Page 35 of Lawbreaker

He chuckled. But he pulled out his cell phone and stayed occupied all the way to the airport.

It was a short flight. Odalie had long since learned to take a motion sickness pill before she got on a plane. She sat in her seat playing mahjong on her cell phone the whole way, with an occasional dip into solitaire.

Tony glanced at her. “You ever win that?” he asked, indicating the solitaire app.

“Not often. But it’s still fun.”

“Not when you lose a bundle on a card you don’t get dealt,” he said philosophically.

She smiled. “You should ask John about poker.”

“Your brother? Why?”

“Just ask him sometime.”

He gave her a curious glance and went back to his app.

Tanner was waiting for them at her father’s airstrip. She ran into his arms to be hugged and hugged some more.

“How’s Stasia?” she asked at once.

“Blooming. She really enjoyed the trip. Hi, Tony. Nice of you to hand deliver our parcel,” he teased, shaking hands.

“Least I could do. She had a rough couple of days at my place on Long Island. She’ll tell you about it.” He checked his watch. “I’ve got an appointment to make. Let me know when you want to come home. I’m down this way every other week. I’ll fetch you.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“Find a reason to come along weekend after next,” Tanner suggested. “We’ll be getting the yearlings ready to go to market. It’s an experience. Plus, we have a celebratory barbeque.”

“Barbeque!” Big Ben enthused.

“See what you did?” Tony asked Tanner with a mocking glare. “Now I’ll have to bring him. You can’t get past a grill if it’s got barbeque, but he’s crazy about the way you make it.”

“The way Dolores makes it,” Ben replied, and wiggled his eyebrows.

“I’ll tell her you said that,” Tanner teased.

Ben just grinned.

“So, we’ll see you weekend after next. You going to talk to Mrs. Brannt about the fairy?”

“Yes, I am,” Odalie promised.

“Good. I’ll see you.”

He turned and walked up the ramp into the plane without a backward glance.

Odalie stared at it with a poignant look she wasn’t aware of.

Tanner threw his arm around her and turned her toward the Lincoln he drove. “Come tell me all about the weekend at Tony’s.”

“Okay,” she agreed, and forced herself not to watch the plane take off without her.

6

Tony was quiet all the way back to Jersey and then to the limo at the airport and on to the contact’s motel room. He couldn’t forget the look on Odalie’s face as he’d turned to leave. He’d pulled out all the stops, thrown his longtime mistress at her, insinuated that she wasn’t his type, done everything he could think of to discourage her.

But that one long look had hit him right in the heart. She was attracted to him. With her impeccable background, it should have been some handsome young man with a bright future and wealth like hers behind him. It shouldn’t be a hoodlum feeling his years, putting her in constant danger from the enemies he had, past and present. He was dying for her, and he didn’t dare touch her. It wouldn’t take much to start that brush fire. Only a tiny spark. He had to be ever so vigilant.