Linda Howard: Death Angel

“You could eventually find out, but that would take time unless, by sheer luck, you found me in the first couple of databases you hacked. But then, after you found I’d come to New York, you’d have to find out where I’m staying. Considering how many hotels and motels are in this area, and that you have no idea what name I’d use to check in, there is literally no way, using a computer, that you could find me so fast.”

He didn’t say anything, his expression one of interest as he watched her think through the situation.

“You have a tracer on me,” she said. “It’s the only explanation. Not on the Explorer, but on me. ”

“I have one on the Explorer, too,” he admitted without shame.

“So where is it?”

“Think logically.” His mouth curved in amusement. “You’ll come up with the answer.”

“It would have to be on something I keep with me. My purse, but women change purses all the time. Something in my purse. Oh, hell-my cell phone.”

“GPS technology is a great thing. I can locate you within a certain number of yards, and with my computer can even get the address where you are. For instance, why were you at the FBI building?”

“Talking to the FBI. Duh.” She accompanied the “duh” with an eye-roll, just to tease him. She suspected he’d never been teased much in his life, and he needed some playfulness. “How did you get a tracer on my cell phone? When did you get your hands on it?”

“Months ago. I went into your apartment early one morning, when you were sleeping.”

He’d been in her apartment, in her bedroom -because she’d kept her purse close at hand, just in case-and she’d never known it. If an untimely lightning flash hadn’t revealed him standing in the parking lot at the truck stop, she never would have known he’d been watching over her like a guardian angel, keeping his distance but always making certain she was safe. But thank God for that lightning flash; because of it, he was here now, his arms around her.

“You didn’t have to come to New York to talk to the FBI,” he pointed out. “There’s a field office in Kansas City.”

“But none of the agents there have been keeping surveillance on Rafael,” she said. “I had to come here.”

“The FBI has phones.”

“Simon, I had to come here. ”

“Your being here is dangerous,” he said, ignoring her tone of voice, which invited him to drop the subject. He turned on his side facing her, so their bodies were pressed full against each other. “Even with your hair different, even though you aren’t staying in Salinas’s part of town, you shouldn’t be here. There are thousands of people on the street who are involved, one way or another, in his business. A good many of them knew you by sight. The FBI watches them; they watch the FBI. Salinas could already have word that a woman who looks a lot like you has been meeting with the feds.”

She actually hadn’t considered that any of the people on the street could be photographing anyone and everyone who entered the federal building, though she should have. Certainly foreign interests involved in espionage and intelligence would be interested. Rafael-yes, she could see him going to that extent, too. He hadn’t gotten where he was in the drug trade by overlooking the obvious. Trust was nonexistent, even in his own organization.

He cupped her chin in his hand, tilted her face up so he could read every nuance of her expression. “For the third time, why are you here?” His hand lingered, smoothed a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“You know why.” She sighed and turned her cheek against his palm. “Whatever I can do to help them get him, I’ll do. I spent the morning talking to two agents, going over every detail I can remember.”

“Why is getting Salinas, in particular, so important? A lot of people deal drugs. They’re scum, he’s scum. He’s worse than some, but I’ve met others who make him look like a choir boy.”

That was a scary concept. Andie shuddered a little. “He’s the one I know stuff about. I don’t know those others. And I profited from the drugs by living with him. I have to make up for that, try to make things right.” She wouldn’t tell him yet that she’d offered to act as bait in any trap the FBI could set up. Agents Cotton and Jackson hadn’t been enthusiastic about the idea, for various reasons, and if the idea never came to fruition there was no point in getting Simon riled up for nothing. She had the sneaking suspicion that riling Simon could be a dangerous thing to do-not to her, but she didn’t want him wiping out the entire building at Federal Plaza.

But if-big if -Cotton and Jackson came up with a plan, she’d have to tell him. Trust came hard to her, and even harder to Simon. She wouldn’t abuse something so precious and new.

Today, though, there was nothing to tell him. For the rest of the day, and the night, she had nothing more important to do than simply be with him. They might not have much time together, so she wanted to make the most of it.

ANDIE WENT FROM being miserably unhappy to almost glowing with joy at Simon’s presence. They napped, made love again; by then the afternoon had worn away to evening and she was hungry. After showering-together-in the unremarkable and slightly stained tub, they walked down the street to an Italian restaurant.

Simon didn’t have a bag with him, so he put on the clothes he’d worn there. Andie hadn’t unpacked, on the premise that her suitcases were cleaner than the dresser drawers, so she flipped open the unzipped top of a suitcase to rummage for clean underwear. The wig box caught her eye and she hurriedly tossed a shirt over it. Thank goodness she hadn’t taken the wig out to brush it, and a wig box was fairly small and-

“What’s that?” Simon asked in an expressionless voice, silently appearing at her shoulder. He reached into the suitcase and with one finger lifted the shirt that covered the wig box.

“It’s a shirt,” Andie said, though she knew damn well that wasn’t what he was asking.

He didn’t reply. Instead he took the box from the suitcase and opened it, pulling out the wig and shaking it so the long blond strands fell free. He held it up, the synthetic curls wrapping around his forearm.

“It isn’t exactly the right color, but it’s close,” he said, still in that remote, deliberately flat tone as he turned the wig back and forth, studying it. “And it isn’t as curly.” He dropped it back into the suitcase and turned his narrowed gaze on her. There was only one reason for her to have a long, blond, curly wig, and they both knew it. “I’ll be fucked and damned if I’ll let you play bait for any stupid-ass trap the feds have dreamed up.”

Andie squared her shoulders. She believed she was doing the right thing, so she had to stand by her decision. “The feds haven’t dreamed up anything. I suggested the idea-which they didn’t go for.” She didn’t tell him it wasn’t any of his business what she did, because it was, the same way he had become her business. She had given him that right when she told him she loved him.

“Damn good thing. I haven’t killed anyone in law enforcement yet, but that would be a good place to start.”

If most people said something like that, it would be safe to assume they were exaggerating and blowing off steam. Not so with Simon. He stated facts, and he backed up his statements. Andie reached out and caught his hand; he let her, but he didn’t return the pressure.

She cupped his hand in both of hers and cradled it to her chest, just over the scar that ran from beneath her collarbone all the way to the end of her rib cage. An hour ago he had kissed that scar with the tenderness of a mother kissing a newborn, and she knew they had both been thinking about what had happened to her, and the walking miracle she was now. “I have to pay for this,” she said softly. “It came with a price, and part of that price is doing what I can, anything I can, to stop Rafael. I can’t walk away and do nothing just because I’ve fallen in love with you and would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life sailing the ocean with you, or whatever the hell it is you do. I have to pay this debt. I have to earn this second chance.”