Careful What You Kiss For (30 page)

Milo, arms folded across his chest and his mouth set in a tight line, didn’t move. Tensley wondered where the boundaries were. If there were any.

She scanned the dim lighting for more customers. Just how many people were back here?

Bam
. The door was pushed shut from above her, nearly catching her fingers. “Hey!” she protested as she pulled them away. Then she realized that whoever was above her, whoever had caught her and shut the door, just might be very pissed.

And confidential informant Tensley just might be in one hell of a lot of trouble.

Slowly, her heart pounding, Tensley sat back on the floor and let her eyes travel upward. Tawny glowered down, hands on her hips. “I cannot believe,” the woman said, each word shot like a BB from a gun, “you are this stupid.”

“I — ” What? “Heard a noise. I came to see what it was.”
And just who do you think you’re calling stupid?

“Uh huh.” Tawny’s eyes narrowed. “From out at the bar, over the music playing, the people, and the clapping, you heard a noise. All the way back here.”

“I wasn’t at the bar. I was taking a break.” She sounded, to her own ears, like a kid caught without a hall pass. She clenched her fists, as if that would help anything.

“Get up,” Tawny ordered. “You’re damn lucky I’m not calling Gary to tell him what you’ve been doing, but I’m only giving your skinny ass one chance. I catch you back here again and you’ll be sorry. You understand me?”

Tensley unlocked her fists and fumbled her way to standing up. “Yes.” She started to walk away, but stopped mid-step. She paused, then turned back. “Tawny.”

The other woman had her hand on the door. “What the hell do you not understand about ‘get out of here,’” she bit out.

“Would this sort of thing be considered extra time?”

Tawny’s jaw muscles tightened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tensley steeled herself for one more try. “Sarah said she was getting extra time to help pay her bills. I have bills. I could use,” she cleared her throat, trying to hide her nerves, “more time. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Her inner alarm bells began to clang so loud, she was sure Tawny could hear them. No, she wouldn’t do whatever it took. She might not even do
some
of what it took. But the other woman’s answer might help her get Max the information he needed to get Tensley the hell out of this place.

“You’re fucking crazy.”

It took everything she had, but Tensley squared her shoulders and pretended her breathing was normal. “I saw what’s going on in there and I’m pretty sure those guys are paying a nice premium for the extra service and that Gary pays more to girls who work that room and keep their mouths shut about it.
That’s
what I’m talking about.”

Tawny turned to face her, nostrils flaring. “You making a threat there, Pollyanna?”

Tensley’s knees locked. “No,” she hastened to say. Beads of sweat began trickling down the back of her neck.

“It sure as hell sounded like it.”

It
had
sounded like that, which was damn brave, not to mention stupid, of her. Tensley decided to change her approach, ignoring the quiver in her voice. “Just think about it. You know I’m one of the best dancers here. And I can do other things well, too.”

Oh crap
. She hadn’t just said that. Yes, she had. “I mean, you wouldn’t know that just from seeing me on stage, but I’ve had pretty good … ” Stop her mouth. Stop it right now. “ … feedback, so I’m pretty sure I could pick things up fast and — ”

“Shut. Up. Just stop talking.”

“But you’ll think about — ” She squeezed her eyes shut, pretty sure she didn’t want to hear the answer. After a few seconds of silence, she opened one eye.

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” Tawny pointed one long, daggered finger down the hall behind Tensley. “Get out.”

“Okay.” Tensley turned and began walking down the hall. “I’m going. You don’t have to worry about me.” Of course not. Only Tensley had to worry about Tensley.

How the hell did she know how far she would be expected to go in that room? But here she was, offering herself up like she was take-out dinner. She threw her hands up in the air as she teetered along at a fast clip. God help her, it had better be enough to tell Max this was going on.

She’d have to see him again to tell him this. And she’d have to manage that without demanding to know how Rhonda figured into his life. Or wishing she could fall back into Max’s arms and into his bed.

Not going to be easy. But then nothing about this life was.

• • •

Max fought to keep his composure when he heard Tensley’s voice on the other end of the line. He wanted to leap through the phone and pull her into his arms; he wanted to plead with her to understand what had happened with Rhonda; he wanted to make hot love to Tensley all night and all day, until neither one of them could remember Rhonda’s name, much less find the strength to say it.

He did none of those things. Instead, he used his clipped cop voice to respond, with only as many words as he had to. He couldn’t give Carl or anyone else in the police department even a hint of what had gone on between the two of them or he could kiss his job goodbye.

Tensley was his informant. That was it. End of story. So why the hell couldn’t he shake the really bad idea that it could be the
beginning
of the story?

He had no desire to return to high school. Tons of guys did that kind of thing, screwing around on their wives with their old girlfriends, maybe to go back to their glory days, when they didn’t have to worry about jobs or mortgages or kids or whatever it was that threw them back into the letterman’s jacket. He wasn’t one of those guys.

The teenage girl he’d loved and wronged had become a woman who turned his heart inside out and put his dick in a permanent flagpole position. He’d never come across any woman who could combine confidence with naiveté the way she did, turning lovemaking into one hell of a lot of explosive fun.

He’d also never met a stripper with as much raw courage as Tensley. Most of them had their defenses up so high, you’d have to have NASA’s help to scale the walls. And they expected something in exchange for their trouble. Tensley didn’t. All she’d wanted was for him to stay with her. Be with her.

The one thing he couldn’t do.

Enough. He told Tensley to meet him at a coffeeshop across town, instead of at Sol’s. Last thing he needed right now was Rhonda showing up again unannounced.

He stood, shoving his phone into his pocket and pulling his jacket over his gun so it didn’t show.

“Where you goin’?” Carl asked.

“Got a lead.”

“Then hold on. I’m coming with you.”

Max stopped, keys in hand, blinking at the detective. “I’ve got this.”

“Sure you do, Sunshine.” The older man held up his own keys. “I’m driving.”

“Seriously — ”

“You seriously need your hearing checked.” Carl’s eyes narrowed. “You got a lead. We’re checking it out together. Now get moving.”

All Max could do was grunt his assent. And hope that whatever was still between him and Tensley wouldn’t be apparent to the untrained eye.

Except — Fuck it all. Carl’s eye was highly trained.

• • •

Tensley was sitting in a corner of the coffeeshop when Max strode in, Carl close on his heels. In spite of his size, the guy could move pretty fast when he wanted to. But you would always hear him coming. He had the footstep of an elephant.

Max didn’t say anything to Tensley, just slid into a wooden chair across from her, beneath a poster shouting about a new kind of coffee. He caught Tensley’s eye, hoping to signal her to say nothing in front of Carl that might give them away as more than informant and cop.

Wasn’t necessary. The gaze she turned on him was cool and removed. “Detective Hunter,” she said by way of hello.

A part of him was disappointed. He acknowledged her with a jerk of his head. “You have something for me?”

She slid a piece of paper across the battered surface of the wooden table. “Found these phone numbers in Gary’s office.”

He smoothed the crumpled paper. “I’ll check them out.” He could feel Carl waiting by his side, his breath sounding uneven. Could just about read the guy’s thoughts. He’d bet his life Carl had never seen a CI who looked like Tensley. They usually came with tracks, tattoos and sometimes missing teeth. “Anything else?”

“Yes.”

Silence. He hesitated and then glanced up, realizing she’d been waiting for him to look her in the eye. The non-cop part of him took in everything, the shiny auburn hair brushing the shoulders he wanted to cradle, the tiny dip at the end of her nose, the green eyes, with flecks of hazel, that saw right through everything he was or had ever pretended to be. The woman who saw the secret dream he couldn’t share with anyone else. And made him believe it could actually happen.

The cop part of him — right now he hated that guy — said, “So spill. Haven’t got all day.”

“There’s another part of the club. In a room way at the back. Not sure about everything that’s going on in there, but it looks like you can pay extra and get extra.” Her eyes narrowed. “If you know what I mean.”

Max’s heart sped up. “You’re kiddin’ me.”

“I am not.”

Carl’s grunt sounded skeptical. “How do you know?”

Max was one muscle flex away from knocking Carl off the chair he was torturing with his bulk. Instead, he took a deep breath and, his gaze never leaving Tensley’s, attempted to reframe the question. “How do you know?” At least his tone was less obnoxious than Carl’s. He hoped, anyway.

“I snuck back there and opened the door. There didn’t seem to be any restrictions on touching the dancers in there, because there was a lot of it going on. From both sides.”

Pride rippled through Max. He’d bet his ass Carl didn’t have a CI this good. But the pride was fleeting; concern took over fast. “Anybody see you?”

Tensley looked away. “Not at first. But, well, yes.”

He leaned forward. “Who? What happened?”

“One of the other dancers. Tawny. She pretty much runs the dancer side of things. And I think she either decides or helps decide who works that back room.”

“You think or you know?” Carl growled.

Max shut him up with a look. The detective raised his palms and sat back against his chair, which protested with a squeak.

Tensley directed herself to him. “I said I
think
, which is what I meant.” Then she turned back to Max. “I heard a dancer asking Tawny about working ‘extra time’ and when I asked Tawny whether the extra time involved working that back room, she was pissed I’d brought it up, but she didn’t deny it. She just told me to get the hell out or she’d tell Gary I’d been back there.”

Max clenched his fists at the mention of Gary’s name. If that SOB ever laid a hand on Tensley, he’d slap him in jail so fast, the jerk would be somebody’s girlfriend before his head had stopped spinning.

He stared at his hands, uncurling his fingers one by one, willing them to relax. He had to concentrate. “Get us some coffee, Carl,” he said.

Muttering under his breath, the other detective got up from his chair to lumber toward the counter.

Max looked out the window and back at Tensley. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” Her chin lifted.

“I don’t think you should keep going with this.”
Too risky.
“We’ve got enough to go on. I’ll take it from here.” He’d screwed this up by getting involved with her again. The least he could do was back her out of the trouble he’d gotten her into.

“Forget it. I’m not getting this far just to quit now.”

He knew that determined look. He’d rammed into it before. “Look, I’m the one who’s running things here,” he hissed, with a sidelong look at Carl. “If I say you’re done, you’re done.”

“The hell you do.” She leaned across the table. “You need to know how often this little side operation is open for business. I’m the one who can find that out.”

“It’s too dangerous.” And he was no longer sure he could protect her.

“I can take care of myself. Besides, I already asked Tawny to let me work it. So I can get you what you need to shut Gary down.” She shivered, then tried to pretend she hadn’t.

What the — He didn’t even want to think about some hammered, sweaty animal running his hands along her beautiful, soft body. “No,” he shot back, more violently than he had intended. This was going too far, getting out of his control. Tensley was not the kind of woman who worked a room like that. Hell, she wasn’t even the kind of woman who worked as a stripper. He still hadn’t figured that one out.

Her brows drew together, forming a crease. “How else are you going to nail him?”

“You found out it was going on last night. So when you find out it’s going on again, you call me and I’ll move in. You don’t go anywhere near it.”

Her voice sounded like it was strung as tight as his. “I’m not sneaking back there again. Tawny will be watching for me. She’ll kill me. If she doesn’t, Gary will. And I don’t want them finding out I’m an — an informant. People get out of jail, you know, and they go after people who told on them.”

He tried to make light of it, despite his heart beginning to pound. “
Law and Order
.”

“Damn right.”

Max glanced over at Carl, who was trying to fit lids on three paper cups. He’d be back in a minute. Max kept his voice low, urgent. “I told you to stand down. I don’t want you taking a chance like that.”

She matched it. “How nice of you to be concerned, officer. I’m touched.”

Meaning she wasn’t at all. She was furious with him; he could see it in her eyes. “What the hell. Is this still about Rhonda?” he demanded. “Because I already told you that wasn’t what you thought.” Carl was trying to push the cups into a carrier.

“It’s about you not being able to get out of bed fast enough when she called you. Leaving me wondering what the hell was going on. Not that you cared.”

His stomach dropped and he spoke before he thought. “How did you know it was her?”

“I didn’t.” She sat back, hurt and fury swirling in her green eyes. “Until now.”