Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,181

bills in the back pocket of her jeans when she was going through a house.

Was that why Zeke had been so mean, so insulting, this morning? Because he was pissed that she took a tiny cut off the top? As if they didn’t all do that!

“What the fuck are you doing, Dina?” Zeke had said. “You got your man, lured him away from his wife.”

“Didn’t take much luring.” She’d taken a deep breath so that her quite impressive breasts became even more impressive. Not that it had any effect on Zeke. He’d taken her on as part of his crew because she had a knack for finding secret stashes as well as the gold jewelry, and at first she’d thought of him as more than a job opportunity, but his initial interest had faded, all because she’d flirted one evening with Fagen just to test the waters.

“You were there to help Kelley make the decision, weren’t you? But now you’re looking to do a lap dance with Larry when you couldn’t be bothered with him before? Why? Because he asked Sarah Gott to go to the movies with him this weekend? The moment he’s interested in someone else you’re hot to have him?”

“That’s crude, Zeke.”

“You’re damn right it is. Did you play the ‘how married is he?’ game where you were from? Well, you don’t play that game if you want to work for me. We don’t need any trouble here, and I don’t want to work with someone who wants to see if she can get past the zipper of every married man in town. And don’t think I’m not aware of how much you’ve been taking out of the houses on the sly.”

She’d given him her “I’m not a vanilla-sex kind of girl” smile. “But you haven’t told anyone.”

He’d looked angry and sad and, so much worse, disappointed. “Yeah, Dina, I have. I gave Tolya Sanguinati a list of the houses you’ve worked in case the attorneys reviewing the inventories of valuables report something missing that we should have turned in.”

Fucking bastard. It was tempting to start a rumor that the only reason Zeke and Fagen weren’t interested in sleeping with her was because they were banging each other, but Fagen was interested in Lila Gold and not keeping it a secret, and there were too many other Intuits in town who would contradict her and accuse her of trying to start trouble.

But if she had to turn in everything on the official jobs, she needed to boost her income at the houses Zeke wasn’t touching.

She turned into a driveway, got out of the car, and surveyed the house.

She liked Kelley. She did. He was a nice guy. It wasn’t her fault that he thought adding a little chocolate sauce to vanilla sex was totally adventurous while she liked a little rough and just a touch of mean. Since she wasn’t going to get that from Kelley, why couldn’t she scratch that itch with someone else? It was only sex, after all. And hadn’t he strayed with her, so what was the difference?

Taking two banker’s boxes out of the back seat, Dina studied the house again. Then she looked at the house across the street and two doors down—and knew that’s where she’d find what she was looking for.

* * *

* * *

Hearing a car pull into a driveway nearby, Judd went to the front window and eased the curtain aside. Recognizing the logo painted on the front doors, he swore quietly. Salvagers. He’d chosen this location because he’d had a strong feeling that the salvagers wouldn’t stray this far after finding Charlie Webb’s body, but it looked like he’d been wrong this time.

He watched the woman—one woman—get out of the car. Watched her retrieve boxes from the back seat. Watched her look at the house he’d chosen—and head his way.

No other cars. No other people. Dumb thing to do, coming out here on her own.

But even dumb people knew things. Besides, too many eyes could spot him during the day, and there were a lot of hours before nightfall.

He could think of a few ways she could entertain him. Afterward, he’d take the car and choose another house a couple of streets away. The car, with its logo, would provide him with camouflage and help him slip into town unseen when Parlan challenged the vampire for leadership of Bennett.

This fight for dominance was a risk, sure, but Judd had worked with Parlan long enough to know the