Lorie O - Strong, Sleek and Sinful

“Many agents deliver,” he came back without a breath. “That security system is in your house for a goddamn reason. Don’t think I won’t pull someone else in on this case if you pull a stunt like that again. See how you like that on your permanent record.”

“I could handle a vacation.” She hated threats, hated them more than anything. “You want me to go talk to these kids, or contact my travel agent?”

“Don’t fuck with me,” he snarled.

“Fine. Oh, and tomorrow night I’m going over to four of these teenage girls’ home for dinner. Their mom invited me,” she added, and then breathed in deeply. Getting pissed wouldn’t help her think clearly when she met the kids inside the library. “I see a golden opportunity to learn more about what’s on their home computers. These teenagers are going to become my best friends.”

John didn’t say anything for a moment and Kylie rode out the silence, watching as the city bus slowed on the street and its doors opened.

“Maybe we will wire you,” he said slowly.

“Nope. I’m gathering data right now. Besides, I won’t be in the company of any perps. They’re all teenage girls.”

“Who are these teenagers?”

She rattled off their names, pretty sure she got them right.

“Is the cop they’re related to planning on being there, too?”

She scowled, frowning as she looked down at her fingernails. “Lieutenant Perry Flynn will probably be there.”

“Then you have a possible suspect. Kylie, you know your track record is impeccable. Peter is a cop, or someone who works and has access to computers in the police department.”

“I already know that.” The more time she spent talking to John, the more he got on her nerves. “And I’m still waiting for confirmation on whose computers were used down at the station. Is there a reason we don’t have that information yet?”

“I’ll check with Paul and get back to you on that one.”

When she looked up, Dani and a few other girls were gathered in the grass around the bus stop. Dani spotted her and waved, then beckoned to her friends. The group headed in Kylie’s direction.

“The latest murder, Kathleen Long-there was a picture of her on a pornography Web site.”

“What?” Kylie’s heart lodged in her throat as she quickly processed this information. “Peter has more of an agenda than simply stalking teenagers online and luring them into his trap of rape and murder.”

“Can’t prove that Kathleen is connected to the Peter girls yet. But we can confirm that Web site is based out of Kansas City. Don’t get so close to Lieutenant Flynn that you lose perspective. There very well might be a reason why he’s trying to get close to you.”

The lump in her throat damn near choked her. “I’ve got to go,” she whispered. “Company. And don’t worry. I never lose perspective.” She hung up before John could lecture her further, and stepped out of her car as the girls approached.

“That dress is so to die for,” a thin blonde said who wore a very short leather miniskirt and halter top that barely covered her well-developed figure.

Kylie glanced down at the figure-hugging dress she wore today. It wasn’t much longer than the blonde’s, although where the blonde wore black stockings and boots Kylie’s legs were bare. She looked up in time to catch Dani giving the blonde a scrutinizing glare.

“Thank you,” Kylie said, smiling at the girl. “I’m Kylie, by the way.”

“Nancy.” Instead of offering her hand, she turned to the girls around her. “Dani says you’re doing some really huge research paper on teenagers. I wish I got homework assignments like that.”

“As if it would matter.” Dani adjusted her backpack on her shoulder. “You don’t do your homework now. We going to stand out here or go snag a computer or two?”

“We should go over to the Java Cup,” the girl on the other side of Dani offered, whose hair had to be dyed black. It was long and glossy looking and raven black. She immediately shrugged as though her suggestion didn’t matter.

“Is James working?” Dani poked the girl in the ribs.

“How would I know?” The girl’s expression turned stubborn when she turned away from Dani and hugged herself. “But we can talk easier and they got computers there.”

“I’m game, but I’m not walking.” Dani looked at Kylie expectantly.

The other two girls followed suit.

“What about your parents?” Kylie wasn’t going to take off with girls she barely knew. The last thing she would risk was parents getting pissed at her for driving their daughters places other than where they were supposed to be. “Don’t they think you’re at the library?”

Dani rolled her eyes, already heading around Kylie to the passenger-side door. “Shotgun,” she announced. “And you’ve got to chill, Kylie. We’ve got cell phones. Mom doesn’t care where I am as long as I’m home when she gets off work.”

“All I have to do is call and leave voice mail,” Nancy said, lining up behind Dani. “And Mandy’s parents never care where she is.”

“They just work a lot.” Mandy, the black-haired girl, shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her.

“Okay. I don’t want anyone yelling at me.”

The Java Cup turned out to be only a block and a half away from the library, and by the time Kylie parked she decided they would have gotten there faster walking. The coffee shop itself was quaint, though. Kylie liked the atmosphere, with cork walls covered with posters, some of which looked like they’d been hanging there for years. When she saw the young people behind the counter, with their piercings and tattoos, her impression of the place dropped. It was a teenage hangout in disguise.

“I never dreamed of drinking coffee at your age,” Kylie mused.

“Whatever, like you are so much older than I am.” Dani rolled her eyes and breathed in the aroma of her drink. “I can’t start my day without a cup.”

“Not me.” Mandy led the way to a doorway that entered into a smaller room where two computers and then several tables with decks of cards and magazines were scattered. “It’s Pepsi all the way, baby.”

“Whatever happened to orange juice for breakfast?” Kylie took the chair next to the computer chair, letting the girls decide who would sit at the helm.

“God, I told them you were cool.” Dani nudged Kylie. “Don’t embarrass me.”

“I’ll try not to,” Kylie said dryly, giving Dani a look to say she should consider herself lucky to be hanging with Kylie.

The look worked, surprisingly, when Dani grinned easily and nudged her way between her friends to take the seat in front of the monitor.

“Mandy, there’s James.”

“Where?” Mandy spun around with enough force that she almost toppled sideways. She then turned back to face them so quickly it was comical. “Don’t say anything,” she hissed.

Nancy and Dani giggled and Kylie searched the small room and then looked through the doorway into the larger shop area where a handful of teenagers now huddled in a group, as if plotting their moves while they were at the Java Cup.

It was odd sitting with the three girls, listening to them tease and insult one another and then profess their love in the next sentence. By the time Kylie was fourteen, her teenage years had ended. Kylie didn’t have one memory of hanging out with girlfriends like this. Dani and her friends believed Kylie was a lot younger than she actually was, but that was their assumption. Mandy told a joke and Kylie found herself laughing with the other girls. It was easy fitting in with them, their lifestyle so simple and dramatized that it took little effort to act their age.

“Whoa, dude,” Mandy said, and laughed, pointing at the screen when Dani logged in. “Look at all of your off-line messages.”