She jerked the covers back up and patted them into place, getting them just the way she wanted before looking at him. “Either arrest me and haul me to jail, or get out of here and leave me alone.”

She rolled onto her side and faced away from him.

She kept her eyes squeezed shut. For the longest time he didn’t move, but eventually she felt the shift of air when he stood. He switched out the lamp. In the darkness, she sensed him bending over her.

He whispered, “The kiss wasn’t a lie.” His fingers threaded through her hair and rearranged it on the pillow.

Then he left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

Chapter 24

In the kitchen, Gif was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. “I helped myself,” he said to Drex, crunching.

“I’m sure she won’t mind.”

“What did you help yourself to?”

Drex, who was on his way to the back door, stopped, turned, and gave his associate a berating look.

Unfazed, Gif spooned another bite into his mouth. “I go to the bathroom, come back. You’re nowhere to be seen. I texted you. No reply. Texted Mike. He said you hadn’t shown over there. You weren’t in any of the rooms downstairs, so—”

“You’ve made your point.”

Gif polished off the cereal in two slurping spoonfuls, then pushed the bowl aside. “Is that why you maneuvered this situation? You got the detectives out of here so you could tuck her in?”

“That’s not why.”

“‘I’m thinking a night spent in the detention center,’” Gif quoted and gave an eye roll. “As if.”

“Thanks for putting up the arguments against it. They made my suggestion more credible.”

“I’ve worked with you long enough to know when you’re manipulating someone.”

“This way they went away thinking it had been their idea to leave her in our charge.”

“Oh, I get why you did it. Just don’t try to manipulate Mike and me.”

“You’re too smart for me.”

“Question is,” Gif said, and shot a glance toward the ceiling, “is she too smart for you?”

Drex backed up against the counter and crossed his arms. Staring at the toes of his shoes, he replied, “I don’t know, Gif.”

“Mike thinks she is.”

“He’s made that abundantly clear, but he mistrusts all women.”

“And all men.”

“And all men,” Drex said around a chuckle. Then, back to serious, he said, “I took her a cup of tea, that’s all. She looked weepy and vulnerable. I took advantage and tried to worm something out of her.”

“To what avail?”

“Zip. She’s either genuinely shaken by Elaine’s death and mystified by Jasper’s vanishing act—”

“Or?”

“Or she’s a damn good con.”

“She would have learned from the master.”

“That’s what I can’t discount,” he said, no joy in his tone. “So, tomorrow morning, you and Mike will deliver her to Rudkowski.”

“Where will you be?”

“Making myself scarce.”

Gif shook his head. “Drex—”

“Don’t start, Gif. If I get anywhere near him, I had just as well cut off my dick now and deny him the pleasure.”

Gif’s silence indicated that he concurred. “What about Mike and me? What do you want us to do after dropping her off?”

“Has to be your decision, and each of you has to make up his own mind, independent of the other and me. I can’t ask you, nor do I expect you, to stick with me on this. You know the shit storm this is going to raise. Don’t underestimate Rudkowski. We did before.”

“This isn’t like that.”

“No, it’s worse. Sleep on it. Sleep on it good.” He pushed away from the counter and moved toward the door.

“Drex?”

He came back around.

“While Mike and I contemplate whether or not to stick with you or throw ourselves on Rudkowski’s mercy, it would help if we knew how you were going to deal with her if it turns out that she’s her husband’s partner in crime.”

The question was an insult. Damned if he was going to answer. “Mike will relieve you in a couple of hours.”

The following morning when Talia entered the kitchen, the three men were gathered around the dining table, so deep into their discussion that she’d been there for a while before they noticed her.

When they did, they fell silent and stared, no doubt taken aback by her appearance. She’d pulled a robe on over her pajamas, but hadn’t taken the time to groom herself before coming down.

Gif pushed back his chair and stood. “Good morning. Can I get you some coffee?”

The aroma of freshly ground beans was thick in the room, as was the yeasty scent of doughnuts. A box of them was in the center of the table. Gif nudged it in her general direction.

“Mike went out for them,” he said. “Help yourself.”

Disregarding Gif’s offers, she walked straight to the table and thumped the thick file in front of Drex, nearly upsetting the cup of coffee in front of him. “I couldn’t sleep, so I followed your suggestion to do some light reading.”

He reached for the back of the chair that Gif had vacated and motioned her into it. “Get her some coffee, please, Gif.”

She sat down in the proffered chair, not having taken her eyes off Drex since she’d come into the room. There were dark crescents under his eyes. He hadn’t slept, either.

Gif set a cup of coffee within her reach, asked if she needed anything to go in it, and she shook her head. Drex took a chocolate-covered doughnut from the box, placed it on a paper napkin, and slid it over to her.

Ignoring the coffee and doughnut, she gestured at the bulging file. “You believe that Jasper had something to do with these women who went missing?”

He folded his forearms on the table, leaned upon them, and talked for half an hour virtually uninterrupted. Occasionally he asked Mike to verify a date or place. Gif elaborated when invited to. Otherwise, her attention stayed riveted on Drex, and his on her.

“He made himself fit into the lifestyle of an oil heiress in Tulsa. By those who knew Pixie, Herb Watkins was described as having short black hair, a goatee, and liked Native American art, for which Pixie had a passion.

“For Marian, he adopted frizzy hair, probably permed, because he knew it would be reminiscent of her hippie stage and that she would find that appealing.

“Then he spotted you at her party. Learned you were very well off. Saw you as a prospect. Through Marian and his own research, he learned everything he could about you. He probably followed you, Talia. Logged where you went, where you ate, what you drank, where you shopped.

“He deduced that, as a world traveler, you would be attracted to a sophisticated gentleman who would hand-deliver flowers even if it meant driving one hundred and fifty miles. Classy dresser. Gourmet cook. A man who appreciated expensive bourbon, all the finer things in life. Goodbye Daniel Knolls and his frizz, hello Jasper Ford with the cosmopolitan ponytail.”