Any Way You Want Me - By Jamie Sobrato Page 0,58

there’s an investigative method you can’t use when you carry an FBI badge. Yet another advantage of going civilian.”

Alex wanted to protest, but he’d asked for it. He’d behaved reprehensibly, and there was no point denying it.

“I can’t say I’ll let it happen again. It was a stupid thing to do.”

“Hey, man, I bet she’s one of the hottest little mistakes you’ll ever make.”

Alex looked out at the passing traffic, wishing he were anywhere but here bullshitting about the woman who confused him more than anything or anyone else. He didn’t like hearing Ty sum up their relationship the way he had.

“You ever hear from Kinsey?” Ronald Kinsey had been dismissed from the same field office as Alex two days after Alex’s resignation. Caught in the same fallout as Alex, he’d been accused of tampering with case evidence, among other lesser infractions.

“Not a word from him.”

Alex had wondered if Kinsey had been the one trying to pin guilt on Yasmine, but he’d probably never know now.

“Listen, it’s been good talking. I’ll look into this issue with Talbot. Thanks for bringing it to me.”

“You’ll let me know if you come up with anything?”

“As soon as I’m able to talk, I will. It’s the least I can do.”

Alex left the restaurant not exactly feeling the sense of closure he’d hoped to find, but at least he had some hope now that he had finally done the right thing. He sat in his car and waited for Ty to leave, then followed him from a few car lengths, curious to see where Ty would go next. He was relieved to see that his former colleague went straight to the office. And he realized as he sat in his car staring at the FBI building in which he’d once worked that this was truly the end.

Case closed. He’d be a lunatic to continue searching for clues that weren’t there, following hunches based on no solid facts.

He said a silent goodbye to his old life, pulled out into traffic and drove away.

ONLY TWO DAYS after Alex had left Virtual Active, Yasmine was having serious withdrawal symptoms. She had trouble sleeping, she’d been eating too much, and she couldn’t stop replaying their weekend together in her head.

Okay, sure, they shouldn’t see each other anymore, so technically, his leaving had been a good thing.

But tell that to her body. And her heart.

Her heart had decided, without consulting her brain, that Kyle was the man for her and that she was falling head over heels in love. For once she was pretty damn sure she’d found a guy who was attracted to her—all of her, and not just her appearance.

Not in the mood for exercise or explanations about why her office hottie had disappeared, Yasmine had tried every possible excuse to get out of going to Pilates class with Cass, but in the end she’d lost the argument.

Now, though, having spent the past few days with a growing sense of unease, she was just glad for Cass’s company. Another heavy-breathing phone call in the middle of the night two nights ago had set her nerves on edge. At first she’d thought Kyle was calling to have phone sex, but after a minute had passed and all she’d heard was breathing, she realized it definitely wasn’t Kyle. It was the same creep who’d been calling her all along.

And last night she’d watched a car pull up outside her apartment—the same white car she’d seen there before—then sit for hours without anyone getting out, as far as she could tell. She’d gotten another phone call, this one silent, and she couldn’t help wondering if it had come from the mystery car. She was probably just being paranoid.

She and Cass sat on their mats on the glossy wood floors of Studio Fitness and waited for the lithe, ridiculously flexible instructor named Noni to appear and lead them through a series of exercises that promised to leave Yasmine unable to take deep breaths without feeling it in her abs for several days.

“What is it with you and your opposition to exercise?”

“It’s not exercise I dislike so much as it is this form of exercise. I mean, all this damn rolling and crunching—it’s just not healthy,” Yasmine whispered.

“Look around you. Do these people not look healthy?”

“Please name one occasion where I’ll ever need to fold myself in half and touch my toes to the floor over my head.”

“That’s not the point, but I can think of interesting uses for that pose.”

Cass had been