ONE
“Where is it?You said it was going to be here.” Derek Knight looked around the front and back seats of the rental car again in impatience as he spoke into his phone.
Nothing. No envelope.
Which meant his informant was an idiot and he was dead meat.
He was so close to busting this case wide open. All he needed was a little more evidence, which was supposed to have been dropped in this car by the speaker on the other end of the phone.
“Well, I put it there,” came the anxious whisper.
Derek rubbed his eyes. Dealing with this guy was giving him heartburn like he hadn’t experienced since the first messy days after his divorce. He fumbled in his pocket for antacids and popped two in his mouth, chewing the chalky tablets rapidly.
Movement to the left caught his attention. He looked up and saw nothing but legs. Female legs. That stretched firm and smooth from the ground right to eye level as he sat in the driver’s seat. At one point those legs were covered by a short skirt the color of an olive, but it didn’t matter.
They still beckoned him, toying with him, distracting him from the task at hand. He sent the window down with a softpurr and listened to the sound of her heels hitting the concrete, echoing around the dark garage as her hips rolled and swayed and those legs bent seductively at the knee with each step.
He looked past the legs to the narrow waist, the luscious chest, and to the straight auburn hair flowing across her shoulders. She turned, met his gaze. Her eyes went wide with awareness, her plump lips opened as she clutched her rolling suitcase tighter.
Dosomething,he thought through an unexpected haze of lust, painfully aware that it had been months and months since he’d been on a date.
Talk to her.
Then the voice coming over the phone repeated insistently, “I’m telling you I put it there myself thirty minutes ago. In the red Ford Taurus.”
Derek heard the last words and snapped to attention. “Hold it. You said the green Ford Taurus.”
“No, I didn’t. I said the red one. It’s parked in the far corner under the second floor sign.”
Derek swore. He had to be the only agent in the history of the bureau to have a color blind whistle-blower. “Okay, I’ll call you back.”
He could see the car in question. It was across from him. And damn if it wasn’t Legs unlocking it and popping the trunk.
“Excuse me,” he called over to her as he threw open the car door and stood up.
She flung her suitcase in the trunk and ignored him, heading to the driver’s side door of the car with her cute little backside to him.
“Excuse me, miss, I think you have the wrong car.” Derek started to jog over to her, images of his butt hung in an FBI sling by Nordstrom, his less-than-happy boss, flashing through his mind.
She opened the door and turned to enter the car. She frowned as she hastened to get in the car. “Don’t come near me,” she yelled. “I have Mace.”
He stopped and stared in astonishment as her hand popped out holding a spray can in a threatening manner.
Damn, she thought he was attacking her. “No, you don’t understand. There’s been a mix-up with the cars and...”
The door slammed shut, the lock clicked, the engine roared, and Derek had to leap back to prevent a broken foot as she backed up with the speed of a NASCAR driver.
“What the hell?” he muttered, then realized that months worth of planning and negotiating were fleeing in that car with her. Not to mention those awe-inspiring legs.
With his own burst of speed that made his bad knee scream, he went back to the green Taurus and followed her, on her tail in sixty seconds as she swung around the first floor curve of the garage.
After his last case, when he had skirted procedure a time or two, Nordstrom would be more than happy to see him in the basement pushing papers for the rest of his life.
He was not giving up those documents without a fight.
TWO
Reese Hampton tossedher purse and the Mace on the passenger seat, her eyes trained on the exit sign in front of her. She was exhausted. A hot shower and room service were the next order of business, and the only things that could redeem a flat-out lousy day.