She sighed in irritation. “I told you, Little Mexico.”
“Yes, but where? Do you know Javier’s family?”
“No.”
“So what’s the game plan? Are we going to just drive through the neighborhood and shout out her name?”
Okay, she hadn’t planned her trip in detail. “I’m sure with graduation yesterday there are tons of homes with parties going on.”
“Who holds graduation at the end of June? Upstate we’re out of school before June.”
The left side of her upper lip curled not appreciating the backwoods dig at her hometown. The presidential election scandal back in the nineties, informants being killed on cases, and of course, the horrendous jury decisions, the press made a mockery of Florida. “Have you ever heard of a hurricane?”
Obnoxiously Dante belted out the chorus of the Scorpion’s early hit. Harley rolled her eyes to hide the laughter threatening when his hands started banging on her dashboard to the beat of the horrible rendition. Her husband was some sort of eighties head banger.
“So the plan is to hit every party?”
“I’ll hit the ones with the matching car.”
Dante turned in the passenger’s seat. “You know what car they’re driving? I thought Hannah didn’t own a car.”
“Wait a minute,” Harley wagged her index finger at him. “You found out about this yesterday yet you already know Hannah doesn’t have a car?”
“I move fast.”
“Hmm, don’t remind me,” she half laughed to cover her lie, and when the back of her head hit the headrest, a whiplash of desire whipped across her neck from the marathon sex. Two showers later and his fingers still stained her skin.
“Are you challenging me, Mrs. Rossi?”
“Not my name,” she sung, gripping the wheel. “You move fast on this case, what’s the ETA on our annulment?”
From the way his jaw gaped open, she had her answer. Dante’s laugh filled the front seat of the car. Harley liked the sound of it, though she’d never tell him. She had to be tired or something.
“Well in my defense, I’ve been busy.”
“Yet you managed to pull up Intel on Hannah?”
Dante stretched his long legs. Harley watched his lean boxers fill the front seat. His meaty fingers pressed the buttons on his phone. She listened to the series of beeps and tried to remember them, but he was too fast and turned the phone toward the light, out of her prying eyes.
“I need you to pull into the shopping center coming up.”
“I highly doubt they’re shopping,” Harley sighed.
“Not for them,” he swiped his hand down his naked torso, “but in my haste to catch a ride with you, I did not have a chance to put on the appropriate attire.”
A shiver of embarrassment rolled down her spine. In the short span in the car with him, Harley grew accustomed to his bare chest. Given his gorgeous sculpture, Harley figured Dante should be used to being naked. If the traffic held, they would arrive in Little Mexico in thirty minutes. She still planned on dumping him off somewhere. Now seemed to be the perfect time.
Without warning she made a sharp left into the parking lot of a strip mall. Dante gripped the armrest to brace himself as she whipped into a parking space in the lot between a gym and a popular discount clothing store. The shopping center sat catty-corner to the main road. Harley pointed the nose of the mustang toward the road for her easy exit, once Dante slipped inside the store.
“Glad you’re being such a dutiful wife,” Dante unsnapped his seatbelt with a laugh.
“Bite me,” Harley offered a sweet smile and her middle finger. “Take your time.”
Dante stepped out of the car and leaned across the seat. He had the darkest pair of eyes she’d ever seen on a man. The closer he got, the more she lost herself in them. The hair of his goatee surrounded his luscious mouth. She focused on the bit of gray peeking through his chin and wondered if she kissed him, would it tickle? Harley inhaled deeply in preparation of his kiss when his glance dropped to her mouth. Through half closed lids, she parted her lips.
Suddenly the car went silent. Dante yanked back and dangled her keys in front of her face before fumbling them into his waistband. “This is just in case you decide to leave while I’m inside.”
“I’d never,” she lied with a toothy smile.