voice was husky with emotion when he said, “You’ve been true blue, Gif. Thanks.”
He disconnected, stared into the near distance for several seconds, then shook off his melancholia and passed Talia her phone. “Somebody was beeping in.”
She pulled up the number. “Third time today. I don’t recognize the number. Solicitation, no doubt.” She set aside her phone and reached for his hands, drawing them across the table toward her. “Drex—”
“We’ve been over it,” he said, interrupting what he knew would be another round of arguments, all reasonable, none he cared to go through again. “You’re not to get anywhere near that courthouse. If you show up in the courtroom—”
“What will you do?” she challenged.
“It’s what he’ll do that should worry you.”
“It does,” she exclaimed softly. “I worry about you. You’ve made yourself a target. Even your best friends don’t understand why.”
“Yeah, they do. They argue, but they understand.”
She turned his hand palm up. “You and your damn sense of honor.” She lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed the self-inflicted scar. “But I wouldn’t like you nearly as well if you didn’t hold to it.”
“Life’s crammed with cruel ironies like that.” He reached for a strand of her hair and rubbed it between his thumb and fingers. “I came down here in search of my nemesis, and discovered you. You were an unexpected lightning strike, Talia Shafer.”
“So were you, Drex Easton.”
“That last time…?” He arched his brow suggestively. “I liked the way you woke me up.”
“I thought you would never notice.”
He snuffled a laugh. “When a man is sleeping with a woman on top of him, and his cock starts being squeezed in that particular way, he tends to notice. Just so you know.”
She ducked her head coyly. “I’ll tuck that away for future reference.”
“I didn’t know how much I liked slow, sleepy sex.”
“That was my first time for it.”
“Mine, too. Which is why I didn’t know how much I liked it.” His gaze took a lazy tour down her front. “I had a particularly depraved encore planned for us.”
“Oh?”
“Hmm. Hell of a one.”
She reached across and poked her finger into his dimple. “Give me a hint.”
He turned his cheek toward her hand and captured her finger between his teeth. “It was going to start out tame enough, but would end up with you seeing God and screaming my name.”
“The imagination runs wild.”
He gave a rueful grin. “Sadly, it’ll have to keep. I’m off to the slammer.”
“Don’t make light of it.”
“I don’t,” he said solemnly. “Come here.” They leaned toward each other across the small table and brushed lips.
Mike chose that moment to barrel in. Seeing that he had interrupted a private moment, he halted, but only for a second before coming into the room and closing the door. “Met Menundez in the hall. He got this from the trunk of Gif’s car.” He dropped Drex’s duffel bag on the floor.
“My suit is rolled up in it. I wanted to appear in court looking a bit more respectable.”
“Locke’s given you ten minutes to change before heading downtown.”
“Did you get Gif’s key back from Menundez?”
Mike held up the fob.
“You and Talia go back to the hotel. We didn’t officially check out. See if you can get our rooms back.”
“What do we do there?” Mike asked.
“Wait for word.”
“You’re to babysit me,” Talia said sweetly.
Drex gave her a droll look, then went back to Mike. “Await word. With luck, you’ll be able to bail me out before dinnertime.”
“Okay, but fair warning. If Rudkowski gets another bee up his butt, I’m not going to talk him into throwing me in the clink, like a certain dumbass we know. I’m getting the hell gone from Dodge.”
“Noted. Now beat it, you two, so I can change.”
He went to the door and pulled it open. As Talia drew even with him, he said, “Don’t forget to turn off your phone. Mike will take the battery out for you.”
“As soon as I check my messages.” She looked at him with a combination of vexation and anxiety. There were a thousand things Drex wanted to say to her, but the cop posted outside the door was within hearing distance. She went out into the hallway without a further goodbye.
As Mike approached him, Drex put out a hand and, speaking for Mike’s ears alone, said, “If I’m incarcerated and Jasper remains at large, he’ll come after Talia. She’ll need a bodyguard, Mike.”
“That speech of mine about getting gone?” He batted it down with his large paw. “I won’t go