Page 2

“Yes. Fine.” Dec cleared his throat. “I’ll be out in a minute.” Crap. Wasn’t that a woman’s line? “I mean I just need another couple of seconds…” Man, this was going from bad to worse.

“How about if I wait in your bedroom?”

“No!” Shit. He’d damn near barked the word. A STUD instructor trying to terrify a class of newbies couldn’t have done better. “Uh, I was thinking… It’s a beautiful night. How about waiting for me out on the patio?”

“Well, sure. If that’s what you want.”

What he wanted was to open this door and find himself alone. Turn back time, erase having been at the Landing Zone. Or at least erase responding to her when she’d come over and asked him to dance, erase having been stupid enough to follow her onto the packed dance floor…

“Dec?”

The blonde was getting impatient. He couldn’t blame her. A guy takes a woman home with him, then vanishes into the john…

“Coming,” he said—and winced.

Bad choice of words. Coming was the last thing that would happen tonight. Yes, he needed sex. No, not with this woman. Not with any woman except the one woman he’d never had sex with and would never see again and, goddammit, was that fucked up or was it fucked up?

“Lieutenant?”

Okay. This was not the time for gazing into his navel. It was the time for a diversion, something to save his ass, fast. Think, Sanchez. Think.

And just that quickly, he had the solution to the problem.

Dec flushed the toilet that didn’t need flushing. Anything for a way to cover the sound of a phone call. He got his iPhone out of the pocket of his jeans, hit a button and muttered “Come on, come on, come on,” while the number he’d called rang and rang and…

“Sanchez?”

Finally. The voice he needed was in his ear. Dec expelled a huge breath. “Romano.”

“What’s doin’, dude? You only left here half an hour ago.” Nick Romano chuckled. “You inviting me over to share?”

Crap. The toilet had stopped flushing. No sound cover. Dec turned on the water in the sink.

“Call me,” he hissed.

“What?”

“I said…”

“Dude, between you whispering and AC-DC going full blast here, I can’t hear a thing you’re sayin’.”

Dec stepped into the stall shower and slid the door closed.

“I said, call me.”

“Call you what?”

“Jesus, Romano, this is no time for games. Call me. Wait a couple of minutes and then call.”

“You want me to phone you.”

“Yes.”

Nick gave a low, wicked laugh. “The blonde needs to hear the phone ring to get off?”

“Dammit, this isn’t funny. Give it two minutes. Then call. You got that?”

“Got it. And you owe me a full explanation. Details from start to finish. Deal?”