"Don't go with him, Tor," her friend advised. "A man like him probably knows how to sweet-talk a woman."
Tori hesitated.
"Please," Grady added.
Tori nodded once, then laid a hand on the other woman's arm before she could erupt. "I need to do this, Crystal. It'll only take a few minutes."
The restaurant was not only small but full, making the parking lot the only place they could hold a private conversation.
Grady thought of a half-dozen openings. He discarded them all, not wanting to tip his hand if he were mistaken about the conclusions she'd reached.
He'd parked near the front of the lot, not far from where they stopped. Before he could begin talking, he heard a frantic scratching on his car window. It was Gordo, who'd clearly recognized Tori.
Figuring he needed all the help he could get, he opened the door and picked up the little cat. Gordo practically crawled over him to get to Tori. She cradled the cat against her chest.
"She cries if I leave her alone too long," he confided.
"If you're trying to soften me up, it's not working," Tori said, stroking Gordo and gazing at him with hurt eyes. "Because that's the last time I'll trust a cat as a judge of character."
"Excuse me?"
"So you like cats? So what? It could be an act."
"It's not an act," he denied.
Her lower lip trembled but her eyes turned granite-hard. "I know you paid Ned Weimer a bribe."
Damn. How was he supposed to refute what was essentially the truth?
He could lay it all on the line by telling her about his part in Operation Citygate. He'd have to trust her implicitly, with no more room for doubt.
"Don't worry. I won't turn you in.” She sounded infinitely sad. "I can't continue seeing you, either."
"Why not?" he asked, needing to know.
"You're not the man I thought you were.” She handed over Gordo, who started to cry. When she reached out to touch his cheek, the hardness had gone out of her eyes. Now they just looked miserable. "Goodbye, Grady."
"Wait," he cried before she could walk out of his life. "I can explain."
She backed up another step. "Nothing you say will make a difference.”
"Please, wait. I can't talk freely until I shut this off." He pulled his cell phone from his breast pocket and turned it off. "There. Now I'll explain everything."
She stopped retreating. "Why did you have to turn off your cell phone before you could talk?"
He took a deep breath, then plunged ahead. "I don't want it to record what I have to say."
"Your cell phone's a recorder?"
"Yes.” He indicated the pager clipped to his belt. "That's a microphone."
While she digested the information, he gently took her by the shoulders, gazed deeply into her eyes and trusted.
"I am the man you think I am," he said. "I'm also part of an FBI sting operation to clean up City Hall."
***
TORI SAT NEXT TO GRADY on a sofa in her apartment with Gordo asleep on her lap, hardly able to digest the story he'd been telling her for the past thirty minutes.
After his declaration in the parking lot, she'd gone back inside the restaurant and told a concerned and protesting Crystal she'd catch a ride back to town with Grady.
He'd told her a little in the car, saving the bulk of the story for when they were alone — with only Gordo to overhear — in her apartment.
"So you won't really go to any lengths to secure a contract?" she asked while stroking the little cat.
"Far from it," he said. "Larger contracts mean more staff and bigger responsibilities. Palmer Construction started as a small family business, and I'm happy to keep it that way."
"And you don't really whole-heartedly support Mayor Black and her pro-growth movement?"
"On the contrary, I'm planning to vote for Forest Richardson if it gets that far. Now that we have the mayor's Chief of Staff on tape accepting a bribe, I'm hoping the queen will fall."
"This is incredible," she said. "Like something out of a movie. You know what this makes you? A hero."
He quickly shook his head. "I'm an ordinary guy trying to do the right thing."
She picked up Gordo from her lap, set the cat down on the other side of the sofa and turned toward Grady. She took his face in her hands and gazed into his eyes.
"You’re far from ordinary.” She pressed a light kiss to his soft lips. "It takes an extraordinary person to do what you've done."
"Then you'll forgive me for lying to you?" he asked with a rueful grin. "I didn't want to but I had no choice. I couldn't tell you everything until I trusted you."
She froze as the meaning of his words penetrated the haze she'd been navigating since his confession earlier that evening.
He'd trusted her with a secret that federal agents had warned him not to share, a secret that could spell grave consequences if it got out to the wrong people. Yet she continued to deceive him.
She had to make her own confession, had to tell him that she'd been hired to spy on him. She'd do it while protecting her client's identity, not that she knew who Ms. M was.
"Tori?" Concern touched the blue of Grady's eyes. "Is something wrong?"
"There's something I need to tell you,” she said, the words escaping in a husky purr.
"Me first. I've never said this to any other woman. Except, of course, Lorelei and my mother." He laughed a little. "Would you believe I’m not even nervous? Do you know why? Because it's so right. You're so right."
"But—"
"Shhhh. Let me finish." He touched two fingers to her lips, and his features softened. "I love you, Tori Whitley."
Tears spilled from her eyes.
He deserved the truth but she couldn't bear to ruin this beautiful moment. Her motives for lying were not nearly as altruistic as his had been.
How could she make him understand he meant more to her than any investigation when, in fact, she still worked for the client?
The bottom line was that she couldn't tell him, not until she resigned and returned the portion of the money she hadn't spent. In time, she'd give it all back.
"Tori.” He tenderly touched the spot on her cheek where tears streamed. "Why are you crying?"
Touched by his concern, she smiled at him through her tears, vowing that she'd make it up to him.
"I'm crying because I'm happy," she said, which was at least partially true. "And because I love you, too."
A sudden rush of emotion came over his face, so bright it had to be joy. He took her into his arms and kissed her, the heat and beauty of the moment banishing all thought from Tori's head except one.
After she informed Ms. M and Eddie that she was off the case, she'd tell Grady everything.
Tomorrow.
CHAP TER THIRTY
The sensation of delicate fingertips dancing over the skin of his bare chest tugged at Grady, trying to pull him from a sated sleep.
He smiled without opening eyes that still felt heavy with fatigue from how little sleep he and Tori had gotten the night before.
They'd had much better things to do.
The fingertips tickled his skin, dragging him the rest of the way from sleep. He wouldn't mind being awakened this way every morning for the rest of his life.
"Meow."
His eyes popped open to find a pair of slitted blue cat eyes staring back at him. Gordo's eyes. Tiny paws, instead of enchanted fingertips, perched on his chest.
"No offense, but I was expecting someone else.” He lifted Gordo and set her down on Tori's side of the bed.
Tori was gone.
Momentary panic gripped him, then vanished when he got a whiff of pancakes cooking. Blueberry, if he weren't mistaken.
Tori was making breakfast.
For a moment, he'd feared that she'd bolted. Crazy, considering they'd had great sex the night before in her bed. He couldn't help thinking the concern was legitimate.
Beneath the thick veil of happiness, something had
been bothering her last night. Something she hadn't felt comfortable sharing.
It's always daylight before the dark, he thought, then thrust the thought from his mind.
That was the old Grady. The new one believed in miracles. Tori had told him she loved him, hadn't she?
He checked the time on the alarm clock. Eight o'clock. Later than he usually got to the office. He’d still arrive earlier than most of his employees if he made it in by nine.
He sat up in bed and stretched, aware of the cat's eyes on him.
"So you think I should put some clothes on before I go into the kitchen? It ever occur to you that modesty can be a sin instead of a virtue?"
The cat continued to stare.
"All right, already.” He reached on the floor for where he'd discarded his boxer shorts and pants.
His hand encountered something else under the lip of the bed. A paperback book. Curious, he picked it up.
The cover was red with the black silhouette of a man in a trench coat. A bowler hat was on his head and a cigar dangled from his lips. The title of the book was So, You Want to be a PI.
Everything inside him went cold.
He'd believed Tori to be a private investigator in the early days of their relationship. He'd slowly discarded the notion as he got to know her. Could he have been wrong?
He placed the book on her night stand, cautioning himself against jumping to conclusions.
Tori could be reading the book for pleasure. PIs and the way they operated interested plenty of people. Stories about them riddled the fiction shelves at bookstores, not to mention the television screen.
He slowly pulled on his underwear and jeans and shrugged into his shirt. All the time the book stayed in his line of vision, taunting him.
He wanted to trust Tori, but a little voice nagged at him: The sweeter the wine, the sharper the berry.
He shut out the voice. The goings-on at City Hall had made him paranoid. Tori didn't investigate cases. She did makeup.
Resolutely ignoring the book, he went into the kitchen. Dressed in nothing except an oversized T-shirt that reached the tops of her thighs, Tori stood with her back to him. Her long legs were bare, making him remember how they'd wrapped around him the night before when she'd moaned his name. She flipped over a bubbling hot pancake with a spatula.
"Oh, rats," she said and held up the spatula. Part of the pancake dripped from it, and he couldn't help but laugh.
"It's not funny.” She sent him a woeful look over her shoulder. "I wanted to make you a nice breakfast, but I can't cook any better than I can do most things."
He circled her waist from behind, drawing her close so he could drop a kiss in her hair. "On the contrary, you do some things very well."
She laughed and swatted away his wandering hand. "If you distract me any more, we'll have charred pancake pieces for breakfast instead of just pancake pieces."
A few minutes later, he sat across the breakfast table from her chewing on some truly awful pancakes. She glanced up at him between bites, smiling as though she were truly happy.
Nah, he thought when the book crept once more into his mind. She couldn't be a PI hired to unearth his secrets. She loved him. He could see it in her eyes, feel it in her touch. However, the skeptic inside him couldn't leave it alone.
"Tori, that stuff I told you last night about what I'm doing for the FBI, nobody can know about it," he said.
She nodded but didn't reply, which could well have been because her mouth was full of hard-to-swallow pancakes.
"Indictments are set to come out soon, and nothing can get in the way," he continued. "I've been jumping at shadows lately, which was why I was so suspicious of you when we first met. I thought somebody at City Hall hired you to follow me."
He watched her carefully for a reaction. Her face remained blank.
"Why would they do that?" she asked.
"To find out if I'm as corrupt as I seem. People in government positions sometimes get paranoid about bribing the wrong people. Bribe an honest man, and it could spell trouble. Especially if that honest man has the FBI's ear, like I do."
Something that looked like alarm surfaced in her eyes. It vanished so quickly he thought he might have imagined it. Talk about being paranoid.
"I understand," she said.
Not "You can count on me to keep quiet." Or "Of course nobody hired me to follow you." Just "I understand."
It became obvious after a moment that she didn't intend to expand on her reply. Having somehow managed to finish the pancakes, he put down his fork and pushed his chair back from the table.
"I've got to get home and shower and change clothes before Gordo and me can go into the office," he said.
He picked up the cat, wondering if he imagined the sudden tension in the room. He sensed anxiety in the kiss she gave him at the door. He identified warmth and affection, too, causing him to doubt his perceptions. She could have been holding herself rigidly because she feared crushing Gordo.
Cursing his suspicious nature, he left the apartment and headed for his car.
"Grady, wait!"
He turned, dreading what she might tell him.
Still wearing only the nightshirt with her feet bare, Tori rushed to catch up to him. Her full breasts bounced slightly as she ran, calling attention to her braless state.
He glanced around. Some of her neighbors, getting into their cars to leave for work, stared. An older man with a mustache took his glasses from his breast pocket and put them on, the better to see the show.
Uncaring if the man saw him in a state of undress, Grady unbuttoned his shirt and draped it over her shoulders, pulling the lapels closed. The sun wasn't yet hot enough to scorch but it felt warm on his shoulders as he looked down at her pinched features.
He was right. Something was wrong.
"You must have something important to tell me if you came out here dressed like this.” He kept his voice light. "What is it?"
"Grady, I—" She stopped.
His muscles tensed. Fearing the worst, he prompted, "What?"
Her mouth worked but no sound escaped. Her heart seemed to be in her eyes. She closed them, opened them again and finally spoke. "I just wanted to tell you that I love you," she said softly.
"I love you, too," he said.
That was the truth. He did love her. But he was no longer sure he trusted her.
***
TORI STOOD IN THE parking lot watching Grady drive away. Gordo had climbed onto his lap and had her pint-sized paws pressed against the window. She stared out at Tori in what looked like sympathy.
"Did you have that cat in your apartment all night?"
Mrs. Grumley suddenly appeared beside Tori, her hands on her hips as she sent Tori her best glare. "And why are you dressed like that? I could have you arrested for public indecency."
"Try it, and I'll find out who owns this building and tell them how you harass the tenants," Tori snapped, surprising herself as much as Mrs. Grumley.
She gingerly walked back to her apartment, conscious of the rapidly heating pavement under her bare feet. The retreat fell short in the dignity department. It couldn't be helped.
She didn't have time to worry about the cantankerous landlady, not with her mind filled with the things Grady had told her.
Back inside her apartment, she stood in the middle of her living room, worrying that snooping into Grady's affairs had put him into terrible jeopardy.
His belief that somebody at City Hall might be having him investigated was not only rational but possible. That somebody could even be Ms. M.
What did Tori know about the other woman except that she had an exquisite sense of style and understood how to wear makeup?
Last night Tori had silently vowed to resign from the case at the first opportunity, but she couldn't quit until she determined that Ms. M meant Grady no harm.
To do that, she needed to uncover the identity of her mysterious client. As usual, she didn't have a clue how to proceed. But Ed
die would.
Hopefully it wasn't too late to set things right.
Whether her cousin liked it or not, he was going to help her.
CHAPTER THIR TY-ONE
Tori didn't creep when she entered the darkened bedroom. With the sun already high in the sky and the day approaching the noon hour, why bother?
Sunlight streamed through an opening in one of the slitted mini blinds, casting enough light for her to make out the sleeping man in the bed. He sprawled on his back, snoring gently with his mouth open.
She approached with her weapon and raised it before letting it hover momentarily above his face. Then she lowered it, wiggling her wrist back and forth as she did so.
The snore turned into a sneeze. The man’s hands flailed in the air, swatting at the weapon as he came instantly awake.
"I'd say good morning, Eddie, if it wasn’t past noon," Tori said.
"Tori?" Her cousin sounded confused. "What are you doing here?"
"Waking you up with a feather duster.” She examined the object curiously. "Although I can't imagine why a self-avowed slob like you needs a feather duster."
"I dust with it, okay?" Eddie said grumpily. "I don't mind clutter. I don't like dust."
"I don't like being kept in the dark." Tori moved to the windows and opened the blinds to let the Florida sun stream in.
Eddie winced and shielded his eyes. "Hell, Tori. Did you have to do that?"
She pinpointed the exact second he realized his chest was bare by the frantic speed at which he pulled the covers to his chin. "Could you give a guy a break? I'm naked here."
"It's your fault I'm here. You weren't in the office, and you didn't answer your phones."
"I turned them off to get some shut-eye.” Eddie rubbed a hand over his unshaven jaw. "I was on stakeout last night."
"Poor you," she said without sympathy.
"How'd you get in anyway?" Eddie asked, then brightened slightly. "Hey, you must be getting the hang of things if you broke in without me hearing you."
"Your spare key was under your doormat," she said. "Shouldn't you have known better as a private investigator?"
"What is this? Give-Eddie-a-hard-time day?" Eddie asked. "What do I have to do to get you to scram?"
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