"No," she said weakly, watching him through slitted eyes for a sign of suspicion. "It's this darned headache. Maybe I'd better lie down for a while."

He made no move to let her go. "Let me get you those aspi-nn.

"No, please—I'll be fine. I have something in my purse in the bedroom."

"You suie?"

"Really, it's only a headache. All this tension and everything...I'm sure I'll be fine once I He down. You go ahead and eat."

Reluctantly he gave in and let her move away. "Leave the bedroom door open and call if you need anything."

"I will," she said.

She had done it! And now it was all Jessie could do not to run from the kitchen, away from the kind sympathy in Ben's eyes.

Once in the living room and out of his sight, however, she hurried to the porch door to press the gate button. The mechanism engaged with a muted click under her unsteady fingers. Jessie looked over her shoulder to the kitchen, relieved to see or hear no sign of Ben.

Having opened the gate, she spared a long second wishing she dared to walk out the front door, but rejected that idea as too risky. Ben might hear or walk in from the kitchen unexpectedly. Instead she tiptoed down the hallway to the bedroom. There, contrary to her promise to Ben moments ago, she not only closed the door, but also turned the lock in the doorknob. It was a flimsy barrier at best, and Jessie didn't deceive herself that it would stop him if he should come looking for her. However, it could provide her a few more precious minutes to meet her cab. After that, she would be home free.

Once again she stopped and listened, her ear pressed to the door. Nothing. So far, so good*

Jessie dashed first to the dresser to snatch up her purse— she'd need cab money—then to her next hurdle, the window. Uncounted seconds were frittered away while she fumbled to

lift the sash. Finally she realized it was locked. In a burst of frustration, she flipped the latch.

And froze.

A high, penetrating tone, unbroken and persistent, reached her ears from another part of the house. Oh, no, she'd activated an alarm!

Panic gripped her, and Jessie was never able to recall afterward any details of how she'd climbed out the window and made her way to the end of the driveway. Only the bitter cold and her mental chant of hurry, hurry, hurry made lasting impressions. Her cab pulled up only seconds after she reached the street.

"The Field Museum!" she said to the driver as she got into the back seat.

She heard a shrill, attention-grabbing whistle just before she slammed the door closed.

"Who's that?" The driver looked up the driveway to the house. Jessie saw Ben running toward them like a sprinter in a race.

"Never mind! Just go!" she cried, sitting forward on the seat in a futile effort to get the cab moving.

"We better wait," the cabbie said. "Maybe you forgot something."

"What?" Jessie looked at the back of his bald head incredulously. She couldn't have been unlucky enough to draw the only considerate cab driver in the universe.

"See? He's yeUin' something."

Jessie wanted to reach over the seat and tear the man's ears off. "I didn't forget anything! Go! Go, dammit!"

But it was too late. Ben opened the door and leaned in with fire in his eyes. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"None of your business!" she snapped.

"It sure as hell is my business! Get out of this cab!"

"Hey, is.this guy givin' you trouble?" The Good Samaritan

the front seat finally realized he might have miscalculated. Jessie shot him a dirty look.

"There's something I have to do," she told Ben frigidly. She had no alternatives left, not if she was going to meet Allie in time. "Either get in or get out. This cab—" she paused signif-

icantly and met the cabbie's eyes with a venomous glare "—will be moving in ten seconds.'■

Ben swore and climbed in.

"You sure he's okay?" the driver asked her warily.

Jessie rolled her eyes. This guy was the limit. "Just go."

Ben shivered, and Jessie noticed for the first time that he was in shirtsleeves. She hadn't stopped for her coat, either, but at least her suit jacket was wool. Even so, the icy air outside had cut through her clothing as she'd run to the taxi. Ben must have nearly frozen.

"How's your headache?" he asked her snidely as they pulled away from the curb.

Guilt stabbed her, but Jessie turned her head away and took refuge in silence. For all she knew, Ben could still stop the cab and get word to Leutzinger that Alhe was nowhere near the zoo. She couldn't take that chance.

"Where in the hell are we going, anyway?" was Ben's next question. Wheat she didn't answer, he thunked the back of the driver's seat. "Hey, cabbie, where are we going?"

"Don't tell him," Jessie ordered.

The driver looked into his mirror at Ben and shrugged. "You heard the lady."

"listen, fella, I'm a cop," Ben told him threateningly, "so if s in your best interest to tell me where we're headed."

"Yeah? Show me your badge," the driver challenged.

"I don't have it—I'm working undercover. Tell him, Jessie."

She raised get-serious eyebrows and looked away obstinately. Ben swore again and slumped back into his seat. Jessie felt his eyes boring into her.

"This is pretty damned stupid, you know," he said tightly. "I'd like to know what the hell is going on. Why did you sneak out?"

She kept her face turned to the window and refused to speak.

"C'mon, Jess, where are we going? I don't even have my weapon with me. How am I supposed to protect you? Does this have something to do with Allie?"

Stubbornly she maintained her silence, though her conviction that she was doing the right thing wobbled. Until now, she'd pushed the possible danger in her actions out of her mind.

"Tell me, dammit! What did the two of you cook up on the phone?" Ben caught the involuntary stiffening of her body. "That's it, isn't it? You weren't straight about what Allie said to you. She's not at the zoo, is she? Jess, I'm not the enemy, dammit. Talk to me. Where is she?"

Jessie's eyes filled with tears. She detested this whole business and was probably going about it all wrong. Still, she couldn't throw Allie to the wolves. "I can't tell you."

"Oh, this is great, just great," Ben snarled.

She wheeled on him. "They were going to arrest her. I have to warn her, don't you understand, Ben? She'll change her mind about things if I can just talk to her face-to-face. She's.. .she's my sister!"

The adrenaline that had propelled Jessie for the past half hour was depleted, and her tears overflowed.

"Aw, hell," Ben muttered. He held out his arms to her and she flung herself against his chest, sobbing.

With the onset of Jessie's tears, the urge to wring her damnably elegant neck evaporated. Ben wrapped her in his arms and let her weep, his emotions in as much a turmoil as hers seemed to be. He should be angry—he was angry—but in spite of her trickery, he was unable to quell the impulse to comfort her.

He laid his cheek in her hair and rubbed his jaw against it as he stroked her back, shushing her quietly. She tied him in knots. She'd duped him—hard-nosed, I'm-no-fool Sutton—and here he was, soothing her tears. Worse, he even felt a touch of admiration for her audacity. She'd outwitted two seasoned law enforcement officers and a U.S. attorney, after all.

By a stroke of luck she hadn't known about the warning signal his alarm system gave off when door and window locks were released from the inside. When Ben had heard that, he'd thought she was only opening the window to get some air to help her headache. He'd hurried to the bedroom to close it again, since he'd fully engaged the system right after Leutzing-er and Douglas had left and in ninety seconds both the alarm outside and one at the security monitoring headquarters a few miles away would sound, bringing the police. He'd found the bedroom door locked, and Jessie hadn't answered his calls.

Suspicious at last, Ben had kicked in the door, taking in the damning scene at a glance. The window was open, all right, but Jessie was gone.

At least he'd caught on in time, even though he hadn't had the foresight to grab a weapon before running after tor. By then it had been too late to do any more than take care of the alarm without losing her.

But it could have been worse. She could have been out here on her own. At that disturbing thought, Ben's arms tightened around her.

"Here, buddy, give 'er these."

Ben took the small box of tissues the driver handed over the seat. "Thanks."

Jessie's sobs had quieted to ragged sighs and sniffs against his shirt. He pulled a couple of tissues out of the box and pressed them to her damp cheek.

"Want to blow your nose, princess?"

"Uh-uh," she said in a small, rueful voice, nestling in closer. "I think I'll just stay here until your shirt dries."

Ben chuckled and peeled her away from his chest. "Come on, time to mop up."

She allowed him to dry her flushed cheeks, sitting as still as a child having her face washed. Her eyes were wet and luminous, her lips adorably pouty from her bout of weeping.

"Blow," he told her when he was finished, placing the tissues in her hand. She sat back obediently and blew her nose.

"Better?"

Jessie nodded. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I broke down like that."

"J do. It was a guilt attack and you deserve it," he said gruffly.

A chagrined smile fluttered on her lips.

"So are you ready to tell me the truth now? Where's Allie?"

Her eyes locked with his uncertainly. Ben wondered how in hell he'd been taken in before, when her emotions were displayed on her face like headlines. He'd been unwary as a rookie, thinking with his gonads, not his brain. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

"If I tell you—" Jessie started.

**Here you are, folks." The cabbie pulled to a stop by a curb.

Ben recognized the enormous building at once. Every child who'd ever gone to school in Chicago had toured the fascinating Field Museum of Natural History, probably several times, and Ben was no exception. The wonders inside, from dinosaur bones to Egyptian mummies, were enough to beep even unruly boys wide-eyed and awestruck for hours.

"She's here?" He turned to Jessie.

But she had already opened the door. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and exited the cab.

Ben lost precious time scooting across the seat. "Wait a minute. Jessie, get back here! You can't—dammit!"

She was one-third of the way up the massive bank of tiered steps, and moving fast.

"Looks like she stuck you with the tab," the driver smirked.

Ben gritted his teeth as he realized his gun was not the only thing he'd left behind. His wallet—and his money—were sitting uselessly on his dresser at home. He scrambled out of the cab on Jessie's side, keeping his eyes on her as she climbed the steps. "Wait for us. We'll need a ride back."

"Wha—? Hey, wait a minute, dammit!" the cabbie sputtered, then called threateningly after Ben, "The meter's run-Din.

Ben watched the plaid top of Jessie's suit being swallowed up by the entrance doors. A heartfelt curse exploded from his lips. He took the steps three at a time, aware that the woman he was supposed to be protecting could disappear in seconds into the huge labyrinth of corridors inside. He'd already known she was going to meet Allie; why hadn't he pressed her harder about their meeting place? If someone had followed Allie, hoping to get that damned journal...

Fear for Jessie and fury that he'd let this happen drove Ben to the top of the steps and through the ornate portals of the museum into the vast lobby. He stopped just inside, the reverberating echoes of uncounted voices bouncing off the high ceiling and walls and assaulting his ears with remembrance. In his boyhood he had delighted in shouting "hey!" into the yawning, seemingly limitless space above him in this massive room, to hear his own voice come back to him louder and somehow larger than his original utterance. But his only interest now was to locate Jessie.

The lobby was undulating with patrons of all ages and nationalities this Thanksgiving weekend, making Ben's task all the more difficult. His eyes swept wide over the marked hallways leading to exhibits in the museum's bowels, trying to catch a glimpse of his prey before she eluded him completely. Methodically he scanned the crowd—left, right, then back again. Desperation rose in his chest with each unsuccessful pass of his eyes.

Suddenly his brain registered a flash of plaid and he swung his gaze in a return arc to the center lobby. There was Jessie, dwarfed under the display of battling woolly mammoths, or "hairy elephants/' as he'd called them when he was a boy. Oh, yeah—elephants. Ben shook his head and started toward Jessie.

He had just noticed the unkempt gray-haired woman dressed in shabby clothing standing next to her, when two things happened at once. Jessie glanced over at him with a start of recognition, and a small, exuberant boy of four or five ran into his path and tripped, his momentum catapulting his small body forward over Ben's leg. Ben heard the dull crack as the boy's head struck the stone floor, and a woman shrieked, "JoeyI"

The next few minutes were pandemonium. The hollow acoustics of the enormous room amplified little Joey's cries, and the frantic mother rushed over, wild-eyed with fright. Ben started to pick the child up, but the mother attacked him with her purse. "Why don't you watch where you're going? Leave him alone!"

Ben raised his arms to protect himself, moving as quickly as he could out of the line of fire. As soon as he was outside the woman's reach, she gathered Joey in her arms, bombarding him with worried questions about where it hurt and maternal reassurances that he'd be all right, mommy was here now. All the while she shot dirty looks at Ben. When they were joined by an anxious museum official, Ben's involvement was forgotten, and he looked over to where he'd last seen Jessie.

She was gone.

So was the old lady to whom she'd been so earnestly talking. Sudden realization struck him as he replayed his brief glimpse of the two women in the moments before Joey had collided with his leg. His mind ticked off what he'd seen. A

frumpish old woman's face, garishly pale with makeup against the dark plastic frames of her glasses. A too-long coat hanging shapelessly on a stout body, hiding definitive lines of bone and muscle. Hands clasping Jessie's, telling of more than casual acquaintance.

Allie.

If there had been a wall handy to put his fist through, Ben would probably have broken his fingers in that moment. Instead his knuckles pummeled the more forgiving flesh of his own palm.

What now? None of his options hdd much hope of finding either Jessie or her sister. If he'd had his badge, he might have ordered the museum sealed off until Leutzinger could come with some men to search the place. Without it, he had about as much chance of convincing whoever ran this place that he was a cop as he had that cab driver. Anyway, both women could easily have slipped out unnoticed in all the confusion of the past few minutes.

Ben left the crowd around the boy and dashed outside. His gaze skimmed the steps, the wide stretch of pavement in front of the museum, and up and down the street as far as he could see. Nothing.

Damn! Not only had he lost Allie and the journal, he'd let Jessie, their only link to the woman with the evidence, slip away as well. There was going to be hell to pay when he reported in. Ben walked back into the museum, thinking of Leutzinger and his men waiting pointlessly in the biting cold at Brookf ield Zoo.

Jessie almost crashed into him inside the door. She pulled up short, looking relieved to see him. "I—I thought you were going to leave without me," she said.

Ben grabbed her shoulders, unsure whether to hug or shake her. "Where did Allie go?"

Alarm colored her eyes. "You recognized her?"

"I'm not stupid, Jess," he said harshly. "Is she still in hoe?"

"Id-don'tknow."

"The hell you don't!" Ben rasped. He was dangerously close to shaking her teeth loose. "Stop shielding her, dammit! This is a criminal investigation, for God's sake, not a game of one-upmanship. Every minute that Allie is on the loose with that

journal is one minute more that the wrong people have to find her and take it away."

"She didn't have it," Jessie said miserably.

"What?"

"The journal. She didn't even bring it."

"She didn't—hell, why not? I thought the whole idea behind this rendezvous was to turn over the journal."

"So did I."

"Yeah, right."

"I did!" she insisted. "In fact, I was trying to get Allie to give me the book to take to Agent Leutzinger, along with her promise not to write her story prematurely." She sighed. "But it was all for nothing. She couldn't do what I asked even if she wanted to, she said, because she didn't bring the journal along. She wanted to make sure first that Leutzinger was willing to work with her on the story. She intended to take him to where she's hidden it after they'd talked things over face-to-face."

"Where is that?"

Jessie shook her head. "She wouldn't tell me."

Ben tipped her chin up with his forefinger and searched her eyes. They were troubled, but clear and direct. She was telling the truth.

"Where is she now, Jess? No, look at me." He nudged her chin higher when her lashes fell. "Time's running out now, for all of us, especially Allie. Where did she go? Or is she still here, waiting for us to leave?"

"She left the museum during all the commotion. And before you ask, I don't know where she went. There wasn't time to find out where she's staying, not once we'd seen you. Allie was anxious to get away before you could arrest her."

"You told her."

"Yes, I did!" Jessie said. "She deserved to know what would happen if she kept trying to cut a deal." Wilting a little then, she added, "Not that it did any good. My sister has more courage than sense sometimes."

Privately Ben thought stupidity, not courage, drove Allie Webster, but he kept his opinion to himself. Allie could be headed anywhere in the city by now, and thanks to Jessie's misplaced loyalty, she would be wary of the law. They might as well be back to square one.

" Wfell, what's done is done. Come on, let's find a phone, I've got to break the news to Leutzinger that you've been jerking him around."

Jessie's cheeks pinkened guiltily, but she followed him to a bank of pay phones nearby.

Ben talked to the duty agent at FBI headquarters and was assured that word of what had just happened would be immediately relayed to Leutzinger out in the field. That done, he took Jessie's elbow and escorted her out of the museum.

"We'll have to go over everything Allie said to you when we get home, probably several times," he told her as they descended the wide concrete stairs. He kept her close, his practiced eyes thoroughly checking the surrounding area but seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "She may have said something that will help us to find her."

"All right." Jessie sounded subdued.

Their cab still waited at the curb, and as they got in, the driver grumbled, "Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you were going to stiff me."

"I told you I'm a cop," Ben said. "I'm sworn to uphold the law, not break it. Take us back home."

He settled back as the cabbie pulled into traffic, thankful for the blessed heat that flowed through the taxi's interior. He was cold as a corpse.

Jessie sat quietly in the seat beside him, hands fidgeting with her purse. Finally she spoke up. "I shouldn't have interfered."

"You got that right," Ben grunted.

"I thought I was doing the best thing for Allie."

"Yeah, well, you weren't."

She looked at him defiantly. "I won't grovel."

"Who asked you to?"

"A simple apology is all you'll get."

Ben waited.

"I'm sorry." She sounded more obstinate than remorseful.

"Apology accepted. Now let's forget it."

She glanced over at him, wariness in her eyes. "Thaf s it? Just like that?"

"What do you want, a brass band?"

She shook her head. "I'm just—surprised. After what I did and the way it turned out, I expected... well, some kind of retribution—the silent treatment, at the very least."

"You know, Jess," Ben said with deceptive evenness, "I'm getting damned tired of being thrown into the same basket of rotten apples as your ex-husband."

She looked startled for a moment, then said meekly, "You're right. I shouldn't do that."

"I make it a practice to forget the last hand dealt to me and play the one I've got. One thing, though..."

She looked up at him with questioning eyes.

"If you ever try to run off by yourself again, I'll handcuff you to the bed for a month."

She risked a teasing smile. "As threats go, I've heard worse."

Ben wasn't playing. "Promise me."

The smile disappeared and Jessie drew an X on her breast with a forefinger. "Cross my heart."

"Come over here." He lifted his arm to make a place for her. Amenably she scooted across the seat to his side and adjusted her curves to the planes of his torso before settling with a sigh against him, her palm resting over his heart.

Ben's hand fell naturally to her hip and pulled her closer. Thank God, she was safe.

She'd made a mess of things.

The whole situation reminded Jessie of her childhood, when she'd stood on the sidelines while her wonderful, foolhardy twin courted disaster in order to prove some point. She felt just as ineffectual today as she had then. She never had been able to turn Allie off course once her mind was made up. Why hadn't she remembered that?

After today's fiasco, Jessie decided she'd better forgo adventurous living and stick to writing about it. Easier on the pocketbook, for one thing, she thought with a flash of humor as she shelled out close to seventy-five dollars for cab fare.

The fact was, if she'd kept her nose out of the whole business, her sister would now be in Leutzinger's custody, which Jessie concluded was no more than Allie deserved. Maybe being arrested would finally open her eyes to what was at stake.

Ben's gate had stood open the whole time they were gone, and after dismissing their cab, he made her huddle in the cold outside the unlocked front door while he made sure there was no one inside the house. Which was no more than she deserved after the trouble she'd caused.

At least Ben wasn't holding her temporary insanity against her. That was pretty remarkable, all things considered.

"Come on in, Jess. Everything's okay."

"That's a relief." She hurried into the warmth of the house. "I'd never forgive myself if someone had come in and damaged or stolen something."

"I wasn't as concerned about ordinary vandals or thieves as much as I was about whoever wants the journal," he told her. Jessie followed him into the kitchen, where the remains of their aborted lunch had congealed on the table. Ben gathered up the bowls and carried them to the sink.

"But... why would anybody think it was here?"

"Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you." He scraped and rinsed while relating what he'd learned at the FBI office about the break-in at his Port Mangus duplex. "Given all that," he concluded, "we have to assume the bad guys have figured out I'm a cop. Or at least that I have an interest in Mai's journal."

"Which means you're in as much danger as Allie. And I made you follow me around the city without any protection at all."

Jessie launched herself at Ben and wound her arms tightly around his middle, her cheek pressed against his solid back. She was horrified that her afternoon's folly might have ended in tragedy for him.

"I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you," she told him fiercely.

In spite of her clinging embrace, he managed to turn around and face her. "Hey, nothing happened," he said. "And it won't. I've been taking care of myself for a long time. Anyway, as it turns out, something good came out of your escapade. Nobody came in here while we were gone. You know what that means, Jess?"

"That nobody's after us?" Jessie asked hopefully.

"I wouldn't go that far yet, but at least we can be pretty sure they don't know where you are. Bringing you here was the right

thing to do." He lifted her chin and his down-turned eyes crinkled into a smile. "Not to mention extremely enjoyable."

He brushed his thumb across her bottom lip and hooked it in the corner, nudging her lips and teeth apart as his mouth descended. His tongue stroked and coaxed, languidly seducing. Jessie was ready to let the erotic kiss take them where it would, but Ben restrained his hunger and set her away before their passion could mount.

"Don't tempt me. We still have to go ova: what AlHe told you today." He took her hand, led her into the living room and sat her down on the sofa.

Jessie repeated everything she remembered at least three times—some parts even more, due to Ben's prompting—without coming up with anything that might help locate Alhe or the journal. Afterward Ben called Leutzinger to brief him on the afternoon's events.

"Was he terribly angry?" Jessie asked when he'd hung up.

"Just hope you don't see him for a while," he said. "Come on, I want to show you something."

He took her down the hall to a room, opposite his bedroom, that had been closed up until now. It was a study of sorts, a utilitarian room with a plain but sturdy desk, a wall of half-empty bookshelves, and a long table upon which was spread a computer with several components unfamiliar to her. The single window was unadorned except for tightly dosed mini-blinds. Though everything was neatly arranged and orderly, decoration in here was nonexistent, if one excluded the thick carpet carried through from the adjacent hallway. Jessie guessed that Ben didn't spend much time in here.

He walked to the computer and beckoned her over. "This is the heart of my security system."

Jessie recognized grist for her always-hungry writer's mill in the elaborate setup. "How does it work?"

"Very effectively, as you found out today," he replied with a quirk of his lips. "This computer is linked to sensors both outside and inside the house. When the system is fully activated, no one can so much as step foot into the yard or move around in the house without an alarm going off. There are several different levels of security, each requiring its own numbered code."

She was impressed and a little sheepish. "I didn't stand a chance of sneaking away today, did I?"

"Remember that. But that's not why I brought you in here. This machine came with a few pieces of software, including a word processor. You're welcome to use it while you're here, if you'd like to work on your writing."

"Why, Ben, thank you," Jessie said, touched by his thoughtfulness. "But won't that interfere with the alarm system?"

"No. If an alarm goes off, though, your work will be interrupted, and the system will take over the machine."

Ben showed her how to access the word processing program and the little he knew about its operation. While Jessie was learning the commands, he left to answer the phone in the living room. She'd been alone for quite a while before he returned.

"Jess."

She turned in the swivel chair at the peculiar tone in his voice. A sudden chill riveted her in place. "What's happened? Is it Allie?"

Ben nodded. "Don't panic—she's all right."

"Tell me."

"After she left the museum, she went back to the motel where she's staying and was assaulted as she was going into her room."

"Oh, no." Shocked into motion, Jessie jumped out of her chair. "Where is she? I have to go to her."

He grabbed her before she could race out the door. "Settle down, honey. I called Leutzinger and he's going to send somebody to pick her up and bring her over here. I'm supposed to keep her out of trouble until he gets back from questioning the assailant at the city jail."

"They got the guy who did it?"

"Uh-huh. Your sister must be a hell of a fighter. She knocked him out, tied him up and presented him to the police on a silver platter. I can't wait to hear the whole story." His eyes sparkled with amusement.

Jessie shook her head wonderingly. "That's Allie for you."

"You okay now? Want a drink to settle your nerves?" "No, I'm all right. Who was it? Did Allie know him?" His eyes wait abruptly cold. "Allie didn't, but we do. It was Rory Douglas."

Chapter 12

-Less than an hour later, Allie, still in disguise, burst into Ben's living room. Jessie grabbed her and hugged her like a mother reclaiming a kidnapped child. Allie clung a little desperately herself before she eased away.

"I'm okay, sis." She slipped her shoulder bag to the floor at their feet and took off her coat.

"Did he hurt you?" Jessie's anxious eyes inspected her for injuries.

A bark of male laughter split the air and a familiar voice said, "You should see the other guy."

Jessie turned toward the voice just in time to see Ed Brock's somber mouth remarkably curved in an all-out, teeth-exposing grin as he set Allie's suitcase next to the couch.

"Hello, Ed."

"Jessie." Ed nodded to her, his face settling back into its normal sagging lines.

"He speaks," Allie said derisively. "You know this cretin, Jessie?"

"Allie!" Jessie chided.

"Never mind, Jessie," Ed said mildly. "Your sister's just irritated because I wouldn't answer any of her fifty million questions on the way over here."

Ben, who had been observing the reunion from the doorway, closed the door and walked over to join the party. " What're you doing in Chicago, Ed? I didn't expect you to be playing delivery boy."

"Delivery boy just about sums it up," Ed said. "I brought some evidence down to headquarters earlier, and Leutzinger tagged me to pick up Ms. Webster as I was checking it in."

"What evidence?" The sharp question came from Allie.

Ed's eyes twinkled in his hound-doggy face. "Is there someplace private we can talk, Ben? I'm under orders not to give any information to the press."

Allie's breath hissed through her teeth with exasperation.

Ben touched Jessie's arm. "Why don't you show Allie where the bedroom is, Jess?" His voice deepened when he addressed her, containing a gentle note far different from the one he'd used with Ed. "She'd probably like to change out of that get-up she's wearing."

Jessie's cheeks warmed and she avoided looking directly at Allie. "All right. Will you get the other suitcase, Allie?" She stooped to pick up the shoulder bag and waited until her twin collected the bag Ed had brought in.

"By the way," Ben said to Allie, "all the alarms are set, so don't try to run."

"Don't worry," Allie said determinedly. "I'm not going anywhere until I see Leutzinger." She turned to Jessie. "Let's go... Jess."

All the way down the hall, Jessie felt sisterly eyes boring holes into her back.

Inside the bedroom, she turned around to see the door Allie had tried to close bounce back open.

"What happened here?"

Jessie looked at the splintered door frame with dismay. "Oh, no! Ben must have broken it when he chased after me today. I should never have locked it before I climbed out the window. It's not too bad, is it?"

She set the shoulder bag on the bed and came over for a closer examination. Allie blocked her path.

"Forget the door. What's going on between you and the bouncer?" It was her you-have-some-explaining-to-do-Jessie-Webster voice.

"He's not a bouncer, he's a policeman/' Jessie said. "Anyway, I refuse to talk to you while you're wearing that disguise. How can you expect me to bare my soul when I can't tell you from a bag lady in the street?"

"Oh." Allie glanced down at her still-padded body in its tawdry dress. "Well, okay, but don't think you're weasehng out of anything."

She strode determinedly to the bed and hoisted her suitcase up. It landed on the covers with a thump.

Suddenly reminded of where she and Ben had spent a large portion of the past twenty-four hours, Jessie gave the bed a quick once-over to reassure herself that she had restored it to pristine condition earlier.

"So," Allie said casually. "Ben told me on the phone he's your bodyguard. Just what does that entail?"

"Protection," Jessie replied, but her cheeks flamed.

"You are sleeping with him. I knew it!" Allie held up an arresting palm before Jessie could answer. "No, don't say a word. Give me a minute in the bathroom, and then I want to hear everything from the beginning."

Quickly she opened the suitcase, pulled out a fresh set of clothes, then lifted her hands to the gray hair on her head. "Push that chair in front of the door, will you?" She removed the wig and tossed it negligently to the bed before affixing Jessie with a narrow-eyed glare. "And don't you dare leave this room."

She grabbed her clothes and shoulder bag and disappeared into the bathroom. A minute later, Jessie heard the shower running.

"You're gonna have your hands full with that one," Ed told Ben after the women were gone.

"Who, Allie? I'm not keeping her," Ben said. "She's just here until Leutzinger gets done at the jail, at least I hope so. Want a beer?"

"No, I'm not off duty yet. Gotta go to the jail myself to check out this Rory Douglas. Leutzinger wants to know if I ever

saw him during our surveillance of the club. He thinks the guy might be tied in either with this end of Mai's operation or in Wisconsin."

"I agree. Douglas must be dirty, or he wouldn't have gone after AJlie. But I already told Leutzinger I don't remember ever seeing him in Port Mangus, so unless you know him, I doubt you'll recognize him, either. Why didn't you get a look at him when you picked up Allie at the motel where he attacked her?"

"They'd already hauled him off when I got there." Ed unbuttoned his jacket. "I got an earful about his bloody nose and the lump on his head from the cop who was taking Allie's statement, though. Hard to believe, a little thing like that doing so much damage. Anyway, they're going to put Douglas in a lineup for me, and after I'm through at the jail, I'm bringing Leutzinger back here. That should be my last 'delivery' of the day."

Ben saw the humor in Ed's eyes. He'd learned over the past months that, contrary to appearances, Ed had a fully functioning, albeit droll, wit. They'd spent long hours of surveillance together before deciding Ben's best cover for the Duan investigation, and now knew each other pretty well.

Ben had worked with feds before, and Ed was the first one he'd met who didn't have that I'm-in-charge-here attitude. He'd immediately accepted Ben as an equal and given him credit for knowing his job. There had been no jockeying for power in their partnership.

In many ways Ed reminded him of his father, if Ben discounted the cynicism characteristic of a man who had seen too much of the seedy side of life. Maybe that was why, for the first time since becoming a cop, Ben had let down his barriers in a professional association and opened himself up to friendship. Ed knew things about him he'd never shared with another fellow officer. Just like he knew personal things about Ed.

"How about coffee, then? It'll only take a minute to fix a pot."

"Sure, sounds good," Ed said, trailing behind into the kitchen. "This place is real nice, buddy. Big, though. Kinda wasted on a confirmed bachelor, isn't it?"

"I just use the downstairs," Ben said. He thought about the second-story bedrooms he'd ignored in his renovations. No

doubt they'd held generations of children before he'd bought the house, but he'd closed off the whole floor. A man alone needed only one bedroom. "Tell me what's happening in Port Mangus. Any word on Mai?"

"Not yet. We hit pay dirt of another sort, though, on a shakedown of the marina this morning."

Ben looked up from scooping freshly ground beans into the coffeemaker. "Who did you get?"

"Not who. Sad to say there was no welcoming committee to greet us. It was locked up tight, even the bait shop. Mai's disappearance must have spooked everybody into steering clear of the place. Ask me what we got, though, and the answer's a little better."

Ben's mouth quirked. "A whole lot better, I'd say, from that look in your eye. What, then?"

"A real bonanza. You shoulda been there, Ben. There was this tunnel leading from one of the stalls in the men's John to a building that looked like a storage shed behind the marina proper. False door, no windows. Inside was an office with an empty desk and filing cabinets, and a teller's cage, like a bank, also empty. At first it looked like the place had been cleaned out, but then a youngster with the Port Mangus P.D. found a hole in the floor under the files, just chock-full of goodies. Greenbacks and white powder—lots of both."

Ben leaned against the counter while the coffee machine gurgled beside him. "Weil, well."

Ed allowed his lips to curve slightly. "I don't need to tell you, we started moving furniture like crazy after that. There were two more holes, the biggest one under the counter in the teller's cage, where we figure they dealt to individual customers. Under there we found smaller packets of pot, coke, heroin, pills, even some designer stuff. Plus all the paraphernalia for your preferred mode of ingesting the stuff—a regular junkie's pharmacy."

"How much did you take?"

"Eighty-one thousand and change in cash. Probably ten times that in drugs, maybe more."

Ben whistled through his teeth. "Nice going."

"It would have been nicer if we'd gotten some live bodies to go with it," Ed said somewhat disgustedly. "As it stands, we

haven't arrested so much as a gofer, let alone anybody dose to the top of the operation. We'd have had a lot more leverage to put these guys away if we'd found somebody on the premises. We really needed more time on this one."

After a brief silence he shook his head. "You know, I looked at all that dirty money stacked up today and it made me sick. If s not right that guys like you and me work damned hard-even risk our lives—for a pittance, while crooks lite Mai Duan and her cronies are stacking it up by the wheelbarrow dealing dope and sex."

Ben understood the older man's frustration. "But you did shut down their operation. You cost them a healthy amount of cash and dope in the process, too. Count this one a win."

"Yeah. And how long will it take 'em to bounce back with a new setup somewhere eke?"

Ben had no answer for that.

"Oh, well," Ed said. "I gotta admit, it felt like a win for a while. It's just too bad you were taken off the case right before things got interesting. Even though we didn't get to arrest anybody, I would've hated missing out on finding that stash this morning."

Ben thought about what he had been doing early that morning and wasn't sorry at all. "There aie still some loose ends that might lead to convictions, remember. Mai, for one."

The older man snorted. "If you ask me, that's not a loose end, it's a dead end. My guess is she ticked off somebody in the organization and is floating facedown in the lake right now."

"Maybe," Ben acknowledged, "but there's still her journal. I'm thinking maybe thaf s what Rory Douglas was after when he attacked Aliie. Since he's the new prosecutor on Mai's case, the plot thickens. This thing isn't over yet."

Ed's eyes brightened inquisitively. "Yeah, fill me in on that. Leutzinger only had time to give me the bare bones."

"I don't know much more than that myself. We should probably wait to see what Leutzinger can get out of Aliie Webster when he gets here." As Ben spoke, the coffeemaker expelled a prolonged, sputtering hiss. He pushed himself away from the counter. "Coffee's done. Black as sin, right?"

"And hot as heii," finished Ed, quoting his often-repeated preference. "Couldn't take it any other way."

* * *

Jessie decided to ignore Allie's order to stay in the bedroom, reasoning that a seventeen-minute advantage in age did not give her twin dictatorial rights over her. Ordinarily she wouldn't have minded Allie's curiosity, but somehow she didn't feel inclined to reduce what she'd shared with Ben to the frivolous topic of girlish confidences.

She didn't leave the room immediately, however. With a silent apology to Allie, she rifled through the clothes in her sister's suitcase and changed into a pair of jeans and a forest green sweatshirt she found there. The jeans fit more snugly than those she usually wore; the sweatshirt, bedecked with black faux gems set in a starburst around the neckline, wasn't one she would have chosen for herself. Still, the outfit was far more comfortable than her suit and she was grateful for it.

She looked over several pairs of plastic-wrapped shoes and boots in the suitcase and selected a pair of tennis shoes. The shower shut off as she was slipping them onto her feet. Quickly she grabbed her suit and panty hose off the bed and hung them on a single hanger in the closet.

"Jessie, do you know where Ben keeps the towels? ... Jessie?"

The bathroom door opened and Allie's head popped out just as Jessie was making her exit. "Where are you going? Darn it, Jessie, you get back in here!"

Jessie laughed and waved cheerfully before pulling the broken door as near to closed as it would go. Allie yelled her name once more in frustration, but Jessie continued down the hall. She didn't feel a bit guilty about thwarting her sister's intended third degree. Allie, after all, had a lot to answer for herself.

Jessie found Ben and Ed talking quietly at the kitchen table. "Ugh! Coffee, again?" She grimaced. "I was hoping for some food."

Ed stood with a chuckle and put on the jacket he'd slung over the back of his chair. "Thanks for reminding me it's supper time. I should just have time to stop for a hamburger on my way over to the jail."

"There's a fast-food place on the access road on your way out," Ben said.

Jessie's mouth watered at the thought. "That sounds wonderful. I could go for a juicy cheeseburger myself."

Ben shook his head. "Sorry, Jess. I can't leave you and Al-lie alone, and ifs not safe for either of you to go out. We'llhave to make do with frozen dinners."

"Well, now, I don't guess it would hurt anything if I picked up some burgers and fries for all of you before I take off," Ed said. "Another half hour one way or the other won't matter too much, since I'm probably going to have to wait around until Leutzinger finishes interrogating the suspect, anyway."

"In that case," Ben said, rising from his chair, "I'll let you take the spare remote to the security system so you won't have to get out of your car to buzz in when you get back. Come on, I'll get it and show you how it works."

The deed was accomplished swiftly, and Ed left through the back door with a promise to be back before they knew it. In his hand he carried a remote like the one Jessie had seen in Ben's car.

After the door closed behind him, Jessie told Ben, "You're a fraud, you know.''

"Say what?"

"That was a thoughtful gesture, giving Ed the remote, just to keep him from getting a little chilled.''

"Is that right." Ben moved closer.

"Mmm-hmm. You're not so tough, after al-"

Her last word was cut off as Ben reached out and pulled her middle flat against his. "You're dynamite in these jeans, princess." His strong, splayed fingers rhythmically squeezed her denim-clad seat. "What were you saying?"

For the life of her, Jessie couldn't remember. The excitement only Ben could generate blossomed where their bodies touched. She batted her eyelashes.

"Why, Officer Sutton, what fast moves you have."

"Don't flirt with me, woman, or I may show you just how fast I really am." A wicked light glinted in Ben's eyes. "Ever do it on the kitchen table?"

Jessie whispered back naughtily, "Not with my sister in residence." She hooked her hands behind his elbows and used the leverage to undulate her pelvis provocatively. Ben grunted his

pleasure, his lashes dropped, and she felt his manhood grow firm.

Suddenly his eyes opened wide, as though he'd just heard what she'd said. He looked dumbfounded. "You've done it on & table?"

Jessie laughed up at him. "Of course not. You're talking to the winner of the Miss Sexually Inhibited award for years running. You'll have to show me how it's done."

"Miss Sexually Inhibited, is it?" said a wry feminine voice from Jessie's right. "Don't look now, sis, but I think you're going to lose the title this year."

Two pairs of eyes swung to the doorway. The vision standing there was pure Allie, from the long, sensuously tossed hair brushing her face and neck to the tips of her neat ballet slippers. In between were skintight leggings and a hip-hugging, wide-necked sweater falling carelessly off one creamy shoulder.

Ben swore. Jessie pushed out of his hold and put a respectable distance between them, still feeling the imprint of his fingers on her backside as though they'd been cast in plaster.

"Sorry," Allie said, grinning mischievously. "I thought Fd better remind you two that you have company. Where's my deaf and dumb chauffeur, by the way?"

Embarrassed and more than a little irritated that her sister had overheard the lovers' teasing between her and Ben, Jessie would have answered sharply. Ben, however, beat her to it.

"His name is Ed, and he kindly offered to take time out of his busy schedule to go out and get your dinner. So I'd watch the insults, if I were you."

"Oh, good—food." Allie airily disregarded his annoyed tone. "I hope he gets back soon. I'm starved. Do you have cable, Ben? It's been days since I've seen a newscast." Without waiting for an answer, she turned and walked away, her voice drifting back into the kitchen. "Never mind, I'll figure it out."

Ben and Jessie shared a rueful smile.

"She really is a nice person," Jessie said, apologizing.

"She could be Mother Teresa, and I'd still wish her to Hades right now."

"Mother Teresa she's not," Jessie stated, so emphatically they both chuckled. Ben caught her in an impulsive hug and placed a brief, sweet kiss on her smiling lips.

"Even so, I guess we'd better be good," he said. "Shall we watch the news until Ed gets back?"

"We might as well." Jessie floated into the living room, not caring whether Allie saw the stars in her eyes.

Ed returned shortly after that with cheeseburgers, French fries and colas for three, staying only long enough to place the aromatic bags on the table and hand the security remote back to Ben. Ben refused it, suggesting he hold on to it until he came back with Leutzinger later, so Ed slipped it into his pocket and left.

During dinner Ben made a futile stab at getting information out of Allie. Stubbornly, whenever he brought up her activities in Port Mangus over the past several weeks, she rebuffed his questions with her own queries about the FBI investigation. Ben, of course, was equally unwilling to answer.

Jessie decided to stay out of it. She loved her twin and she loved Ben. After the travesty at the museum, she wasn't about to take sides again.

In spite of her earlier claim of pending starvation, Allie pushed away from the table after eating less than half her food. "I'd like to lie down for a while, maybe take a nap, if it's all right. I haven't been getting much sleep lately."

"Go ahead," Ben told her.

"If you have a spare blanket, I'll use the bed and just lie on top of the bedspread."

"There's a blanket on the overhead shelf in the closet."

"Oh, I'd rather not rummage through your things. Would you get it for me, please?"

Allie's sweet politeness caused Jessie's antennae to quiver. Her twin was up to something.

Ben put down the last bite of his sandwich and rose from the table. As they left the kitchen together, Jessie heard him warn Allie again that the alarm was set, so she'd better not try sneaking out the window. Her sister laughed, but they were too far down the hall for Jessie to make out what she said after.

For a moment the legacy of self-doubt left by Antonio gripped her, but she dismissed it immediately. In spite of that kiss Ben had told her about, she had sensed absolutely no sparks between her sister and her lover; besides, she knew Al-lie would never deliberately hurt her.

When Ben returned to the kitchen, he looked preoccupied.

"What?" she asked.

He sat down and shoved the remaining bite of his cheeseburger into his mouth. She waited while he chewed and swallowed. "Your siste: is very protective of you, isn't she? Aren't you going to eat the iest of that?"

"Here." She pushed the uneaten portions of her sandwich and fries across the table. "What did Allie say to you?"

He dumped her leftovers onto his paper plate and resumed eating as he talked. "Basically she wanted to know what my intentions were."

Darn it, Allie, you better not have messed things up, Jessie thought grimly. She'd almost done that herself this morning. If Allie were to suggest that Ben should make an honest woman of her, he would bolt for sure- "She seems to think you're some kind of hothouse flower, or something."

Jessie watched him take a huge swallow of his drink, wondering whether they were off dangerous ground yet. "Compared to her, I guess I am. With any set of twins, there's always one who's dominant. In our case, I'm the other one."

Ben eyed her curiously. "Explain 'dominant.'"

Shrugging, she said, "You know—the leader. The stronger one, the more outgoing. The more everything, for that matter."

Her cheeseburger was polished off in short order, and now Ben tackled the fries, dipping them into a pile of catsup three at a time. "You've hinted as much before. Why do you put yourself down like that?"

"I'm not putting myself down. At least I don't think I am. That's just the way things are."

"What a load of crap, Jess."

"Excuse me?"

He pushed his plate away and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. "You and Allie are different, sure, but

to say she's stronger is pure hogwash. She's just more reckless. You've got far more sense than she does."

"You would think that. After all, I let you push me around and she doesn't. Which only proves my point."

Ben snorted. 'Tush you around? That'll be the day. You give as good as you get, princess. What I mean is, in a crisis situation like all of us are in right now, you're levelheaded enough to make the right choices, unlike your sister. That's strength, not weakness."

"You're forgetting this afternoon," she reminded him.

"Even that was because of your concern for Allie, which is more consideration than she's shown you, in my opinion."

Ben's evaluation pleased her, but Jessie protested, "Poor Allie. If only she knew what a thorough roasting you're giving her."

"Okay, I'll stop. I just wanted you to know that you don't take a back seat to your twin or anybody else."

"Why, Ben... thank you."

"Especially not in bed," he added with a wink.

Jessie's bubble of pleasure burst abruptly when he reduced his compliment to sexual terms. It was hard to pretend it didn't bother her, but she wadded up her napkin and threw it at him in mock irritation.

Deftly he caught it and, smirking, tossed it back. "Come on, let's clear this stuff off and go start a fire in the living room."

Jessie wondered what kind of fire he had in mind.

He did, in fact, light a real fire in the fireplace before joining her on the couch. Then be surprised her by stretching out on his back with his head in her lap.

"Tired?" she asked.

"If your sister wasn't hogging my bed, I could be talked into a nap. She's not the only one who hasn't gotten much sleep lately. Not that I'm complaining. It's times like this when I wished I'd remodeled some of the upstairs bedrooms."

Jessie smiled and idly began playing with his hair. It flowed like water through her fingers, soft and clean. Ben took the hand lying on his chest and pressed it to his lips, enfolding it in the warmth of his before returning it to the cotton of his shirt. He closed his eyes, giving a huge sigh of contentment.

She looked down at him, enjoying their quiet closeness. "This is nice, isn't it?"

For a moment as she gazed into his dear, freckled face, she was almost overcome by yearning.

His eyes opened suddenly and he looked up at her. " Jess..."

Not sure she could hide her wistful emotions, Jessie lifted her gaze to the brightly burning flames in the fireplace. "Hmm?"

He kept his eyes fixed steadily on her face. "Want to know what I said to Allie before, about my intentions toward her twin?"

She managed to keep her voice even. "What did you say?"

"I told her to butt out. What we do is our own business, right? She doesn't have anything to say about it. Right?"

"Right."

Ben seemed to relax when she gave her agreement. "Does it bother you that she knows we're sleeping together?"

"like you said, it's none of her business."

"That's right." He closed his eyes again, but they popped open immediately. "About this morning, Jessie, when you... I don't know if I made myself clear. I mean, what's happened is only natural when two healthy people with a strong physical attraction are thrown together the way we've been. That doesn't mean ... I don't want you to get hurt. If I thought you were really serious about me..."

She gave his hair a little tug. "Hey, stop worrying about me. I've given what you said this morning some thought and realize I just got a little carried away. People have affairs all the time. They don't have to be in love to enjoy each other. I appreciate your pointing that out to me."

After a moment of silence, Ben's mouth twisted into a wry smile. "Glad I could help."

"You've been good for me, Ben, and not just because you showed me how wonderful making love can be. Someday I'll find Mr. Right, I suppose, but until then, I've decided an occasional relationship won't hurt me—if I like the man and am careful of diseases and everything."

"Here's a tip, Jess," he said brusquely. "Don't plan your next affair in front of your current lover."

"Oh, sorry. I just wanted to assure you that I'm not taking this too seriously—circumstances being what they are. I know what I'm doing." At least, I think I do, she added silently.

"Good," Ben said.

"When all this business with Allie is over and I'm back home again, we'll probably wonder—"

"Jessie." Ben maneuvered his body to a half-sitting position over her lap and braced himself on one elbow, lifting his free hand to the back of her head. He pulled her face down dose to his so their mouths were just touching. "You convinced me. Shut up."

Jessie closed her eyes and gave herself over to his kiss, hoping with all her heart she wasn't making the worst mistake of her life.

Ben drank in the honey of Jessie's mouth greedily, even while he damned his own soul to hell. He knew when it was over she would be hurt, and he wasn't going to do a thing to stop it.

There was a limit to a man's nobility.

He'd tried to tell her this morning that there could never be anything permanent between them, but she'd changed the subject. Her doing, not his. To be brutally honest, at the time he'd still been reeling from their night together. Hearing Jessie say she loved him had given him a hell of a rush. On the heels of that surge of emotion, though, had come the reality of who and what he was. He'd felt duty bound to set her straight about her expectations, all the while knowing that it probably meant the end of sleeping with her.

Could he help it if she hadn't backed away?

It wasn't until busybody Allie had challenged him that he faced his suspicion that Jessie might not have taken him seriously, and he had to admit he hadn't made a wholehearted attempt to convince her. Allie's protective streak had prodded his conscience, so he'd fdt compelled to give Jessie another chance to back away. Well, he'd tried—sort of.

Ben didn't believe the rot she had just spouted any more than she meant it. But he wasn't going to call her bluff. She'd had her chance to make a break, and instead she'd elected to ride it out with him. Her choice. No reason for him to fed guilty.

He did, though. He knew she thought she could change him, and he wasn't going to try again to talk her out of hoping.

Jessie moaned and drew back, breathless from his kisses.

Ben smiled. "Why don't you stretch out here beside me, honey? With Allie in the next room, I can't do what I really want to, so we might as well try to catch a few winks before Leutzinger comes."

"Will we both fit?"

"If we snuggle up."

The next few minutes were a scramble of arms and legs while they got situated spoon-fashion on the cushions.

"There." Ben slipped his arm around her. "Are you comfortable?"

"Very," she murmured.

Heel, cad, snake in the grass—Ben deserved every disparaging epithet ever heaped on a man who led a woman on to get what he wanted. Because the fact was, he just wasn't ready to let Jessie Webster go. He had to have her sweet warmth a little longer.

Chapter 13

Was that the famous Agent Leutzinger?" asked Allie an hour or so later. She came out of the bedroom as Ben hung up the phone, in fine form after her lengthy nap.

Jessie, on the other hand, felt bedraggled. It seemed she had just fallen asleep when the call had wakened them.

Ben, too, was looking a little worse for wear. He rubbed his bristly jaw tiredly as he accepted the steaming mug Jessie handed him. Jessie wondered if there was anything left of his stomach lining after all the coffee he'd drunk today. This had to be his seventh or eighth cup.

"Thanks, Jess." He took a worshipful sip before he turned to Allie. "Yeah, he and Ed are on their way over here now. Rory Douglas is posting bail, by the way. His lawyer will have him out in a couple of hours/'

"You can't be serious!" Allie exclaimed. "Didn't they check the guy's record? If you ask me, he's a serial rapist or something, a creep who chooses old women for his victims. Sickos like that shouldn't be out on the streets."

"He's an assistant U.S. attorney," Jessie said.

"So? I hear it happens in the best of families."

"You don't understand, Allie," Jessie began.

Ben interrupted her. "You should know, Allie, that his version of what happened today is quite a bit different from the one you gave the arresting officer."

"I'm not surprised/' she said disgustedly. "Lying would be the least of his sins.''

"He's threatening to file charges against you for assault as soon as he's cut loose from jail himself.''

"Against me." Allie's eyes flashed. "I'm the victim/ 99

Jessie laid a soothing hand on Allie's arm. "I've been dying to hear what happened ever since we got your call. Why don't we all sit down while you tell us about it?" She guided her volatile twin to a corner of the sofa and took a seat beside her.

"Here, I'll stir up those coals and get the fire going again," Ben said.

Looking bemused, Allie watched him crouch on one knee in front of the fireplace with a poker in his hand. ' 'How could he possibly turn things around and make me the attacker?"

"According to Leutzinger, he says he was across the street at a convenience storey" Ben explained as he worked. "He happened to glance over at the motel, and he saw an old woman about to be mugged as she entered her room. Without thinking, he ran to her aid. The mugger, he says, saw him coming and took off. Then, much to his surprise, the old lady turned on him without provocation, bloodying his nose and rendering him unconscious."

Allie was outraged. "That's not what happened. I don't care what he said, there was nobody else there, just him. He forced his way into my room as I was closing the door and grabbed me."

Jessie paled as she pictured the violent scene. "Good heavens, Allie, you must have been terrified. What did you do then?"

"I screamed bloody murder, that's what. And I fought like hell. While we were struggling, he lost his balance and fell. It was his head hitting the dresser that knocked him out, not me." This last she said defiantly, as though daring Ben and Jessie to doubt her. "I started to tie up his hands and feet with nylon stockings while he was out of it, but my hands were shaking so hard I could hardly make a knot. Then a man and his wife came

in—the door was still open—and he took over and finished the job."

Ben turned to her, an arm braced on his knee. "Did either of them see Douglas attack you?"

"No, they just heard me scream and came to see what was going on. The woman called the police, and by then I had calmed down enough to call Ben. The two of them waited with me until the police came.' ■

Playful flames leapt around the log Ben had added to the fireplace. The fire was an incongruously cozy accompaniment to Allie's harrowing story, Jessie thought, and nowhere near as romantic as she had found it earlier in the evening with Ben's head nestled in her lap.

Ben stood up and brushed his hands together. "Rory Douglas isn't a serial rapist, at least not that we know of."

"You mean you don't believe me?" Allie said incredulously. "Maybe/ should get a lawyer."

"Of course we believe you," Jessie said. "That's not what Ben meant. Tell her, Ben."

Ben retrieved his coffee from the end table where he'd placed it earlier. "Any information we give you is off-the-record for now, agreed?"

Allie's eyes lit with sudden interest as she looked from Jessie to Ben. "For now, yes."

Taking his time, he lifted the mug and took a swallow of coffee before leveling a discerning gaze at Allie. "You weren't a random victim of some crazy off the streets, Allie. When he attacked you, Douglas was after Mai Duan's journal."

It was plain by the expression on her face that Allie was shocked by that revelation, just as Ben intended.

"Think about that until Leutzinger gets here," he said softly.

Leutzinger arrived with Ed only minutes later. Both men, Jessie noticed, looked a little wan.

"The bastard's going to walk away clean," Leutzinger told Ben disgustedly. "He wouldn't budge from that cock-and-bull story of the assault, and he refused to take a lie detector test. With that slick lawyer of his reminding us of his client's civil rights every two minutes, we didn't get a thing out of him. Too

bad you or Ed couldn't tie him to Mai Duan. He swears he's never been near her place."

"I don't remember his name from Mai's list in the journal," Allie said from the couch, "though I couldn't swear if s not there."

Leutzinger turned his head sharply and looked at her. "You're the other Ms. Webster, I presume?"

Allie lifted her chin at his unfriendly tone. "And you must be Leutzinger. Finally."

"Would either of you gentlemen care for some coffee?" Jessie asked in order to diffuse the hostile currents flowing between her sister and the chief agent.

"That would be great," Ed said as he took a seat on a leather hassock near Allie.

When Jessie returned from the kitchen, Leutzinger had claimed the recliner. "... so I guess you're not as clever as you think," he was saying to Allie.

Uh-oh, Jessie thought. Things are not going well.

Allie snapped impatiently, "I was in disguise, I drove a rented car— nobody knew where I was staying. I don't know how this Douglas character knew where to find me."

Leutzinger's eyes were sharp behind his wire-rimmed glasses, and Jessie felt the cutting gaze on her as she handed him his coffee. "You can thank your twin sister for leading him to you," he said.

Startled to be the focus of his remark, Jessie exclaimed, "Me! How?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe he just had a hunch that an innocent-looking, respectable woman would be capable of sending a whole contingent of FBI agents to the zoo in freezing weather just to look at the animals. Being a liar himself, perhaps he recognizes the tendency in others."

Jessie uncomfortably cleared her throat.

With a last searing look, Leutzinger dismissed her like a worm and turned to Ben, who had settled in the corner of the couch opposite Allie. ■ 'Douglas begged off going with me to the zoo, saying he didn't think he was needed. Which was true."

"He probably doubled back after leaving here and staked us out from the street," Ben said.

"And I led him straight to Allie. He must have seen us together at the museum and followed her back to her motel. If only I'd known." Jessie felt wretched. Douglas's attack on her twin was all her fault.

Allie patted her hand.

"Ms. Webster, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt," Leutzinger said, addressing Allie again.

Now that he's flattened me, Jessie thought. The man was not in a good mood.

"I'm going to assume that you haven't cooperated with us so far because you don't understand the gravity of the situation. The only possible motivation for Douglas following you today is to get his hands on Mai Duan's journal. The question is why. Do you have any idea as to the answer?"

"Well...he's a lawyer for the government," Allie said. "Maybe he's afraid his name is in the journal. That couldn't be good for his career."

"I'm afraid if s more than that, Ms. Webster. We've suspected for months that Mai Duan was tangled up with organized crime here in Chicago, and now we believe Rory Douglas is their man, too. He wasn't assigned to our investigation until after the original prosecutor had an automobile accident. A little too coincidental, don't you think? In his new position Douglas has been privy to all the information the bureau has gathered on the Duan case, right up to this afternoon, including everything we know about you and Mai's journal. And so is whoever he's working for."

Leutzinger paused, but Allie said nothing.

"The fact is," he went on, "your life isn't worth the price of one of your newspapers as long as you've got the thing, disguises and clever machinations notwithstanding. You're no match for the mob. Those people kill to get what they want."

Jessie felt the blood leave her face. Allie, too, looked shaken. Jessie was glad to see it, sure now that her sister would hand the thing over.

"All right, I'll give it to you tonight, if you promise me an exclusive interview after the arrests are made," Allie said.

"Allie. For God's sake!" Jessie blurted.

"No conditions. This is your last chance to turn it over before I slap you with an injunction and an obstruction-of-justice

charge. Jail, Ms. Webster. You're not in a bargaining position."

"Why not, dammit? You wouldn't even know about the journal if it wasn't for me."

"Go and get it, Ms. Webster. If you make me waste time obtaining a search warrant, I'm not going to be inclined to leniency."

"Search warrant or no, you'll never find it without my help."

"Allie, you don't have any choice," Jessie coaxed. "Tell him."

Her plea was disregarded as Allie silently pitted her will against the obdurate FBI agent, her gaze stubbornly proud, his implacable. There was no give in either of them, as far as Jessie could see.

"Allie's got a point, Cal."

Ben's unexpected intrusion into the confrontation made him the immediate and universal focal point of attention. "I think we do owe her something. The bureau paid Donno Carr for the initial tip about the Port Mangus setup, and Donno's pond scum. Should we treat him better than a regular citizen with a clean record? Allie's not even asking for money."

"Money or favors, it all boils down to the same thing. As a 'regular citizen,' it ought to be enough for her to see these criminals put away."

Leutzinger glared at Allie and she glared right back. "Thaf s easy for you to say. You've got a job."

"How about a compromise?" Ben suggested reasonably. "Allie, would you be satisfied with notice about the arrests in the case, say, twelve hours in advance of the official media announcement?"

Allie appeared to think it over. A hopeful sign.

"You already have an advantage over your competition because of your involvement in obtaining the journal," Ben added. "Your story would contain more in-depth information than anybody else's, even without the twelve-hour lead. With it, all the other reporters will be quoting you."

Allie angled a belligerent chin toward Leutzinger. "Will he agree to that?"

"I might," Leutzinger said, "if I had Ms. Webster's promise to hold the story—all of it—until I gave her such advance notice."

Allie nodded shortly. "You've got it"

"Contingent, of course, on whether the journal is a viable piece of evidence. That has yet to be verified."

"I accept your contingency."

"\fery well, thai," Leutzinger said. "We have a deal. Bring me the journal."

Allie got to her feet and the men politely rose with her.

"Nice going," Jessie mouthed to Ben, and he tipped his head in modest acknowledgment.

"I'll have to borrow someone's car," Allie said.

"Don't tell me," Leutzinger said. "You don't have it with you."

Neatly plucked eyebrows disappeared under the feminine fall of hair on Allie's forehead. "Of course not. I'm not a fool."

"I think that debatable point is best left unexplored for now. Where is the damned thing, if you don't mind my asking?" Leutzinger was growing increasingly sarcastic.

"In Oak Park."

"Oak Park." For a tiny moment in time, the agent raised giv^me-strength eyes to heaven. "Please be more specific, Ms. Webster."

"Certainly, Mr. Leutzinger," Allie responded haughtily. "I hid it in a tree."

"Stop pacing, Jess. You're wearing a path in the carpet."

"I can't help it. Something's gone wrong, I just know it They should have been back an hour ago."

Jessie walked to the window for what seemed like the hundredth time, her hopeful eyes straining through the postmid-night darkness outside. Just as before, nothing penetrated the blackness shrouding Ben's long driveway beyond the gate. Certainly not the awaited headlights that would herald the return of her twin and the two agents who had taken her to Oak Park over two hours ago.

Ben's arms encircled her from behind. "Don't borrow trouble, honey. They'll probably be here any minute."

"But what if they're not?" Even Ben's soothing touch could not banish her escalating anxiety. "Can't we go and see ourselves what's taking so long? I know right where they are."

"I know you do, but it's still too dangerous for you out there. It's bad enough that Allie had to go along. There's no point in risking your neck, as well."

Allie had hidden Mai's journal in the split trunk of an old tree behind the house where she and Jessie had grown up. Their mother had sold their girlhood home five years ago before moving to Florida. It was located in the neighborhood where Jessie lived now, just a couple of blocks from her garage apartment.

Though the men had not been thrilled with Allie's hiding place, Jessie thought it was brilliant. She agreed with her twin that the journal was perfecdy safe in their old hidey-hole. Allie had wrapped the book in plastic to protect it from the elements, and no one would ever think to look in a tree for anything valuable.

When the others left for Oak Park, it hadn't crossed Jessie's mind that Allie might come to harm in the company of two government agents. Not until the trio was long overdue did all the frightening possibilities occur to her.

They might have had car trouble or even an accident, and those were the best prospects she could envision. The more chilling scenario was that they had somehow been discovered by some of Rory Douglas's partners in crime, who would be bent on getting the journal, no matter what the cost.

"Please, Ben. I don't care if it's dangerous. They might need us," she pleaded over her shoulder.

"Tell you what," Ben said. "If we don't hear something soon, I'll call the FBI office and see if I can find out what's going on."

"That's a good idea." Jessie turned in his arms, buoyed by the chance to take some action. "But why do we have to wait? Can't we call them now?"

He sighed. "Okay, but I can't promise anything. If the agent on duty doesn't know me, he might not be willing to give me any information."

"Just try. Please."

He let her go and walked to the phone.

Jessie turned around immediately and resumed her vigil at the window.

Ben made the call as much for himself as for Jessie. Though so far he'd downplayed his concern, his instincts for danger were humming. The trip to Oak Park shouldn't take more than forty minutes each way, and pulling a book out of a knothole in a tree trunk was a three-minute job at most. There was no good reason why Ed and Leutzinger hadn't had Allie back here by midnight.

The duty agent who answered the phone had never heard of Ben Sutton, but he was well versed in the polite runaround. Ben was getting nowhere fast with him when suddenly Jessie cried, "They're back."

She left her post and ran to push the button that opened the gate and simultaneously turned off the sensors in the yard.

Ben called, "Wait, Jess! You don't know thaf s Allie!" but she'd already unlocked the door—-without disabling the house alarm—and was on her way outside to greet the car that had just driven up. A part of his mind registered the security system's high, insistent warning that told him in a minute and a half, all hell would break loose.

He ignored it. Without another word to the uncommunicative agent on the line, he dropped the phone into its cradle and tore out after her.

Outside he saw Jessie's shadow in surrealistic outline against the rays of approaching headlights as she hailed the vehicle coming through the gate.

A perfect target.

"Jessie!" The agonized syllables of her name wane torn from his throat. He propelled himself forward and somehow reached her in an endless flying tackle that brought her down to the frozen ground. At once he shifted to cover her body with his own, half expecting any moment to feel an assassin's gunfire rip through his flesh.

Instead he heard two car doors open and close. A woman said, "What in the world—?"

Allfe's voice.

"If s us, Ben," Leutzinger said right after.

Jessie struggled undo* him until he realized she still bore bis full weight. He rose and helped her to her feet, adrenaline still beating at his temples.

She took one look at his face and said, "I've done it again, haven't I? We both could have been kil—^

Her last word was drowned out by the ear-shattering whoop of the external alarm, and suddenly they were blinded by the glare of several floodlights whose combined incandescence spilled into every corner of the yard and beyond.

Ben swore and ran back to the house. He hurried inside to the nearest code box, which was out of sight inside the coat closet. Quickly he pushed the correct numbers on the keypad and blessed silence reigned. Next he called the security station to report there was no need to send the police.

Thai he sat his limp body on the couch and closed his eyes, listening to his heartbeat as it pounded in his veins.

"Ben."

His eyes opened to find Jessie standing between his widespread thighs, looking down at him, regret written on every feature.

"I'm sorry.... I-"

He leaned forward, grabbed her wrist and pulled her down until she knelt on the floor in front of him.

"Don't do that again," he told her through clenched teeth.

"I won't—ever, I promise."

He jerked her in and leaned forward to meet her in a hard, desperate kiss. Their lips separated with an abrupt smack.

"You little nitwit...."

"I know. I should have waited... "

"If anything had happened..."

"You protected me "

"Did I hurt you?"

"No, no, I'm all right. What about you?" Her fingers skimmed frantically over his face.

"I'm okay, too, but I've never..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry...."

Ben ran his hands up and down her arms. "God, I was so scared...."

"Ahem!"

It was Allie's congested throat that interrupted them, but Leutzinger's exasperated voice that said, "Dammit, Ben—"

Jessie scrambled to her feet, her cheeks a becoming shade of pink. Ben got up, too, and stood beside her. The rueful entreaty in the glance she arrowed up at him had his fingers twitching to grab her again and assure himself she was safe, but now he was mindful of their audience.

The FBI chief's disapproval of the intimate scene he'd witnessed was evident. Every law enforcement agency in the country discouraged romantic involvement on the job and Ben knew Leutzinger had every right to call him on it. But he hoped he wouldn't. Ben would have a hard time justifying to his superior what he couldn't justify to himself.

Allie broke the awkward silence. "That's some kind of alarm you have, Ben. I nearly jumped out of my skin." Her eyes swung from his face and shifted to Jessie. "Are you okay, sis? He tackled you like a linebacker. You must be full of bruises.''

With the tension eased, Jessie visibly pulled herself together. "No, I'm fine, though if I weren't, it would be my own fault. I shouldn't have run out like that, but I was just so anxious to reassure myself that you were safe—"

"Never mind that," Leutzinger said impatiendy. Apparently willing to let a breach of professionalism slide in the face of more weighty matters, he turned to Ben. "We've got trouble."

"I knew something was wrong," Jessie said. "You were gone so long."

Ben suddenly realized their little group was smaller than it had been. "Where's Ed?"

"Good question," Leutzinger said in a disgusted voice.

"We might as well start at the beginning." Allie walked to the couch and sat down. "The journal wasn't where I'd left it. I guess that old tree trunk wasn't such a hot idea, after all."

"Really?" the agent sneered.

"Hey, I didn't know about that kid," Allie retorted defensively. "The last I remember, a middle-aged couple with teenagers was living in our old house."

"Wait a minute," Ben cut in. "You mean a kid took it?"

Allie nodded. "A real cutie. The poor little guy had asthma."

"Which he demonstrated at a most inconvenient time/' Leutzinger added, taking a seat on the recliner.

"That was your fault," Allie accused hotly, "He wouldn't have if you hadn't scared him!"

"The kid was lying to us. Even you could see that."

"Good grief." Ben was beginning to feel like a spectator at a Ping-Pong match. "Could we have the story from just one of you?"

"77/ tell it." The look Allie flung in Leutzinger's direction defied him to disagree. "I hid the journal before driving Christie back to Kansas. It was the middle of the night and the house was dark. I had no trouble slipping in and out of the yard. But tonight the man and his wife were still up."

"A good thing," Leutzinger interjected. "Some people may think nothing of disregarding personal property and privacy laws, but agents of the government don't have that option. We had to get permission from the owners to look for the journal, and they were very cooperative, in spite of the late hour.' p

His interruption netted him another dark look from Allie. "When we discovered the journal wasn't where I'd left it," she went on, "the man suggested that his son may have found it. So we all trooped into the house, and the woman got the boy out of bed. The poor kid was scared he was in trouble for taking the journal—that's why he didn't tell the truth right away. But big, brave Mr. G-man here flashed a badge under his nose and in general intimidated him into confessing."

"Quit sniping, Allie." That was Jessie. "Honestly, what's gotten into you? Just tell us what happened next."

Hear, hear, Ben seconded silently.

With ill grace, Allie said, "He ran into his room, came back with the journal, and handed it to me."

"Andyou handed it to Ed," Leutzinger said, glowering.

"Why wouldn't I, dammit? He's FBI, isn't he?"

"That had nothing to do with it, and you know it. You just didn't want to give it to me. ''

"Cut it out, you two." Ben's voice erupted, loud and unexpected between the nit-picking pair. He'd had enough. Once everyone's startled eyes had turned his way, he forced a more moderate tone. "Now, whaf s this about Ed?"

"I was getting to that," Allie said sullenly. "I did hand the journal to Ed, which was a perfectly logical thing for me to do. Ed took it and thumbed through it a little, while Agent Leut-zinger thanked the parents for their help. Then the little boy started gasping for breath. Before long he turned blue and scared the bejeebers out of all of us. I've never seen an asthma attack before—I thought he was going to die. It seemed like it took forever before his mother found his inhaler, but once he had that, he started breathing easier. Me, too, I don't mind saying. Anyway, when it was all over and we could see he was going to be all right, we looked up and realized Ed was gone."

"Along with the journal and the government car we came in," Leutzinger said, clearly disgruntled.

"Ed Brock—a rogue agent?" This unexpected twist in the case disturbed Ben.

"We had to ask the boy's father to drive us to my place so I could pick up my own car and bring Allie back here. She's yours for the night, and you're welcome to her." Ignoring Al-lie's outthrust jaw, he rose from his chair and buttoned his coat.

"Hold on, I'll walk out with you." Ben grabbed his jacket from the closet. "You two stay put," he warned the women darkly with his hand on the doorknob.

Jessie's eyes swept up and connected with his. "Be careful," she said softly.

Ben saw concern for him in her gaze and something more-something he refused to acknowledge.

"Wait," Allie said. "What about my story?"

Leutzinger's lips tightened before he tinned to her. "It appears we're both out of luck, Ms. Webster. Good night."

"I can't figure it," Ben said on the short walk to Leutzinger's car. "I would have sworn Ed wasn't the type to turn bad."

The agent snorted. "He's not the first good agent to jump over the fence after staring so long at the color green over there, and I doubt he'll be the last." He gestured toward the house. "At least the heat's off the women in there. I doubt Ed will waste any time handing over Mai's journal to his and Rory Douglas's mutual friends, in which case the hunt will be called off. The twins should be safe."

"You're going after Ed tonight?"

"With everything I've got." Leutzinger's voice was flat. "I want that journal, and I want Ed Brock. I hate dirty cops. I'll get him, no matter what it takes."

In spite of Leutzinger's efforts, his piey was nowhere to be found.

That news was part of the update Leutzinger provided when he called Ben in the next afternoon to officially release him from the Duan case. The government car had turned up in a small used-car lot south of Oak Park, but Ed had left no clues to his direction after ditching it. The already indistinct trail was getting colder.

Interestingly enough, Marie Brock, the wife from whom Ed had been separated for fifteen years, had taken leave from her job that morning. A family emergency, she'd told her boss, but Leutzinger's men had questioned her mother and found that the woman knew nothing about an emergency or her daughter's whereabouts. Marie, like Ed, had vanished without a trace. Which could only mean, Leutzinger told Ben, that she'd helped her estranged husband get away.

Ben had to hide his reaction when he heard about the missing Mrs. Brock. His partner hadn't mentioned his wife during their long hours of surveillance together, or even that he'd ever been married.

So much for friendship, he thought, shaking off his disillusionment. So what if the man he'd believed Ed to be didn't exist? Leutzinger hadn't guessed the agent was dirty, either, and he'd worked with the man for more than two vears.

Besides, now that he was off the case, Ben had better things to think about. This morning he and Jessie had dropped off Allie at her motel. Allie had immediately loaded her bags into her rented car and headed back to Port Mangus to return the rental and assure herself that her house and belongings had come to no harm in her absence.

Which meant Ben and Jessie were alone again. It was time to see if he could finagle some vacation time out of his precinct captain.

He asked for three weeks and got one.

Chapter 14

JDen found Jessie working in the computer room when he got home.

"A vacation?" she asked- "Are you planning a trip somewhere?"

"Actually, I thought it might be nice to stay here," Ben said. "Would you care to join me?"

The hope shining in her deep blue eyes when she happily agreed was unmistakable. Obviously she read more into his invitation than he meant.

Ben didn't correct her misconception. His conscience made noises, but he silenced it by promising himself he'd take the next week from her and no more. After all, she would end up hating him, no matter when he called it quits. An additional week could hardly make things worse.

But to Ben those seven days might make a world of difference. He couldn't resist the chance to come out of the cold for a little while. And who knew? Maybe some concentrated time with Jessie would cool the fire burning in his gut for her.

Just a week—not so much to ask.

And what a week it was. Except for a single trip the first day to Jessie's apartment for some clothes and toiletries and a quick

stop at a grocery store, they stayed inside and reveled in each other. Days and nights blurred together as they ate, slept and made love whenever and however the mood struck them. It was the most exhausting, absolute best week of Ben's life.

But the day inevitably came when he had to report for work again. That morning he made love to Jessie slowly and with determined thoroughness, exploring and memorizing her body as he willed his senses to hold on to the touch and taste and smell of her. When at last she begged for completion and he could prolong his own need no longer, Ben brought them both to a shuddering climax.

What a fool he'd been to think their sexual marathon might work her out of his system. He knew now he'd never have enough of her.

Jessie snuggled against him. He held her close, thinking about what she'd given him. She wanted to give more, he knew. Ah, Jess, he said silently. If I was a better man, the one you think I am, I could gladly accept everything you offer and live happily ever after. Instead I have to let you go.

How long would it take her, he wondered, to find the lucky guy who would marry her, give her those kids she wanted, and wake up beside her every day for the rest of his life? Ben hated even the thought of the nameless stranger she would someday love.

Suddenly Jessie sighed. "I guess it's back to the old grind for both of us today. I'll probably have to blow the dust off my computer, it's been so long." She gave his ribs a little squeeze and said wistfully, "But if s been lovely, hasn't it? Do you suppose the rest of the world is still out there?"

"It's there, all right," Ben said grimly.

"What time will you be getting home tonight?"

"I'm working the six to two shift." He answered absently, his mind on how to bring up the subject he dreaded.

"Two in the morning?' 9 She rolled into a sitting position, tousled her curls sleepily and shrugged. "Oh, well, we can sleep in tomorrow. I'd better come here, though. You don't need the long drive to my place at that hour of the night, especially after eight hours' work."

Ben looked at her cautiously.

"If s all right, isn't it?" Uncertainty clouded her face. "I mean, I'm not going to move in, or anything. But how else arc we going to see each other, with your schedule?"

There was a pillow crease on her cheek, he noticed, and her lips were still slightly swollen from his kisses. She looked vulnerable, soft and well loved.

He couldn't bring himself to say no.

'Til give you a remote so you can get in the gate," he told her gruffly.

They settled into a routine of sorts. After spending the night, Jessie, needing solitude to write, would leave for Oak Park about midmorning to work at home. Alone and oddly restless during the hours between her departure and his late-night shift, Ben killed time by working on his house. He'd taken up renovation again, this time on the second floor, just for something to do. Even though he didn't have a clear idea what use if any the upstairs would provide, the project kept him from thinking too much and the physical labor was satisfying.

It came in a distant second, though, to having Jessie meet him at the back door after work. Her eyes would smile a welcome and her skin would be freshly bathed and soft with scented lotion under her satiny green robe. Ready for him.

He was a weak man taking advantage of a good woman. He knew it, but he didn't have the strength to stop the best thing that had ever happened to him. And, he rationalized, as long as that was the situation, he might as well indulge himself. He'd save the regrets for later.

One evening a couple of weeks after their hiatus, he came out of the precinct briefing room with a handful of other officers and looked around for an available telephone. He'd be hitting the streets in less than an hour with the narcotics task force he'd been assigned to. If he didn't settle the vague misgivings that had been distracting him since this morning, he wouldn't be worth spit out there tonight.

Spotting a vacant desk in a far corner of the large common area, Ben headed over, punched in Jessie's number and waited through a long series of rings. Finally she answered with a breathless hello that reminded him of the startled little gasp that always escaped her lips in the sweet moment before she found

release in his bed. He smiled and eased a hip and thigh onto the desk. "Did I catch you doing something unmentionable?"

"Ben/' The knot of tension inside him loosened a little at the warm recognition in her voice. She didn't sound mad.

"I'm so glad you didn't hang up before I got here/' she rushed on. "I was already outside, on my way to your place, when I heard the phone. Is something wrong? You've never called from work before."

Ben lowered his voice. "Nothing's wrong. I was just wondering why I woke up alone this morning."

"Oh." Jessie's voice softened, too. "I had to come home early today to call my agent, and didn't have the heart to wake you just to tell you I was leaving. You get so little sleep."

"What about you?"

"Unlike some supermen I know, I nap during the day. Anyway," she teased, "I knew what would happen if I woke you up.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ben saw a uniformed cop slip into a chair at a nearby desk. "Uh-huh. So how come you called your agent?"

"Oh, we're changing the subject, are we? Okay, I can take a hint. No dirty talk at work."

The racy remark made him grin. Jessie had come a long way from the scarred divorcee who hadn't known the power of her femininity. In his arms she'd blossomed into a desirable, passionate woman, confident of her sensuality and comfortable with her body. Ben took pleasure in knowing he'd given her that, at least.

"... write a series of books with secondary characters from Midnight Lies. My agent loved the idea, since that title was my top seller. What do you think?"

His wandering mind came to attention and just managed to catch the gist of what she was saying. Jessie often asked his opinion about her work, and wouldn't listen when he protested he didn't know anything about the writing business. He'd given up arguing about it, figuring her agent would keep her on the right career path.

She was pleased that he'd read a couple of her novels. Ben had every intention of reading them all, and not just to humor her. She told a good story, and the loves scenes were some-

thing else. The truth was, he didn't just admire her talent, he was proud of her.

"I liked that book, too," he said. "Go for it."

"I think I will, but I have to finish this one first," she said. "Oh, Allie called this afternoon. And guess what? She said Cal Leutzinger talked her into withdrawing her complaint against Rory Douglas. She's coming back to town tomorrow."

"I know. Cal told me."

"He did?" She sounded surprised. "I thought you weren't working for him anymore."

"I'm not. If s just professional courtesy. He knows Tm still interested in the Duan investigation, so he calls me whenever something happens. Did Allie tell you she didn't agree to drop the charges until he promised her a personal interview if he breaks the case? He's gritting his teeth thinking how she must be gloating over finally getting her way."

"Those two." Jessie laughed softly. "I'm still surprised he talked her into it, the interview notwithstanding. She really wanted Rory Douglas to get what was coming to him. Me, too. I don't see why he should get away with assault. It doesn't seem right. Allie could have been seriously hurt."

"It's just another trade-off, Jess," Ben said. "It's not every day an assistant U.S. attorney is charged with assault. Allie's case would have drawn a lot of publicity, not to mention she would have had to testify in open court about Mai's journal. The FBI wants to keep that quiet, at least until Ed turns up and they know for sure what he did with it. Cal's still hoping they can salvage something out of the whole mess."

"Speaking of the journal, did he tell you whether they got any information from the men whose names Allie remembered?"

"Nothing useful. None of them would admit to anything more than having spent time at Club Duan, which was what Cal expected. They'd be stupid to confess even knowing about Mai's otter services."

"You mean the FBI hasn't learned anything new since you've been off the case?"

"Nothing important. The real break in the case would be finding Ed Brock. The way Cal figures it, Ed's the key to ev-

erything from Mai's vanishing act to the ringleaders she was working for."

"I hate to think thafs true. I liked Ed."

"Yeah, well, he fooled a lot of people."

"Hey, Sutton!"

Ben turned at the sound of his name and waved an acknowledgment to the man signaling him. "I've got to go, Jess," he said. "Oh... and about this morning?"

"Yes?"

"Next time wake me."

"Why, that sounded suspiciously like an order," Jessie crooned provocatively.

"Yeah," he sassed back. "I'm a real drill sergeant."

She gurgled. "You're bad, Ben."

"Just wait till tonight."

"I'll be there."

Over the next several hours Ben prowled shadowed city streets, blending into the seething atmosphere of desperation and hopelessness as though he belonged there. He'd been wired for sound, and an unmarked police van followed him discreetly. They were after pushers tonight, and Ben knew how to find them.

Methodically he worked, by turn becoming belligerent and foulmouthed or wary and grasping as the situation demanded. His performance was flawless, perfected by experience. One by one he sought out the targeted dealers and bought drugs. As soon as each recorded buy was completed, the team swooped in for the arrest. Then they moved on to another block, another bust.

For the limited type of operation they were running, it was a good night. In all, Ben and the task force got four small-time dope peddlers off the streets, at least one of whom appeared to be willing to sell out his supplier for clemency.

At a little before two in the morning, while the rest of the group hung around the station to congratulate themselves and one another on their night's work, Ben filled out his paperwork and dropped it off at the sergeant's desk.

I'll be there, Jessie had said. Not wanting to take time for his usual shower, he changed out of his grubby and tattered work-

ing clothes and walked quickly to his car, barely able to repress his simmering impatience.

The Trans Am rumbled to life. A messy drizzle started to fell, and Ben turned on the intermittent wipers as he guided the car onto the expressway. If the weather turned a few degrees colder, he thought, they might have snow for Christmas, which was only a little over a week away. Jessie would like that.

Christmas was a big deal to her. She'd talked him into putting up a tree in the living room, his first Christmas tree ever in all the years since he'd left his parents' home. The afternoon they'd sprat buying the ornaments and decorating the tree had filled him with a kind of excited pleasure he hadn't felt since he was a child.

It had grown dark by the time the last shiny foil icicle had been hung. Jessie had turned off all the lights but those on the tree, and they'd made love on the floor among the discarded ornament boxes. Ben would never foiget how she had looked stretched out under him, the soft multicolored lights reflecting off her naked body like transparent paint on an artist's palette of warm skin. He cherished that memory, hoarding it along with a multitude of others he'd gathered over the past weeks like a miser. After Christmas, they would be all he'd have left of her. Last week he'd made sure of it.

I'll be there.

On a night like this, she would probably have a fire burning in the fireplace when he got home. She always fussed over him, making him sit down, worrying if he was hungry or tired, bringing him a drink so he could relax. When he was settled on the couch, she' d cuddle up next to him while he unwound. Then she'd want to talk.

Ben frowned. He'd have to head her off tonight before she asked the usual questions about his work. It was obvious she didn't like his unwillingness to discuss what he did every day. Last night, in fact, she'd been more dogged than usual and had gone all quiet for a while when, Ceding backed into a corner, he'd flatly told her to drop it.

He had his reasons for avoiding the topic. For one thing, he knew only too well there was strong justification why so many women found it too stressful to live with cops, and undercover work was the worst. He hadn't forgotten that Becky hadn't

been able to cope, not with the hazards of his job or the deception. No way in hell was he going to present Jessie with that reality.

He had resented Becky's unfair judgment of what he'd chosen to do, but now he realized she'd done him and herself a favor. Their marriage would never have worked, even if they'd really loved each other.

He wouldn't put Jessie through that kind of choice. He was no good for her, no good for anything anymore but lifting up rocks and smashing the bad guys who scurried out. He couldn't even make himself tell her she was better off without him.

That was why he'd agreed last week to take the job after Christmas. It would force him to leave her, and by the time he got back, he'd wouldn't have to say anything. He'd just stay away.

He hadn't told her about the new assignment yet. Ultimately he'd have to, but he would put it off as long as possible.

I'll be there.

Ben's foot pressed a little harder on the accelerator. Soon he'd be with her, reveling in how easily her robe's slippery sash came apart in his fingers, feeling the warmth of her naked curves, watching her go wild under the touch of his hands.

Which reminded him—his supply of condoms was low again. Jessie took birth control pills now, but her doctor had warned she couldn't rely on them exclusively for another few weeks. She didn't know yet she wouldn't need to.

Regretting the delay, Ben turned off the expressway at the next exit.

He'd made his purchase and was leaving the convenience store when he heard the pickup peel out from the curb across the street. He caught a glimpse of the driver, a pointy-faced man who looked oddly familiar, as the truck squealed away. He stared after it for a moment, trying to place the face, then shook his head. He didn't know anyone in this part of town, and he didn't recognize the pickup, either.

The incident was easily forgotten as he climbed back into his car.

Jessie was waiting for him.

» + +

"Jess?"

Here we go, Jessie thought from her seat on the iecliner. She squared her shoulders for the coming confrontation and called out, "In here."

Ben's eyes found her immediately. He probably wondered why she hadn't been at her post, ready to open the door for him and cater to his every whim.

But there was no censure in his gaze. He smiled. "There you are."

She couldn't stop her body's thrumming reaction as he skirted the couch and came to her. Already she could feel her body softening, preparing itself for him.

With his hands braced on the arms of the chair, he zeroed in for a controlled but thorough taste of her mouth. Jessie submitted to the kiss, lifting her hand to caress his stubbled jaw as she struggled to keep her defenses in place.

Ben straightened, taking in the slacks and long-sleeved blouse she wore and the pages of her manuscript resting in her lap. "Working late, I see. The book must be going well."

"Not really. I've written less than three pages all day. My hero isn't cooperating."

He walked to the closet and removed a small sack from his pocket before putting away his cap and jacket. "You probably need a break. Take tomorrow off and go shopping or something."

Jessie smiled and shook her head. "That's not the problem. I just have other things on my mind."

"What other things?" He looked at her speculatively as he closed the closet door. "Is something wrong? Are my crazy hours getting to you?"

"Of course not. You know I'm a night person."

He flashed his teeth in an engaging grin. "A middle-of-the-night person, too, as I recall from pleasurable experience. And—" his voice lowered and the smile tipped slightly off center "—an inspired morning person."

Jessie knew which morning he referred to. At dawn a few days ago, the murmur of Ben's voice had awakened her. She'd opened her eyes and seen the faint smile and the flicker of his eyelids as he slept. When his hand moved down his body to

brush over his groin under the covers, she realized he was having an orotic dream. Her imagination was fired. What was his dream lover doing to him?

Fascinated and unable to help herself, Jessie lifted the sheet and found him magnificently aroused. A wave of mischievous sensuality swept over her. Wickedly, slowly, she moved over him, being careful not to disturb his sleep. Delicious anticipation heightened her passion while she straddled him and poised over his erection like a moist, waiting sheath. She watched his face, eager to see his reaction as she lowered herself onto him.

It was not to be the slow joining she'd envisioned. His head tossed once on the pillow when the tip of his manhood made entrance, then he grabbed her thighs and arched his hips upward, impaling her on his thick hardness to its very root. Jessie's eyes closed at the depth of his possession. When she opened them, he was awake, his gaze hot and hungry, consuming her.

"Surprise," she whispered.

He cursed, but it was a tender expletive. Taking control, his strong fingers jerked at her hips while he bucked under her. A moaning climax shook him after only a few deep, frenzied thrusts.

"Baby, you are a fantasy come to life," he'd breathed while she rested on his pounding chest afterward.

Then he'd taken an exquisitely long time to reward her for waking him.

"We didn't use protection the first time that morning," Ben said now, proving his thoughts were in sync with hers.

"I know, but I was taking the pill by then. It'll probably be all right."

She waited for him to say more about the possibility of their having created a child, but he said, "You know, that was the single most fantastic thing that's ever happened to me. I'll never forget it."

Eyes charged with golden promises, he advanced on her, set her manuscript pages on the table beside her and growled next to her ear, "Let's take a shower together."

Jessie's determination to have it out with him wavered. If only he wouldn't use that voice. Hastily she shored up her re-

solve. "You go ahead. When you're finished, I'd like to talk to you."

"We can talk in the shower."

She had to smile. "Ha! You know very well we'll do precious little talking."

"Even better. Does it matter whether we talk before, during, or after?" He nuzzled her neck. "I need you."

Dangerously dose to giving in, Jessie pushed him away.'' No, Ben. Let's talk."

He straightened. "This sounds serious."

"To me, it is," she informed him firmly as she pointed to the couch. "Sit over there."

Ben didn't move. "What's this all about, Jess?"

Suddenly she was apprehensive about the outcome of the next few minutes. She wished she could predict how he would react. Unbidden, a sigh escaped her lips.

"You're tired, honey." He smoothed a hand over her hair. "You don't have to come over every night, you know."

"If s not that." She raised her eyes and found him staring broodingly down at her.

"No, I've been selfish, lapping up all your TLC like it was my right," he said. "Tonight if s your turn. Let me take care of you, for a change."

Disarmed, Jessie stopped him in the middle of reaching to help her up from the couch. "I'm not tired. Really."

His eyes, more green now than gold, wrinkled at the corners as he smiled. "Come on, give me a chance to baby you a little. A cup of tea, maybe, before I feed you grapes in your bubble bath. Then an all-over body massage to relax you. Soft music to lull you to sleep."

She eyed him suspiciously. "You'll go to any lengths to avoid talking about this, won't you?"

The smile evaporated. "What do you mean? I made an honest offer."

"I'm sorry," she said, regretting she had offended him. "I'm tempted to take you up on it, but this is more important."

"What the hell is this, I'd like to know." He shoved his fingers through his hair and turned away.

"Our relationship."

He sat down in the chair opposite her, his features guarded. "What about it?"

This was it lime to stop waffling around. Jessie leaned forward earnestly. "Every time I try to talk to you about what you do when you're away from here, Ben, you turn me off. I want to know why."

"So you are carrying a grudge about last night. Jessie, why do we have to talk about my job in order to have... a relationship?"

It was Jessie's turn to be offended. "Sex, you mean. And we have more than that, at least I think we do. Ben, you have a whole other life that you're keeping from me. At least acknowledge that our relationship is worth discussion."

Ben sighed heavily. "You're right. I apologize."

Soothed by his contrite words, Jessie said, "That's all right. If s hardly surprising, given how quickly everything has happened between us, that there are some rough spots we need to work out."

"You don't hear me complaining."

"Come on, Ben. This isn't about leaving your socks on the floor."

He took a long time to answer. "I don't think I should talk about my work. You'd only worry."

"I can handle it."

"You may think so...."

"I know so. What I can't handle is being shut out of a part of your life that's important to you. It feels like I'm being compartmentalized."

Ben looked away. "Yeah, I can see how you'd fed that way."

"I guess I'm still good at covering up and pretending nothing's wrong. I did that with Antonio all the time. But I'm not going to do it with you. I won't let myself fall back into those old ways—I can't live like that again. It wouldn't be good for either of us. I don't want what we have together to be spoiled."

"I can't do it, Jess." He looked truly sorry.

Jessie panicked. "Why not? I'm not asking for much. It's not like I have to hear the gory details of what you do. Surely there are people you work with you could tell me about, or ordinary day-to-day activities. You're not in danger every minute, are you?"

"Most of the time I work alone," he said somberly. "And you wouldn't like the person you'd see if I played out my day-to-day activities for you. Hell, J don't like him. I told you before—this is the place I come to get away from all that."

"I see." She did see, better than Ben himself, Jessie thought. For the first time she put together his refusal to talk about his work with the things he had told her about himself. She realized she had misunderstood completely what he was doing and the reasons for it. He hadn't compartmentalized her, he had compartmentalized his life, and had been doing so long before they'd met. It was his way of dealing with a career for which he was temperamentally unsuited.

He sat forward, letting his hands hang limply between his knees. "So where does that leave us, Jess?"

"How have you stood it for eleven years?"

"Stood what?"

"The strain of doing a job you despise?"

His head jerked up. "What are you talking about? I'm a damned good cop."

"That's not the point. The real issue is your happiness and well-being. Police work isn't right for you, at least not working undercover. Don't you see that?"

"How did you reach that brilliant conclusion?"

She winced at the sudden derision in his voice but continued doggedly. He needed to understand what he was doing to himself.

"If s the way you live, almost like you're two different people who hate each other so much they won't have anything to do with each other. Here, in this house with me you're a wonderful, kind, loving man. But out there, on the streets, you're— what? Who do you become, Ben? What do you do that makes you—"

"I do what I have to do to get the job done," he said through gritted teeth. "I am not a schizoid crazy person with multiple personalities."

"That's not what I'm saying."

"Close."

There were two spots of color on Ben's cheekbones. In spite of his obvious anger, his voice remained quietly level.

"Don't try to make me over, Jessie. I managed to stumble along okay before you came into my life. Some people even appreciate what I've done/'

"I know that." Jessie could see she shouldn't have started this. A little desperately she said, "I just meant that... Ben, you said yourself the only reason you became a policeman was because of your sister, Maddie. I'm sure she wouldn't want you to sacrifice your whole life to her memory."

"I'm not sacrificing anything. Just where do you get off, anyway, dammit?" His hands curled into fists on his knees.

At that moment, Jessie could have sworn he actually disliked her. She recoiled from his narrow-eyed gaze. "I—"

"listed, you don't know me from horse manure. I can count the number of days since we met on my fingers and toes and have digits left over. So how can you think you have the inside dope on what makes me tick? Hell, I should have known bet-to than to think this would work. It never does."

Every muscle in Jessie's body went absolutely still. "What are you saying, exactly? That it's over?"

The color faded from Ben's cheeks and she saw his nostrils flare. "It's up to you—I don't care. Just don't psychoanalyze me."

"You'd let me go so easily?"

He didn't answer.

"Ben?"

"I didn't say it was over." He stood and walked to the window, his steps rigid, at odds with his usual fluid movements. As though he'd said ail he was going to, he stared out into the night.

"You're sure as hell not telling me to stick around."

Without turning to face her, he said, "If s your choice. It has been from the beginning."

"That's it?" she asked his back. "It doesn't make any difference to you whether we're together or not?"

She couldn't believe that was true. How had everything gone so wrong so fast? Frantically she tried to regain some lost ground. "Ben, this isn't like you. I've got to have something I can hang on to. I thought we were building something here— something that would last. We can work this out if you're willing-"

"I never thought it would last. I told you that when we started—you even agreed with me, remember?"

His words cut through her entreaty like a sharp knife, clean and lethal. Jessie felt the pain of it deep in her heart. "Yes, but I thought..."

"I know what you thought."

Ben turned around, and she saw in his eyes he'd withdrawn from her totally. "I told you, Jess—cops don't make good husbands. Sooner or later the job gets in the way."

"This isn't about your job," she protested. "It's about you."

He shrugged as though he couldn't care less. "Same thing. Law enforcement is not just what I do—it's what I am, like it or lump it."

Jessie knew as surely as she knew her name that he was wrong, but his cold voice took the fight out of her. "All right, then. I'll go."

With leaden feet she walked to the closet and got her coat and purse.

"You're leaving now? If s the middle of the night."

"I don't want to burden you with my presence any longer than necessary."

She pressed the gate button and stepped halfway into the closet to turn off the nighttime alarm, which Ben had reengaged from the rear door code box when he'd come in from work. It reminded her that he would probably change the codes now, as he had when he realized Ed Brock still had one of the spare remotes.

"Please don't change the security codes until after tomorrow." She slipped into her coat. "I'll come back while you're at work to get the clothes and things I've left here."

"I'm not going to change the damned codes. I know you're not going to do anything."

Surprisingly, Ben's irritation gave her a lift. She even managed a smile. "Then ... I guess this is goodbye."

As she unlocked the door, Ben said in a sudden rush, "Give it another week, Jess."

She froze. "What?"

"Look, we've got a good thing going, don't we? We understand each other now, so why cut it short before we have to?

Don't call it quits until Christmas. I'll be gone after that, anyway."

"Gone? Where?"

"I've been assigned to a survivalist camp about forty miles south of here, and I'll be staying there for an indefinite period—it could be six months to a year."

"Six months to... a year?"

"These things take time. The local cops think the camp is manufacturing methamphetamine and maybe LSD and distributing them to school kids. They need a stranger to infiltrate the operation, so I volunteered. If s what I do, Jess."

Jessie ignored the feint note of entreaty in his last words. "You volunteered."

"Well, yeah. These people have to be stopped."

The fragile hope his last-minute offer had stirred in her breast splintered, and she opened the door.

"No, thanks," she told him. "If s pretty dear where my position is on your list of priorities. I deserve better than that."

Angry tears gathered in her throat. She left quickly before Ben could see them fall.

"Dammit," Ben whispered when the door closed behind her. He heard her footsteps cross the porch and the muted clicking noises of the outside door latch. Then nothing. "Goddammit to hell."

What the hell had happened? An hour ago he'd been looking forward to getting naked and watching Jessie hang on to him as if she never wanted to let him go. Instead she was gone, believing he didn't care about her.

Well, wasn't this what he'd been after? Better that she think him a self-serving bastard than the truth.

It was just that it had happened before he expected. He hadn't prepared himself.

He needed a drink, maybe two, to make the yawning emptiness inside his chest go away. He was in the kitchen pouring whiskey into a tall water glass when he heard her.

"Ben?"

She was back! He hurried to the living room, only to stop short at the sight that greeted him.

Jessie stood inside the door with Ed Brock's aim around her neck in a choke hold, his other hand pointing a .45 semiautomatic pistol at her head. Ed's clothes were rumpled and stained, and it looked as though he hadn't shaved since he'd made off with the journal. But his hand was steady, his voice calm as he nodded and said, "Hello, Ben."

Ben's blood congealed in his veins. "I'm surprised to see you, Ed." He kept his tone cordial. "Leutringer figured your friends had probably spirited you out of the country by now."

"What friends? I'll take care of myself," Ed said. "But first you and Jessie are going to come with me."

"What do you want with us?"

"If s you I want out of the picture for a while, Jessie just happened to get in the way. Though I guess I have her to thank for letting me in here without bells going off."

"Let her go if it's me you want."

"No. Something tells me you'll be a lot easier to handle with this gun pointed right where it is. Do what I tell you and she won't get hurt." He nudged Jessie's temple with his pistol. Her eyes closed tightly.

"You all right, Jess?" Ben asked her softly.

"Yes/' she whispered, opening her eyes. There was fear there, and her face looked pinched, but she appeared to be composed.

Good, Ben thought. Maybe he stood a chance to get her out of this.

Those were the last words their captor allowed either of them for a long time. With the gun never wavering from its point-blank target, he told Ben to get a jacket.

Ben kept watching for an opening, a letdown in Ed's guard, but not for an instant was the deadly hold on Jessie relaxed. He couldn't try anything while she was a split second away from getting her head blown off.

With Ed half pushing, half dragging Jessie in front of him, they all piled into the front of Ben's car. Ed forced Jessie to sit with him in the passenger seat while Ben drove them to a desolate section of town. The deserted, mostly empty warehouses here were homes for vagrants and the occasional drug deal. On Ed's instructions, Ben guided the Trans Am to a ramp behind

one of the larger buildings where a wide, wavy aluminum door stood open,

"Park it in there, and don't turn off the lights," Ed ordered him. When the car was inside the warehouse, he said, "Now get out and dose the big door. There's a catch on the inside."

"What-"

"No talking."

Frustration gnawed at Ben as he did what he was told. Their situation was growing worse and worse, and he was powerless to do anything about it. One after another of his ideas had been abandoned as Ed had foreseen a possible move on his part. His ex-partner was too smart, too experienced to make stupid mistakes.

But Ben had been a cop for a long time, and his brains and experience counted for something, too. Ed was human; sooner or later he was bound to slip up. Ben would keep watching and be ieady to do whatever he had to do. Jessie's life depended on it.

He had time to turn slightly at the sound of footsteps behind him as he latched the door, time to hear Ed's voice say, "Sorry, pal." Time to realize he'd been second-guessed again.

But he was too late to deflect the blow that swallowed up the glow from his car's headlights and rendered him unconscious.

Chapter 15

xle came to with the mother of all headaches.

Ben opened his eyes to slits and saw a dirty expanse of dry-wall. Through the throbbing pain in his skull, he took stock warily. He lay on his stomach, his cheek resting on a cold floor, shoulders pressed forward awkwardly. Someone had tied his hands behind his back.

"I think he's coming around. See? I told you he'd be okay/ 9

"No thanks to you."

He knew those voices. The first was masculine and reassuring, the second, feminine and accusing. Ben remembered everything in a sudden rush.

He tried rolling to his side to face Ed and Jessie, but the nucleus of pain behind his ear shot sharp blacks of agony into his teain. He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut until the worst of it passed.

"Ben? Are you all right? Ben. Help him, damn you."

"Ease off, Jessie. He's got a headache, that's alL"

Bra's torment settled to an aching tom-tom keeping time with his pulse.

"How do you know? You'ie not a doctor. He could have a concussion, or pressure on his brain. He needs a hospital-emergency care."

"I didn't hit him that hard."

"You shouldn't have hit him at all. Look, he's not moving anymore. Ben?...Ben!"

Jessie's frantic summons gave him the strength to speak. "I'm not dead yet, Jess."

He heard her sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God! Are you in pain? Don't try to move. Can't you do something, Ed?"

He needed to see where he was, Ben thought, and whether there was any way to get him and Jessie out of this mess. That wouldn't be easy. He knew now his feet were bound as tightly as his hands.

"You want to sit up, Ben?"

"I'm not sure," he said sardonically.

He heard Ed's feet approach and stop close to his left shoulder. Strong fingers closed over the biceps of one arm, lifting and turning him onto his side.

"Bend your legs and ease your back up along the wall," Ed said, adding in a warning voice, "and don't try anything dumb."

Sitting up was an ordeal that caused Ben's throat muscles to strain against the demon percussionist in his head, but with Ed's help he managed it. The first thing he saw when he was upright was the dull gleam of a well-tended handgun aimed right at his kneecap.

"For heaven's sake, put that thing away," Jessie protested. "Do you think an injured man with his hands tied behind his back is going to jump you? Two minutes ago he was unconscious."

Her gibe came from Ben's right, but he didn't look over. His gaze was locked with Ed's, probing to find whether his former partner had murder in mind. Ed's eyes were carefully blank.

"I won't shoot to kill," he said as though Ben had asked the question, "but I can slow you down for a long time to come."

Ben heard Jessie draw in a sharp breath.

After making his point, Ed lowered his gun and walked to the other side of the room. There he laid his weapon on one of two

wooden crates positioned close together. He sat down on the other one.

The immediate threat over, Ben checked on Jessie. She sat on the floor, knees up, leaning against the bare wall adjacent to his. Her feet were tied with rags wrapped securely from ankle to midcalf; her arms, like Ben's, were cocked behind her back. Otherwise she seemed to be unharmed.

Her worried eyes met his. "How's your head?"

It was still pounding like a son of a bitch. "Not bad. Did he hurt you?"

"No, I didn't," Ed said with a trace of impatience. "I didn't want her involved at all. How was I to know she'd still be at your place after all this time? Since she was, I had no choice but to bring her along. Believe me, if it had been just you, I wouldn't have knocked you out."

"Oh, so it's her fault I have this lump on my head."

"There was no other way to get you both from the car into this room in the dark. One of you had to be put out of commission for a while, and being a man, you were the obvious candidate."

"How chivalrous," Jessie muttered.

"To tell you the truth," said Ben, "I'm having trouble making sense out of your bringing either one of us here. Just what are you trying to accomplish?"

"Maybe it's for nothing, but I had to be sure."

"Sure about what?"

"Donno told me you saw him and Rory Douglas in his truck tonight."

"Donno...?" Ben's puzzled voice trailed off. Eyes glaring at him from a ferretlike face hunched over a steering wheel flashed in his memory. The face clicked into place. No wonder the man he'd seen speeding away outside the convenience store had looked familiar. He was Ed's snitch Donno Carr, the guy who'd given Ed the first hints about Mai's operation in Port Mangus. Ben hadn't recognized the informant immediately because they'd never met. Donno was a petty criminal, and Ben's only introduction to him had been via a mug shot Ed had once pointed out.

"So? I still don't—wait, did you say be was with Rory Douglas?" Ben had been vaguely aware of a passenger in the truck, but only as a shadowy figure in the background.

"You didn't know. Dammit." Ed breathed a resigned sigh. "Well, what's done is done. I'm going to play this thing out now, regardless."

"I don't understand," Jessie said.

Ben didn't understand, either, exacdy, but he was getting some ideas. There had to be good reason why a man like Douglas, who prided himself on his class, would fraternize with a street slug lite Donno.

Ed turned his head Jessie's way, his worn-out face looking old by the light of the camp lantern sharing space with his gun on the makeshift table. Automatically Ben's mind recorded the battery-operated lamp and Ed's dose position to the pistol. He also made a mental note of the keys to his Trans Am resting near the base of the lantern. He'd have to grab those if they managed to escape.

The room itself was small and relatively barren. A portable kerosene heater with tiny yellow ventilator holes near the top was placed close to a rumpled pallet in the comer to Ed's right. A gasoline can took up another corner and presumably held fuel for the heater. There were no windows in the room, and the single door was closed and padlocked from the inside. Their prison was obviously Ed's hideout, probably an old office in the warehouse he'd brought them to.

"I guess it doesn't matter if I tell you," Ed said to Jessie. "You can't do anything about it until I'm long gone, anyway. Donno's been working for me ever since the night I took the journal. I ran into him by chance while looking for a spot to lose myself for a while. He found me this place to stay."

"Isn't it nice to have friends?" Ben said snidely.

Ed barked a short, humorless laugh. "You know, I underestimated that little weasel, Ben. He's been slipping me tiny crumbs of information for years, and I was proud of the way I'd played him into a solid source for the bureau. If I'd had any idea of the things and people he knows... well, let's just say things are different now that I'm on this side of the fence."

He shook his head, whether in wonder or regret, Ben couldn't tell.

"'Course, with Donno, you don't get chicken crap unless there's something in it for him. He's helping me because he figures he's on to a real windfall."

"How so?"

Ben was less concerned about Donno than in keeping Ed talking. He needed time. He'd come to the conclusion that their only hope of escape was to overpower the ex-agent He couldn't do that with his hands tied, and so far he couldn't see a damned thing in the whole room, let alone within his reach, that he could use to cut through the restricting rags around his wrists. Somehow he had to find a way....

"He has inside information, what else?" Ed answered. "He knows I'm coming into some money shortly. Matter of fact, since I have to keep a low profile these days, he's acting as a kind of broker for the deal."

"Let me guess. He's dealing with Rory Douglas."

"Yup. Douglas's people want that journal real bad."

"I'm surprised you'd trust Donno. He's not exactly a candidate for sainthood."

"Yeah, well, I can hardly be choosy, can I? But I'm no fool, either. I don't trust him any more than I trust the mob. I've told Donno only what he needs to know to be my messenger, and bought his loyalty with the promise of a hefty bonus when all this is over. As for Douglas and his bunch, they're aware that if they're stupid enough to do away with me, Leutzinger himself will be reading Mai's journal before my body gets cold."

"But what about when you turn the journal over to them? What's to stop them from leaving you with a bullet between the eyes instead of a satchel of money?"

"I thought of that," Ed said grimly. "Thaf s why I didn't set up the exchange that way. There is no satchel of money—just a nice, discreet deposit wired into a numbered bank account in the Caymans that the feds can't get access to. When I meet with Douglas in a few hours, he'll give me a faxed copy of that deposit, and I'll take him to get the journal. He and his gang will have what they want, and since they won't have any way to get back their payoff, they'll have no reason to kill me. It'll be a straightforward business deal, and we can all go our merry ways."

Ben had to admit it was a reasonable plan that had a good chance of succeeding. The banking system in the Caymans, a small group of islands in the Caribbean, was well known for its unquestioning acceptance of funds and rigorous confidentiality, much like the system in Switzerland.

"And you'll just fade into the sunset, right?" he said. "With never a second thought about aiding and abetting crooks like the ones you spent almost a whole lifetime trying to bring down."

His derision had little effect on the ex-agent. Ed lifted his shoulders in a dismissive shrug. "I had it aU worked out to a tee, until you came along tonight. Just my bad luck—and yours—that you were in that neighborhood. When Donno told me you'd seen him and Douglas together, I had to make sure you couldn't get to Leutzinger before my meeting with Douglas. After that it won't matter—I'll be outta here."

"What are you going to do with us?" Jessie asked.

Ben heard an edge of anger in her voice. He didn't blame her. She hadn't asked for any of this.

A pang of emotions—part regret, part guilt, part need-bolted through his heart as he remembered the moment she had walked out of his house. Talk about bad luck. If Ed had waited just fifteen minutes before making his move, she would have been safely away—forever.

Somehow I'll get you out of this, Jess, he vowed silently.

"Nothing'll happen to you—or Ben—as long as you don't give me any trouble," Ed told her. "I'm just gonna leave you here. Then after I'm too far away for Leutzinger's watchdogs to find me, which shouldn't take more than a day, I'll make an anonymous phone call to the newspapers to let someone know you're here. In the meantime, you two may get hungry and uncomfortable, but otherwise you'll be okay."

"You know you won't get away with this, Ed," Ben said. "Why don't you let us go now, give me the journal and put yourself in my custody? Jessie and I'll put in a good word for you, and it won't go too hard on you."

"Forget it. You and I both know I've come too far for it to go easy on me. If I have to face prison, I'm going to make damned sure I get something out of it. And dirty money spends

just as easy as the other kind. For a change I'll be the one flashing the bucks."

Ben turned his head away in disgust.

"Don't be so damned righteous!" Ed snapped. "Do you know how old I am? Fifty-four years old. And I gave twenty-five of those years to the bureau. For twenty-five long years I told myself working for the government was a high calling, a noble cause—that patriotic duty came before anything or anybody else. And what did I get out of those years of dedication? Alimony payments. Fifteen years of alimony payments, and no wife to come home to."

The anger seemed to drain out of his face, and he leaned forward earnestly. "Zilch, Ben, a big z-e-r-o, that's what I got If I could look back and see I've made the world a better place, it might be worth it, but you and I both know not a damned thing I did in all that time made a rat's ass bit of difference in the long run."

"You're breaking my heart," Ben said unsympathetically.

"Ah, what the hell. Why am I trying to explain? I can't expect a young man like you to understand what if s like. I don't even care. Understanding won't make up for all those wasted years. Money will, though, and the only way I'm going to get it is to sell that journal."

"You're taking a big chance, dealing with the mob," Ben reminded him.

"I told you, I've covered all my bases. Nobody knows where the journal is but me and Marie, and if Douglas tries any funny business, Marie fixed it with a lawyer so the FBI will get it instead of the mob."

"You involved your wife?"

"Don't worry, she knows even less than Donno about whaf s going on. I needed somebody I could trust to help me, and now that I'm through with the bureau and soon to be a rich man, she's decided to come back to me. Finally I'll be able to give her all the things she always wanted."

"And something she doesn't want," Ben said. "A long inside look at a federal penitentiary."

"Uh-uh," Ed said. "Nothing I had her do was illegal, so Leutzinger can't get ho- as an accessory if I'm caught. Which I don't intend to be."

Jessie angled her bound legs to the floor, heels to hips, and leaned toward Ed intendy. "But you can't be sure—"

Ed cut her off. "I don't feel like talking about it anymore, okay? Don't ... I just don't want to talk about it."

"Well ... all right, but I think you're making a big mistake. If you love Marie, and I think you do—"

"Drop it, Jessie."

Jessie sighed and sank back against the wall. Ben gave her points for a damned good try, but it was clear Ed wasn't willing to be deterred.

Even so, things were looking up. The gun was still a threat that couldn't be ignored, but Ben was confident now that Ed meant them no harm. If nothing got screwed up, he would be gone before long. Then Ben and Jessie could scoot together and work on untying each other's bonds. Ben didn't put much stock in Ed saying he'd notify someone to rescue them. Even if he meant it, too much could go wrong in the meantime.

The sudden loud knock on the door made them all jump. It came in a burst of three rapid thumps, followed by three more, even and slow. Obviously a prearranged signal.

"There's your payoff now," Ben said to Ed.

Ed got up, looking puzzled. "No, it's not. I'm meeting Douglas later at an all-night grocery store."

The coded knock came again, accompanied this time by a muffled, "Open up, man. It's me—Donno."

Ed approached the padlocked door, but made no move to open it. He raised his voice enough to be heard on the other side. "What're you doing here, Donno?"

"We got a glitch in the plans," came the disembodied voice. "Douglas is with me. He's nervous about seeing that cop tonight. He thinks you might be setting him up for a fall and made me bring him here. He's... he's got a gun on me, man."

Ben mentally echoed the heartfelt curse that exploded from Ed's lips. Here was a wrinkle Ed obviously hadn't counted on. The throbbing in Ben's head made itself felt again as he considered what this could mean for him and Jessie.

"You there, Douglas?" Ed called.

"Yes, I am." Even through the door, it was easy to recognize the raised voice belonging to the suave attorney. It was ominously pleasant.

"What's your problem?"

"like Donno said, I'm nervous. If s time for a change in the rules/'

"There's no need for that. I give you my word, I'm not working any double cross."

"I'm glad to hear it. Let me in, then, and we'll take care of business right now."

Ed glanced at Ben, then Jessie. "I'd rather stick to the original plan," he said to the door.

"Look, Agent Brock, I'm short of patience tonight, and your friend here is going to reap the consequences."

"You mean Donno? I wouldn't exactly call him a friend."

"Then I guess you won't mind if my finger slips on this trigger and his brains get splattered all over the wall, will you?"

"Do what he says, man," Donno whined. "I don't wanna die."

Ed closed his eyes and muttered a foul expletive under his breath. "Did you bring the fax?"

"You'll have to open the door to find out," Douglas answered.

"First put your gun away and let Donno go."

There was a brief silence. "You don't give me much credit, Agent Brock. I know when I'm holding the high cards."

"Then I guess we're at a standoff. If you want to blow our arrangement, go ahead. I told you, Donno's no friend of mine. And I've still got the journal."

"Hey, man, wha—whaddaya mean? I been helpin' you out all this time, ain't I?" Donno sounded desperate.

"Sorry, Donno," Ed said unrepentantly. "How about it, Douglas? You want a murder rap on your head, or do you still want to deal?"

Ed turned his head and met Ben's gaze. He didn't try to hide his anxiety. Ben knew in that moment the ex-agent was bluffing for Donno Carr's life.

Maybe for Ben's and Jessie's, too, if Douglas found out Ed had brought them here.

"So cold-blooded. You surprise me, Brock," Douglas said. "Do you put as low a premium on your ex-wife's well-being as you do Mr. Carr's?"

Ben could see Ed's sudden pallor, even in the dim yellow glow of the lantern.

Douglas's voice continued evilly. "Her name's Marie, isn't it?"

"What about her, you son of a bitch?"

"Ah, so you do care. Tell me, do you know where she is at the moment?"

Fear and rage etched themselves into the prominent lines on Ed's face. "Somewhere safe from bastards like you," he growled.

"You think so? I admit it took us awhile to find her. She ted us quite a chase until we remembered that someone had to go to the Caribbean to set up that numbered bank account for you."

A fine sheen of perspiration glowed on Ed's skin. For a moment, his mouth moved soundlessly. "What have you done with her?" he finally managed.

"Nothing, really. Our men are just keeping her company right where they found her. She's—how shall I put it?— undamaged for now. And as long as you cooperate, she'll stay that way."

"How do I know you're not bluffing? I want to talk to her."

"I'm surprised at you, Agent Brock. You of all people should realize there's no need to bluff. You know very well what the resources of my organization are." Douglas's voice grew suddenly hard, as though he'd tired of the game. "Your request is denied. Now, are you going to open this door, or do I leave to make a phone call to the men holding your wife in the Cayman Islands?"

Ed seemed to collapse in on himself for a second, then slowly he straightened, his features grim and set. "You didn't wire the money, did you?"

"Finally you're beginning to understand. Now I'm getting tired of talking, Brock. I didn't hesitate to kill Mai Duan, and I can just as easily pull the trigger on Donno right here to show you I mean business. One more body won't make a damned bit of difference to me. And the next one will be your wife."

"Wait!" Ed cried. "You know I don't have the journal here."

In a flurry of silent motion, he hurried to the other side of the room and picked up his pistol.

"I'd like to check that out for myself, ,, Douglas said. "You have ten seconds to open this door."

Ed rushed back to the door and shouted, "No. Give me a little time to think."

"Ten seconds." Douglas started counting.

The next thing Ben knew, Ed was kneeling beside him and cutting the rags at his wrists with a pocketknife. "I'm giving you the gun," he whispered.

Ben stared at him. "Why?"

"Kidnapping is one thing, but I got a feeling Douglas has murder on his mind. It's going to take both of us to stop him. Now, I don't have time to load this thing, so you'll have to fake it."

"It's not loaded?" Ben whispered back incredulously.

"I didn't want to accidentally shoot you. Pretend your hands are still tied and wait for an opening. Douglas'll be distracted when he sees you and Jessie. I'll try to take advantage of that."

"See if you can cut the light," Ben rasped. "Leave me the knife, too. A gun without bullets isn't going to do me a hell of a lot of good."

"Here. Good luck."

The knife handle pressed against Ben's palm, and he grasped it. It felt small, inadequate to the danger of their situation.

Good luck. A precious commodity, Ben thought. What they really needed was a miracle. Douglas had freely admitted his crimes, which could mean only one thing. He intended to leave no survivors.

Ed rushed back to the door, his hand in his pocket. He fished out a key as Douglas intoned "nine," and fit it into the padlock.

"Okay, you win," he said as he turned the key. "I'm letting you in."

He turned and looked at Ben then, and for a moment they were two cops again, pitting their wits against a common adversary.

Jessie observed the unfolding drama without feeling like an actual participant. It was more like having a center seat in a

movie theater, watching the protagonists in a suspense film move toward certain disaster. She saw that Ed had left the gun with Ben, but had been unable to hear their furtive whispers.

Something terrible was going to happen, she just knew. The sense of impending doom increased whoa she pulled her eyes from Ed and found Ben, tense and alert, his attention focused on the door.

She blamed herself that he was in danger yet again. It was her fault that they had quarreled, her fault that Ed had been able to take them by surprise. What had been so important to her just a couple of hours ago now seemed insignificant in light of their currant peril. She wished she could tell Ben she was sorry, that she loved him, that if somehow they got out of this hopeless situation, she wanted to try again.

But now wasn't the time for such revelations. She could only hope and pray there would be a time somewhere in the uncertain future.

Ed turned the knob and opened the door only a crack, moving away immediately to a position in front of the two wooden crates. Pretty smart, Jessie thought. Douglas would have a hard time watching everybody at once, when the three of than were spaced in a triangle at least ten feet from each other.

A man poked his stocking-capped head warily around the door. His eyes shifted in jerks about the room, then widened in surprise, darting to Ben, to Jessie, to Ed, and back to Ben. The infamous Donno Can, Jessie presumed.

"Hey, man." Donno's pointy chin aimed his slightly nasal voice over his shoulder to Rory Douglas, who had not yet come in. "The cop's hare, and some babe, all trussed up like turkeys for the kill."

The door flew back on its hinges and struck the wall with a bang that echoed through the warehouse.

"Well, well, an unexpected pleasure. Struttin' Sutton at my mercy." Douglas stepped in behind Donno, his height dwarfing the smaller man. "And Ms. Webster, too. Things are getting somewhat complicated. But then, I've always been one to rise to a challenge."

The deadly looking pistol he held competently in his manicured hand swept the room and stopped, its barrel pointed

steadily at Ed's stomach. Ed lifted his hands slowly, palms out, his eye on the gun.

"Frisk him, Donno."

Once again Jessie had the unreal impression that she was watching a movie—a second-rate one, with clich^d dialogue.

"All right/ 99 Donno approached Ed with a gleeful smirk. "I always wanted to do this. Put your hands behind your head, man, and spread your legs."

At this unmistakable evidence of his hireling's collusion with Douglas, Ed spat, "Bastard!"

"Sorry, man," Donno replied with a shrug of his narrow shoulders. "Looked to me like things was getting flaky. I had to hedge my bets. Besides, Mr. Douglas pays better than you."

He took his time patting Ed down, then stepped back. "He's clean, man."

"Search the blankets and under the mattress. He may have stashed his gun there. Look for a blue cloth-bound book without a title, too."

"Let Jessie go, Rory," Ben said to Douglas's back. "She's an innocent victim in all this."

Douglas kept his eyes on Ed, obviously considering him to be the greater threat, since Ben was tied up. Shaking his head slowly, he said over his shoulder, "What an idealist you are, Ben. Still championing women and underdogs, just like you did back in high school. It never occurs to you that some people might not want your help."

"In your case, I got the message," Ben said.

"God, how I hated you and your goody-goody parents. I was making it just fine until you butted in."

Ben's vigilant gaze never left Douglas's eyes, which were still on Ed. "That's not the way it looked to me."

As he spoke, Jessie saw his right hand slowly move from behind his back and ease its way under the bridge of his knees, holding an open pocketknife. Quickly she averted her eyes so she wouldn't give him away. Hope surged in her breast.

"You hold a grudge for a long time, Douglas," Ed said.

"Some things a person never forgets." Bitterness tinged Douglas's words.

"like what?" Ed asked. "What did Ben do to you, anyway?"

"He interfered in my life when it was none of his business!" Douglas snapped. "He saw some bruises on my ribs once while we were playing basketball— old bruises that were almost gone. I told him it was nothing, but good old Ben couldn't let it go. The next thing I knew, his father and mother were at my place with the county children's welfare department, and my sister and brother and I were all farmed out to foster homes."

"HelL it seems to me he did you a favor, if your old man was beating you," Ed said. "Most kids would want to get away."

"The beatings weren't so bad I couldn't take it. I was fourteen, and big enough that I had already started to fight back."