Kat Martin - Against the Night

“That guy over there…his name’s Johnnie Riggs. You be careful, querida. That one is out of your league.” Dante didn’t know she wasn’t really Angel, but he had been in the business long enough to recognize a novice.

“I will. Thank you, Dante.”

He just nodded. She returned to the table with the beer, wondering if the bartender could tell how attracted she was to Johnnie Riggs.

Crazy as it was.

She was a schoolteacher, for heaven’s sake! Riggs was an ex-soldier, a hard, dangerous man who clearly thought she was something she wasn’t, interested in her for only one reason.

On the other hand, she was attracted to him for the same exact reason. She hadn’t been to bed with a man in years, and never a man like John Riggs. Her last boyfriend, Tom Coleman, was a history teacher. And their affair, bland as it was, had been over for nearly two years.

She set Johnnie’s bottle of beer down in front of him and he caught hold of her wrist. “Why don’t you join me? You look like you need a break.”

She eased her hand from his. She didn’t need a break. She wasn’t tired; she was nervous. More so when she was talking to him.

“What happened to that guy you arrested?” she asked, just to have something to say.

“I didn’t exactly arrest him. He jumped bail. I was hired to take him back to Houston so he could appear in court.”

“I see.”

“Probably not. It’s kind of complicated.”

“I imagine it is.”

“When do you get off?”

“What?”

“I asked when you get off work.”

She gave him a wary glance. “Why?”

“Because I want to take you out for a drink or a cup of coffee or something.”

Her chin firmed. “That isn’t what you want and we both know it.”

“I want you. Every man in the place wants you. But you don’t look at the rest of them the way you look at me.”

She blushed clear to the toes of her high-heeled shoes. It was true. From the moment he first walked through the door last week, she could barely keep her eyes off him. Still, she couldn’t believe he had come right out and said it.

“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t go out with you. There’s a rule against employees dating customers.”

“Which nobody pays any attention to. Besides, I don’t give a damn about the rules.”

“Look. I need this job, okay? Please don’t make it hard for me.”

He chuckled. “Why not? You’re making it plenty hard for me.” Hot color washed into her cheeks. She turned to walk away, but Riggs caught her arm, his hold gentler than she expected.

“Sorry. I was out of line. I won’t do it again.” He meant it. She could see it in his face. Why it pleased her, she refused to say.

“I appreciate that.”

He let her go and she hurried over to the next table. In a different way, she was even more relieved to escape John Riggs than she had been Kyle Bennett.

What was there about him? Was she really that sexually deprived? A last glance in his direction and her stomach lifted. Apparently, she was.

Johnnie watched the little dancer walk away. There was something off about Angel Fontaine, something he had picked up on when she took his drink order. Onstage, she was confident, just another exotic dancer doing her job. But once she was out of the lights, she became a different person, shy and uncertain, barely able to make conversation with a man.

All evening, he had watched her. That she was new to the job was clear, but it was more than that. Some bone-deep difference that intrigued him. He liked solving puzzles. He wanted to solve the puzzle of Angel Fontaine.

On top of that, she was beautiful, and he had a weakness for sexy blondes. He wanted her. There was no denying it. But he also wanted to know her story, her secret. Find out what that subtle incongruity was that drew him like a moth to a lightbulb.

And he thought that she wanted him, too, though it was an attraction she clearly didn’t want to feel.

He chuckled and took a sip of his beer. Well, that was just too bad. He wasn’t about to let her off the hook so easy. He was going to find out Angel’s secret. He had a hunch once he knew what it was, she would trust him enough to let their mutual attraction progress to its logical end.

He wasn’t in any hurry. If the stakes were high enough, Johnnie could be a very patient man.

“You can’t be serious. You don’t really plan to go to Kyle Bennett’s house?” Babs pulled on a knee-length T-shirt with a teddy bear on the front in preparation for bed.

“I have to,” Amy argued as she slipped into a pair of soft flannel pajamas. It was two-thirty in the morning. The club was closed and both of them were dead on their feet. “Maybe I’ll have a chance to look around, find some kind of clue. You said he and Rachael dated for a while. Kyle probably made her all sorts of promises, lured her into going out with him by saying the kind of things he said to me. Rachael wanted to be a star. She might have trusted that he could help her get the break she needed.”

“I don’t like it. It’s too dangerous. What if Kyle killed her? Maybe he’ll make you disappear, too.”

Amy ignored the little shiver that crawled down her spine. “That’s not going to happen because you aren’t going to let it. I’ll call him tomorrow, get his address and set up a time on Thursday to go to his house. If I’m not back in a couple of hours, you’ll call the police.”

“How’s that gonna help if you’re already dead?”

Amy ignored that bit of wisdom and the little shiver it sent down her spine.

Babs slipped between the sheets on her twin bed and pulled the covers up over her. “How are you gonna get there? You don’t even have a car.”

Amy brightened. “No, but you do.” She gave her friend a sugary smile. “And I know you’re going to let me borrow it.”

Babs scoffed. “Traffic’s a lot different in L.A. than driving in Grand Rapids.”

Amy sat down on the edge of the bed. “You said you’d help me.”

“I know, I know. It isn’t the car. It’s just that I’m afraid something will happen to you.”

“We don’t even know if Kyle’s involved.”

“Even if he isn’t, he might try something and then where will you be?”

Amy didn’t want to think about that. Getting attacked by some Hollywood weirdo was a terrifying thought. “Okay, so you’ll loan me your car and your pepper spray.”

Babs laughed. “I knew I liked you the first time I talked to you on the phone. Okay, we’ll figure something out.” She yawned behind her hand. “Listen, what about getting the Ranger guy to help you? He’s supposed to be an expert on that kind of thing.”

Amy drew back the covers and slipped beneath the sheets. “I thought about it. But I can’t afford him.”

“I saw you two talking tonight. Maybe he’ll work for something besides money.” Babs wiggled her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t suggest it except that you’re thinking about doing it anyway.”

“I am not thinking about doing it.” Oh, she so was. She had always walked the straight and narrow, always been the good little girl. But since she had come to L.A. and started dancing half naked, she felt free for the first time in her life. She knew that if she got the chance, she was going to have sex with Johnnie Riggs. “Besides, he might not show up in here again.”

“He’ll show up.”

Babs was probably right. Just thinking of the determined way he had looked at her tonight made her stomach contract. “Maybe I’ll talk to him a little, see what he has to say.”

“Good idea.” Babs yawned again. “In the meantime, turn out the light. We both need to get some sleep.”

Amy thought of the conversion she needed to have with Johnnie Riggs. She closed her eyes, but she couldn’t fall asleep.