Page 51 of Blood Money

“Well enough.” She laughed, a melodic sound he’d come to love. “You get that look when someone is sitting at your desk and won’t talk.”

“You’ve been watching me?” Gray was pleased at the thought. He watched Alex constantly. Then again, all the detectives did. Hard not to.

“Well, I—I notice you from time to time.” A becoming shade of rosy pink tinted her cheeks, making her face even lovelier. “So tell me what you were thinking just now.”

“I was thinking about how the Pyramid will always be able to find someone they can exploit. There will always be someone out there who, whether it’s due to financial need or just plain greed, will betray anyone or anything.”

“You mean the way you think I betrayed the department…and you personally?” Alex’s voice was hard.

Gray glimpsed anger in her eyes. Anger directed at him for not believing her.

They were at an impasse, he realized.

He didn’t trust her. He honestly didn’t know whether she’d used him or not, but he was certain she was still hiding something. Problem was, she didn’t trust him with whatever she was hiding.

He returned his eyes to the road, but not before seeing her lean her head back against the headrest and shut her eyes tightly. She inhaled deeply and let it out on a long sigh. If Gray hadn’t been driving, he’d have done the same.

Fate had thrown them together with the tantalizing possibility of a life together.

Circumstances had irrevocably torn them apart.

…

Alex still couldn’t believe the two men actually tried to kidnap her baby.

She took a breath to steady her nerves. It didn’t work, far from it. All it did was make her even more aware of the man sitting a foot away. Every inhalation brought with it his wonderful aftershave. Woodsy, yet fresh and clean.

“I have to call Nicky’s school.” Anything to get her mind off thinking about last night. Despite her words to the contrary, she’d wanted Gray to finish what they’d started. But that was a bad idea, one she had to let go of.

Easier said than done.

Since giving birth to Nicky and having to take care of a child alone, sex wasn’t something she thought of very much these days. But she was thinking a lot about it now. The truth of the matter was, she began thinking about it the day she started working for the NYPD.

The day she met Detective Gray Yates.

Alex hadn’t stayed with Nicky’s father long after the physical violence started. She wasn’t the kind of woman to stay in a bad situation. But after what she’d endured, she hadn’t wanted another man to make love to her. Now the only one she wanted to touch her was the last man who ever would. And the last man she should ever let touch her. There was too much between them. She may have hurt him, but he’d been fully capable of inflicting the same level of pain. And he did.

She turned to watch Gray’s handsome profile. Part of her understood his viewpoint. He was one of the most principled cops in the department. Even she’d picked up on that trait right away—and it was one of the things she admired about him. It didn’t matter what her reasons were. The bottom line was that she had spent money received from a Pyramid assassin, and he thought she’d been paid to sleep with him and get confidential police intel.

Now she was nothing more to Gray than someone he and the NYPD would use to take down a band of ruthless criminals. What happened between them in her bedroom was nothing more than a mistake, a latent reminder of feelings they may have had for each other. Feelings she still had. Ones he didn’t.

“Tell the school—” Gray stopped, obviously realizing Alex had been staring at him for some time. “What’s wrong?”

Aside from the obvious?

“Nothing.” She pulled her cell phone from her coat pocket. There was no sense telling him the truth. He might be sitting right next to her, but as far as anything personal went they were a thousand miles apart.

“Wait.” Gray tipped his head toward the phone in her hand. “Tell them you’re taking Nicky out of school for a couple of weeks, but don’t tell them why. The Pyramid has resources sophisticated enough to tap into your personal bank account, so we have to assume they can break into any database. If you tell the school Nicky is sick, they’ll check all the hospitals. When they don’t find him, they’ll come after him again at your apartment.”

“Then isn’t the best story to tell them he’s home sick?” Alex shifted in her seat to face him. “He won’t be there, so what does it matter if I say that?”

“Nicky won’t be there, but you and I will.” Gray paused to look at her. “The last thing I want is for them to break into your place again.”

Alex widened her eyes. “What do you mean, you and I will be at my apartment?”

Gray’s gaze flicked to the side-view mirror before answering. “Until this is over, you have a roommate.”

“No.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. “That isn’t possible. I won’t allow it.”