CHANCES ARE (Last Chance Rescue)

by Reece, Christy

  Disappointed but not surprised, Angela answered coolly, “Will do.”

  She ended the call and dropped the phone onto the dresser. She shouldn’t push him, she knew that. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t explained his reasons for not wanting to get involved. She knew his reasons. That should be enough to keep her away, but it wasn’t.

  Chapter Nine

  The night was too damn dark, almost eerie. Even the sky gave no relief of moonlight or stars. It was as if a black blanket covered the earth. The only light came from the soft glow of evenly spaced streetlights along the path. Cobblestones glistened beneath his feet while wisps of grey mist danced and spiraled around him like ghostly marionettes. Jake wasn’t much of a horror movie buff but he’d seen enough as a kid to recognize a great atmosphere for a werewolf or vampire to pop out. Somehow, he’d rather deal with that kind of monster than the one they were hunting.

  Angela, approximately seven yards ahead of him, was open, easy prey. Jake’s focus was on his partner and their surroundings. She looked exactly as she needed to appear—alone, vulnerable, and completely unaware of any possible danger.

  Kelly and Riley were out here, too. Both behind him, one to the right, the other to his left. He could neither see nor hear them but he felt their presence. If anything happened, they could respond in seconds.

  Waiting for the killer to strike was the plan but dammed if he liked it. Didn’t matter that he could be at her side immediately if she needed him. It also didn’t matter that she could easily take down a man without breaking a sweat. Angela in danger was hard to watch.

  Her second performance had revealed no viable suspects. More than half of the men had been the ones who’d seen her first performance. None had acted unusual or caused warning bells.

  But this was the real test. Angela walking home, alone, in the dark of night with a heavy mist turning every inanimate object into a threatening presence. Hell of it was, they still didn’t know exactly how the killer made the grab. Did he take some of his victims out in the open? Or only from their homes? Did he deliver the roses and then attack? Maybe he made contact with them and they actually met before he took them.

  As Jake had known all along—this was a fishing expedition and Angela was the bait.

  She had barely even glanced his way when she’d left the club. He had expected nothing different since she could give no indication that they were more than mere acquaintances. Still he had detected an unusual aloofness in her attitude. Since he had known her, Angela had been an open book. He had never met anyone more open or emotionally available. Even after the hell of losing her entire family, she was willing to put her heart and emotions at risk. Having existed in shutdown mode for the last few years, her warmth and honesty jarred him, kicking at his wall of defenses unlike anything he’d ever experienced.

  His gut told him something had changed tonight. Had she finally decided that he wasn’t worth the trouble? Could he blame her? Hell no. He’d rebuffed her several times. Even with Angela’s confidence, at some point he had figured she’d accept the reality of their relationship and let it go. So why the hell did he suddenly feel this massive regret?

  He’d told Dylan he was a mixed-up son of a bitch. Sometimes he hated being right.

  She could feel Jake’s eyes even though she couldn’t hear or see him. Just knowing he was there gave her reassurance. Even if he didn’t want her in the way she wanted him, she knew he had her back.

  Her normal confidence had returned, bringing with it a necessary and much-welcomed pragmaticism. Maybe it was the second performance that did it. She’d walked on to the stage, expecting to have the same experience as before, but everything felt different. She couldn’t explain why. The audience had been just as lewd and crude as before. Men had thrown money at her feet, strange hands had slid paper money into her thigh-high stockings and her panties. And once again, many of those hands had tried to touch more. It should have made her feel just as vulnerable and exposed as the first time. Instead, she’d felt powerful. Maybe it was because she had taken the advice of the other dancers and danced only for one man. For her, that man was Jake.

  She had imagined those dark blue eyes roaming over her body, his handsome face revealing desire and need. His hands clenched at his side to prevent himself from reaching for her. His entire body stiff and still, aching with all the delicious things he wanted to do to her. She had envisioned that after her performance, he would pull her to him and devour her mouth, then move down her body to the intense, needy throb between her legs aching for his mouth, his tongue.

  Angela jerked herself back to reality of the moment. Dammit, she was on a job. A killer was out there and it was her responsibility to attract him. Looking distracted was supposed to be a ruse to make herself look vulnerable. It sure as heck wasn’t supposed to be real.

  She flipped her long hair off her right shoulder in a sexy, careless manner—most likely a useless gesture. If she hadn’t attracted him while stripped to almost nothing, a little sexy hair play probably wasn’t going to make a difference. Still, she felt the need to do something.

  Stopping abruptly at a park bench, she propped her foot on the back and needlessly readjusted her thigh-high stockings. Her dress was already short and with her leg up like this, she revealed several more inches of skin.

  A deep male voice growled in her ear, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Just adding enticement.”

  “And making it damn obvious you’re wanting to attract attention,” he snapped. “Get your ass moving again. Now.”

  Her first reaction was anger at his autocratic, abrupt tone. An instant later, she realized he was right. She dropped her foot and took off again. She wasn’t out to attract every deviant, just one in particular. Jake was probably going to chew her out. She had made a rookie mistake and she was sure he would be happy to point that out. It didn’t help to know that she deserved the reprimand.

  She passed a young couple so wrapped up in each other they didn’t notice her. The only other person she passed, an elderly man with a cane, barely glanced at her. She was almost at the apartment and though she knew attracting the killer her first night out hadn’t been likely, she couldn’t help but feel a little let down.

  “Why are you slowing down? Keep moving.”

  Angela sped up and almost ran the last few steps to the apartment building. Inserting the key into the lock, she was inside in seconds. Not bothering to wait for the elevator, she sped up the stairs as if she were being chased. She heard the door slam behind her and knew that Jake had entered the building.

  Racing down the hallway, she stopped at her door and then looked behind her. Jake wasn’t there. Where was he? He had come in right after her. Hadn’t he? Where had—

  A large hand covered her mouth as a long, muscular arm snaked around her torso pressing her against a hard male body. “If I had been the killer, you’d already be drugged and I’d be taking you away.”

  The familiar voice growling in her ear jump-started a thousand emotions at once. Fear, frustration, anger, desire, need and so many more feelings culminated into an explosive reaction. Angela waited until he had loosened his hold and then acted in one smooth, continuous attack. She bit the hand covering her mouth, slammed her head back against him, then whirled and gave him a one-two punch, one in the face, the other in the gut.

  It all happened so quickly, she barely let herself think of the consequences. It was when she saw the blood that she realized she’d gone too far. Jake was bent double, holding his stomach while blood poured from his nose.

  Cursing herself, she quickly opened her apartment door and ran to the bathroom for towels. In seconds she was back. Jake had apparently regained his breath. He was inside the apartment, leaning against the closed door and holding his nose to prevent more blood loss.

  Remorse filling her, she held out the towel to him and whispered, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I never—”

  Jake shook his head
as he took the towel and held it to his face. “Don’t you dare apologize. You did exactly what you should have done. I deserved that for scaring you. My only criticism is that you should never have let me sneak up on you in the first place. You counted on me being behind you and you hesitated. Don’t hesitate. The instant you feel threatened, you act.”

  “Yes, but I knew it was you when I did that.”

  Though his face was half covered with the towel, she could see that he was smiling. “Yeah, you were pissed. And I don’t blame you. If anyone did that to me, I would have reacted the same way.”

  “Why didn’t you stop me?”

  “For one thing, I think you underestimate your skill. You move damn fast.”

  “And the other thing?”

  He shrugged and moved further into the room. “I deserved the hit.”

  “Maybe so, but I could have held back on the punch.”

  “No, don’t ever hold back. You can always apologize later if you made a mistake. But when someone grabs you from behind, you have every right to react the way you did.”

  “How bad is it?”

  He lowered the towel and Angela wanted to cry. The lower half of his face was a bloody mess.

  Whirling around, she ran to the bathroom again, dampened a washcloth and turned. Jake was standing behind her.

  She put the lid down on the toilet and said, “Sit down and let me see how bad it is.”

  Jake knew this wasn’t a good idea but he did it anyway. Apparently tonight was all about bad ideas. Trying to teach Angela a lesson in the midst of an op had been dammed stupid. Either he trusted her or he didn’t. Never one to lie to himself, he knew exactly why he’d done it. And it had nothing to do with trust. He had wanted an excuse to wrap his arms around her and feel her against him. He deserved what he got.

  Angela leaned closer and began to wipe the blood from his face, her expression both anxious and tender. The temptation to pull her closer and kiss the small worry wrinkle on her forehead had him clenching his hands. The knowledge that she wouldn’t deny him made his need all the more potent. He drew in a sharp breath.

  She stepped back. “What’s wrong? Does it hurt that much? Do you think your nose is broken?”

  Grateful that she’d stepped out of his reach, he latched onto an excuse. “Actually I think it’s my hand.”

  They both looked down at his hand and Angela gasped. A perfect imprint of her teeth covered the back of his hand. “Oh Jake, I’m so—”

  “We’ve been through this before. Don’t apologize.”

  “Did I break the skin?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Let me go get some ice for your nose and your hand. I’ll be right back.”

  The instant she left the room, Jake stood and returned to the living room. The bathroom was too small for the both of them.

  She came from the kitchen, a towel filled with ice in her hand, and then stopped abruptly when she saw him.

  “I’d better get into my apartment or this entire op is going to be a bust.”

  “You’re right. If he’s watching me already, he needs to think I live alone.”

  Jake turned to the door that led to his apartment. One of the reasons they’d rented in this particular apartment building was this unique feature. The former owner of the building had moved his parents into an apartment next to his own. He had wanted access to the apartment without having to walk out into the hallway so he had installed a door between them. The feature was perfect for this op since it would appear that Angela lived in the apartment alone but Jake could get to her immediately if need be.

  He opened the door and then turned. “You did well tonight.”

  “You mean the stripping part or the beating the hell out of you part?”

  Forcing his mind away from the provocative image of Angela on stage, he said gruffly, “Both. But the little show you gave on the way home could have destroyed the whole op. Don’t do that again.”

  Instead of hurt or anger, he saw only acceptance. “You’re right, it was stupid of me.”

  On top of being one of the most beautiful women he’d ever known, why did she have to be so dammed nice, too?

  A stiff nod was the best he could manage as he went into his apartment and closed the door behind him. Leaning back against it, he ground his teeth until they hurt. Never in his life had he wanted a woman more. Even in the throes of young love when he’d first met Teresa couldn’t compare.

  After Teresa’s death, Jake had existed in a vacuum. No one, not even his parents, had been able to penetrate the wall he had erected around himself. Then came the trials of all the bastards who’d chosen money over integrity and had been responsible for Teresa’s and another woman’s death. Cold fury had sustained him then. It wasn’t until the last fucker was sentenced to life that he felt he could breathe. And when he had taken that first breath, he realized he had to get away from everything.

  Taking the life insurance money from Teresa’s death, he had embarked on a journey. He hadn’t known where he was going or what he was looking for…he had just known he couldn’t be the same man or live in the same place where his life had exploded. His travels had taken him all over the world and in many of those places, he had been attracted to one woman or another. He had dated several and even had sex with a few of them. Not one of them had made him feel the way Angela did.

  Jake wasn’t much of a believer in fate but he had wondered if he’d somehow been led to that bar the day he had broken up LCR’s sting and found himself a new job. And now, he had found a woman who made him feel again. Angela was breaking through every barrier he’d built. And every damn time he patched the wall up, she found a way to crack it once more.

  No. He could not do this. He’d been there, done that, and couldn’t survive the pain again.

  Question was, how to fight every instinct inside him telling him to dive into the deepest end of the ocean where emotions and feelings swirled like a whirlpool, just waiting to suck him in and devour him?

  He didn’t know the answer. He only knew that Angela was his Achilles heel. But unlike the Greek warrior who was eventually destroyed because of his one vulnerability, Jake was determined to hide his own until it no longer existed. He refused to believe it was too late.

  Chapter Ten

  Wolf whistles and catcalls heralded the closing moments of Luscious Lucy’s act. Raucous shouts of praise intermingled with loud, lewd remarks. The audience was definitely wound up tonight.

  Angela stood at the entrance to the stage, just out of sight. She’d been told that two different bachelor parties were in the audience. From the sound of it, both parties had imbibed more than their share of alcohol.

  This was her fifth night of dancing. Each one had gotten progressively easier. The other dancers had been enormously supportive and their advice of going to another place in her mind or dancing for one man only had helped. Now, when she strutted out on to the stage, Jake was first and foremost in her mind. She heard the music but other distractions like whistles and crude remarks were greatly diminished. The fingers and hands that tried to grope her when they slid money into her clothing were a little harder to ignore. During those times, her teeth were grinding behind her smile. No one had complained that her smile was fake—her smile wasn’t what they were looking at anyway.

  She had even managed to forget she was dancing to attract a killer. He wasn’t going to come after her on stage so she was able to be herself and dance the way she wanted and for the man she wanted.

  In a way, this had been her communication with Jake this week. Since that first night when she had busted his nose, he’d been professional but distant. She knew it wasn’t that he was holding a grudge. He was simply acting as her partner—which was exactly as he should act. That didn’t prevent her from wanting more.

  Now, as Lucy exited on the left side of the stage and Dark Angel’s music started up, Angela focused on Jake—all the things she wanted to tell him, all the ways she wanted to lo
ve him. With him firmly in her mind, she glided on to the stage, her body swaying sensuously. She let the music take over. The size of the stage made it impossible for her to close her eyes for any length of time. The last thing she needed to do was fall into the audience. But she had learned that half-closed eyes worked just as well, allowing her to dismiss the dozens of eyes watching her and picturing only one set, hot with desire, filled with need and love as they roamed up and down her body.

  Grabbing the pole, she swung effortlessly around, landed gracefully on her feet, then stepped back and looked up at it. In the place of a steel silver pole, stood a tall, sexy man with a square jaw, sensuous male lips, a noble Roman-like nose and piercing blue eyes. Yes, this was the man she wanted and loved.

  Jake’s image before her, Angela began to dance in earnest.

  It had been the week from hell and was only getting worse. Jake leaned against the bar, his pose relaxed and indolent. He hoped he looked like a semi-bored owner of a strip joint. What was going on inside him had nothing to do with boredom and everything to do with going quietly insane.

  Every night he had watched Angela come out on stage and each time she did, he could swear the temperature in the room increased by twenty degrees. Even though he watched the audience most of the time, he felt the need to check her on stage occasionally to make sure she was okay.

  Mocking laughter sounded in his mind. Checking to make sure she was okay? Yeah, right. If he wasn’t looking for a sadistic killer in the crowd, Jake knew he would’ve already gone up on stage and carried Angela away. In between bouts of lust that had him grinding his teeth to control, he had wanted to knock the hell out of the some of the men because of their crude comments.

  Day five of the op and nothing had happened. Not once had he detected anyone following Angela to her apartment. And even while she was on stage, the appearance and attitude of the audience was lascivious but not especially threatening.

  Shea, Eden and Sabrina were working as waitresses in the other three sections the killer liked to roam and had reported the same negative results. Even though five days was a relatively short period of time, and attracting the killer so soon wasn’t necessarily realistic, Jake had hoped for a quick resolution.