Into the Fury (BOSS, Inc. #1)(47)

“I don’t know. You’ve got a thing for Ethan. What do you think?”

“God, I don’t know either. I can’t figure out what it is about him that attracts me so strongly.”

Meg laughed. “Besides the fact he’s smart, gorgeous, has the ultimate male body, and the superhero protective gene?”

Val managed to smile. “Yeah, besides that. Maybe they attract us just because we’re so dependent on them. I mean, two women are dead. We could be next. Without Ethan and Dirk, we’d be a lot more vulnerable.”

“Yeah, if it weren’t for Ethan and Dirk, we’d have to pander to Beau Desmond’s ego or screw Bick Gallagher.” She grinned, tipped her head toward the back of the bus where Bick was sitting, and did a fake shiver, making Val smile.

“So . . . are you going to do it?” Meg asked.

“Do what?”

“Sleep with Ethan.”

Val’s skin went warm just thinking about it. “I kissed him this morning. Totally an accident and completely my fault. It was after he told me about the murder. I was pretty shook up and it just sort of happened.”

Meg glanced around, then leaned closer. “Okay, dish. How was it?”

Val grinned. “Incredible. Scale of one to ten—it was a fifty.”

Meg started fanning herself. “If I kiss Dirk, I’m going to combust. I just know it.”

Val’s grin faded. “Until someone catches this killer, we need to let them do their jobs. We don’t want anyone else getting killed.”

“You’re right. Maybe when this is over we can think about having sex with them.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Meg’s cell started ringing. She pulled it out of her purse and pressed it against her ear, started smiling. “It’s my mom.” They talked for a while. Meg told her mother about the second murder but said it didn’t have anything to do with the models, which was kind of a stretch, but Meg wouldn’t want her mother to worry.

“She’s putting Charlie on the phone,” Meg said, her smile even brighter. She talked to her little boy for a while, told him Mommy loved him, and finally ended the call. When Meg looked away, her eyes were sad.

“I can’t get involved with Dirk. I have a little boy to think of. If Dirk started coming around, Charlie would get attached to him. Dirk isn’t a kid person. He rides a Harley, for God’s sake. When things ended between us—which eventually they would—Charlie would be crushed. Just like when his daddy left. I can’t let that happen to him again.”

Val made no reply. She didn’t have a child, but if she got involved with Ethan, she had a heart that could very well get broken.

We’re all just conquests to Ethan.

After being around the tough teen boys she’d grown up with, then modeling in front of an audience full of hungry males, she knew most of them thought exactly that way. A woman was an object to be conquered, nothing more.

Besides, she didn’t want to distract Ethan from doing his job, part of which was working to find a killer.

She didn’t want to be the cause of another woman’s death. Maybe even hers or Meg’s.

She had to leave Ethan alone.





Chapter Eighteen



Ethan spent the following morning with Heath Ford, meeting him for breakfast downtown at the Copper Kettle Café, not far from the police station.

“You were right,” Heath said from across the red vinyl booth where the two of them sat waiting for their orders to arrive. “The guy’s definitely not in the system. No DNA, no fingerprints, zip, zero, nada.”

Ethan nodded. “I had a hunch. The crime scene was chaos. It was almost like he was leaving clues on purpose, daring us to find him.”

“We’re looking for similar cases—homicides or unsolved rapes—particularly anywhere in the Dallas area.”

“He thinks he’s too smart to get caught.”

“Then he’s in for a big surprise.”

Ethan took a drink of his coffee, set the heavy china mug back down on the Formica-topped table. In the background, the clatter of silverware competed with friendly conversation. “You talk to the other girls at the club?”

“Talked to them all,” Heath said, picking up his mug and blowing across the top to cool it down. “Got nothing we could use.”

“No one hanging around, giving Mandy or the girls any trouble?”

“We got a few names. Guys who could get a little pushy. They’re either in the system or have valid alibis. Got nothing that matches the evidence left at the crime scene.”

“What about surveillance tapes? Someone lurking in the parking lot? Someone around Mandy’s car?”

Heath just shook his head.

The waitress arrived, a saucy little blonde. “Bacon and eggs for you, cowboy,” she said to Ethan, setting the hot plate in front of him. The delicious aroma made Ethan’s stomach rumble.

“The usual for you, Detective.” The glance the woman cast at Heath said she was at least half-smitten. “Corned beef hash and eggs over easy, just the way you like.”

Heath winked at her as she set his breakfast in front of him. “Thanks, Sissy.”

“My pleasure,” she said in a sultry drawl that suggested she had already had the pleasure in a lot more personal ways.