Strangers In Death

“Why is that?”

“Bitch got stones. She’s got cold, hard stones.”

They were done. Roarke knew Eve’s rhythm well enough to know she’d written Cassie off. But he was curious. “Why are you working here? You could make more in a classier place.”

“I can’t dance worth shit.” She said it cheerfully. “Classier places expect classier strippers. I got this.” She opened her robe, revealing a curvy body that showed some wear. “It’s good, but it ain’t great. I go more upscale,” she continued, absently tying the robe again, “they’d want me to get the shifting parts put back in place. Here, they don’t care about that, long as you put in your rounds and pull in your quota of bj’s and hand-jobs upstairs.

“I can work days, and be home at night with my girl. Not a lot of places going to let me call that shot. And I don’t work weekends, because I’m with my kid. It’s a trade-off. It’s worth it. She’s worth it. You’re going to see her take gold in the Olympics one day. She’s a freaking champion.”

“Gracie Gordon. I’ll remember. Appreciate the time.” Eve took a step toward the door, and Roarke slipped a money clip out of his pocket, peeled off bills.

“Shit a brick, you carry like that?” Sheer shock covered Cassie’s face. “In this neighborhood?”

“I carry as I please. There’s the five, and one extra. For the champion.”

Cassie stared at the six hundreds in her hand. “You’re all right, Blue Eyes.” She lifted her head to look into them. “You’re all right, down the line. You ever want a free bang, you got one coming.”

“It would, no doubt be a memorable bang. But my wife is fiercely jealous and territorial.” He gri

“Her? You? That’s a kick in the ass.”

“Every damn day,” Eve muttered, and strode out.

She kept striding, out of the club, back into the comparatively fresh air of the city street. And fisted her hands on her hips as she spun to him. “Did you have to do the ‘my wife’ crap?”

His grin remained, and only widened. “I did, yes. I felt a desperate need for your protection. I believe that woman had designs on me.”

“I’ll put a design on you that won’t come off in the shower.”

“See, now I’m excited.” Reaching out, he toyed with the lapel of her coat. “What have you got in mind?”

“And you gave her six fucking hundred dollars.”

“Looks like you’ll be buying di

She made a sound, a kind of grinding grunt as she fisted her hands in her hair and yanked. No wonder she got headaches, he mused.

“Look, King of the World, you’ve got no business giving some stripper who’s also a suspect six bills.”

“Isn’t that the Power of Roarke?” he countered. “And I didn’t give her the six for the very intriguing flash. And,” he continued, giving her a quick poke, “she stopped being a suspect, a serious one, the minute you saw her backhand that drunk degenerate in the club.”

Before she could argue, the grunt in the doorway yelled out, “Hey, cop. You go

She only turned her head, burned him to silence with one stare. “If she makes six bills in six rounds in that dump I’ll go up and dance on a pole.”

“As much as I’d enjoy seeing that-in fact, am in my head at this moment-I’m forced to agree. But it’s neither here nor there. She named the five, I agreed to it. The sixth was for the child, and she’ll see the child gets it. I admire and respect a woman who does the necessary, whatever it might be, for her child.”

She let out a breath, and it was the wind coming out of her sails. He’d thought of his mother, of course, Eve realized. Of what she’d suffered and sacrificed. Of what she’d died for. “Still,” she said because she couldn’t think of anything else. “And why did I take her off the list when she knocked that jerk out of his chair?”

“Because you saw, as I did, a direct woman who handles business in a straightforward ma

“You should’ve been a cop.”

“You’re just saying that to get back at me for the ‘my wife’ comment. We’ll consider ourselves even.”

She considered. “I’m not buying di

When he joined her in the car, she gave him a smirk. “Bet you didn’t give them a tip.”

“Actually, I did. It was that if they ever saw this particular crap ride in the neighborhood again, they should remember the pair of te

“What? Oh. I don’t know. Because people keep wanting money for stuff. Buy a damn Pepsi, they expect some coin. Bastards.”

“How much shagging Pepsi do you drink?”

“I don’t know. Plus there’s, you know, stuff that comes up. Weasels to pay off.”

“Weaseling is departmentally covered in your budget.”

Her lips curled. “Yeah, and by the time I get the kickback from that I’ll be retired and taking hula lessons in Maui. What is this, an inquisition?”

“I don’t understand why-and yes, I’m saying it, so suck it up-my wife is walking around tapped. Make a bloody withdrawal from your account, or ask me for a bit of the ready.”

“Ask you for…” Fortunately, the light turned red, forcing her to stop. It was marginally safer to swing around and glare at him while stopped. “I’ll be damned if I’ll ask you for money.”

“You just asked me for ten to pay your street thug.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“Because…It wasn’t for me, it was for him. I’ll put in a chit for it, pay you back.”

“While we’re taking those hula lessons, possibly eating poi. Don’t be an idiot.”

“Call me an idiot again, all you’ll be able to eat is poi, seeing as you’ll be missing most of your teeth.”

“I didn’t call you an idiot, I told you not to be one,” he snapped back. “And if you don’t drive this bleeding car we’ll have a riot on our hands.”

She supposed the explosions going on in her head had blocked out the blaring horns. She zipped through the light, steamed up the next few blocks, then swung back when she hit the next red. “I’ve been handling my own ready all my life and I don’t need a freaking allowance from my daddy. I do just fine.”

“Obviously, since you’re walking about with empty pockets.”

“I got the plastic, don’t I?”

The look he gave her would have withered stone. “How things must’ve changed since I was ru

He had her there. “So I didn’t get around to pulling out a little cash the last few days. So what? I don’t know why you’re so pissed about it.”

“You don’t, no. Quite obviously, you don’t.”

The fact that he didn’t add to that, said nothing at all as she fought and maneuvered her way uptown, told her he wasn’t just pissed, he was over the line into furious.

She didn’t get it, didn’t get it, didn’t get it. How had they gone from perfectly fine to taking a few acceptable pokes at each other to furious?

So now he sat there, ignoring her, working with his PPC again. Probably prying into her bank account to see what an idiot she was in his gazillionaire opinion. Snapping and slapping at her because she’d run a little short between paydays.

So the fuck what?

She picked at it, gnawed at it, brooded over it the rest of the way. When she stopped in front of the house, when they got out of opposite sides of the car, she stood with the car between them. “Look-”

“No, you’re going to need to look, Eve. We’ll go inside so that you do.”

Since he strode away, she had little choice but to follow. Don’t need this now, she thought. Don’t need some marital knot to unravel when I’ve got work. She always had work, a little voice reminded her, and did nothing but make her feel guilty.