Cold & Deadly (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1)(91)
Rooney laughed. “I do, but you’ll need to talk to Alex about heels.”
He chuckled and saw the uncertainty lingering in Ava’s eyes. “What dress and shoe size are you?” he mouthed to Ava.
She told him using her fingers.
“Anything in a dress size six and a shoe size seven will work. Agent Kanas is accompanying me to my father’s engagement party tonight and is in need of something to wear.” He didn’t qualify that she’d be his bodyguard. He wanted her there as his date.
“I’ll need something where I can access my gun,” Ava added.
Dominic repeated that to Rooney, and she promised to deliver something to his apartment that night because she was planning to be in DC anyway. He gave her his address. “So, what’s the bad news?” he asked. Because he doubted Rooney would be calling in the middle of the night with anything good.
“Someone trashed the windows at the back of your house.”
“Anyone get hurt?”
“No. And by the time the local cops arrived the vandal was gone.”
“You think it was the UNSUB.”
“Yes.”
He dragged his hand down his face. “I thought it was over.” He wanted it to be all over. For Sandy and Fernando to be safe, for him to get back to living a normal life. The unsettling thought of Ava not being in it swirled confusingly in his brain. They still had tonight. It wasn’t over yet.
“Any update on DNA or lab work or Robin Elgin’s cell phone data?”
“Frazer plans to go lean on the lab today until they give him answers.”
Dominic winced. He wouldn’t want Frazer hounding him, but damn, they needed results.
He realized it was really early and she probably wasn’t even at work yet. “I’ll call my cleaning company to come do clean up and get a glazier in there ASAP to board up until they can fit new glass. Call me if there’s any news and thanks for everything. I owe you.”
He hung up and tossed the cell behind him. There were so many things he should be doing. Returning all those missed calls. Talking to Sandy to check on Ben, talking to Gross about what the FBI had dug up at the cabin. Needling Lincoln Frazer about any other developments and checking in at CNU. Instead he ran his finger over Ava’s eyebrows, lingering on the scar on her forehead, then down her nose and across her petal-soft lips.
Down the graceful length of her neck, over her winged collarbones which he found unreasonably attractive. Her breasts were full and pert. Begging for a little attention which he willingly administered. Allowing the hunger to grow, fanning the flames, but carrying on with his exploration all the way down to her toes, which he kissed one at a time.
She watched him, eyes bright as glass. And when he finally started to make his way back up her body, she turned the tables on him before he could sample the tasty bits. She flipped him on his back.
He told himself he could take her if he had to, but from the firm grip she had on him and the fact she knew how to fight dirty, he wasn’t sure he was being honest. There were a lot of things Dominic was pretty sure he wasn’t being honest with himself about in regards to Ava Kanas and as her lips closed over him and he lost his mind for the third time that night, he was starting to wonder what would be so bad about having a proper relationship with this woman?
As long as his heart wasn’t involved, as long as he kept the most vital part of himself separate, so that if and when she left him, he wouldn’t be completely destroyed. Maybe, just maybe, they could make this work.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ava would rather go head-to-head with the Russian Bratva than dress up and mingle with the Washington elite.
They drove to the CNU office in Quantico so Dominic could finish the reports and paperwork arising from the prison siege.
She’d checked the documents to reassure herself there was no mention of her name, nor any reference to the Resident Agency where she usually worked. In deference to the Witness Protection Program the FBI had simply labeled her a “trainee negotiator.” Aside from the personnel at CNU and the few Hostage Rescue Team agents she’d talked to at the prison no one knew her identity. She’d spoken to her family and they’d supported her decision to save the warden from being raped by Gino Gerbachi. They’d also promised to take extra precautions, but the community was tight-knit, and they didn’t exactly list their addresses in the phone book. Anonymity was their friend. It had been from the moment the mob had murdered her father in cold blood.
Once she and Dominic left Quantico, they headed to DC for the party, getting caught in nightmare traffic, and arriving with not a lot of time to spare. Ava scrambled into the shower, washed and conditioned her hair, scrubbed herself clean and shaved with Dominic’s razor.
Then she blow-dried her hair and pulled on her panties, but there was no way she could wear a bra with the almost-backless, low-cut, lace and chiffon, lavender gown Mallory Rooney had dropped off.
Rooney also thought to bring shoes, jewelry, a purse that Ava could fit her Glock in and a few items of makeup.
Ava would have to remember to buy the woman flowers because she’d been dreading the idea of this party for many reasons but mostly this one. She didn’t know what was appropriate to wear in these situations and certainly couldn’t afford clothes like this. It demonstrated exactly how different she and Dominic were in regards to everything outside work—and if they ever had a real relationship, they wouldn’t be allowed to work together either.