Page 14 of Convincing Alex (Stanislaskis #4)

“A broom.” She was awake now, wide-awake. But her mind was still mush. “Somewhere. Why?”

He was making her stupid, he realized, and grinned. “So I can clean it up before you cut yourself. Stay there.” He walked

to a likely-looking closet and located a dustpan and broom. Because he was a man whose mother had trained him well in such

matters, he went about the sweeping job quickly and competently. “So, have you missed me?”

“I haven’t given you a thought.” She blew the hair out of her eyes. “Hardly.”

“Me either.” He dumped the shards into the trash, replaced the broom and dustpan. “How about some coffee?”

“Sure.” Maybe that would help her regain her normal composure. As he poured, she caught a whiff of him over the homey morning

aroma. “You smell like a locker room.”

“Sorry. I was at the gym.” When he handed her the coffee, she sat where she was and sipped. Half a cup later, she was able

to take her first clear-eyed look at him.

He looked fabulous. Rough and sweaty and ready for action. The thick tangle of hair was falling over a faded gray sweatband.

His face was unshaven, his NYPD T-shirt was ripped and darkened in a vee down the chest, his sweatpants were loose and frayed

at the cuffs. When she lifted her gaze back to his, he smiled.

“Good morning, McNee.”

“Good morning.”

He skimmed a finger over her thigh. She was sensitive there, he noted. He could tell by the way her eyes darkened and the

pulse in her throat picked up the beat. “I’m not apologizing this time.”

“You should be.”

“No. I’m right about this.” He put a finger over her lips before she could speak. “Trust me. I’m a cop.”

He could have all but seduced her in her own kitchen before her eyes were even open, but she had a point to make. Closing

a hand over his wrist, she drew his hand away. “My personal decisions, whether they have to do with my professional or my

private life, are just that. Personal. I’ve been making those decisions, right or wrong, for a long time. I don’t intend to

stop now.”

“I’m not going to see you hurt.”

“That’s very sweet, Alexi.” Softening a bit, she brushed a hand through his hair. “I don’t intend to be hurt.”

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with. Oh, you think you do,” he continued, recognizing the look in her eyes. “But all

you know is the surface. There are things that go on in the streets, every day, every night, that you have no conception of.

You never will.”

She couldn’t argue, not with what she saw in his face. “Maybe not. I don’t see what you see, or know what you know. Maybe

I don’t want to. My friendship with Rosalie—”

“Friendship?”

“Yes.” The expression on her face dared him to contradict her. “I feel something for her—about her.” With a helpless gesture,

Bess set her cup aside. “I can’t possibly explain it to you, Alexi. You’re not a woman. I can help her. Don’t tell me it’s

a fairy tale to believe I can save her from the streets and what she’s chosen to be. I’ve gotten that advice already.”

“From someone with at least half a brain,” he surmised. “I had no idea this had gotten so out of hand. You said you wanted

to talk to her for background stuff for your story.”

“That’s true enough.” But Bess remembered the bruise on Rosalie’s face too well. “Is it so impossible that I might be able

to make a difference in her life? Has being a cop made you so hard you aren’t willing to give someone a chance to change?”

He gripped her hands, hard. “This isn’t about me.”

“No,” she said, and smiled. “It’s not.”

He swore and let go of her to pace to the coffee maker. “Okay, point taken. It’s none of my business. But I’m going to ask

for a promise.”

“You can ask.”

“Don’t go out on the streets with her. Don’t go anywhere near Bobby’s territory.”

She thought of the man with the silver hair and the vicious eyes. “That I can promise. Feel better?”

“I’m not through. Don’t let her up here unless you’re sure she’s alone. Meet her down at your office, or in some public place.”

“Really, Alexi...”

“Please.”

She said nothing for a moment, and then, because she could see how much it had cost him to use that word, she relented. “All

right.” Bess scooted away from the counter, then opened the bread drawer. “Want a bagel?”

“Sure.”

She popped two into the toaster oven before going to the refrigerator for cream cheese. “There’s something I should tell you.”

“I’m hoping there’s a lot of things.”

With a puzzled smile, she turned back. “I’m sorry?”

“I want to know about this personal life of yours, McNee. I want to know all about you, then I want to take you to bed and

make love with you until we both forget our own names.”

“Ah...” It didn’t seem to take more than one of those long, level looks of his to make her forget a great deal more than

her name. “Anyway...”

“Anyway?” he repeated helpfully as the toaster oven dinged.

“I was going to tell you about Angie Horowitz.”

The lazy smile vanished. His eyes went cool and flat. “What do you know about her?”

“Boy, it really does click off,” Bess murmured. “I feel like I just stepped into one of those rooms with the two-way mirror

and the rubber hoses.”

“Angie Horowitz,” he repeated. “What do you know about her?”

“I don’t know much of anything, but I thought I should tell you what Rosalie told me.” She got out plates, then began to spread

the bagels generously. “She said that Angie was really happy to have hooked up with this one guy. He’d hired her a couple

of times and slipped her some extra money. Treated her well, promised her some presents. In fact, he gave her this little

pendant. A gold heart with a crack down the center.”

Alex’s face remained impassive. There had been a broken neck chain wrapped in Angie’s hand when they found her, just as there

had been with the first victim. That little detail had been kept out of the press. There hadn’t been a heart, he thought now.

But someone had broken the chain for a reason.

“She wore it all the time—according to Rosalie,” Bess went on. “Rosalie also told me Mary Rodell had one just like it. She

was the other victim, wasn’t she?” she asked Alex. “She had it on the last time Rosalie saw her alive.”

“Is that it?”

Bess was disappointed that he wasn’t more pleased with the information. “There’s a little more.” Sulking a bit, she bit into

her bagel. “Angie called the guy Jack, and she bragged to Rosalie that he was a real gentleman, and was built like...”

She trailed off, cleared her throat, but her eyes were bright with humor, rather than embarrassment. “Women have colorful

terms for certain things, just like men.”

“I get the picture.”

“He had a scar.”

“What kind?”

“I don’t know. A scar, on his hip. Angie told Rosalie he got upset when she asked him about it. That’s all she told me, Alexi,

but I figured the coincidence of the pendants, you might want to know about this guy.”

“It never hurts.” He gave her an easy smile, though his instincts were humming. “Probably nothing, but I’ll look into it.”

He tugged on her hair. “Do yourself a favor, and don’t tell Rosalie you passed this along to me.”

“I’m softhearted, Detective. Not softheaded. She thinks you have a really nice butt—but you’re still a cop.”

He grimaced. “I don’t think I like you discussing my anatomy with a—”

“Friend,” she supplied, with a warning lift of her brow. “I also had lunch with your sister. We discussed your nasty temperament.”

“I heard.” He stole her bagel. “Radcliffe, huh?”

“So?”

“So nothing. Want to go dancing with me?”

She debated with herself for almost a full second. “Okay. Tonight?”

“Can’t. Tomorrow?”

It meant canceling dinner at Le Cirque with L.D. Strater. That debate took nearly half a second. “That’s fine. Sexy or sedate?”

“Sexy. Definitely.”

“Good. Why don’t you come by around—” She glanced at the clock, stared, then yelped. “Damn it! Now I’m going to be late. I’ll

owe Lori twenty dollars if I’m late one more time this month.” She began pushing Alex out of the kitchen. “It’s all your fault.

Now beat it, so I can throw on some clothes and get out of here.”

“Since you’re already late...” He had some very good moves. Even as she shoved him toward the door, he was turning to catch

her close. “I can arrange it so you’re a lot later.”

“Smooth talker,” she said with a laugh. “Take a hike.”

“You’ve already lost twenty. I’m just offering to make it worth your while.”

“I don’t know how I can resist that incredibly romantic gesture, but somehow I find I have the strength.”

“You want romance?” There was a gleam in his eyes as he headed for the door. “Tomorrow night. We’ll just see how strong you

are.”