“Wasn’t easy. You’re a slippery one,” he said. He left out the part where he’d been tracking her movements for about two months. Just as he’d been getting ready to pounce, she’d gotten squirrelly and taken off again. She never used the same name twice but she left a path of troubled and perplexed victims who were lighter in the pocketbook for making her acquaintance. He still had a hard time believing the evidence but it was all there in black-and-white. His childhood friend had become the worst kind of thief—the kind who wormed her way into the warm, trusting bosom of strangers and then split with their hard-earned cash.
It was near unfathomable but plain despicable. And he was going to bring her in.
She must’ve read it in his eyes for she gestured. “Can I get a quick shower?” she asked. “It’ll just take a minute. I promise.”
The answer should’ve been a short and succinct no. It was no worry of his if he hauled her back to West Virginia stinking of sweat but it seemed a small thing she was asking. The room was warm even though the thermostat had been turned off for the night. He knew her routine by now. He knew her license was fake and that she’d likely never been to India in spite of her claims that she’d studied under some swami guru while traveling abroad to find her inner sense of peace. He had to hand it to her, for a girl who grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth, she’d become damn resourceful. In the two weeks since finding her, he’d lurked around the edges of her life, waiting for the right opportunity to bring her down.
There was no malice—he was just doing his job. Therefore, her request for a shower seemed a decent thing to grant. Perhaps in a slight nod to the time when she’d been his only friend in a world that had turned against him, he agreed.
And that was mistake number one.
So after she set the water temperature in the shower stall and made small appropriate shower noises, she quickly jerked a sweatshirt over her sweaty sports bra and slipped on her tennis shoes. She climbed out the bathroom window to the fire escape and melted into the frigid night.
And if she felt a twinge of guilt for duping him, it was eclipsed by the knowledge that she was not cut out for prison life and not even Tommy Bristol was going to make her test that assumption.
The fact was…he did know better. Cassi had always managed to turn the contents of his brain upside down until all the smarts just tumbled to the floor, useless. Apparently, not even the years between them had changed that.
No. He didn’t think he’d include this first meeting in the report.
He knew where she was going. He’d just have to beat her there before she split again. Knowing her, she already had another destination in her mind, another identity to assume. She was becoming damn good at disappearing but he was damn good at finding those who didn’t want to be found.
That was why her dossier had landed in his lap. At first, he’d been stunned stupid, staring down at the file in his hands, hardly hearing a word his supervisor was saying about the case. He caught bits and pieces, none of it good, and by the time he’d recovered from seeing Cassi staring back at him from a dated driver’s license photo, he’d lost most of what had been said and had to follow up on his own so as not to let on that there was a definite conflict of interest for him on this one.
He should’ve given the file right back with the admission that they’d grown up together and he’d once harbored romantic feelings for her, but his lips sealed shut and the words died, trapped in his mouth. If anyone should bring Cassi in, shouldn’t it be him? He’d make sure she was treated with respect and even if he couldn’t help, perhaps having a familiar face might lessen the fear of being taken into custody.
Then he read her file and he’d been appalled, no, horrified at how much she’d changed since they saw each other last, more than a handful of years ago. Actually, it’d been their freshman year in separate colleges. She went off to Boston University while he was going to junior college with the hopes of transferring to a state school or university, but Cassi had never found education particularly alluring and never graduated. Instead, she fell into a party crowd that Thomas gave a wide berth. He had no use for overprivileged Yanks with inflated egos and ridiculous credit card limits.
It had never mattered much that they came from different worlds until then. Cassi started to change—or maybe she would’ve said that he was the one who changed; it didn’t really matter at this point—and hot, angry words had been said, mean enough to sever ties and fracture an enduring friendship. He hated to admit it but he’d never stopped nursing that particular wound, no matter how hard he tried.
And now the devious woman had just proven she didn’t give a rip for anything they might’ve shared when they were young. So why the hell was he?
He gave the studio one final sweep just in case she’d doubled back, though he instinctively knew she wouldn’t. But he wasn’t about to make another rookie mistake. He left because he knew Cassi wasn’t going to hang around this town much longer.
And one thing was for sure, he was ending this night with Cassi in custody.
She jimmied the window and slid it open quietly. She always kept it unlocked for this very purpose. While most people might worry about their possessions, she didn’t own anything she couldn’t walk away from except for her date book and she doubted anyone looking for easy cash was going to zero in on the beaten-up old date book. It looked as if it’d been chewed up by a rabid dog and then run over by a semi.
Forgoing the light, she made her way to the nightstand beside her bed, intent on getting her book and then racing out of there. She had already purchased a bus ticket for this very occasion, though admittedly, she hadn’t thought she was going to be using it quite this soon. She’d come to New York following a lead but it took time to ferret out details of Lionel’s life before he met her mom, and she’d only just started to flesh out her new identity so she hadn’t made contact yet with her mark.
Just as her hand closed on the worn leather, the light flicked on, momentarily blinding her.
“You really ought to be less sentimental,” a voice said, scaring the crap out of her in one breath and causing her to swear softly in the next. “If you’d split town you might’ve earned yourself another couple of months free and clear, but in the end, it’s always the mementos that get people.”
She turned. “It’s not a memento. It’s the key to getting my life back,” she said evenly, pissed at herself for breaking one of her own rules—carrying her valuables with her at all times. She should’ve kept her date book in her backpack with the rest of her essentials but she’d left it behind this morning when she’d realized her backpack had ripped a seam. She’d planned on buying a new one.
Tommy gestured and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. She eyed the stainless steel and lifted her chin. “Aren’t you even curious?” she asked.
“No.”
She made a face. “What happened to you? You used to have a heart. Being a cop has leached all the humanity out of you.”
His expression didn’t change, and the fact that he was implacable as stone in spite of their history served to make her wish things had turned out differently between them, but it didn’t make her want to turn herself in. If she allowed Tommy to bring her in, Lionel would win and there was no way in hell she was going to let that happen. “So now what?” she asked, stalling for time.
“I take you into custody and we drive to my field office in Pittsburgh, where I will turn you over to the proper authorities.”
“Sounds like a walk in the park,” she said, then sighed. “Well, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.”
He eyed her with suspicion. “So you’re willing to come quietly this time?” He glanced around the tiny apartment. “No windows you’re planning to crawl out of? Or maybe you have a trapdoor somewhere that drops you down to the first floor?”
“Well, there is the trash chute but I don’t really like the idea of getting dirty,” she quipped. When her answer didn’t elicit even the tiniest of grins, she said, “Can you blame me? What would you’ve done in my situation?”
“I’m not in your situation, nor would I be, so there’s no sense in trying out hypothetical scenarios.”
Cassi glared. “I liked you better when you were a loner without friends.”
A tiny muscle moved in his cheek and she wondered at it. Had she struck a nerve? It seemed cruel to remind him of how they met but he wasn’t making this any easier by acting like a robot. Well, what a waste of time anyway. She wasn’t sticking around to smooth out the edges of their reunion. Better to get this over with and deal with her hurt feelings later. Like when she was on a bus traveling far enough away to kick him off her trail.
She came forward and put her wrists together in a show of surrender but she had no intentions of going quietly. In one of her identities she worked at a dojo. She and the instructor had a thing and she was a very able student. Suffice to say…she knew a few things that would come in handy right about now.
“Turn around,” he instructed and she gave him a sad, wounded look that said she was hurt because he didn’t trust her. And if he were smart, he wouldn’t. But she had a hunch that he wasn’t as hard as he put on. There was a soft spot underneath all that marble and she was going to poke at it to her advantage. He seemed to weigh the options heavily and she almost thought she’d overestimated her ability to persuade him but he finally relented with a gruff admonishment, “If you try anything I will hog-tie you for the entire trip back. You got it?” and she knew she’d won.
She bit her lip but nodded. “Scout’s honor.”
Good thing she’d never been a Scout. Shame on Tommy. He should’ve remembered that.
She could’ve had it all. Hell, she practically already had at the age of sixteen. So when had it all gone to shit?
Thomas advanced and as he prepared to click the handcuffs in place—his mind in all sorts of places but not focused as it should’ve been—he was taken off guard by what she did next.
The woman clocked him.
Painful stars burst behind his eyes and he crashed to the floor, but before he landed he grabbed blindly and by sheer luck managed to snag her sneakered foot, sending her tumbling to the worn carpet, as well. She landed with a soft grunt and tried to kick his hand free but he was already losing the birds flying around his head and he lunged at her. She turned into a kicking, scratching she-devil and it was all he could do to keep from getting her size nine in his face.
“Let me go,” she demanded as they struggled, but he’d managed to put his full weight on top of her and the last part came out as an outraged gasp. She was shorter than him but at five foot nine she wasn’t a petite little thing. She’d always been curvy in all the right spots and if it hadn’t been for the pulsing agony in his temple he might’ve been distracted by all that soft, womanly flesh pressed tightly against him. When he was a teen he’d fantasized about what it might feel like to be hip to hip with this woman, but in his wildest dreams he never imagined that when it happened she’d be doing her best to kill him.
He managed to secure both her hands but it wasn’t easy. The woman had skills. Both of them were breathing hard, which made her breasts push against his chest and he could feel the soft caress of her breath against his face. She smelled of cinnamon candy and some kind of herbal lotion or oil that you might find in a specialty store. It wasn’t patchouli—that stuff made him sneeze—but it was something that someone might enjoy as an incense. Whatever it was, the scent called up images of warm bodies sliding against one another in a darkened room, urgent whispers and hands caressing. Hell, did she douse herself in some kind of aphrodisiac? He blinked hard against the images his mind happily threw at him in concert with the aroma assault and he tightened his grip on her hands until she couldn’t do much more than twist beneath him. He stared down into a pair of deadly calculating eyes that radiated anger and retribution and he knew if she had half a chance she’d brain him and be on her merry way.
“You’re coming with me,” he said from between gritted teeth, his breathing labored for more reasons than the physical exertion. He was horrified to admit he was aroused. He could only hope she didn’t realize that the bulge pressing against her wasn’t only the ridge from his jeans.
Chest heaving as she caught her breath, she gave him a mocking glare as she pointed out one crucial detail. “The minute you let go of my hands I’m going to get free. You have the advantage right now only because you’re holding my hands. You can’t stay this way forever.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Don’t make this worse on yourself. You’re already in a heap of trouble. The ride is over.”
“You don’t know anything about what’s going on. All you know is what
he’s
told everyone.”
He shouldn’t ask but he did anyway. “He who?”
“Lionel Vissher. My stepfather.”
“What’s he got to do with the people you’ve swindled out of thousands of dollars?”
“I haven’t swindled anyone,” she shot back and he could only stare. The last time he checked, stealing people’s identity and then their cash was indeed swindling. But whatever word she used to describe it…it was still illegal. And she was guilty. “I borrowed a little to survive. I plan to pay them back.”
“Sure you do.”
Her lips tightened and he found it vaguely ironic that she was offended by his disbelief. “I have every name of every person I ever borrowed from and I will pay them back as soon as I get Lionel out of my family’s bank account.”
“So these past two years you’ve been running from the law, you’ve actually been hunting down information on your stepfather?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered, a flare of hope in her voice. “That’s exactly it. I never actually hurt anyone, I mean I know I deceived a few people but harmlessly so. When I pay them back everything will be fine. But if you take me in, I’ll never get to clear my name and worse, that snake will continue to live in my family’s home sucking up the fortune my father helped build.” His brow furrowed and she recognized that look from years ago. She continued quickly. “Think about it, Tommy. Would I do the things they say I’ve done without a good reason? Why would I? I had plenty of money. I didn’t need to steal, not until Lionel came into my life. If you knew what he was really like, you’d be arresting him instead of me.” Her hands were slowly losing feeling. She wiggled against him and peered up at him with what she hoped was an expression of vulnerability as she pleaded in a small voice. “Please let me go…you’re hurting me, Tommy.”
He paused and a myriad of emotions crossed his face. She’d forgotten how handsome he was. He’d epitomized the strong silent type when they were growing up. He’d always been a great listener, even when all she did was complain about problems that in the big scheme of things didn’t matter at all. If only she’d realized that then. Now it was too late.
His gaze searched her face and she could almost hope that his silence was evidence of his uncertainty, but she should’ve known that such a possibility was small for a man like Thomas Bristol. He was a stickler for the rules—which had made a career in law enforcement such a no-brainer. His mouth tightened and his gaze hardened as he told her what was going to happen next. “I’m going to let your hands go and you’re going to come quietly.”
No way in hell. “Try it and see.”
“I don’t want to hurt you. Just do yourself a favor and don’t fight me.”
Was that the tiniest plea couched in that harsh tone? She could only wonder. “Let me go and we won’t have to fight.”
“You know that’s not possible.”
“I don’t know any such thing. You could walk away, pretend you never found me.”
“That’s not who I am and I’m not about to change so you can continue using people for your own gain. According to your file, you’re a thief and a liar and your free ride stops here.”
She scowled. “That’s an inflammatory statement, don’t you think? And quite possibly slanderous. Watch yourself, Tommy. Perhaps I’ll sue.”
His mouth twisted. “Oh, really? I’d like to see you try.”
“Get off me, you brute. It’s not like you’re a lightweight. Perhaps not so many doughnuts and a little more roughage in your diet would help drop some of those pounds,” she taunted him, enjoying the flare of anger that followed. It was complete crap, of course. He was built like a Greek god and if she were in a different position, she certainly wouldn’t complain about his body on top of hers but that wasn’t her reality so the lug needed to get the hell off and quick. If insulting him got the job done she was more than willing to do it. “Oh, man, I can’t breathe.” She twisted a little beneath him. “Seriously, you’re hurting me. I promise I won’t do anything, just get off. Okay?”
“Promise?” He eyed her with suspicion.
“My hands are going numb and my ribs are cracking,” she said in answer, shifting again under his weight.
“You’re the one who put us in this position,” he reminded her, but oddly, he didn’t move. She inhaled the sharp scent of his skin and when images from the past assaulted her, she kicked them away. She’d never slept with him—a blessing, perhaps, though definitely a serious regret—but they had shared one helluva kiss on her seventeenth birthday. Was he remembering that sizzling moment, as well? Doubtful. The fact that she was suddenly reminded of that moment discomfited her.
“Tommy, I mean it,” she said, snapping him out of whatever he was thinking. He shifted slowly, watching her closely. Guess he didn’t trust her much after she rattled his teeth. She wouldn’t, either, if the roles were reversed. She drew a deep breath, wincing as her ribs complained, then as he let her hands go she shook some circulation back into them before scrambling to her feet.
“Cassi,” he warned, advancing toward her as she backed away, her thoughts moving quickly to the best possible escape plan. “There’s nowhere for you to go. Think this through. You won’t get far.”
He underestimated her need to escape. She shrugged, appearing flippant but in truth she was stalling, waiting for the strength to return to her limbs. She was starting to think that’s why he stayed on top of her, to weaken her. Well, if it was, it’d worked and it also destroyed her hope that he’d stayed put simply because he liked being there. Ouch. There’s a blow to the ol’ ego. She flexed her fingers and gave him a hard look of her own. “Sorry, Tommy. I can’t. There’s no way I can make you understand and that’s a tragedy but I’m not going anywhere with you. That man killed my mother and I’m going to prove it somehow. It’s the only chance I have of making things right, so if you want to take me in you’ll have to kill me first.”