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his dark eyes hooded, secretive.
    She snatched her hand away and read the note. Meet me for dinner at Pico’s at 7. I’ll explain everything. Can’t talk here. His Adam’s apple shifted. He thought her office was bugged? Is that what scared him? Maybe he was afraid she’d say no to dinner. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. He was afraid she’d say no? So the tables were turned.
    “Thanks for coming in,” she said. “I’ll get back to you.”
    His gaze darted to the note in her hand and he arched a brow.
    “Come back tomorrow,” she said.
    The corners of his mouth drooped. Payback. But then she lifted the note and nodded. Like a fool.
    Darren smiled, revealing his crooked right eyetooth. “Good. I’ll see you then.” He rose and sauntered to the door, turning and shooting her one more grin before leaving.
    What have I done? Just doing her job. Yeah, right. You’re falling right back into his trap. Weak, you’re so weak.
    ****
    Jared opened the top three buttons and lifted his shirt to let the breeze cool the sweat on his chest. Then he climbed into his rented Lexus and called Stewart Chapman, an old friend as well as the president of NST. “I just had the worst interview of my life,” he said.
    “What do you mean? Ally Tobin is a sweetheart.”
    “Uh, you remember the op I had in New York last year?” Jared started the car and cranked the AC. It came out hot. He pressed the button to lower the window. At least you could smell water here. And it wasn’t muggy. Once you escaped the stifling scrutiny of a jilted ex-lover, that is.
    “Vaguely,” Stew said, “as much as you could tell me about it. Which was diddly squat.”
    “Yeah, well, remember the girl I had to walk away from?”
    “Oh, shit.”
    “Right.”
    Stew’s whistle filled the car. “What are the chances?”
    Jared sighed and stared at the red traffic light. “One in a million.”
    “Did she blow your cover?”
    “Nah… just busted my balls.” His comment met with a snort of laughter. “Easy for you to say. Now I need to try and explain all this.”
    “She’s sure not the person stealing our intellectual property,” Stew said, “so you can read her in.”
    The light finally changed. He eased the car onto the freeway on-ramp. The car wasn’t his type, but it was smooth and comfortable. Required almost no attention to drive. “Thanks, Stewart. Spoken like a true law-enforcement guy.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I know. Your job’s a lot cooler than mine.”
    “Yours pays more,” Jared said, ending another round in their long-standing debate.
    “You’ve never cared about that,” Stew said, surprising Jared with this new twist. He sounded serious. “Ally’s a babe. You should go for it. I mean, she won’t be single long. You should see her working out in the gym. All freckle-faced innocence in her business suit, but you get her into spandex, with that strawberry-blond hair in a ponytail bouncin’ as she jogs on the treadmill…All I can say is, whip me, spank me, make me write bad checks.”
    Jared jammed on the accelerator and shot onto the freeway. “Hey, watch it, buster.” He had half a mind to take the next exit and loop back so he could teach Chapman a lesson.
    Stew chuckled. “My bad. Hey, what’s next?”
    Setting the speed control at the limit, Jared cranked the air-conditioning to the max. Icy air cooled his skin. “I invited her to dinner.”
    “I meant what’s next with the case?”
    “Oh, yeah. Right. Does Ally have a boyfriend?”
    “I think you should turn this case over to someone else.”
    “I’ll get whoever is stealing your stuff. Just answer the question.”
    “No.”
    “How do you know? Have you asked her out?” Jared gripped the wheel hard and passed a car on the right.
    “Nah. I’m seeing someone.”
    “Then how do you know?”
    “She comes in early, works late and on the weekends.”
    “You’re paying close attention for someone who’s not interested.”
    “I didn’t say I wasn’t