ohh and umm i forgot some of the names i used for some of these characters so whatever their names are now we'll just stick to that. k. okay!
P.S. do u guys want me to continue to write out the court scenes, i kow it can get a bit boring, so let me know if yall want me to keep the court scenes brief.!!
okay back to our regular scheduled program.. ENJOY AND COMMENT AS USUAL!!
Groaning, her eyes firmly shut, Nicki groped for the phone on her night stand. She knocked over a book, candle stick before she managed to pick up the receiver and drag it under the pillows.
“hello?”
“ Maraj?”
She cleared her throat. “yes?”
“Johnson here, we’ve got a problem.”
“problem?” she shoved the pillow off her head and squinted at the alarm clock. The only problem she could see was her boss calling her at 5:15am. “ has the trial been postponed? I’m scheduled for court at nine..”
No. its Marino.”
“Marino?” scrubbing her hand over her face, she struggled to sit up. “ what about him?”
“he’s dead.”
“dead.” she shook her hand to clear her groggy brain. “ what do you mean he’s dead?”
“ as in doornail,” Johnson said annoyed. “ guard found him about half an hour ago.”
“stabbed. Look like he went up to the bars to talk to someone, and they shoved a knife through his heart.”
“ oh God.”
“ nobody heard anything. Nobody saw anything,” Johnson said in disgust. “ there was not taped to the bars. It said, “ dead birds don’t sing.”
“somebody leaked that he was feeding us information.”
“ and you can bet that I’m going to find out who. Listen Maraj, we’re not going to be able to muzzle the press on this one. I figured you’d want to hear it from me instead of on the news during your morning coffee.”
“yeah.” she pressed a hand to her queasy stomach. “ yeah thanks. What about Santiago?”
“ no show yet. We got feelers out, but if he’s gone to ground, it might be a while before we dig him up.”
“ they’ll be after him, too,” she said quietly. “ whoever arranged for Marino to be murdered will after Antiago.”
“ then we just have to find him first. You’re going to have to shake this off,” he told her. I know it’s a tough break all around, but the Denson case is your priority now. The guy’s got himself a real slick lawyer.”
“I can handle it.”
“ never figured otherwise. Give him hell, kid.”
“yeah, yeah I will.” Nicki hung up and stared blankly into space until her alarm went off at 6:30.
“hey! Hey, beautiful.” Tom Bower charged up the courthouse steps after Nicki. “ boy that concentration,” he panted when he finally snagged her arm and stopped her. “ I’ve been calling you since half a block.”
“ sorry I’m due in court in fifteen minutes.”
He gave her a quick going over. She’d pin her hair back into a simple twist and wore diamond earring in her ears. Her red linen suit was tailored and still managed to show off her curves. The result was competent, professional and extremely sexy.
“if I was on the jury. I’d give you a guilty verdict before you finished your opening statement. You look incredible.”
“I’m a lawyer,” she said tightly, “ not miss December.”
“hey.” he had to race up three more steps to catch her. “ hey, look, im sorry, that was a poorly phrased compliment.”
She found a slippery hold on her temper. “no. I’m sorry. I’m a little touchy this morning.”
“I heard about Marino.”
With a grim nod, Nicki continued up the steps to the high carved doors of city courthouse. “ news travel fast.”
“ he was a walking statistic, Nic. You cant let it get to you.”
“ he deserved his day in court.” she said as she crossed the marble lobby. “ even he deserved that. I knew he was afraid, but I didn’t take it seriously enough.”
“do you think it would have mattered?”
“ I don’t know.” it was a single question she would have to live with. “ I just don’t know.”
“look, the mayor’s got a tough schedule today. There’s this dinner tonight, but I can probably slip out before the brandy and cigar stage. How about a late movie?”
“I’m lousy company, Tom.”
“ you know that doesn’t matter.”
“ it matters to me.” a ghost of a smile touched her lips. “ I’d bite your head off again and hate myself.” she stepped in the elevator.
“ counselor.” Tom grinned and gave her a thumbs up before the doors closed.
The press was waiting for her on the fourth floor. Nicki had expected no less. Moving quickly, she waded through them, dispensing short answers and no comments.
“ do you really expect to get a jury to convict a pimp for knocking around a couple of his girls?”
“I always expect to win when I go to court.”
“ are you going to put the prostitutes on stand?”
“ former prostitutes.” she corrected, and let the question go unanswered.
“ is it true Johnson assigned you to this case because you’re a woman?”
“ the D.A. doesn’t choose his prosecutors by their sex.”
“ do you feel responsible for the death of Marino?”
That stopped her on the threshold of the courtroom. She looked around and saw the reporter with a sarcastic smirk, Bisner.
“ the D.A.’s office regrets that Marino was murdered and not allowed his day in court.”
In a quick practiced move, he blocked her way. “but do you feel responsible? After all you’re the one who turned the deal.”
She choked back the urge to defend herself and met is eyes levelly. “ we’re all responsible, Mr. Bisner. Excuse me.”
He simply shifted. “ any more encounters with the Nemesis? What can you tell us about your personal experiences with the city’s newest hero?”
She could feel her temperature rising bit by bit. Worse, she knew that was exactly what he was hoping for. “ nothing that could compete with your fabrications. Now if you’ll move aside, I’m busy.”
“ not too busy to socialize with Drake Graham. Are you and he romantically involved? It makes a wild kind of triangle don’t you think? Nemesis, you, Graham.”
“ get a life Brent,” she suggested, then elbowed him aside.
She barely had enough time to settle behind the prosecutor’s table and open her brief case when the jury filed in. she and the defense council had taken two days to select them, and she was satisfied with the mix of genders and races and walks of life. Still, she would have to convince those twelve men and women that a couple of prostitutes deserved justice.
Turning slightly, she studied the two women in the first row. They had both followed her instructions and dressed simply, with minimum makeup. She knew they were on trial today, as much as the man charged with assault on battery. They huddled together, two young, pretty women who might have been mistaken for college students, Nicki sent them a reassuring smile before she shifted again.
Nicki kept her opening statements brief, working with the jury, dispensing facts. She didn’t attempt to dazzle them. She was already aware that this was the defense council style. Instead she would underplay, drawing their attention with the contrast of simplicity.
By noon recess, she had laid her groundwork. She hustled Allison and Megan into a cab and took them across town for lunch and a last briefing.
“ do I have to go on the stand today, Miss Maraj?” Allison fidgeted in her seat and ate nothing. Though her bruises had faded over the weeks since the beating, her jaw still tended to ache. “ maybe what the doctors and all said was enough, and Megan and I wont have to testify.”
“ Allison,” she laid her hand over the girl’s and found it ice cold and trembling. “ they’ll listen to the doctors, and they’ll look at the pictures. They’ll believe you an Megan were beaten. But its you, both of you, who will convince them that Brown was the one who did it, that he is not the nice young businessman he pretends to be. Without you, he’ll walk away and do it again.
Megan bit her lip. “ Charles says he’s going to get off anyway. That people will know we’re whores, even though you helped us get regular jobs. He says when its over he’s going to find us, and hurt us real bad.”
“ when did he say that?”
“ he called last night.” Allison eyes filled with tears. “ he found out where we’re living and he called. He said he was going to mess us up.” she wiped at a tear with the heel of her hand. “ he said he was going to make us wish we’d never started this. I don’t want him to hurt me again.”
“ he wont. I cant help you unless you help me. Unless you trust me.”
For the next hour, she talked soothing, bullying, and promising. At two o’clock, both frightened women were back in court.
“ the state calls Allison Jenkins,” Nicki announced, and flicked a cool glance at Brown.
Drake slipped into the courtroom just as she called her first witness for the afternoon session. He’d had to cancel two meetings in order to be there. The need to see her had been a great deal stronger than the need to hear quarterly reports. It had been, Drake admitted, stronger than any need he had ever experienced.
For three days he had kept his distance. Three very long days.
He chose a seat in the back of the courtroom and settled back to watch her work.
“how old are you Allison?” Nicki asked.
“twenty-one.”
“ have you always lived in Urbana?”
“ no I grew up in Virginia.”
With a few casual questions, she helped Allison point out a picture of her background, the poverty, the unhappiness, the parental abuse.
“ when did you come to the city?”
“about four years ago.”
“ when you were seventeen. Why did you come?”
“ I wanted to be an actress. That sounds pretty dumb, but I used to be in plays in school. I thought it would be easy.”
“was it?”
“ no, no, it was hard. Real hard. Most of the time I didn’t even get to audition, you know? And I ran out of money. I got a part time job waiting tables, but it wasn’t enough. They turned off the heat and the lights.”
“ did you ever think of going home?”
“ I couldn’t. my mother said if I left then she was done with me. And I guess I thought, I still could do okay, if I just got a break.”
“ did you get one?”
“ I thought I did. This guy into the grill where I worked. We got friendly, talking, you know. I told him I was an actress. He said he’d known it as soon as he saw me, and what I was doing working in a dump like that when I was pretty, and so talented. He told me he knew lots of people, and that if I came to work for him, he’d introduce me. He gave me his business card and everything.”
“is the man you met that night in the courtroom, Allison?”
“ sure, it was Charles.” she looked down quickly at her twisting fingers. “ Charles Brown.”
“ did you go to work for him?”
“ yeah. I went the next day to his offices. He had a whole suite, all those desk and phones and leather chairs. A real nice place uptown. He called elegant escorts. He said I could make a hundred a night just by going to dinner parties with these business men. He even bought me clothes, pretty clothes and had my hair done and everything.”
“ and for this hundred dollars a night, all you had to do was go to dinner and parties?”
“ that’s what he told me, at first.”
“ and did that change?”
“after a while….he took me out to nice restaurants and places. Dress rehearsals, he called them. He bought me flowers and..”
“ did you have sex with him?”
“objection. Irrelevant.”
“ your honor, the witness’s relationship, her physical relationship with the defendant is very relevant.”
“overruled. You’ll answer the question, Miss Jenkins.”
“ yes. I went to bed with him. He treated me so nice. After, he gave me money, for the bills he said.”
“ and you accepted it?”
“ yes. I guess I knew what was going on. I knew, but I pretended I didn’t. a few days later, he told me he had a customer for me. He said I was to dress up real nice and go out to dinner with this man from DC.”
“ what instructions were u given by Mr. Brown?”
“ he said Allison you’re going to have to earn that hundred dollars.” I said I knew that, and he told me I was going to have to be real nice to this guy. I said I would.”
“ did Mr. Brown define nice for you, Allison?”
She hesitated, then looked down at her hands again. “ he said I was to do whatever I was told. That if the guy wanted me to go back to his hotel after, I had to go or I wouldn’t get my money. It was all acting he said. I acted like I enjoyed the guy’s company, like I was attracted to him, and I acted like I had a great time in bed with him.”
“ did Mr. Brown specifically tell you that you would be required to have sex with this customer?”
“ he said it was apart of the job, the same as smiling at bad jokes. And if I was good at it, he’d introduce me to this director he knew.”
“ and you agreed?”
“he made it sound okay. Yes.”
“ and were the other occasions when he agreed to exchange sex for money in your capacity as an escort for Mr. Brown’s firm?”
“objection.”
“ I’ll rephrase.” she flicked a glance at the jury. “ did you continue in Mr. Brown’s employ?”
“ yes ma’am.”
“ for how long?”
“three years.”
“ and were you satisfied with the arrangement?”
“ I don’t know.”
“you don’t know if you were satisfied?”
“ I got use to the money,” Allison said, painfully honest. “ and after a while you get so you can forget what your dong, if you think about something else when its going on.”
“ and was Mr. Brown happy with you?”
“ sometimes.” fearful, she looked up at the judge. “ sometimes he’d get real mad, at me or one of the other girls.”
“ there were other girls?”
“ a bout a dozen, sometimes more.”
“ and what did he do when he got mad?”
“ he’d smack you around.”
“ you mean he’d hit you?”
“ he’d just go crazy and..”
“ objection.”
“ sustained.”
“ did he ever strike you Allison?”
“ yes.”
Nicki let the simplicity of the answer hang over the court jury.
“ will you tell me the events that took place on the night of October 16 of this year?”
As she’d been instructed, Allison kept her eyes on Nicki and didn’t let them wonder back to Brown.
“ I had a job, but I got sick. The flu or something. I had a fever and my stomach was really upset. I couldn’t keep anything down. Megan came over to take care of me.”
“Megan?”
“Megan Campbell. She worked for Charles, too, and we got really close. I just couldn’t get up and go to work so Megan called Charles to tell him.” her hands began to twist in her lap. “ I could hear her arguing with him over the phone, telling him I was sick. Megan said he could come over and see for himself if he didn’t believe her.”
“ and did he come over?”
“ yes.” the tears started. “ he was really mad. He was yelling at Megan, and she was yelling back, telling him I was really sick, that I had a fever of a hundred and five. He said..” she licked her lips. “ he said we were both lying sluts. I heard something crash and she was crying. I got up, but I was dizzy.” she rubbed the heel of her hands under her eyes smearing her mascara. “ he came into the bedroom. He knocked me down.”
“ you mean bumped into you?”
“no, he knocked me down. Backhanded me, you know?”
“ yes go on.”
“ then he told me to get my butt up and get dressed. He said the customer had asked for me, I was going to do it. He said all I had to do was lie on my back and close my eyes anyway.” she fumbled for tissue, blew her nose. “ I told him I was sick, that I couldn’t do it. He was yelling and throwing things. Then he started hitting me.”
“ where did he hit you?”
“ everywhere. In my face, in the stomach. Mostly my face. He just wouldn’t stop.”
“ did you call for help?”
“ I couldn’t, I couldn’t breathe.”
“ did you try to defend yourself?”
“ I tried to crawl away. But he kept coming after me, kept hitting me. I passed out. When i woke up, Megan was there, and her face was all bloody. She called an ambulance.”
Gently Nicki continued to question. When she took her seat at the prosecutors table she prayed that Allison would hold up under cross examination.
After almost three hours on the witness stand, Allison was pale and shaky. Despite the defense counselor’s attempt to destroy her character , she stepped down looking young and vulnerable.
And it was the picture, Nicki thought with satisfaction, that would remain in the jury’s mind.
“Excellent job, counselor.”
Nicki turned her head, with twin pricks of annoyance and pleasure, glanced up at Aubrey. “ what are you doing here?”
“watching you work. If I ever need a lawyer…”
“I’m a prosecutor, remember?”
He smiled. “ then I’ll just have to make sure I don’t get caught breaking the law.”
When she stood, he took her hand. A casual gesture, even a friendly one. She couldn’t have said why it seemed so possessive.
“ can I offer you a lift? Dinner, dessert? A quiet evening?”
And she’d said he wouldn’t tempt her again. Fat chance. “ I’m sorry, I have something to do.”
Tilting his head, he studied her. “ I think you mean it.”
“I do have work.”
“no. I mean that you’re sorry.”
His eyes were so deep, so warm, she nearly sighed.
“ against my better judgment, I am.” she started out the courtroom into the hall.
“ just the lift then.”
She sent him a quick, exasperated look over her shoulder. “ didn’t I tell you once how I felt about persistent men?”
“ yes, but you had dinner with me anyway.”
She had to laugh. After all the tense hours in court. It was a relief
“well, since my car is in the shop. I could use a lift.”
He stepped in the elevator with her. “ it’s a tough case you’ve taken on here. And a reputation maker.”
“really?”
“ you’re getting national press.”
“I don’t take cases for clippings.” her voice was as rigid as her eyes.
“ if you’re going to be in for the long haul, you’ll have to develop a thicker skin.”
“ my skin’s just fine, thanks.”
“ I noticed.” relaxed, he leaned back against the wall. “ I think anyone who knows you realizes the press is a by-product, not the purpose. You’re making a point here, that no one, no matter who or what they are, should be victimized. I hope you win.”
She stepped out the elevator into the marble lobby.
“ I like your hair that way,” he commented, pleased to see he’d thrown her off. “ very cool, very competent. How many pins would I have to pull out to have it fall loose?”
“ I don’t think that’s..”
“ relevant?” he supplied. “ it is to me. Everything about you is, since I don’t seem to be able to stop thinking about you.”
She kept walking quickly. It was typical, she imagined that he would say such things to woman in a crowded place- and make her feel as though they were completely alone.
“ I’m sure you’ve managed to keep busy. I noticed a picture of you in this morning’s paper, there was a blonde attached to your arm.” she set her teeth when he kept smiling. “ you switch your allegiances quickly, politically speaking.”
“ I have no allegiances, politically speaking. I was interested to hear what Morgan’s opposition had to say. I was impressed.”
She remembered the lush blonde in the skinny black dress. “ I bet.”
This time he grinned. “ I’m sorry you weren’t there.”
“ I told you before I don’t intend to be a part of the horde.” at the wide doors, she stopped, braced. “ speaking of hordes.” head up, she walked into the crowd of reporters waiting on the courthouse steps.
They fired questions. She fired answers, still as annoyed as she was with him, she was grateful to Drake’s big black limo with its hulk of a driver waiting at the curb.
“ Mr. Graham, what’s your interest in the case?”
“ I enjoy watching justice at work.”
“ you enjoy watching gorgeous D.A.s at work,” Bisner pushed his way through his associates to shove a recorder into Drake’s face. “ come on Graham, what’s happening between you and darling Nicki?”
Hearing her low snarl, Drake put a warning hand on Nicki’s arm and turned to the reporter. “ I know you, don’t I ?”
Bisner smirked. “ sure. We ran into each other plenty in those bad days when you worked for the city instead of owning it.”
“ yeah. Bisner.” he summed the man up with one quick, careless look. “ maybe my memories faulty, but I don’t recall you being such an asshole then as you are now.” he bundled up a chuckling Nicki into the limo.
“nicely done,” she said.
“ I’ll have to consider buying the world, just so I can the pleasure of firing him.”
“ I have to admire the way you think.” with a sigh she slipped out of her shoes and shut her tired eyes. She could get use to this kind of traveling she thought. “ my feet are killing me. I’m going to have to buy a pedometer to see how many miles I put in during an average day in court.”
“ will you come home with me if I promise you a foot massage?”
She opened one eye. He’d be good at it, she thought. At massaging a woman’s foot or anything else that happened to ache. “ no.” she shut her eyes again. “ I have to get back to the office. And I’m sure there are plenty of other feet you can rub.”
Drake opened to glass long enough to give Jim their destination.
“ is that what concerns you? The other… feet in my life?”
She hated the fact that it did. “ they’re your business.”
“ I like yours. Your feet, your legs, your face. And everything in between.”
She ignored him, well at least tried to, “ do you always try to seduce women on the back of limos?”
“ would you prefer someplace else?”
She opened both her eyes. Some things, she thought, were better handled face to face. “ Drake, I’ve done some thinking about this situation.”
His mouth curved charmingly. “ situation?”
“ yes.” she didn’t want to call it a relationship. “ I’m not going to pretend I’m not attracted to you, or that I’m not flattered you seem to be attracted to me. But..”
“ but?” he picked up her hand, rubbed his lips over her knuckles.
“ don’t.” her breath caught when he turned her hand over to press a slow, warm kiss in the palm. “ don’t do that.”
“ I love it when you’re cool and logical, Nicki. It makes me crazy to see how quickly I can make you heat up.” he brushed his lips over her wrist and felt the fast thud of her pulse. “ you were saying?”
Was she? What woman could be cool and logical when he was looking at her? Touching her. She snatched her hand away, reminding herself that was precisely the problem. “ I don’t want this situation to go any further, for several good reason.”
“mmmmhmmm.”
She knocked his hand away when he began to play with the diamond in her ear. “ I mean it. I realize you’re used to picking and discarding women like poker chips, but I’m not interested. So find someone else.”
Yes, she was heating up nicely. “ that’s a very interesting metaphor. I could say that there are some winnings I prefer to hold on to rather than gamble with.”
Firing up, she turned to him. “ let’s get this straight. I’m not this week’s prize. I have no intention of being Thursday’s black following Wednesday’s blonde.”
“ so, we’re back to those feet again.”
“ you might consider it a joke, but I take my life, personally and professionally, very seriously.”
“maybe too seriously.”
She stiffened. “ that’s my business. The bottom line here is that I’m not interested in becoming one of your whores. I’m not interested in becoming tangled up with you in any shape or form.” she glanced over when the limo glided to the curb. “ and this is my stop.”
He moved quickly, surprising them both, dragging her across the seat so that she lay across his lap. “ I’m going to see that you’re tangled up you’ll never pull free.” hard and sure his mouth met hers.
She didn’t struggle. She didn’t hesitate. Every emotion she had felt along the drive was honed down to one word. Desire.
Her fingers dived into his hair as her mouth moved restless and hungry under his.
She wanted, as she had never wanted before. Never dreamed of wanting. The ache of it was so huge it left no room for reason.
He wasn’t patient as he once had been, instead, his mouth was warm as it raced over her face, streaked down her throat. With an urgent murmur, she pulled him back to her lips.
Never before had he known anyone who had matched his needs so exactly. He’d known desire before, but not this gnawing desperation.
He wanted to drag her down on the seat, pull and tug at that slim, tidy suit until she was naked and burning beneath him.
But he also wanted to give her comfort and compassion and love. He would have to wait until she was ready to accept it.
With real regret, he gentled his hands and drew her away. “ you’re everything I want,” he told her. “ and I’ve learned to take what I want.”
Her eyes were wide. As the passion faded from them, it was replaced by dazed fear that disturbed him. “ it’s not right,” she whispered. “ it’s not right that you should be able to do this to me.”
“ no, its not right for either of us. But its real.”
“ I wont be controlled by my emotions.”
“ we all are.”
“ not me,” shaky, she reached down for her shoes. “ I’ve got to go.”
He reached across her to unlatch the door. “ you will belong to me.”
She shook her head. “ I have to belong to myself first.” climbing out, she bolted.
Drake watched her retreat before he opened his fisted hand. He counted six hairpins and smiled.
Nicki spent the evening with Allison and Megan in their tiny apartment. Over Chinese takeout she’d supplied, she discussed the case with them. It helped pouring herself into work. It left little time to worry about Drake and her response to him. A response she had felt much the same stunning sexual pull toward another man.
Because she wanted both, she couldn’t turn to any of them.
Each time the phone rang, she answered it herself while Allison and Megan sat on the sofa, hands clutched. The phone rang for the fifth time and she reached for it.
“ Allison?”
She took a chance. “ no.”
“ Megan, you bitch.”
Though a grim smile touched her lips, she made her voice shake. “ who is this?”
“ you know damn well who it is. It’s Charles.”
“ I’m not suppose to talk to you.”
“ fine just listen. If you think I fucked you up before, its nothing to what I’m going to do to you if you testify tomorrow. You little slut, I picked you up off the street where you were earning twenty a trick and set you up high rolling johns. I own you, and don’t you forget it. Do yourself a favor, tell that tight assed D.A that you’ve changed your mind and that you and Allison lied about everything. Otherwise, I’ll hurt you, real bad. Understand?”
“ yes.” she hung up and stared at the phone. “ oh yeah, I understand.” Nicki turned to Allison and Megan. “ keep your door locked tonight and don’t go out. He doesn’t know it yet, but he just hanged himself.”
Pleased with herself, she left them. It had taken a great deal of fast talking to get a tap on Allison’s and Megan’s phone. And it would take more to subpoena Brown’s phone records. But she would do it. When Brown took the stand in a few days, both he and his defense lawyer was in for a surprise.
She decided to walk a few blocks before hailing a cab. The night was steamy. Even the buildings were sweating. Across town there was a cool room waiting for her, a cool shower. But she didn’t want to go home, alone yet. Alone it would be too easy to think about her life. About Drake.
She had lost control in his arms in the afternoon. That was becoming a habit she didn’t care for.
Yet she also felt something, a very strong something, for a man that wore a mask.
As she stepped into the shadows of the building, she heard someone whisper her name. she knew that voice, had heard It in her dreams, dreams she’d refused to acknowledge.
He seemed to flow out of the dark, a shadow, a silhouette, then a man. She could see his eyes, the gleam of them behind the mask. The longing came so quickly, so strongly, she nearly moaned out loud.
And when he took her hand to draw her into the shadows, she didn’t resist.
“ you seem to be making it a habit to walk the streets at night alone.”
“ I had work.” automatically she lowered her voice to match his.
“ are you following me?”
He didn’t answer, but his fingers curled around hers in a way that spoke possession.
“ what do you want?”
“ it’s dangerous for you.” she’d left her hair down, he saw. So that it flowed around her shoulders. “ those who murdered Marino will be watching you.” he felt her pulse jump, but not with fear. He recognized the difference between fear and excitement.
“ what do you know about Marino?”
“ they wont be bothered by the fact that you’re a woman, not if you’re in their way. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Unable to help herself, she leaned forward.
“ why?”
As helpless as she, he lifted both of her hands to his lips. He clutched them there, his grip painfully tight. “ you know why?”
“it isn’t possible.” but she didn’t, couldn’t pull away when he brushed a hand over her hair. “ I don’t know who you are. I don’t understand what you do.”
“ sometimes neither do I.”
She wanted badly to step into his arms, to learn what it was like to be held by him, to have his mouth on hers.
“ tell me what you know. About Marino, about this murder. Let me do my job.”
“ leave it alone. That’s all I have to say.”
“ you know something. I can see it, its you duty to tell me.”
“ I know my duty.”
She tossed her hair back. Attracted to him? Hell no, she was infuriated by him. “ sure hiding in shadows, dispensing your own personal sense of justice when and where it strikes. that’s not duty, captain bonehead, its ego.” when he didn’t respond, she let out a his of a breath and stepped toward him again. “ I could bring you up on charges for with holding information. This is police business, D.A.’s business, not a game.”
“ no, it isn’t a game.” his voice remained low, but she thought she caught hints of amusement and annoyance. “ but it has pawns. I wouldn’t like to see you used as one.”
“ I can take care of myself.”
“ so you continue to say. You’re out of your league this time, counselor. Leave it alone.” he stepped back.
“ just hold on.” she rushed forward, but he was gone.
“ damn it, I wasn’t finished arguing with you.” frustrated, she kicked the side of the building, missing his shin by inches. “ leave it alone,” she muttered. “ not on your life.”
