Outfox

Locke wavered. “We’ve got to deliver Rudkowski something.” He looked at Talia. “He’s still hot to question you. That may pacify him for fifteen minutes.”

Drex turned to her. She asked, “Will it help you?”

“Honestly, I can’t guarantee that it will.”

She smiled and raised her shoulders. “He’ll track me down sooner or later. I had just as well get it over with.”

When Drex moved, it was as though he’d been spurred. He reached for Talia’s hand and pulled her up and out of her chair. “We’ll get our stuff and be right back.”

Responding to his haste, Talia shot up the stairs, Drex right behind her.

When they reached the landing, she pulled him into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. “What’s your plan?”

“Time’s short. I can’t lay it all out for you now.”

“You mean you won’t.”

“That’s right, I won’t. Listen,” he said before she could argue. “Did that recovered shoe or the untouched bank accounts convince you that Jasper is dead?”

“No.”

“No. If he wants to continue his illustrious career, he can’t afford to leave us alive. I don’t want him sneaking up on either of us like he did on Gif and Sara Barker. I’ve got to draw him out.”

“I understand that, but how—”

“The less you know—”

“Stop that! Tell me.”

He shook his head. “This has to be my thing.”

“Well, in case it’s slipped your mind, it’s also my thing.”

Immediately repentant, he said, “Of course. I’m sorry. That was a dumb thing to say. I made it your thing, didn’t I?”

She gripped his upper arms and shook him slightly. “No, Jasper did. I’ll never get back the year I spent with him, but I’ll be damned before I’ll let him control one more day of my life. Not if I can help it.”

“Help by trusting me.”

“I have to trust myself, Drex.” She flattened her hand against her chest. “I didn’t trust my instincts before. For all the reasons I’ve tried to explain, I suppressed my misgiving and lived with a man who is innately evil. Now, every instinct I have is screaming for me to trust you. But am I in denial again because of my sexual attraction to you? You say you’re a good guy, but you operate outside the law. So do I doubt my instincts, or trust them?”

“Trust them.” He cupped her face. “My methods are dodgy. I bend rules. I break them. But I’m a good guy.”

“Those dodgy methods scare me.”

“I understand. But remember what scares me most? I told you that day you came up to the apartment.”

“Failure.”

“Failure. Failure to catch him.”

There was a hard rap on the door, and Locke shouted through it, “Easton!”

“Be right there,” he shouted back. Then in a whisper, “My worst fear is that Jasper will slip through my fingers, that it will be generally accepted that he drowned, that I’m a crackpot, that the missing button connection is bunk. Then, when nobody’s looking for him any longer, he’ll come back to finish you. I’ve got to end this, Talia, and I’ve got to end it now. You can doubt my methods, but don’t doubt my purpose.”

She looked deeply into his eyes, then nodded, and said huskily, “I do trust in that.”

He aligned his forehead with hers and whispered a heartfelt thank you, then said, “Sexual attraction, huh?” He pulled her to him and kissed her deeply, his hand on her bottom, pulling her close. She dug her fingers into his hair. The brevity of the kiss only heightened the passion behind it.