“That sounds like a brush-off.”

“It is.” Although Gif did sound out of steam, his voice having gone thin.

“I hate this, Drex. When you need me most, I’m laid up here, useless. I want to help, to be doing something.”

“You’re healing. That’s a big something. Get well enough to lay into me the next time we see each other.”

“When will that be?”

“Uncertain. Depends on whether or not I’m granted bail. Rudkowski will argue that I’m a flight risk.”

“You are.”

“Yeah, but maybe the judge will rule in favor of a flight risk over a buffoon.”

“You’re joking, but you could go to jail. After all these years, everything you’ve sacrificed to this, I can’t stand to think of it ending with you behind bars.”

“You’re not going to cry, are you?”

“Maybe.”

Drex smiled, but his voice was husky with emotion when he said, “You’ve been true blue, Gif. Thanks.”

He disconnected, stared into the near distance for several seconds, then shook off his melancholia and passed Talia her phone. “Somebody was beeping in.”

She pulled up the number. “Third time today. I don’t recognize the number. Solicitation, no doubt.” She set aside her phone and reached for his hands, drawing them across the table toward her. “Drex—”

“We’ve been over it,” he said, interrupting what he knew would be another round of arguments, all reasonable, none he cared to go through again. “You’re not to get anywhere near that courthouse. If you show up in the courtroom—”

“What will you do?” she challenged.

“It’s what he’ll do that should worry you.”

“It does,” she exclaimed softly. “I worry about you. You’ve made yourself a target. Even your best friends don’t understand why.”

“Yeah, they do. They argue, but they understand.”

She turned his hand palm up. “You and your damn sense of honor.” She lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed the self-inflicted scar. “But I wouldn’t like you nearly as well if you didn’t hold to it.”

“Life’s crammed with cruel ironies like that.” He reached for a strand of her hair and rubbed it between his thumb and fingers. “I came down here in search of my nemesis, and discovered you. You were an unexpected lightning strike, Talia Shafer.”

“So were you, Drex Easton.”

“That last time…?” He arched his brow suggestively. “I liked the way you woke me up.”

“I thought you would never notice.”

He snuffled a laugh. “When a man is sleeping with a woman on top of him, and his cock starts being squeezed in that particular way, he tends to notice. Just so you know.”

She ducked her head coyly. “I’ll tuck that away for future reference.”

“I didn’t know how much I liked slow, sleepy sex.”

“That was my first time for it.”

“Mine, too. Which is why I didn’t know how much I liked it.” His gaze took a lazy tour down her front. “I had a particularly depraved encore planned for us.”

“Oh?”

“Hmm. Hell of a one.”

She reached across and poked her finger into his dimple. “Give me a hint.”

He turned his cheek toward her hand and captured her finger between his teeth. “It was going to start out tame enough, but would end up with you seeing God and screaming my name.”

“The imagination runs wild.”

He gave a rueful grin. “Sadly, it’ll have to keep. I’m off to the slammer.”

“Don’t make light of it.”

“I don’t,” he said solemnly. “Come here.” They leaned toward each other across the small table and brushed lips.

Mike chose that moment to barrel in. Seeing that he had interrupted a private moment, he halted, but only for a second before coming into the room and closing the door. “Met Menundez in the hall. He got this from the trunk of Gif’s car.” He dropped Drex’s duffel bag on the floor.

“My suit is rolled up in it. I wanted to appear in court looking a bit more respectable.”

“Locke’s given you ten minutes to change before heading downtown.”

“Did you get Gif’s key back from Menundez?”

Mike held up the fob.

“You and Talia go back to the hotel. We didn’t officially check out. See if you can get our rooms back.”

“What do we do there?” Mike asked.

“Wait for word.”

“You’re to babysit me,” Talia said sweetly.

Drex gave her a droll look, then went back to Mike. “Await word. With luck, you’ll be able to bail me out before dinnertime.”

“Okay, but fair warning. If Rudkowski gets another bee up his butt, I’m not going to talk him into throwing me in the clink, like a certain dumbass we know. I’m getting the hell gone from Dodge.”

“Noted. Now beat it, you two, so I can change.”

He went to the door and pulled it open. As Talia drew even with him, he said, “Don’t forget to turn off your phone. Mike will take the battery out for you.”

“As soon as I check my messages.” She looked at him with a combination of vexation and anxiety. There were a thousand things Drex wanted to say to her, but the cop posted outside the door was within hearing distance. She went out into the hallway without a further goodbye.

As Mike approached him, Drex put out a hand and, speaking for Mike’s ears alone, said, “If I’m incarcerated and Jasper remains at large, he’ll come after Talia. She’ll need a bodyguard, Mike.”

“That speech of mine about getting gone?” He batted it down with his large paw. “I won’t go anywhere without taking her with me.”

“Thanks. You’re a friend.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, “and of all my bad habits, you’re by far the worst.”

Drex closed the door after him, squatted down, and unzipped his duffel. He took from it his suit and dress shirt. They were hopelessly wrinkled but would have to do. He forewent a tie. He was just about to start stripping down when the door opened and Talia burst in, Mike behind her.

She was brandishing her cell phone. “The call that was beeping in? The number I didn’t recognize that had called three times? It was Mr. Singh.”

“Who the hell—”

“Jasper’s tailor.”

Chapter 39

Talia’s words tripped over each other in her haste to get them out. “He’d called twice before. This time he left a voice mail. He was asking about a button.”

“What about it?”

“His accent is thick, hard to understand, but he was calling to make certain that I had found it.”

“Found it?”

She shook her head, indicating that she was in the dark, too. “I’m going to call him back. I knew you’d want to hear.”

“Get him,” he said to her then stuck his head out the door and told the cop in the hallway to summon Locke and Menundez.