen again. So it's more than a friend, it's a boyfriend. It would explain the tussle they heard in Thyme's office. She makes a face remembering the muffled sound of mouths and chairs falling over. The bug they managed to place there wasn't very strong- thank God - she wasn't in this business for aural porn.

It seems from this intel that Thyme remains to be a clueless pawn. And the boyfriend Kavin's files show that though hetrained in America, he was more of a desk officer than someone chasing after cartels. Would make sense as he is a Kittiyangkul, another spoiled Thai billionaire. Why would he risk his life on the field?

Good. Olga had no time to change her plans now. The auction had to happen as scheduled for the funds to push through. She needed the 100 million dollars cleaned and transferred to Lebanon immediately to manufacture the weapons she promised her backers. Dangerous men cannot be kept waiting.

Thyme being blind to the whole operation was crucial to her success.

Another message comes in her phone. This time it is a picture of the two men, heads rested against each other.

Adorable, Olga muses. So rare to find true love these days. Too bad she'd probably need to kill them both after this job. Oh well, they could try again in their next lifetime.