“I’ll rally, babe,” Gabriel protested.
“You’d better,” I said. “I don’t want to give Alice the chance to finish the job she already started on you.”
He groaned. “That cuts to the core.”
“Sorry,” I said, scowling. “But your ex-wife is at the top of her game and you’re weak as a kitten.”
“The weakness might play in his favor,” Derek said.
“What?” I said. “You think you’ll appeal to her maternal side?”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” Gabriel said.
“You think she has one?” I asked.
Neither of them answered.
“I just hope the police will be close by,” I muttered. I had a lot less confidence in Alice’s maternal instincts than these two did.
“The less obvious the police presence, the better,” Gabriel said, his voice gruff. “Mary Grace can smell a cop from a mile away.”
Gabriel slept for a half hour, then showered and dressed in his best black-on-black gunslinger’s outfit. I was wiping off the kitchen bar when he walked out to the living room. I stuttered to a halt.
The man looked like something off the cover of an extremely hot romance novel, meaning he looked damned good. It just went to show that Alice wasn’t as smart as she thought she was. If I were her, I never would’ve let him go. Just saying.
Then Derek walked in from my front office wearing an old leather bomber jacket over a navy T-shirt tucked into faded jeans, his muscular thighs hard beneath the denim. I’d never seen him in such casual clothes before, so I guess you could say he caught me off guard.
My feet froze to the floor. I fumbled for the sponge. Time slowed down as he turned, saw me, and smiled. My breath rattled in my throat and my heart tumbled into a place it had never been before.
Something flickered in Derek’s eyes. He walked across the room and slid his hand around my neck, then leaned in and covered my mouth with his. The kiss was openmouthed and heart-stopping. My lower stomach tightened and my knees threatened to give in. His lips inched along my cheek-bone, planting kisses until he reached my ear. There, he whispered, “You dropped your sponge.”
I laughed in surprise and my heart began to beat again. He bent down to retrieve my sponge, smiling wickedly as he handed it back to me. After another quick, hard kiss, he moved to the dining table, where his equipment, and a grinning Gabriel, waited patiently.
While I watched, Derek wired Gabriel for sound and they tested the equipment for a few minutes longer.
All systems were go, except my own.
Overwhelmed by a flood of emotions, I walked unsteadily into the kitchen and leaned against the cool surface of the refrigerator to regroup.
So much for acting like the sophisticated urban animal I fancied myself to be. Yes, I’d gone in with both eyes wide open, knowing Derek would leave town as soon as Gunther’s stint at BABA was completed. I’d been engaged before and I’d survived the breakups just fine. Truth be told, I’d done most of the breaking up myself because I’d had no business saying yes in the first place.
But now I knew I would be losing a great big chunk of my heart when Derek left. I would miss him more than anything or anyone I’d ever missed in my life.
All this time I’d been worrying that my karma was keeping us apart, when I should’ve been worrying about my karma bringing us together. Because now he would leave and I would be a complete, miserable, slobbering mess.
I sucked in a deep breath of air and pushed myself away from the refrigerator. I couldn’t afford to think about all that right now. I had a job to do, a book to avenge, and a killer to unmask.
Chapter 20
I walked into BABA and was slammed by the wall of sound that greeted me. It rattled my nerves and made me want to turn around and go home. For a few seconds, I wondered if Naomi had hired a live band, but no. It was the same old stereo system, set to an ear-bleeding level. I could take it. I could take anything. I held my shoulders high and plunged into the crowd.
The Sunday afternoon soiree had been Naomi’s idea and it was a good one. The time of day suited the large gallery space to perfection. Sunshine poured in through the wide skylight, casting crystalline shards of color and light over the crowd. And instead of the usual black-clad bodies, many of the women were dressed in jewel tones and even in a few pastels. It made for a lovely, bright palette and lent a lightness and joie de vivre to the normally dour, artsy crowd.
I waved to a few acquaintances and caught snippets of conversation as I made my way across the crowded room. Art, books, music, films, the weather, the environment, climate change, the latest scandal erupting at City Hall. One conversation faded into another until I reached my destination. The bar. Naturally. Where else would I be going?