Strangers in Death (In Death #26)(89)

“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 grinned over at a very cold-eyed Eve.

“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 f**king hundred dollars.”

“Looks like you’ll be buying dinner tonight.”

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 gonna move this crap ride or leave it here all damn night?”

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 manner. She might have killed Anders if her reasons were strong enough, but she’d never have left him to choke to death.”

“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 dinner because I’m tapped, and we can get it free at home. Give Sulky and his friend Stupid another ten, will you?”

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 tenners, and your considerable wrath. Now why should you be tapped?”

“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.”