The secretary’s eyes narrowed to slits. The purplish fingernails curled toward her palms like claws. “Why, that two-timing, slimy, horny little shit!”
* * *
Jade watched Dillon Burke as he was escorted through a door and led to a desk where he signed a receipt for his belongings. As he strapped on his wristwatch, the desk sergeant said something to him that brought his head around. He looked at Jade with that disturbing intensity she had first noticed through the binoculars.
Beneath dense brows, his hazel eyes regarded her suspiciously. They moved from the top of her head to the toes of her black eel pumps and back up again. It took all her willpower not to squirm.
“Are you sure?” she heard him ask the police sergeant when he turned back around.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, buddy. Go on, get out of here before we change our minds.”
Jade stood up, surprised to discover that her knees were unsteady. She didn’t like police stations. They were too reminiscent of the night she had spent in the interrogation room at the Palmetto County courthouse. She hadn’t been surprised to read that Hutch now occupied the office once held by his father.
“Mr. Burke?” she said as she approached him. “Will you come with me, please?”
When he quizzically tilted his head to one side, his long hair brushed his shoulder. “What for? Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Jade Sperry. Please?” She gestured toward the door. Her blue eyes didn’t flinch from his hard stare, though it was disconcerting. “As the sergeant said, they might change their minds and decide to keep you overnight. This way.”
She moved toward the entrance, giving the false impression that she was confident he would follow her. For all she knew, as soon as they cleared the door, he would bolt and she would never see him again. To her relief, he fell into step beside her.
She led him to the limousine parked at the curb. The chauffeur hastened to open the back door for them. She offered to let Burke precede her. He hesitated only a few seconds before getting into the plush backseat. The limo was an extravagance, she knew. But she wanted him flabbergasted and humbled by the good fortune that had miraculously befallen him. She wanted him to say yes to her proposition.
Jade reached for the electric button that raised the glass partition between the chauffeur and the backseat. Saying nothing, Burke followed her motions with watchful eyes.
The limo pulled into traffic and glided through it as soundlessly as a silver snake. Jade crossed her legs, then wished she hadn’t. Her stockings made a
silky-scratchy sound in the silence. Burke looked down at her legs, then raised an inquisitive gaze to her face.
To cover her nervousness, Jade opened her purse and took out a pack of cigarettes and a new lighter. “Cigarette?”
“I don’t smoke.”
“Oh.” She laughed with self-derision as she set the cigarettes and lighter on the small built-in bar of the limo. “I’ve seen too many movies, I guess.”
“Movies?”
“Whenever a prisoner is brought out, the first thing he’s offered is a cigarette. I bought some, thinking… this is the first time I’ve gotten anybody out of jail.”
With a cynical eye, he gazed around the lush interior of the limo. “This is a first for me, too.”
“You’ve never been in jail before?”
He turned to her abruptly, startling her with the unexpected movement. “Have you?”
He seemed very large and very close, and suddenly she doubted the wisdom of her impulsiveness. She recalled how quickly he had attacked Matthias when the belt was removed from his hands. His sheer physicality frightened her, but she didn’t recoil, for she supposed that’s what he wanted her to do. He was trying to intimidate her, probably because he felt intimidated himself.
“I’ve never been incarcerated, no,” she answered evenly.
He subjected her to another slow, thorough once-over. “Somehow I didn’t think so.”
“Does the cut over your eye hurt?” It was no longer bleeding, but the wound still looked fresh.
“I’ll live.” He slouched in the seat, setting his eyes forward again toward the tinted pane of glass that separated them from the driver. “Where are we going?”
“I thought you might be hungry. Will you join me for dinner?”
“Dinner?” he asked with a mirthless smile. He looked down at his workclothes and boots. “I’m not exactly dressed for any place fancy.”