Doranna Durgin - Survival Instinct

She let him ponder it as he put the suit on AmEx. Once they were out of earshot of the clerk, he moved in for a more confidential conversation, bumping shoulders as they headed for the mall exit.

She bumped against him on purpose, just to do it. If it puzzled him, he didn’t dwell on it. He asked, “Exactly what else are you going to need to pull this off?”

Didn’t even take a second thought. She held out her hand, ticking off items on her fingers. “Hotel with suite amenities-not five-star. Three or four will do. It’s okay if I give the impression of being careful with money-we want him to trust me with his money. I’ve got to set up a phone number, and someone to be the inside man, because he’s going to check with the development company, and we’ll have to intercept that call. But most of the work with this one is up-front. I need a good printer-the right printer-to work up the real-estate documentation. Finding that printer and getting the information we need…those will be the hardest parts. But I do believe I intend to be invited to a party.” She paused, tapping her lower lip. “Could mean more party clothes.” And then she laughed at the noise Dave made deep in his chest, snatching her elbow as if she might turn around on the spot and head back for Macy’s.

They made it to the car in a silence that Karin didn’t mind at all. Not on a beautiful spring day with the zing of job planning rushing through her body. In the real grift, Longsford would purchase land that Karin had no right to sell, and his deed would be worthless. And even though this one wouldn’t get that far…

Yeah, there it was again.

She could still feel it.

Karin easily spotted Dave’s Maxima and pulled out to reach it before he did, waiting for him to pop the trunk with his remote. The car beeped in response, and Karin quickly rearranged their purchases so they could smooth the suit along the top of the rest of it. Dave straightened, one hand on the lid and ready to push it back down, hesitating long enough to say, “I’m not sure where I fit in that plan. Or do I?”

Karin grinned, and he gave her a wary look. He’d figured out that grin already, had he? “Plenty for you to do,” she assured him. “For starters, I need you to find someone we can trust for the inside man. And I need to know Longsford’s friends, his party circle, his hangouts. I especially need to know which of those friends is close enough to see that I get a special invitation to one of his parties, but it’s got to be someone who’s also conveniently off on a cruise somewhere. And that’s just for starters. I’ve got legwork to do, and I want you there for most of it.” She caught the question in his eyes, and said, “I don’t know this city well enough. It’ll go faster if I have help from someone who does, and backup along the way. I’m going to be poking my nose into nastyville in order to get some of this stuff set up.”

He shut the lid. “And you’re sure-”

“I’ve been to nastyville before, Dave.” She gave him her flattest voice, the one that meant this conversation had been over the last time she ended it.

He shrugged and let it go, coming around to open her car door out of what seemed to be undeniable force of habit. “Okay, then. We’ll start with the safe house. We’ve got maps and phone books there, and you can scope out the city while I see about your inside man. As for the rest of it…I’ll follow your lead.”

Yes, she thought. That you will. Let’s just hope I don’t take you too close to what I really am.

Late afternoon found them at the safe house, tucked into a little neighborhood of cul-de-sacs on the southern edge of Alexandria. Total urban-suburbia, with minivans, cultivated landscaping and a high school behind them. The house itself was a modest Victorian with a corner turret and an unusually open first-story floor plan. The upstairs held three bedrooms and a huge bathroom, but Karin dumped her stuff in the smaller middle room, deliberately avoiding the master bedroom, a room that pushed into the turret space and boasted three large windows.

Dave tossed his stuff into the third bedroom in the back corner, then came to her door.

Karin looked up from where she tested the twin bed. She sat on the edge of it. “I won’t share my closet, but I never did need much space in a bed.”

He didn’t say anything, but she saw his eyes change. A smile hinted in the corners, and she thought he might come to her then and there. Eventually he said, “Good.” And then he glanced over his shoulder toward his bedroom. “Done booting up. I can start in on that research for you right away. There are take-out lists in the kitchen if you want to pick your favorite.”

“Humph.” Karin leaned back on her arms, sinking into the bed. “And what do your neighbors think of this little house? Occupied by a stream of different people, sometimes vacant, and lots of takeout. Doesn’t exactly fit into the neighborhood.”

He shrugged. “Ostensibly, this place serves as temporary dwelling for travelers coming in for training and special projects out of D.C. It works. By the way, you’re a civilian worker with the Army Corps of Engineers, contracting on a land-assessment project. I thought it might fit your sense of irony.”

“Yes indeed.” Smart-ass. She gestured him away. “Go play with your notes. I’m going to take a shower, and then I’ll order something pizza-ish. I’d like to get an early start tomorrow.” If she could locate the right printers…if Dave could locate the information to put the finishing touches on her approach…

By all rights she should have had weeks to gain Longsford’s interest and his confidence. But this was the time to strike. Longsford was at his most reactive, his most vulnerable. And she had an ace she could play any time she wanted.

Ellen.

With this new makeover she didn’t truly resemble Ellen anymore; he’d probably see nothing in her but a puzzling familiarity. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t let Ellen’s mannerisms peek out. Puzzling him. Enticing him. Reeling him in.

Now that was a line she didn’t intend to tell Dave she’d walk.

She waved him out, then dumped her purchases from the morning-underwear, a slew of casual shirts, a lightweight hooded jacket. She plucked up a few items and headed for the shower. She could hear Dave tapping away, but when she looked inside his room she found he’d forgone the small desk to sit on the floor, his back to the wall and his feet braced high against the side of the bed. Total guy mode. He’d pulled the pillow from the bed for a lap desk and now was frowning in concentration over the laptop display. Upset about something, she would have said.

Longsford, no doubt. But this research was the one thing he could do, quickly and extensively, better than she could. And it left her free to concentrate on her own role. She walked Brooke’s walk down the hall to the bathroom. A saucier walk than her own, yet not slutty. No, not at all. More a runway walk than a street walk.

She showered as Brooke would do…as Karin herself might have chosen, before a year of living on a farm where the well water sometimes ran low. Luxuriating in the halfway decent hand lotion, using the provided blades and shaving cream on her legs. She let her hair air-dry in a tousled bed-head look and left the Brooke makeup unused on the sink counter, ready for the morning.

She emerged from the steamy room to the enticing odor of pizza and followed her nose down the stairs. The formal dining area had been converted to a small but completely functional office, and the desktop computer now hummed to itself along with the printer. Dave and his notes had been busy.

She found them all-Dave, the notes, the pizza-at the back of the house in the kitchen breakfast nook. A pizza slice hung crookedly in his grip, looking forgotten. The papers spread out over the small table, pushing the box into a precarious position at the edge. When he saw her, he dropped his piece back into the box and pulled it to a safer spot, making way for her to sit opposite him. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t wait. But you said pizza-ish, so I hope this is okay. It’s their meaty version.”