Книга - Convincing Alex: the classic story from the queen of romance that you won’t be able to put down

Convincing Alex: the classic story from the queen of romance that you won’t be able to put down
Nora Roberts


THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR‘The most successful novelist on Planet Earth’ Washington PostNora Roberts is a publishing phenomenon; this New York Times bestselling author of over 200 novels has more than 450 million of her books in print worldwide.Praise for Nora Roberts'The most successful novelist on Planet Earth' - Washington Post‘A storyteller of immeasurable diversity and talent’ - Publisher’s Weekly










Convincing Alex


The Stanislaskis

Book Four




Nora Roberts







www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




The Stanislaskis: an unforgettable family saga by #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts


When Alex Stanislaski mistakenly arrested daringly bold soap-opera writer Bess McKnee for soliciting, she decided the sexy detective was absolutely perfect—for her research and for herself. Now all she had to do was convince him she was right….


For Pat Gaffney,

to even things out




Contents


Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve




CHAPTER ONE


The curvy blonde in hot-pink spandex tottered on stiletto heels as she worked her corner. Her eyes, heavily painted with a sunburst of colors, kept a sharp watch on her associates, those spangled shadows of the night. There was a great deal of laughter on the street. After all, it was springtime in New York. But beneath the laughter there was a flat sheen of boredom that no amount of glitter or sex could disguise.

For these ladies, business was business.

After popping in some fresh gum, she adjusted the large canvas bag on her bare shoulder. Thank God it was warm, she thought. It would be hell to strut around half-dressed if the weather was ugly.

A gorgeous black woman in red leather that barely covered the essentials languidly lit a cigarette and cocked her hip. “Come on, baby,” she said to no one in particular, in a voice husky from the smoke she exhaled. “Wanna have some fun?”

Some did, Bess noted, her eyes skimming the block. Some didn’t. All in all, she thought, business was pretty brisk on this spring night. She’d observed several transactions, and the varied ways they were contracted. It was too bad boredom was the byword here. Boredom, and a defiant kind of hopelessness.

“You talking to yourself, honey?”

“Huh?” Bess blinked up into the shrewd eyes of the black goddess in red leather who had strolled over. “Was I?”

“You’re new?” Studying Bess, she blew out smoke. “Who’s your man?”

“My… I don’t have one.”

“Don’t have one?” The woman arched her ruthlessly plucked brows and sneered. “Girl, you can’t work this street without a man.”

“That’s what I’m doing.” Since she didn’t have a cigarette, Bess blew a bubble with her gum. Then snapped it.

“Bobby or Big Ed find out, they’re going to mess you up.” She shrugged. After all, it wasn’t her problem.

“Free country.”

“Girl, ain’t nothing free.” With a laugh, she ran a hand down her slick, leather-covered hip. “Nothing at all.” She flicked her cigarette into the street, where it bounced off the rear fender of a cab.

There were dozens of questions on Bess’s lips. It was in her nature to ask them, but she remembered that she had to go slow. “So who’s your man?”

“Bobby.” With her lips pursed, the woman skimmed her gaze up and down Bess. “He’d take you on. A little skinny through the butt, but you’d do. You need protection when you work the streets.” And she could use the extra money Bobby would pass her way if she brought him a new girl.

“Nobody protected the two girls who got murdered last month.”

The black woman’s eyes flickered. Bess considered herself an excellent judge of emotion, and she saw grief, regret and sorrow before the eyes hardened again. “You a cop?”

Bess’s mouth fell open before she laughed. That was a good one, she thought. Sort of flattering. “No, I’m not a cop. I’m just trying to make a living. Did you know either of them? The women who were killed?”

“We don’t like questions around here.” The woman tilted her head. “If you’re trying to make a living, let’s see you do it.”

Bess felt a quick ripple of unease. Not only was the woman gorgeous, she was big. Big and suspicious. Both qualities were going to make it difficult for Bess to hang back on the fringes and observe. But she considered herself an agile thinker and a quick study. After all, she reminded herself, she’d come here tonight to do business.

“Sure.” Turning, she strutted slowly along the sidewalk. Her hips—and she didn’t for a minute believe that her butt was skinny—swayed seductively.

Maybe her throat was a little dry. Maybe her heart was pounding a bit too quickly. But Bess McNee took a great deal of pride in her work.

She spotted the two men half a block away and licked her lips. The one on the left, the dark one, looked very promising.



“Look, rookie, the idea’s to take one, maybe two.” Alex scanned the sidewalk ahead. Hookers, drunks, junkies and those unfortunate enough to have to pass through them to get home. “My snitch says that the tall black one—Rosalie—knew both the victims.”

“So why don’t we just pick her up and take her in for questioning?” Judd Malloy was anxious for action. His detective’s shield was only forty-eight hours old. And he was working with Alexi Stanislaski, a cop who had a reputation for moving quickly and getting the job done. “Better yet, why don’t we go roust her pimp?”

Rookies, Alex thought. Why were they always teaming him up with rookies? “Because we want her cooperation. We’re going to pick her up, book her for solicitation. Then we’re going to talk to her, real nice, before Bobby can come along and tell her to clam up.”

“If my wife finds out I spent the night picking up hookers—”

“A smart cop doesn’t tell his family anything they’d don’t need to know. And they don’t need to know much.” Alex’s dark brown eyes were cool, very cool, as they flicked over his new partner’s face. “Stanislaski’s rule number one.”

He spotted the blonde. She was staring at him. Alex stared back. Odd face, he thought. Sharp, sexy, despite the makeup she’d troweled on. Beneath all the gunk, her eyes were a vivid green. The face itself was all angles, some of them wrong. Her nose was slightly crooked, as if it had been broken. Some john or pimp, he figured, then skimmed his eyes down to her mouth.

Full, overfull, and a glossy red. It didn’t please him at all that he felt a reaction to it. Not knowing what she was, what she did. Her chin came to a slight point, and with her prominent cheekbones it gave her face a triangular, foxlike look.

The clinging tube top and spandex capri pants showed every inch of her curvy, athletic little body. He’d always been a sucker for the athletic type—but he reminded himself just where this particular number got her exercise.

In any case, she wasn’t the one he was looking for.

Now or never, Bess told herself, feeling her new acquaintance’s eyes on her.

“Hey, baby…” Though she hadn’t smoked since she’d been fifteen, her voice was husky. Saying a prayer to whatever gods were listening, she veered in on Alex. “Want to party?”

“Maybe.” He hooked a finger in the top of her tube, and was surprised when she flinched. “You’re not quite what I had it mind, sweetie.”

“Oh?” What next? Combining instinct with her observations, she tossed her head and leaned into him. She had the quick impression of pressing against steel—hard, unyielding and very cool. “Just what did you have in mind?”

Then, for a moment, she had nothing at all on hers. Not with the way those dark eyes cut into her, through her. His knuckles were brushing her skin, just above the breasts. She felt the heat from them, from him. As she continued to stare, she was struck by a vivid image of the two of them, rolling on a narrow bed in some dark room.

And it had nothing to do with business.

It was the first time Alex had ever seen a hooker blush. It threw him off, made him want to apologize for the fantasy that had just whipped through his brain. Then he remembered himself.

“Just a different type, babe.”

In her heels, they were eye-to-eye. It made him want to rub off the powders and paints to see what was beneath.

“I can be a different type,” Bess said, delighted with her inspired response.

“Hey, girlfriend.” Rosalie strutted over and slipped a friendly arm around Bess’s shoulders. “You’re not going to be greedy and take both of these boys, are you?”

“I—”

Pay dirt, Alex thought, and shifted his attention to Rosalie. “You two a team?”

“We are tonight.” She glanced from Alex to his partner. “How ’bout you two?”

Judd searched for his voice. He’d rather have been facing a gunman in an alley. And he simply couldn’t put his hands on this big, beautiful woman, when a picture of his wife’s trusting face was flashing in his head like a neon light.

“Sure.” He let out a long breath and tried to emulate some of Alex’s cocky confidence.

Rosalie threw back her head and laughed before she stepped forward, bumping bodies with Judd. He gave way instinctively as a dark red flush crept up his neck. “I believe you’re new at this, honey. Why don’t you let Rosalie show you the ropes?”

Because his partner seemed to have developed laryngitis, Alex took over. “How much?”

“Well…” Rosalie didn’t bother to look over at Bess, who had gone dead pale. “Special rate tonight. You get both of us for a hundred. That’s the first hour.” She leaned down and whispered something in Judd’s ear that had him babbling. “After that,” she continued, “we can negotiate.”

“I don’t—” Bess began, then felt Rosalie’s fingers dig into her bare shoulder like sharp little knives.

“I think that’ll do it,” Alex said, and pulled out his badge. “Ladies, you’re busted.”

Cops, Bess realized on a wave of sweet relief. While Rosalie expressed her opinion with a single vicious word, Bess struggled not to burst into wild laughter.



Perfect, Bess thought as she was bumped along into the squad room. She’d been arrested for solicitation, and life couldn’t be better. Trying to take everything in at once, she grinned as she scanned the station house. She’d been in one before, of course. As she always said, she took her work seriously. But not in this precinct. Not downtown.

It was dirty—grimy, really, she decided, making mental notes and muttering to herself. Floors, walls, the barred windows. Everything had a nice, picturesque coat of crud.

It smelled, too. She took a deep breath so that she wouldn’t forget the ripe stench of human sweat, bitter coffee and strong disinfectant.

And it was noisy. With every nerve on sensory alert, she separated the din into ringing phones, angry curses, weeping, and the clickety-clack of keyboards at work.

Man, oh, man, she thought. Her luck was really in.

“You’re not a tourist, sweetheart,” Alex reminded her, adding a firm nudge.

“Sorry.”

The vibrant excitement in her eyes was so out of place that he stared. Then, with a shake of his head, he jabbed a finger toward a chair. He was letting the rookie get his feet wet getting the vitals from Rosalie. Once they had her booked, he’d take over himself, using charm or threats or whatever seemed most expedient to make her talk to him about her two murdered associates.

“Okay.” He took his seat behind his battered and overcrowded desk. “You know the drill.”

She’d been staring at a young man of about twenty with a face full of bruises and a torn denim jacket. “Excuse me?”

Alex just sighed as he rolled a form onto his typewriter. “Name?”

“Oh, I’m Bess.” She held out her hand in a gesture so natural and friendly he nearly took it.

Instead, he swore softly. “Bess what?”

“McNee. And you’re?”

“In charge. Date of birth.”

“Why?”

His eyes flicked up, arrowed hers. “Why what?”

“Why do you want to know?”

Patience, never his strong suit, strained. He tapped a finger on the form. “Because I’ve got this space to fill.”

“Okay. I’m twenty-eight. A Gemini. I was born on June the first.”

Alex did the math and typed in the year. “Residence.”

Natural curiosity had her poking through the folders and papers on his desk until he slapped her hand. “You’re awfully tense,” she commented. “Is it because you work undercover?”

Damn that smile, he thought. It was sassy, sexy, and far from stupid. That, and those sharp, intelligent green eyes, might have fooled him. But she looked like a hooker, and she smelled like a hooker. Therefore…

“Listen, doll, here’s the way this works. I ask the questions, you answer them.”

“Tough, cynical, street-smart.”

One dark brow lifted. “Excuse me?”

“Just a quick personality check. You want my address, right?” she rattled off an address that made both of Alex’s brows raise.

“Let’s get serious.”

“Okay.” Willing to oblige, Bess folded her hands on the edge of his desk.

“Your address,” he repeated.

“I just gave it to you.”

“I know what real estate goes for in that area. Maybe you’re good.” Thoughtful, he scanned her attributes one more time. “Maybe you’re better than you look. But you don’t make enough working the streets to pop for that kind of rent.”

Bess knew an insult when it hit her over the head. What made it worse was that she’d spent over an hour on her makeup. And she happened to know that her body was good. Lord knew, she sweated to keep it that way by working out three days a week. “That’s where I live, cop.” Her temper, which had a habit of flaring quickly, had her upending her enormous canvas tote onto his desk.

Alex watched, fascinated, as she pawed through the pile of contents. There were enough cosmetics to supply a small department store. And they weren’t the cheap kind. Six lipsticks, two compacts, several mascara sticks and pots of eye shadow. A rainbow of eyeliner pencils. Scattered with them were two sets of keys, a snowfall of credit-card receipts, rubber bands, paper clips, twelve pens—he counted—a few broken pencils, a steno pad, two paperback books, matches, a leather address book embossed with the initials ELM, a stapler—he didn’t even pause to wonder why she would carry one—tissues and crumpled papers, a tiny micro-cassette recorder. And a gun.

He whipped it out of the pile and stared at it. A water gun.

“Careful with that,” she warned as she found her overburdened wallet. “It’s full of ammonia.”

“Ammonia?”

“I used to carry Mace, but this works fine. Here.” Pleased with herself, she pushed the open wallet under his nose.

It might have been her in the picture. The hair was short and curly and chic, a deep chestnut rather than a brassy blonde. But that nose, that chin. And those eyes. He frowned over the driver’s license. The address was right.

“You got a car?”

She shrugged and began to dump things back into her purse. “So?”

“Women in your position usually don’t.”

Because it made sense, Bess stalled. “I’ve got a license. Everybody who has a license doesn’t have to have a car, do they?”

“No.” He jerked the wallet out of her reach. “Take off the wig.”

Pouting a little, she patted it. “How come?”

He reached across the desk and yanked it off himself. She scowled at him while she ran her fingers through short, springy red curls. “I want that back. It’s borrowed.”

“Sure.” He tossed it onto his desk before he leaned back in his squeaky chair for a fresh evaluation. If this lady was a hooker, he was Clark Kent. “What the hell are you?”

It was time to come clean. She knew it. But something about him egged her on. “I’m just a woman trying to make a living, Officer.” That was how Jade would handle it, Bess was sure. And since Jade was her creation, Bess was determined to do right by her.

He opened the wallet, skimmed through the bills. She was carrying around what would be for him more than two weeks’ pay. “Right.”

“Can you do that?” she demanded, more curious than annoyed. “Go through my personal property?”

“Honey, right now you are my personal property.” There were pictures in the wallet, as well. Snapshots of people, some with her, some without her. And the lady was a card-carrying member of dozens of groups, including Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Federation, Amnesty International and the Writers’ Guild. The last brought him back to the tape recorder. When he picked up the little toy, he noted that it was running. “Let’s have it, Bess.”

God, he was cute. The thought passed through her head as she smiled at him. “Have what?”

“What were you doing hanging around with Rosalie and the rest of the girls?”

“My job.” When his eyes narrowed that way, Bess thought, he was downright irresistible. Impatient, a little mean, with a flash of recklessness just barely under control.

Fabulous.

“Really.” All honesty and cheap perfume, she leaned forward. “You see, it all has to do with Jade, and how she’s having this problem with a dual personality. By day, she’s a dedicated lawyer—a real straight arrow, you know—but by night she hits the streets. She’s blocking what happened between her and Brock, and coupled with a childhood memory that’s begun to resurface, the strain’s been too much for her. She’s on a path of self-destruction.”

The frown in his eyes turned them nearly black. “Who the hell is Jade?”

“Jade Sullivan Carstairs. Don’t you watch daytime TV?”

His head was beginning to buzz. “No.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing. You’d probably really enjoy the Jade-Storm-Brock story line. Storm’s a cop, you see, and he’s falling in love with Jade. Her emotional problems, and the hold Brock has on her, complicate things. Then there was a miscarriage, and the kidnapping. Naturally, Storm has problems of his own.”

“Naturally. What’s your point?”

“Oh, sorry. I get offtrack. I write for ‘Secret Sins’ daytime drama.”

“You’re a soap-opera writer?”

“Yeah.” Unlike many in the trade, she wasn’t bothered by that particular label. “And I like to get the feel of the situations I put my characters into. Since Jade is a special pet of mine, I—”

“Are you out of your mind?” Alex barked the question as he leaned over into her face. “Do you have any idea what you were doing?”

She blinked, at once innocent and amused. “Research?”

He swore again, and Bess found she liked the way he raked impatient fingers through his thick black hair. “Lady, just how far were you intending to take your research?”

“How—? Oh.” Her eyes brightened with laughter. “Well no, not quite that far.”

“What the hell would you have done if I hadn’t been a cop?”

“I’d have thought of something.” She continued to smile. He had a fascinating face—golden skin, dark eyes, wonderful bones. And that mouth, so beautifully sculpted, even if it did tend to scowl. “It’s my job to think of things. And when I spotted you, I thought you looked safe. What I mean is, you didn’t strike me as the kind of man who’d be interested in…” What was a delicate way of putting it? she wondered. “Paying for pleasure.”

He was so angry he wanted to yank her up and toss her over his lap. The idea of administering a few good whacks to that cute little butt was tremendously appealing. “And if you’d guessed wrong?”

“I didn’t,” she pointed out. “For a minute there, I was worried, but it all worked out. Better than I expected, really, because I had a chance to ride in a— Do you still call them paddy wagons?”

He’d been so sure he’d seen everything. Heard everything. With his temper straining at the bit, he spoke through clenched teeth. “Two hookers are dead. Two who worked that area.”

“I know,” she said quickly, as if that explained it all. “That was one of the reasons I chose it. You see, I plan to have Jade—”

“I’m talking about you,” he interrupted in a voice that had her wincing. “You. Some bubbleheaded hack writer who thinks she can strut around in spandex and a half a ton of makeup, then go home to her nice neighborhood and wash it all off.”

“Hack?” It was the only thing she took offense to. “Look, cop—”

“You look. You stay out of my territory, and out of those slut clothes. Do your research out of a book.”

Her chin shot out. “I can go where I want, wearing what I want.”

“You think so?” There was a way to teach her a lesson. A perfect way. “Fine.” He rose, tugged the tote out of her hands, then took a firm grip on her arm. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“To holding, babe. You’re under arrest, remember?”

She stumbled in the three-inch heels and squawked, “But I just explained—”

“I hear better stories before breakfast every day.”

“You’re not going to put me in a cell.” Bess was sure of it. Positive. Right up until the moment the bars closed in her face.



It took about ten minutes for the shock to wear off. When it did, Bess decided it wasn’t such a bad turn. She could be furious with the cop—whoever he was—but she could appreciate and take advantage of the unique opportunity he’d given her. She was in a holding cell with several other women. There was atmosphere to be absorbed, and there were interviews to be conducted.

When one of her cellmates informed her that she was entitled to a phone call, she demanded one. Pleased with the progress she was making, she settled back on her hard cot to talk to her new acquaintances.

It was thirty minutes later when she looked up and spotted her friend and cowriter Lori Banes, standing beside a uniformed policeman.

“Bess, you look so natural here.”

With a grin, Bess popped up as the guard unlocked the door. “It’s been great.”

“Hey!” one of her cellmates called out. “I’m telling you that Vicki’s a witch, and Jeffrey should boot her out. Amelia’s the right woman for him.”

Bess sent back a wink. “I’ll see what I can do. Bye, girls.”

Lori didn’t consider herself long-suffering. She didn’t consider herself a prude or a stuffed shirt. And she said as much to Bess as they walked through the corridors, up the stairs and back into the lobby area outside the squad room. “But,” she added, pressing fingers to her tired eyes. “There’s something that puts me off about being woken up at 2:00 a.m. to come bail you out of jail.”

“Sorry, but it’s been great. Wait until I tell you.”

“Do you know what you look like, dear?”

“Yep.” Unconcerned, Bess craned her neck. The chair behind Alex’s desk was empty. “I had no idea that so many of the working girls watched the show. But they do work nights, mostly. Uh, excuse me…” She caught the sleeve of one of New York’s finest as he walked by. “The officer who uses that desk?”

The cop swallowed the best part of a bite of his pastrami sandwich. “Stanislaski?”

“Whew. That’s a mouthful. Is he still around?”

“He’s in Interrogation.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Come on, Bess, we’ve got to pick up your things.”

Bess had signed for her purse and its contents, still keeping an eye out for Alex. “Stanislaski,” she repeated to herself. “Is that Polish, do you think?”

“How the hell do I know?” Out of patience, Lori steered her toward the door. “Let’s get out of here. The place is lousy with criminals.”

“I know. It’s fabulous.” With a laugh, she tucked an arm around Lori’s waist. “I got ideas for the next three years. If we decide to have Elana arrested for Reed’s murder…”

“I don’t know about having Reed murdered.”

With a sigh, Bess looked around for a cab. “Lori, we both know Jim isn’t going to sign another contract. He wants to try the big leagues. Having his character offed is the perfect way to beef up Elana’s story line.”

“Maybe.”

Bess slyly pulled out her ace. “‘Our Lives, Our Loves’ picked up two points in the ratings last month.”

Lori only grunted.

“Word is Dr. Amanda Jamison is going to have twins.”

“Twins?” Lori shut her eyes. Soap diva Ariel Kirkwood, who played the long-suffering psychiatrist on the competing soap, was daytime’s most popular star. “It had to be twins,” Lori muttered. “Okay, Reed dies.”

Bess allowed herself one quick victory smile, then hurried on.



“Anyway, while I was in there, I was picturing the elegant, cool Dr. Elana Warfield Stafford Carstairs in prison. Fabulous, Lori. It’d be fabulous. I wish you’d seen the cop.”

They’d walked to the corner, and there wasn’t a cab in sight. “What cop?”

“The one who arrested me. He was incredibly sexy.”

Lori only had the energy to sigh. “Leave it to you to get busted by a sexy cop.”

“Really. All this thick black hair. His eyes were nearly black, too. Very intense. He had all those hollows and planes in his face, and this beautiful mouth. Nice build, too. Sort of rough-and-ready. Like a boxer, maybe.”

“Don’t start, Bess.”

“I’m not. I can find a man sexy and attractive without falling in love.”

Lori shot her a look. “Since when?”

“Since the last time. I’ve sworn off, remember?” Her smile perked up when she spotted a cab heading their way. “I’m interested in this Stanislaski for strictly professional reasons.”

“Right.” Resigned, Lori climbed in when the cab swung to the curb.

“I swear.” She lifted her right hand to add impact to the oath. “We want to get into Storm’s head more, into his background and stuff. So I pick this cop’s brain a little.” She gave a cabbie both her address and Lori’s. “After Jade gets attacked by the Millbrook Maniac, Storm isn’t going to be able to hold back his feelings for her. More has to come out about who and what he is. If we do have Elana arrested for Reed’s murder, that’s going to complicate his life—you know, family loyalty versus professional ethics. And once he confronts Brock—”

“Hey.” At a red light, the cabbie turned, peering at them from under his fading Mets cap. “You talking about ‘Secret Sins’?”

“Yeah.” Bess brightened. “Do you watch it?”

“The wife tapes it every day. You don’t look familiar.”

“We’re not on it,” Bess explained. “We write it.”

“Gotcha.” Satisfied, he punched the accelerator when the light changed. “Let me tell you what I think about that two-timing Vicki.”

As he proceeded to do just that, Bess leaned forward, debating with him. Lori closed her eyes and tried to catch up on lost sleep.




CHAPTER TWO


“My wife went nuts.” Judd Malloy munched on his cherry Danish while Alex swung in and out of downtown traffic. “She’s a big fan of that soap, you know? Tapes it every day when she’s in school.”

“Terrific.” Alex had been doing his best to forget his little encounter with the soap queen, but his partner wasn’t cooperating.

“Holly figures it was just like meeting a celebrity.”

“You don’t find many celebrities turning tricks.”

“Come on, Alex.” Judd washed down the Danish with heavily sugared coffee. “She wasn’t, really. You said so yourself, or the charges wouldn’t have been dropped.”

“She was stupid,” Alex said between his teeth. “Carrying a damn water pistol in that suitcase of hers. I guess she figured if a john got rough, she’d blat him between the eyes and that would be that.”

Judd started to comment on how it might feel to get a blat of ammonia in the eyes, but didn’t think his partner wanted to hear it. “Well, Holly was impressed, and we got some fresh juice out of Rosalie, so we didn’t waste our time.”

“Malloy, you’d better get used to wasting time. Stanislaski’s rule number four.” Alex spotted the building he was looking for and double-parked. He was already out of the car and across the sidewalk before Judd found the NYPD sign and stuck it in the window. “We sure as hell could be wasting it here with this Domingo.”

“Rosalie said—”

“Rosalie said what we wanted to hear so we’d spring her,” Alex told him. His cop’s eyes were already studying the building, noting windows, fire escapes, roof. “Maybe she gave us the straight shot on Domingo, and maybe she pulled it out of a hat. We’ll see.”

The place was in good repair. No graffiti, no broken glass or debris. Lower-middle-income, Alex surmised. Established families, mostly blue-collar. He pulled open the heavy entrance door, then scanned the names above the line of mailboxes.

“J. Domingo. 212.” Alex pushed the buzzer for 110, waited, then hit 305. The answering buzz released the inner door. “People are so careless,” he commented. He could feel Judd’s nerves shimmering as they climbed the stairs, but he could tell he was holding it together. He’d damn well better hold it together, Alex thought as he gestured Judd into position, then knocked on the door of 212. He knocked a second time before he heard the cursing answer.

When the door opened a crack, Alex braced his body against it to keep it that way. “How’s it going, Jesús?”

“What the hell do you want?”

He fit Rosalie’s description, Alex noted. Right down to the natty Clark Gable moustache and the gold incisor. “Conversation, Jesús. Just a little conversation.”

“I don’t talk to nobody at this hour.”

When he tried to shove the door to, Alex merely leaned on it and flipped open his badge. “You don’t want to be rude, do you? Why don’t you ask us in?”

Swearing in Spanish, Jesús Domingo cracked the door a little wider. “You got a warrant?”

“I can get one, if you want more than conversation. I can take you down for questioning, get the paperwork and do the job before your shyster lawyer can tap-dance you out. Want a team of badges in here, Jesús?”

“I haven’t done nothing.” He stepped back from the door, a small man with wiry muscles who was wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts.

“Nobody said you did. Did I say he did, Malloy?”

Enjoying himself, Judd stepped in behind Alex. “Nope.”

The building might be lower-middle-class, but Domingo’s apartment was a small high-tech palace. State-of-the-art stereo equipment, Alex noted. A big-screen TV with some very classy video toys. The wall of tapes ran mostly to the X-rated.

“Nice place,” Alex commented. “You sure know how to make your unemployment check stretch.”

“I got a good head for figures.” Domingo plucked up a pack of cigarettes from a table, lighted one. “So?”

“So, let’s talk about Angie Horowitz.”

Domingo blew out smoke and scratched at the hair on his chest. “Never heard of her.”

“Funny, we got word you were one of her regulars, and her main supplier.”

“You got the wrong word.”

“Maybe you don’t recognize the name.” Alex reached into his inside jacket pocket, and his fingers brushed over his leather shoulder harness as he pulled out a manila envelope. “Why don’t you take a look?” He stuck the police shot under Domingo’s nose and watched his olive complexion go a sickly gray. “Look familiar?”

“Man.” Domingo’s fingers shook as he brought his cigarette to his lips.

“Problem?” Alex glanced down at the photo himself. There hadn’t been much left of Angie for the camera. “Oh, hey, sorry about that, Jesús. Malloy, didn’t I tell you not to put the dead shot in?”

Judd shrugged, feigning casualness. He was thinking he was glad he didn’t have to look at it again himself. “Guess I made a mistake.”

“Yeah.” All the while he spoke, Alex held the photo where Domingo could see it. “Guy’s a rookie,” he explained. “Always screwing up. You know. Poor little Angie sure got sliced, didn’t she? Coroner said the guy put about forty holes in her. You can see most of them. Poor Malloy here took one look and lost his breakfast. I keep telling him not to eat those damned greasy Danishes before we go check out a stiff, but like I said…” Alex grinned to himself as Domingo made a dash for the bathroom.

“That was cold, Stanislaski,” Judd said, grinning.

“Yeah, I’m that kind of guy.”

“And I didn’t throw up my breakfast.”

“You wanted to.” The sounds coming from the bathroom were as unpleasant as they get. Alex tapped on the door. “Hey, Jesús, you okay, man? I’m really sorry about that.” He passed the photo and envelope to Judd. “Tell you what, let me get you some nice cold water, okay?”

The answer was a muffled retch that Alex figured anyone could take for assent. He moved into the kitchen and opened the freezer. The two kilos were exactly where Rosalie had said he’d find them. He took one out just as Domingo rushed in.

“You got no warrant. You got no right.”

“I was getting you some ice.” Alex turned the frozen cocaine over in his hands. “This doesn’t look like a TV dinner to me. What do you think, Malloy?”

By leaning a shoulder against the door jamb, Judd blocked the doorway. “Not the kind my mother used to make.”

“You son of a bitch.” Domingo wiped his mouth with a clenched fist. “You violated my civil rights. I’ll be out before you can blink.”

“Could be.” Taking an evidence bag out of his pocket, Alex slipped both kilos inside. “Malloy, why don’t you read our friend his rights while he’s getting dressed? And, Jesús, try some mouthwash.”



“Stanislaski,” the desk sergeant called out when Alex came up from seeing Domingo into a cell. “You got company.”

Alex glanced over toward his desk, seeing that several cops were huddled around it. There was quite a bit of laughter overriding the usual squad room noise. Curiosity had him moving forward even before he saw the legs. Legs he recognized. They were crossed at the knee and covered almost modestly in a canary-yellow skirt.

He recognized the rest of her, too, though the tough little body was clad in a multihued striped blazer and a scoop-necked blouse the same color as the skirt. Half a dozen slim columns of gold danced at her ears as she laughed. She looked better, sexier, he was forced to admit, with her mouth unpainted, her freckles showing, and those big green eyes subtly smudged with color. Her hair was artfully tousled, a rich, deep red that made him think of a mahogany statue his brother had carved for him.

“So I told the mayor we’d try to work it in, and we’d love for him to come on the show and do a cameo.” She shifted on the desk and spotted Alex. He was frowning at her, his thumbs tucked into the pockets of a leather bomber jacket. “Officer Stanislaski.”

“McNee.” He inclined his head, then swept his gaze over his fellow officers. “The boss comes in and finds you here, I might have to tell him how you didn’t have enough work and volunteered to take some of mine.”

“Just entertaining your guest, Stanislaski.” But the use of the squad room’s nickname for their captain had the men drifting reluctantly away.

“What can I do for you?”

“Well, I—”

“You’re sitting on a homicide,” he told her.

“Oh.” She scooted off the desk. Without the stilettos, she was half a head shorter than he. Alex discovered he preferred it that way. “Sorry. I came by to thank you for straightening things out for me.”

“That’s what they pay me for. Straightening things out.” He’d been certain she would rave a bit about being tossed into a cell, but she was smiling, friendly as a kindergarten teacher. Though he couldn’t recall ever having a teacher who looked like her. Or smelled like her.

“Regardless, I appreciate it. My producer’s very tolerant, but if it had gone much further, she would have been annoyed.”

“Annoyed?” Alex repeated. He stripped off his jacket and tossed it onto his chair. “She’d have been annoyed to find out that one of her writers was out soliciting johns down at Twenty-third and Eleventh Avenue.”

“Researching,” Bess corrected, unoffended. “Darla—that’s my producer—she gets these headaches. I gave her a whopper when I went on a job with a cat burglar.”

“With a…” He let his words trail off and eased down on the spot on the desk she’d just vacated. “I don’t think you want to tell me about that.”

“Actually, he was a former cat burglar. Fascinating guy. I just had him show me how he’d break into my apartment.” She frowned a little, remembering. “I guess he was a little rusty. The alarm—”

“Don’t.” Alex held up a hand. He was beginning to feel a headache coming on himself.

“That’s old news, anyway.” She waved it away with a cheerful gesture of her hands. “Do you have a first name, or do I just call you Officer?”

“It’s Detective.”

“Your first name is Detective?”

“No, my rank.” He let out a sigh. “Alex.”

“Alex. That’s nice.” She ran a fingertip over the strap of his harness. She wasn’t being provocative; she wanted to know what it felt like. Once she knew him better, she was sure, she’d talk him into letting her try it on. “Well, Alex, I was wondering if you’d let me use you.”

He’d been a cop for more than five years, and until this moment he hadn’t thought anything could surprise him. But it took him three seconds to close his mouth. “I beg your pardon?”

“It’s just that you’re so perfect.” She stepped closer. She really wanted to get a better look at his weapon—without being obvious about it.

She smelled like sunshine and sex. As he drew it in, Alex thought that combination would baffle any man. “I’m perfect?”

“Absolutely.” She looked straight into his eyes and smiled. Her gaze was frank and assessing. She was studying him, the way a woman might study a dress in a showroom window. “You’re exactly what I’ve been looking for.”

Her eyes were pure green. No hint of gray or blue, no flecks of gold. There was a small dimple near her mouth. Only one. Nothing about that odd, sexy face was balanced. “What you’re looking for?”

“I know you’re busy, but I’d try not to take up too much of your time. An hour now and then.”

“An hour?” He caught himself echoing her, and shook himself loose. “Listen, I appreciate—”

“You’re not married, are you?”

“Married? No, but—”

“That makes it simpler. It just came to me last night when I was getting into bed.”

God. He’d learned to appreciate women early. And he’d learned to juggle them skillfully—if he said so himself. He knew how to dodge, when to evade and when to sit back and enjoy. But with this one, all bets were off.

“Is this heavy?” she asked, fiddling with his harness.

“You get used to it. It’s just there.”

Her smile warmed, making him think of sunlight again. “Perfect,” she murmured. “I’d be willing to compensate you for your time, and your expertise.”

“You’d be—” He wasn’t certain if he was insulted or embarrassed. “Hold on, babe.”

“Just think about it,” Bess said quickly. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but I have this problem with Matthew.”

A brand-new emotion snuck in under his guard, and it was as green as her eyes. “Matthew? Who the hell is Matthew?”

“We call him Storm, actually. Lieutenant Storm Warfield, Millbrook PD.”

Now he definitely had a headache. Alex rubbed his fingers against his temple. “Millbrook?”

“The fictional town of Millbrook, where the show’s set. It’s supposed to be somewhere in the Midwest. Storm’s a cop. Personally, his life’s a mess, but professionally, he’s focused and intense and occasionally ruthless. In this new story line I’m working on, I want to concentrate on his police work, the routine, the frustrations.”

“Wait.” He’d always been quick, but it was taking him a minute to change gears. “You want me to help you with a story line?”

“Exactly. If you could just tell me how you think, how you go about solving a case, working with the system or around it. TV cops have to work around the system quite a bit, you know. It plays better than by-the-book.”

He swore under his breath and rubbed his hands over his face. Damn it, his palms were sweaty. “You’re a real case, McNee.”

“You don’t have to decide right now.” She was also persistent. And she wondered if he had a spare gun strapped to his calf. One of those sexy-looking little chrome jobs. She’d seen that ploy in several movies. Still, she thought if she asked him that, she’d lose her edge. “I’m having a thing tonight.” As she spoke, she dug into her huge bag for her notebook. “Eight o’clock until whenever. Bring a friend, if you like. Your partner, too. He seemed very sweet.”

“He’s adorable.”

“Yeah.” She ripped off the page and handed it to him. “I’d really like you to stop by.”

He took the sheet, not bothering to remind her he already had her address. “Why?”

“Why not?” She beamed at him again.

Before he could list the reasons, he heard his name called.

“Alexi.”

Alexi. Bess was already enchanted with the sound as she rolled the name over in her head. Different, exotic. Sexy. She was certain it suited him much more than the casual Alex.

Bess studied the woman bearing down on them. This wasn’t one who’d be lost in a crowd, she mused. She was stunning, totally self-assured and very pregnant. Beside Bess, Alex pushed off the desk and sighed.

“Rachel.”

“A moment of your time, Detective,” Rachel said, flipping a glance over Bess before pinning Alex with a tawny stare. “To reacquaint you with civil rights.”

“Your sister?” Bess surmised, beaming at both of them.

Alex sent her a considering frown. “How did you know that?”

“I’m really good with faces. Same bone structure, same coloring, same mouth. You have to be brother and sister, or first cousins.”

“Guilty,” Rachel admitted. Though she would have liked to know what Alex was doing with the sharp-eyed redhead, she wasn’t about to be swayed from her duties as a public defender. “Jesús Domingo, Alexi. Illegal search and seizure.”

“Bull.” Alex crossed his arms and leaned back against the desk.

“You had a search warrant?”

“Didn’t need one. He invited us in.”

“And invited you to poke through his belongings, I suppose.”

“Nope.” Alex grinned while Bess watched them bounce the verbal ball as though they were champion tennis players. “Jesús got sick. I offered to get him some water. He didn’t object. I opened the freezer to get the poor guy some ice, and there it was. Two kilos. It’ll all be in my report.”

“That’s lame, Alexi. You’ll never get a conviction.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Talk to the DA.”

“I intend to.” Rachel shifted her briefcase and began to rub her belly in circular motions to soothe the baby, who seemed to be doing aerobics in her womb. “You had no probable cause.”

“Sit down.”

“I don’t want to sit down.”

“The baby does.” He yanked over a chair and all but shoved her into it. “When are you going to knock this off?”

It did feel better to sit. Indescribably better. But she wasn’t about to admit it. “The baby’s not due for two months. I have plenty of time. We were discussing…”

“Rach.” He laid a hand on her cheek, very gently. A shouted curse wouldn’t have stopped her, but the small gesture did. “Don’t make me worry about you.”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“I’m having a baby. It’s not contagious. Now, about Domingo.”

Alex gave a brief, pithy opinion on what could be done with Domingo. “Talk to the DA,” he repeated. “Sitting down.”

“She looks pretty strong to me,” Bess commented. Two pair of eyes turned to her, one furious, the other thoughtful.

“Thank you. The men in my life are coddlers,” Rachel explained. “Sweet, but annoying.”

“Muldoon should take better care of you,” Alex insisted.

“I don’t need Zack to take care of me. And the fact is, between him and Nick, I’m barely allowed to brush my own teeth.” She held out a hand to Bess. “Since my brother is too rude to introduce me, I’m Rachel Muldoon.”

“Bess McNee. You’re a lawyer?”

“That’s right. I work for the public defender’s office.”

“Really?” Bess’s thoughts began to perk. “What’s it like to—”

Alex held up a hand. “Don’t get her started. She’ll pick your brain clean before you know she’s had her fingers in it. Look, McNee—” he turned to Bess, determined not to be charmed by her easy smile “—we’re a little busy here.”

“Of course you are. I’m sorry.” Obligingly she swung her huge purse on to her shoulder. “We’ll talk tonight. Nice to meet you, Rachel.”

“Same here.” Rachel ran her tongue over her teeth, and both she and Alex watched Bess weave her way out of the squad room. “Well, that was rude.”

“It’s the only way to handle her. Believe me.”

“Hmm… She seems like an interesting woman. How did you meet her?”

“Don’t ask.” He sat back down on his desk, irked that the scent of sunshine and sex still lingered in the air.



“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Holly, Judd’s pretty wife of eight months, was all but hopping out of her party shoes. “Wait until I tell everyone in the teachers’ lounge where I spent the evening.”

“Take it easy, honey.” Judd tugged at the tie she’d insisted he wear. “It’s just a party.”

“Just a party?” As the elevator rode up, she fussed with her honey-brown hair. “I don’t know about you two, but it isn’t every day I get to eat canapés with celebrities.”

Ominously silent, Alex stayed hunched in his leather jacket. He didn’t know what the hell he was doing here. His first mistake had been mentioning the invitation to Judd. No matter how insouciant Judd pretended to be, he’d been bursting at the seams when he called his wife. Alex had been swept along in their enthusiasm.

But he wasn’t going to stay. Holly’s sense of decorum might have insisted that she and Judd couldn’t attend without him, but he’d already decided just how he’d play it. He’d go in, maybe have a beer and a couple of crackers. Then he’d slip out again. He’d be damned if he’d spend this rare free evening playing soap-opera groupie.

“Oh, my” was all Holly could say when the elevator doors opened.

The walls of the private foyer were splashed with a mural of the city. Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Harlem, Little Italy, Broadway. People seemed to be rushing along the walls, just as they did the streets below. It was as if the woman who lived here didn’t want to miss one moment of the action.

The wide door to the main apartment was open, and music, laughter and conversation were pouring out, along with the scents of hot food and burning candles.

“Oh, my,” Holly said again, dragging her husband along as she stepped inside.

From behind them, Alex scanned the room. It was huge, and it was packed with people. Draped in silk or cotton, clad in business suits and lush gowns, they stood elbow to elbow on the hardwood floor, lounged hip to hip on the sapphire cushions of the enormous circular conversation pit, sat knee to knee on the steps of a bronze circular staircase that led to an open loft where still more people leaned against a railing decked with naked cherubs.

Two huge windows let the lights of the city in. More partygoers sat on the pillow-plumped window seats, balancing plates and glasses on their laps.

Paintings were scattered over the ivory-toned walls. Vivid, frenetic modern art, mind-bending surrealism. There was enough color to make his head swim. Yet, through the crowd and the clashing tones, he saw her. Dancing seductively with a distinguished-looking man in a gray pin-striped suit.

She wore an excuse for a dress, the color of crushed purple grapes. He wondered, irritated, if she owned anything that covered those legs. This number certainly didn’t. Nor did it cover much territory at all, the way it dipped to the waist in the back, skimmed above mid-thigh and left her shoulders bare, but for skinny, glittery straps. Multihued gemstones fell in a rope from her earlobes to those nicely sloped shoulders. Her feet were bare.

She looked, Alex thought as his stomach muscles twisted themselves into nasty knots, outrageously alluring.

“Oh, Lord, there’s Jade. Oh, and Storm and Vicki. Dr. Carstairs, too.” Holly’s fingers dug into her husband’s arm. “It’s Amelia.”

“Who?”

“‘Secret Sins,’ dummy.” She gave Judd a playful punch. “The whole cast’s here.”

“That’s not all.” Because he remembered in time he was supposed to be jaded, Judd stopped himself from pointing and inclined his head. “That’s Lawrence D. Strater dancing with our hostess. The L.D. Strater, of Strater Industries. The Fortune 500’s darling. The mayor’s over in that corner, talking with Hannah Loy, the grand old lady of Broadway.” His excitement began to hum in his voice as he continued to scan the room. “Man, there are enough luminaries in this room to light every borough in New York.”

But Alex hadn’t noticed. Furthermore, he didn’t give a damn. His attention was focused on Bess. She’d stopped dancing, and had leaned up to whisper something in her partner’s ear that made him laugh before he kissed her. Smack on the lips.

She kissed him back, too, her hands lightly intimate at his waist, before she turned and spotted the new arrivals. She waved, made her excuses, then scooted and dodged her way through the crowd toward them.

“You made it.” She gave both Alex and Judd a friendly peck on the cheek before holding out both hands to Holly. “Nice to meet you.”

“My wife, Holly, this is Bess McNee.”

“Thanks for as king us.” Holly caught herself starting to stutter, as she had the first time she faced a classroom of ten-year-olds. She flushed.

“My pleasure.” Bess gave her hands a reassuring squeeze. “Let’s get you something to eat and drink.” She gestured toward a long table by the wall. Instead of the useless finger food and fancy, unrecognizable dishes Alex had expected, it was laden with big pots of spaghetti, mountains of garlic bread, and generous trays of antipasti.

“It’s Italian night,” she explained, grabbing a plate and heaping it high. “There’s plenty of wine and beer, and a full bar.” She handed the plate to Holly and began to dish up another. “The desserts are on the other side of the room. They’re unbelievable.” As she passed Judd a plate, she noted the gleam in Holly’s eyes. “Would you like to meet some of the cast?”

“Oh, I…” The hell with sophistication. “Yes. I’d love it.”

“Great. Excuse us. Help yourself, Alexi.”

“This is really something,” Judd said over a mouthful of spaghetti.

“Something,” Alex agreed. Deciding to make the best of it, he fixed himself a plate.

He wasn’t going to stay. But the food was great. In any case, he didn’t have anything else to do. It didn’t hurt to hang around and rub elbows with the fast and famous while he was helping himself to a good hot meal. It certainly made a change from his daily routine of wading through misery and bitterness.

After washing down spaghetti with some good red wine, he found himself a spot on a window seat where he could sit back and watch the show.

Bess dropped down beside him, clinked her glass against his. “Best seat in the house.”

“Some house.”

“Yeah, I like it. I’ll show you the rest later, if you want.” She broke off a tiny piece of the pastry on his plate and sampled it. “Great stuff.”

“Yeah. You got a little…here.” Before his good sense could take over, he rubbed a bit of the rich cream from her lip. Watching her, he licked it from the pad of his thumb. And tasted her. “It’s not bad.”

For a moment she wondered if the circuits in her brain had crossed. Something certainly had sent out a spark. She managed a small sound of agreement as she flicked her tongue to the corner of her mouth. And tasted him.

“Your, ah, partner’s wife. Holly.” Small talk, any talk, had always come easily to her. She wasn’t sure why she was laboring now.

“What about her?”

“Who? Oh, right. Holly. She’s nice. I can’t imagine what it would be like to teach fifth-graders.”

“I’m sure you’ll ask her.”

“I already did.” At ease again, she smiled at him. Something about that sarcastic edge to his voice made her relax and enjoy. “Come on, Alexi. We may be in different professions, but both of them require a certain amount of curiosity about human nature. Aren’t you sitting here right now wondering about all of these people, and what they’re doing at my party?”

“Not as much as I’m wondering what I’m doing at your party.” He swirled the wine in his glass before sipping. When he drank, his eyes stayed on hers. Watchful.

She liked that. She liked that very much, the way he could sit so still, energy humming from every pore, while he watched. While he waited. Bess was willing to admit that one of her biggest failings was being unable to wait for anything.

“You were curious,” she told him.

“Some.”

Her skirt hitched up another inch when she curled her legs up on the seat. “I’d be happy to tell you whatever you want to know, in exchange for your help. You see that guy over there, the gorgeous one with the blonde hanging on his biceps?”

Alex scanned, homed in. “Yeah. I wouldn’t say he was gorgeous.”

“You’re not a woman. That’s my detective, Storm Warfield, the black sheep of the snooty, disgustingly rich Warfield clan, the rebel, the volatile brother of the long-suffering Elana Warfield Stafford Car-stairs. He’s recently pulled himself out of the destructive affair with the wicked, wily Vicki. The blonde crawling up his chest. They’re an item off-camera, but on, Storm is madly in love with the tragedy-prone and ethereal Jade, who is, of course, torn between her feelings for him and her misplaced loyalty to the maniacally clever and dastardly Brock Carstairs—half brother to Elana’s stalwart husband Dr. Maxwell Carstairs. Max was once married to Jade’s formerly conniving but now repentant sister, Flame, who was killed in a Peruvian earthquake soon after the birth of her son—who may or may not be her husband’s child. Naturally, the body was never recovered.”

“Either I’ve had too much wine, or you’re making me dizzy.”

Bess smiled and gave him a companionable pat on the thigh that sent his blood pressure soaring. “It’s really not that complicated, once you know the players. But I want you for Storm.”

Alex sent the actor a considering look. “I don’t think he’s my type.”

“Your professional expertise, Detective. I need an informal technical advisor. My producer’d be happy to compensate you for your time—particularly since we’ve been number one in the ratings for the past nine months.” Someone called her name, and Bess sent a quick wave. “Looks like it’s going to start to thin out. Listen, can you hang around until I’ve finished playing hostess?”

She popped up and was gone before he could answer. After a moment, Alex set the rest of the dessert aside and rose. If he was going to see the party through, he might as well enjoy himself.

As she saw to the rest of her guests, Bess kept an eye on him. Once he decided to relax, she noted, he made the most of it. It didn’t surprise her that he knew how to flirt, or that several women in the room made a point of wandering in his direction. Not even Lori—no pushover in the men department—was unaffected.

“So, that’s the one who busted you?” Lori asked her, popping a plump olive into her mouth.

“What do you think?”

Lori chewed, savored, swallowed. “Yum-yum.”

With a laugh, Bess chose a wedge of cheese. “I assume that’s a comment on the man, not my buffet.”

“You bet. And the best part is, he’s not an actor.”

“Still sore?” Bess murmured.

Lori shrugged, but her gaze cut over to Steven Marshall, alias Brock Carstairs. “I never give him, or his weenie little brain, a thought. No sensible woman would spend her life competing with an actor’s ego for attention.”

“Sense has nothing to do with it.”

Lori looked away, because it hurt, more than she could bear to admit, to watch Steven while he was so busy ignoring her. “This from the queen of the bungled relationships.”

“I don’t bungle them, I enjoy them.”

“I hasten to remind you that two of your former fiancés are in this room.”

“It’s a big party. Besides, I wasn’t engaged to Lawrence.”

“He gave you a ring with a rock the size of a Buick.”

“A token of his esteem,” Bess said blithely. “I never agreed to marry him. And Charlie and I…” She waved to Charles Stutman, esteemed playwright. “We were only engaged for a few months. We both agreed Gabrielle was perfect for him and parted the closest of friends.”

“It was the first time I’d heard of a woman being best man at her former fiancé’s wedding,” Lori admitted. “I don’t know how you do it. You don’t angst over men, and they never toss blame your way when things fall apart.”

“Because I end up being a pal.” Bess’s lips curved. For the briefest of moments, there was something wistful in the smile. “Not always a position a woman craves, but it seems to suit me.”

“Going to be pals with the cop?”

Once again Bess found herself searching the remaining guests for Alex. She found him, dancing slow and close with a sultry brunette. “It would help if he’d bring himself to like me a little. I think it’s going to take some work.”

“I’ve never known you to fail. I’ve got to go. See you Monday.”

“Okay.” Bess was astute enough to glance over in Steven’s direction as Lori left. She was also clear-sighted enough to see the expression of misery in his eyes as he watched Lori walk to the elevator.

People were much too hard on themselves, she thought with a sigh. Love, she was certain, was a complicated and painful process only if you wanted it to be. And she should know, she mused as she took another sip of wine. She had slipped painlessly in and out of love for years.

As she set the glass aside, Alex caught her eye. There was a quick, surprising tremor around her heart. But it was gone quickly as someone swept her up into a dance.




CHAPTER THREE


“How often do you have one of these things?” Alex asked when he took Bess up on her offer of a last cup of cappuccino in her now empty and horribly cluttered apartment.

“Oh, when the mood strikes.” The after-party wreckage didn’t concern her. She and the cleaning team she’d hired would shovel it out sooner or later. Besides, she enjoyed this—the mess and debris, the spilled wine, the lingering scents. It was a testament to the fact that she, and a good many others, had enjoyed themselves.

“Want some cold spaghetti?” she asked him.

“No.”

“I do.” She unfolded herself from the corner section of the pit and wandered over to the buffet. “I didn’t get a chance to eat much earlier—just what I could steal off other people’s plates.” She came back to stretch out on the cushions and twine pasta on her fork. “What did you think of Bonnie?”

“Who?”

“Bonnie. The brunette you were dancing with. The one who stuck her phone number in your pocket.”

Remembering, Alex patted his shirt pocket. “Right. Bonnie. Very nice.”

“Mmm…she is.” As she agreed, Bess twined more pasta. She propped her feet on the coffee table, where they continued to keep the beat of the low-volume rock playing on the stereo. “I appreciate your staying.”

“I’ve got some time.”

“I still appreciate it. Let me run this by you, okay?” She continued to eat, rapidly working her way through a large plate full of food. “Jade’s got a split personality due to an early-childhood trauma, which I won’t go into.”

“Thank God.”

“Don’t be snide—millions of viewers are panting for more. Anyway, Jade’s alter ego, Josie, is the hooker—or will be, once we start taping that story line. Storm’s nuts about Jade. It’s difficult for him, as he’s a very passionate sort of guy, and she’s fragile at the moment.”

“Because of Brock.”

“You catch on. Anyway, he’s wildly in love and miserably frustrated, and he’s got a hot case to solve. The Millbrook Maniac.”

“The—” Alex shut his eyes. “Oh, man.”

“Hey, the press is always giving psychotics catchy little labels. Anyway, the Maniac’s going around strangling women with a pink silk scarf. It’s symbolic, but we won’t get into that right now, either.”

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

She offered him a forkful of cold pasta. After a moment, he gave in and leaned closer to take it. “Now, the press is going to start hounding Storm,” Bess continued. “And the brass will be on his case, too. His emotional life is a wreck. How does he separate it? How does he go about establishing a connection between the three—so far—victims? And when he realizes Jade may be in danger, how does he keep his personal feelings from clouding his professional judgement?”

“That’s the kind of stuff you want?”

“For a start.”

“Okay.” He propped his feet beside hers. “First, you don’t separate, not like you mean. The minute you have to think like a cop, that’s what you are, that’s how you think, and you’ve got no personal life until you can stop thinking like a cop again.”

“Wait.” Bess shoved the plate into his lap, then bounded up and hunted through a drawer until she came up with a notebook. She dropped onto the sofa again, curling up her legs this time, so that her knee lay against the side of his thigh. “Okay,” she said, scribbling. “You’re telling me that when you start on a case, or get a call or whatever, everything else just clicks off.”

Since she seemed to be through eating, he set the plate on the coffee table. “It better click off.”

“How?”

He shook his head. “There is no how. It just is. Look, cop work is mostly monotonous. It’s routine, but it’s the kind of routine you have to keep focused on. Make a mistake in the paperwork, and some slime gets bounced on a technicality.”

“What about when you’re on the street?”

“That’s a routine, too, and you’d better keep your head on that routine, if you want to go home in one piece. You can’t start thinking about the fight you had with your woman, or the bills you can’t pay, or the fact that your mother’s sick. You think about now, right now, or you won’t be able to fix any of those things later. You’ll just be dead.”

Her eyes flashed up to his. He said it so matter-of-factly. When she studied him, she saw that he thought of it that way. “What about fear?”

“You usually have about ten seconds to be afraid. So you take them.”

“But what if the fear’s for someone else? Someone you love?”

“Then you’d better put it aside and do what you’ve been trained to do. If you don’t, you’re no good to yourself or your partner, and you’re a liability.”

“So, it’s cut-and-dried?”

He smiled a little. “Except on TV. You’re asking me for feelings, McNee, intangibles.”

“A cop’s feelings,” she told him. “I’d think they would be very tangible. Maybe a cop wouldn’t be allowed to show his emotions on the job. An occasional flare-up, maybe, but then you’d have to suck it in and follow routine. And no matter how good you are, an arrest isn’t always going to stick. The bad guy isn’t always going to pay. That has to cause immeasurable frustration. And repressing that frustration…” Considering, she tapped her pencil against the pad. “See, I think of people as pressure cookers.”

“Sure you do.”

“No, really.” That quick smile, the flash of the single dimple. “Whatever’s inside, good or bad, has to have some means of release, or the lids blows.” She shifted again, and her fingers nearly brushed his neck. She talked with them, he’d noted. With her hands, her eyes, her whole body. The woman simply didn’t know how to be still. “What do you use to keep the lid on, Alexi?”

“I make sure I kick a couple of small dogs every morning.”

She smiled with entirely too much understanding. “Too personal? Okay, we’ll come back to it later.”

“It’s not personal.” Damn it, she made him uncomfortable. As if he had an itch in the small of his back that he couldn’t quite scratch. “I use the gym. Beat the crap out of a punching bag a few days a week. Lift too many weights. Sweat it out.”

“That’s great. Perfect.” Grinning now, she cupped a hand over his biceps and squeezed. “Not too shabby. I guess it works.” She flexed her own arm, inviting him to test the muscle. It was the gesture of a small boy on a playground, but Alex couldn’t quite think of her that way. “I work out myself,” she told him. “I’m addicted to it. But I can’t seem to develop any upper-body strength.”

He watched her eyes as he curled a hand over her arm and found a tough little muscle. “Your upper body looks fine.”

“A compliment.” Surprised that a reaction had leapt straight into her gut at the casual touch, she started to move her arm. He held on. It took some work to keep her smile from faltering. “What? You want to arm-wrestle, Detective?”

Her skin was like rose petals—smooth, fragrant. Experimenting, he skimmed his hand down to the curve of her elbow. She was smiling, he noted, and her eyes were lit with humor, but her pulse was racing. “A few years back I arm-wrestled my brother for his wife. I lost.”

The idea was just absurd enough to catch her imagination. “Really? Is that how the Stanislaskis win their women?”

“Whatever works.” Because he was tempted to explore more of that silky, exposed skin, he rose. He reminded himself that the uncomplicated Bonnie was more his style than the overinquisitive, oddly packaged Bess McNee. “I have to go.”

Whatever had been humming between them was fading now. As Bess walked him to the door, she debated with herself whether she wanted to let those echoes fade or pump up the volume until she recognized the tune. “Stanislaski. Is that Polish, Russian, what?”

“We’re Ukrainian.”

“Ukrainian?” Intrigued, she watched him pull his jacket on. “From the southwest of the European Soviet Union, with the Carpathian Mountains in the west.”

“Yeah.” And through those mountains his family had escaped when he was no more than a baby. He felt a tug, a small one, as he often did when he thought of the country of his blood. “You’ve been there?”

“Only in spirit.” Smiling, she straightened his jacket for him. “I minored in geography in college. I like reading about exotic places.” She kept her hands on the front of his jacket, enjoying the feel of leather, the scent of it, and of him. Their bodies were close, more casual than intimate, but close. Looking into his eyes, those dark, uncannily focused eyes, she discovered she wanted to hear that tune again after all.

“Are you going to talk to me again?” she asked him.

His fingers itched to roam along that tantalizingly bare skin on her back. For reasons he couldn’t have named, he kept his hands at his sides. “You know where to find me. If I’ve got the time and the answers, we’ll talk.”

“Thanks.” Her lips curved as she rose on her toes so that their eyes and mouths were level. She leaned in slowly, an inch, then two, to touch her mouth to his. The kiss was soft and breezy. Either of his sisters might have said goodbye to him in precisely the same manner. But that cool and fleeting taste of her didn’t make him feel brotherly.

She heard the humming in her head. A nice, quiet sound of easy pleasure. He tasted faintly of wine and spices, and his firm lips seemed to accept the gesture as it was meant—as one of affection and curiosity. Her lips were still curved when she dropped back on her heels.

“Good night, Alexi.”

He nodded. He was fairly sure he could speak, but there was no point in taking the chance. Turning, he walked into the foyer and punched the elevator button. When he glanced back, she was still standing in the doorway. Smiling, she waved another goodbye and started to close the door.

It surprised them both when he whirled around and slapped a hand on it to keep it open. The fact that she took an automatic step in retreat surprised her further. But it was the look in his eyes, she thought, that made her feel like a rabbit caught in a rifle’s cross hairs.

“Did you forget something?”

“Yeah.” Very slowly, very deliberately, he slid his arms around her waist, ran his hand up her back, so that her eyes widened and her skin shivered. “I forgot I like to make my own moves.”

Bess braced for the kind of wild assault that was in his eyes, and was surprised for the third time in as many minutes. He didn’t swoop or crush, but eased her closer, degree by degree, until she was molded to him. His fingers cruised lazily up her back until they reached the nape of her neck, where they cupped and held. Still his mouth hovered above her.

His hand moved low, intimately, where skin gave way to silk. “Stand on your toes,” he murmured.

“What?”

“Stand on your toes.” This time, it was his lips that curved.

Dazed, she obeyed, then gave a strangled gasp when he increased the pressure on her back and pressed them center to center. His eyes stayed open as he moved his mouth to hers, brushing, nipping, then taking, in a dreamy kind of possession that had her own vision blurring.

The humming in her brain increased until it was a wall of sound, unrecognizable. She was deaf to everything else, even her own throaty moan as he dipped his tongue between her lips to seduce hers.

It was all slow-motion and soft-focus, but that didn’t stop the heat from building. She could feel the little flames start to flare where she was pressed most intimately against him, then spread long, patient fingers of fire outward. Everywhere.

He never pushed, he never pressured, he savored, as a man might who had enjoyed a satisfying meal and was content to linger over a tasty dessert. Even knowing she was being sampled, tested, lazily consumed, she couldn’t protest. For the first time in her life, Bess understood what it was to be helplessly seduced.

He hadn’t meant to do this. He’d been thinking about doing just this for hours. However much pleasure it gave him to feel her curvy body melt against his, to hear those small, vulnerable sounds vibrating in her throat, to taste that dizzy passion on her lips, he knew he’d made a mistake.

She wasn’t his type. And he was going to want more.

The instinct he’d been born with and then honed during his years on the force helped him to hold back that part of himself that, if let loose, could turn the evening into a disaster for both of them. Still, he lingered another moment, taking himself to the edge. When his system was churning with her, and his mind was clouded with visions of peeling her out of that swatch of a dress, he stepped back. He supported her by the elbows until her eyes fluttered open.

They were big and dazed. He clenched his teeth to fight back the urge to pull her to him again and finish what he’d started. But, however stunned and fragile she looked at the moment, Alex recognized a dangerous woman. He’d been a cop long enough to know when to face danger, and when to avoid it.

“You, ah…” Where was all her glib repartee? Bess wondered. It was a little difficult to think when she wasn’t sure her head was still on her shoulders. “Well,” she managed, and settled for that.

“Well.” He let her go and added a cocky grin before he walked back to the elevator. Though his stance was relaxed, he was praying the elevator would come quickly, before he lost it and crawled back to her door. She was still there when the elevator rumbled open. Alex let out a quiet, relieved breath as he stepped inside and leaned against the back wall. “See you around, McNee,” he said as the doors slid shut.

“Yeah.” She stared at the mural-covered walls. “See you around.”



“Holly hasn’t been able to stop talking about that party.” Judd was scarfing down a blueberry muffin as Alex cruised Broadway. “It made her queen of the teachers’ lounge.”

“I bet.” Alex didn’t want to think about Bess’s party. He especially didn’t want to think about what would be after the party. Work was what he needed to concentrate on, and right now work meant following up on the few slim leads they’d hassled out of Domingo.

“If Domingo’s given it to us straight, Angie Horowitz was excited about a new john.” Alex tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “He’d hired her two Wednesdays running, dressed good, tipped big.”

Judd nodded as he brushed muffin crumbs from his shirt. “And she was killed on a Wednesday. So was Rita Shaw. It’s still pretty thin, Alex.”

“So we make it thick.” It continued to frustrate him that they’d wasted time interrogating the desk clerks at the two fleabag hotels where the bodies had been found. Like most in their profession, the clerks had seen nothing. Heard nothing. Knew nothing.

As for the ladies who worked the streets, however nervous they were, they weren’t ready to trust a badge.

“Tomorrow’s Wednesday,” Judd said helpfully.

“I know what the hell tomorrow is. Do you do anything but eat?”

Judd unwrapped another muffin. “I got low blood sugar. If we’re going to go back and look at the crime scene again, I need energy.”

“What you need is—” Alex broke off as he glanced past Judd’s profile and into the glaring lights of an all-night diner. He knew only one person with hair that shade of red. He began to swear, slowly, steadily, as he searched for a parking place.



“You really write for TV?” Rosalie asked.

Bess finished emptying a third container of nondairy product into her coffee. “That’s right.”

“I didn’t think you were a sister.” Interested as much in Bess as in the fifty dollars she’d been paid, Rosalie blew out smoke rings. “And you want to know what it’s like to turn tricks.”

“I want to know whatever you’re comfortable telling me.” Bess shoved her untouched coffee aside and leaned forward. “I’m not sitting in judgment or asking for confidences, Rosalie. I’d like your story, if you want to tell it. Or we can stick with generalities.”

“You figure you can find out what’s going on on the streets by putting on spandex and a wig, like you did the other night?”

“I found out a lot,” Bess said with a smile. “I found out it’s tough to stand in heels on concrete for hours at a time. That a woman has to lose her sense of self in order to do business. That you don’t look at the faces. The faces don’t matter—the money does. And what you do isn’t a matter of intimacy, not even a matter of sex—for you—but a matter of control.” She scooted her coffee back and took a sip. “Am I close?”

For a moment, Rosalie said nothing. “You’re not as stupid as you look.”

“Thanks. I’m always surprising people that way. Especially men.”

“Yeah.” For the first time, Rosalie smiled. Beneath the hard-edged cosmetics and the lines life had etched in her face, she was a striking woman, not yet thirty. “I’ll tell you this, girlfriend, the men who pay me see a body. They don’t see a mind. But I got a mind, and I got a plan. I’ve been on the streets five years. I ain’t going to be on them five more.”

“What are you going to do? What do you want to do?”

“When I get enough saved up, I’m going South. Going to get me a trailer in Florida, and a straight job. Maybe selling clothes. I look real fine in good clothes.” She crushed out her cigarette and lit another. “Lots of us have plans, but don’t make it. I will. I’m clean,” she said, and lifted her arms, turning them over. It took Bess a minute to realize Rosalie was saying she wasn’t a user. “One more year, I’m gone. Less than that, if I hook onto a regular john with money. Angie did.”

“Angie?” Bess flipped through her mental file. “Angie Horowitz? Isn’t that the woman who was murdered?”

“Yeah.” Rosalie moistened her lips before sucking in smoke. “She wasn’t careful. I’m always careful.”

“How can you be careful?”

“You keep yourself ready,” Rosalie told her. “Angie, she liked to drink. She’d talk a john into buying a bottle. That’s not being careful. And this guy, the rich one? He—”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Both Rosalie and Bess looked up. Standing beside the scarred table was a tall man with thin shoulders. There was a cheroot clamped between his teeth, and a diamond winked on his finger. His face was moon-pale, with furious blue eyes. His hair was nearly as white, and slicked back, ending in a short ponytail.

“I’m having me a cup of coffee and a smoke, Bobby,” Rosalie told him. But beneath the defiance, Bess recognized the trickle of fear.

“You get back on the street where you belong.”

“Excuse me.” Bess offered her best smile. “Bobby, is it?”

He cast his icy blue eyes on her. “You looking for work, sweetheart? I’ll tell you right now, I don’t tolerate any loafing.”

“Thank you, but no, I’m not looking. Rosalie was just helping me with a small problem.”

“She doesn’t solve anyone’s problems but mine.” He jerked his head toward the street. “Move it.”

Bess slid out of the booth but held her ground. “This is a public place, and we’re having a conversation.”

“You don’t talk to anybody I don’t tell you to talk to.” Bobby gave Rosalie a hard shove toward the door.

Bess didn’t think, simply reacted. If she detested anything, it was a bully. “Now just a damn minute.” She grabbed his sleeve. He rounded on her. Other patrons put on their blinders when he pushed her into the table. Bess came up, fists clenched, just as Alex slammed through the door.

“One move, Bobby,” he said tightly. “Just one move toward her.”

Bobby brushed at his sleeve and shrugged. “I just came in for a cup of coffee. Isn’t that right, Rosalie?”

“Yeah.” Rosalie closed her hand over the business card Bess had slipped her. “We were just having some coffee.”

But Alex’s eyes were all for Bess. She didn’t look pale and frightened. Her eyes were snapping, and her cheeks were flushed with fury. “Tell me you want to press charges.”

“I’m sorry.” With an effort, Bess relaxed her hands. “We were just having a conversation. Nice talking to you, Rosalie.”

“Sure.” She swaggered out, blowing smoke in Alex’s face for effect.

“Take off.”

Bobby moved his shoulders again, smirked. “The coffee’s lousy here, anyway.” He flicked a glance at Bess. “Next time, sweetheart.”

Alex waited ten humming seconds after the door swung shut. Without a word, he stalked over to Bess and grabbed her by the arm and hustled her out the door.

“Look, if this is a knight-in-shining-armor routine, I appreciate it, but I don’t need rescuing.”

“You need a straitjacket.”

With murder in his heart, he dragged her half a block.

“In the car,” he snapped, opening the back door of the patrol car.

“A cab would be—”

He swore, put a hand on her head and shoved her into the back seat.

Resigned, Bess settled back. “Hi, Judd,” she said as he took his place in the passenger seat in front. “How’s Holly?”

“Great, thanks.” He slanted a look toward his partner. “Ah, she really had a good time at your place.”

“I’m glad. We’ll have to do it again.” Alex whipped out into traffic with enough force to have her slamming back against the seat. Without missing a beat, Bess crossed her legs. “Am I allowed to ask where we’re going, or is this another bust?”

“I should be taking you to Bellevue, where you belong,” Alex responded. “But I’m taking you home.”

“Well, thanks for the lift.”

His eyes flashed to hers in the rearview mirror. Her face was still flushed, and her irises were a sharp enough jade to slice to the bone, but she looked more miffed than upset. Miffed, he thought with a snort. Stupid word. It fit her perfectly.

“You’re an idiot, McNee. And, like most idiots, you’re dangerous.”

“Oh, really?” She scooted up in the seat so that she could lean between him and Judd. “Just how do you figure that, smart guy?”

“Not only do you go back down to an area you have no business even knowing about—”

“Give me a break.”

“But,” he continued, “you sit there drinking coffee with a hooker, then pick a fight with her pimp. The kind of guy who’d as soon give a woman a black eye as wish her good-morning.”

Bess poked a finger at his shoulder. “I didn’t pick a fight with anyone, and if I had, it would be my business.”

“That’s why you’re an idiot.”

“Hey, Alex, ease off.”

“Keep out of this,” Alex and Bess snarled in unison.

“I’m not even here,” Judd mumbled, scooting down in his seat.

“It so happens I was conducting an interview.” Bess folded her arms on the seat so that she wouldn’t give in to the nasty urge to twist Alex’s ear. “In a public place,” she added. “And you had no right to come bursting in and ruining everything before I’d finished.”

“If I hadn’t come bursting in, babe, you’d have had your nose broken again.”

She scowled, wrinkling her undeniably crooked nose. “I can defend my nose, and anything else, just fine.”

“Yeah, anyone can see you’re a regular amazon. Ow!” He slapped at her hand and swore the air blue when she gave in and twisted his ear. “The minute I get you out of this car, I’m going to—”

“Uh, Alex?”

“I told you to keep out of it.”

“I’m out,” Judd assured him. “But you might want to take a look at the liquor store coming up at nine o’clock.”

Still steaming, Alex did, then let out a heavy sigh. “Perfect. This makes it perfect. Call it in.”

Bess watched, wide-eyed, as Judd radioed in an armed robbery in progress, gave their location and requested backup. Before she could shut her gaping mouth, Alex was swinging to the curb.

“You,” he said, stabbing a finger in her face. “Stay in the car, or I swear I’ll wring your neck.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Bess assured him after she managed to swallow the large ball of fear lodged in her throat. But before the words were out, he and Judd were out of the car and drawing their weapons.

He’d already forgotten her, she realized as she stared at his profile. Before he and Judd had crossed the street, he’d put on his cop’s mind and his cop’s face. She’d seen hundreds of actors try to emulate that particular look. Some came close, she realized, but this was the real thing. It wasn’t grim or fierce, but flat, almost blank.

Except for the eyes, she thought with a quick shudder. She’d had only one glimpse of his eyes, but it had been enough.

Life and death had been in them, and a potential for violence she would never have guessed at.





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