“You think so?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

A powerful wave of lust washed over her, impossible to fight. She was conscious of the muscles of his chest inches away, intensely aware of the steady beating of her own heart. She felt tongue-tied, weak-kneed, helpless. All she could think about was rushing up to her fancy room and rolling around in the king-size bed with him. But they had work to do. She’d better pull herself together. He wasn’t helping any, standing so close.

“So you probably need a sweater, right?” he asked, staring into her eyes.

“What?”

“Come on. Let’s go up to your room and get you a sweater.”

He took her by the elbow and propelled her toward the elevator bank. They stepped onto a crowded elevator. He pushed the button for her floor. She stared straight ahead, the mere touch of his hand on her arm enough to wipe all other thoughts from her mind.

“We should probably work,” she attempted, but her pulse was racing.

“Not much going on right now. We have a window,” he replied.

They got out of the elevator. She felt light-headed, thinking about what would happen next. She was getting in over her head with this guy, but she should just do it, live for a change, before it was too late.

The whole walk down the long, carpeted hallway, they didn’t speak or look at each other. She stuck the card key into the lock, saw the green light, and turned the handle, acutely aware every second of Dan’s presence behind her. He followed her in, taking the time to put out the Do Not Disturb sign and lock the door. She walked to the center of the room and stood in front of the bed.

“So,” she said breathlessly, turning around.

His eyes never leaving her face, Dan removed his gun from where it had been hidden under his shirt and placed it on the dresser. Then he walked over to Melanie and slid the terry-cloth dress down to her ankles. She stepped out of it and kicked it aside, watching his eyes as they took in her body in the bathing suit. Her senses felt almost unbearably heightened. Everything-Dan’s face, the luxurious room with its tropical furniture and crisp smell of air-conditioning, the blackening sky beyond her balcony-stood out in sharp relief, as if it would be imprinted on her memory forever, as if she were already remembering it from some distant point in the future.

“You wanna stop, tell me now before it’s too late,” he whispered huskily, pulling her toward him.

“Why? What happens after that?”

“You’ll see.”

Dan backed her up until her bare thighs hit the silky white duvet covering the bed. The rock-solid feeling of his body against her was almost too much for her to take.

“Scared?” he asked.

“Should I be?” She raised her face to him, her lips parted.

“That all depends on what you’re lookin’ for.”

“I think I’m looking for you,” she said.

Then she was falling backward onto the bed, falling through time and space, like everything beautiful and everything sad in her life were all tangled up in Dan on top of her, his hot mouth on her neck, her breasts. She tore at his clothes, couldn’t get to his skin fast enough. They went at each other tooth and nail until they were naked, panting, drenched with sweat, and then, just as he held himself poised over her, ready to enter her, they both slowed down and looked gravely into each other’s eyes. She saw that all the sex she’d had in her life before this-with any number of ex-boyfriends, even with her husband-had been casual, of little consequence. But not this; this was dead serious. He would own her now, to her bones. And she wasn’t sure how well she would tolerate that.

“Go ahead,” she said, playing her tongue around his mouth, which was swollen from their savage kissing. “Just do it. I can’t stand it anymore.”

So he grabbed her by the ass and plunged into her, leaving bruises shaped like his fingers that would last for days afterward. Just at that moment the storm finally hit, sending sheets of hard water sluicing against the glass doors to the balcony.

47

BUD GAVE the bodyguards an extra hour to work before heading out to Williamsburg himself to speak with Trevor Leonard. Softening-up time, he thought of it as. So it came as no surprise when he let himself in the back door of the warehouse and found the kid lying unconscious on the bare concrete floor, his face a pulpy mess.

Pavel was sitting against the wall eating a meatball hero.

“He’s not dead?” Bud asked.

“No, you say not kill him yet,” Pavel said, speaking through his food, sounding defensive.

Bud dropped the leather bag containing Jay’s golf clubs next to the kid’s inert body. He’d paid attention to which one Jay had used the other night. Bud had a well-thought-out plan for how he would use that same club again and where he would dump it afterward. He’d brought along rubber gloves for the main event. Until then he was careful not to touch anything so as not to leave prints anywhere.

“Everything go okay? Where’s Lamar?” Bud asked.

“We have problems after we pick kid up. Cops is watching.”

“Shit. Are you serious? Did they follow you here?”

“Not to worry. I have brain.”

“So what happened?”

“We arrange to meet kid like you say, in front of subway stop near Hunter College.”

“Yeah, because it’s crowded there, but you’re not too far from the bridge.”

“Was good choice for location. But we get there, is like five sedans with dark windows.”

“Shit.”

“Cops.”

“Yeah. So what’d you do?”

“We drive, not stop. We call kid on cell number you give us, tell him get on subway and go to Grand Central instead. We wait for him there, outside.”

“Smart.”

“But by the time he come out, we see sedans again.”

“So he’s definitely talking, the little prick.”

Pavel’s lips twitched into the semblance of a smile. “He pay for that already, believe me.”

“Okay. So? How’d you lose ’em?”

“In Russia, man I work for, he teach me drive good. I know.”

“You just…”

“Go around block here, cut in front of cars there. They trying to hide so we don’t see them, but I know they are there, so I make move. Is not difficult.”

“But where’s Lamar?” Bud repeated.

“Even though we lose them, is not good use same car to go to airport. So we pull car into garage here. Lamar go to get another car.”

“All good. But you know, if the feds were watching before, they’ll be looking for you at the airport.”

“Is no problem. They look for three men together. So Lamar and I go separately. Kid by then we are done with, he is not with us. They will be tricked.”

Bud looked at his watch. “You should get going already.”

He was sending them to San Juan as if everything were normal. He didn’t want Jay suspecting anything too soon. Besides, the feds would find a way to follow the trail of the purported drug deal. They’d run off to Puerto Rico, too, leaving Bud free to take care of business here in New York.

“You handle this kid now?” Pavel asked dubiously. Pavel underestimated Bud. They all did. It didn’t bother him; in fact, he preferred it that way. Put him at an advantage.

“I’m just waiting for Jay. He should be here any minute, and then I’m leaving. What happens next is his decision,” Bud said.

“Of course.”

“I’m serious, Pavel. Jay’s gonna be fucking pissed if you miss that flight. We have a shipment to deal with.”

“I finish one minute. They don’t give you nothing eat on airplanes these days.”

Bud looked down at Trevor. A shame, all these bright young lives getting snuffed out before their time. But that’s what happened when you fucked around with people’s livelihoods.

Pavel crumpled the soggy deli paper into a ball and tossed it aside. He stood up, rubbing his greasy hands on his jeans.