Perfect Victim (Nadia Stafford 3.6)

"Can't. So what's the alternative? A hotel room? An apartment? Someplace we can't control access?"

"Her house is a known quantity," I said. "We have complete control over it, and we can do anything we want to it, which we can't with a rented room. Honestly, with the police here at night, the chance of her being targeted at home again is minimal. It's much higher at work."

Cypher glowered at me. "That does not make me feel better."

"You know what will make you feel better? Catching this bastard. Which is what I'm trying to do . . . when I'm not dealing with idiots throwing bullets at us."

"Slingshot. Throwing it would be stupid. It'd just bounce off the ground."

I pitched the bullet at him and walked away.

Chapter Fifteen

Jack

They were on their second drink. Mai tais, which Jack had never had before, not being much of a drinker, and definitely not one inclined to anything that came with an umbrella. He'd been missing out. These were good. Strong, too. Which meant Nadia had relaxed and was no longer muttering about new places to shove Cypher's slingshot.

They sat on their hotel room balcony, overlooking the beach, Jack having grabbed the drinks from the poolside bar and then gone for seconds when they finished those. Nadia had hesitated--both of them knowing not to drink too much on the job. But Cypher was watching over Angela tonight as were the cops, and Nadia's only "work" involved a laptop and pages from Angela's office. So she'd accepted the second drink along with a bowl of macadamia nuts.

She'd also changed into her bikini, a new purchase from this morning. They'd popped into a store, and he might have said, "Those are nice." She'd hesitated. Nadia really wasn't the bikini type. But then she'd said, "What the hell" and tried on a few, and while he doubted she'd wear it farther than this balcony, he was just fine with th

at.

Hawaii had never been on his list of post-retirement trips. Lazing around the beach wasn't his style. It wasn't Nadia's either. They liked doing things, exploring, discovering. But he had to admit, this was pretty damned close to perfect. Warm evening, a strong drink, Nadia lying beside him in a bikini while he enjoyed the scenery, his new sunglasses ensuring she didn't notice exactly where his attention lay.

When she reached over absently for more nuts, he caught her hand and squeezed it, and she smiled at him. Then he twisted the cheap gold band on her finger.

"I like this," he said.

Her smile returned. "You do, huh?"

"I do."

She opened her mouth, as if to say something, and then stopped short, and he knew she'd been on the verge of teasing him about getting a real one, and that wasn't possible. He hadn't used his real name in years, no longer had any ID under it, couldn't risk getting it. Which meant marriage wasn't an option. So she just squeezed his hand with a softer smile, before saying, "It's past dinner time. You getting hungry?"

"Soon. Got any feelings about room service?"

"I am very fond of room service, especially if it means I don't have to dress and go out."

"Then we're eating in. Find anything there?" He pointed at the pages.

"I'm working on it. Give me another twenty minutes, and then we'll order dinner and talk."

"No rush," he said and settled into his chair, watching that gold band wink in the sunlight as she typed.

Chapter Sixteen

Nadia

I am not a detective.

I needed to write that on sticky notes and plaster them everywhere. The deeper I dug into this case, the more keenly I became aware of my overreaching. Yes, I'd solved crimes before, but only because they landed in my lap and, in every case, either no one else was investigating, or I had information the police did not. In other words, I'd had an advantage that overcame my shortcomings.

That wasn't the situation here. This was a high-profile case, being investigated by a capable metropolitan police force with the help of an equally capable private investigator. If the Honolulu Police Department and Howard Lang couldn't solve it, how the hell could I?

I'd bitten off more than I could chew, and the worst was that I'd blithely accepted Cypher's offer without even stopping to consider that.

Nadia Stafford, the professional killer who is mostly at peace with her job, but every now and then, must appease her niggling conscience with tasks that are beyond-any-doubt righteous.