LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER EIGHT

      The Hot Spot was located in Union Square on Fourteenth Street. It was large, had an eclectic, urban vibe and was obviously popular. A constant stream of patrons flowed from the sidewalk inside while the sound of chatter and clinking glasses floated out. Lara shifted her weight from one boot to the other.

      Now she was standing across the street, trying to ready herself. For what? A dead body to be found or a dead body to be made?

      Lara rolled her shoulders back and gave herself a nod.

      It was time to find out, either way.

      Without focusing on Ty dressed down and leaning against the wall of the building next door, looking intently at his phone, Lara walked into the Hot Spot. As she suspected, the place was packed. She stopped just inside the door and scanned the crowd.

      Mei sat a few tables away from the bar, a glass of water in front of her. The seat opposite was empty. She checked her phone and looked around before checking it again. The frown that grew at not finding the person she was looking for made the cover that she was waiting on a date that much more believable. Lara spotted Nick next. Perched on a bar stool with a beer in his hand, he had positioned himself in the middle of the bar. From his profile, Lara could tell he was tense. His eyes were focused on his beer, but she had no doubt he was well aware of his surroundings. Xander had agreed to cover the back of the building, setting up a camera after casing the alley. He was out there now, attempting to look like a man on a smoke break. Ready and waiting.

      Lara walked farther into the moving throng of people bustling around, talking and drinking, a rolling sea of post-work lemmings. She rescanned the room but had no idea what she was even looking for. Women and men of varying ages, ethnicities and garb filled the Hot Spot. Some looked her way, others didn’t care.

      Was one of their names Eve?

      Was she going to be killed tonight?

      Maybe she already had been?

      Lara’s stomach tightened. She spotted the hanging bathroom signs and made her way through the crowd. The image of Elizabeth Grant lying on her side in the Macy’s dressing room pushed to the forefront of her mind. She hoped she wouldn’t find the same scene waiting for her again.

      The bathrooms were at the end of the hall, close to the back door for employees only. If the Black Stamp Serial Killer had wanted, he could have easily snuck in from the alley earlier in the night and taken out his prey with little to no visibility. At least now Xander was in position, watching all of the team’s collective backs.

      Lara pushed into the public two-stall bathroom with her hand already on the butt of her gun beneath her jacket. The soft sounds of a radio looping Nineties music filled the blue-walled bathroom, mixing with the smell of spilled perfumed hand soap and stale cigarettes. Making the scenery much different than the bar down the hall.

      Both stall doors were closed.

      “Anyone in here?” Lara asked, hand not leaving her gun.

      No one answered. She dropped down to look beneath the doors, careful not to put her knees on the tile. Lara let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding on to. There were no feet or bodies on the ground. Still she pushed open each door to make sure.

      Bathroom’s clean, she texted her team. She moved her jacket back so it would conceal her piece again and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair lay flat against her head, mimicking the wariness she had been battling since being called by Victoria that morning. Her eyes also told the same story. On a normal day the green of them looked alive. Now they stared back at her with a dull glint. The beginnings of dark circles ringed beneath them. She let out another breath. It shook. Nothing was going right. Nothing was making sense. Cass had tried to trace the cell number that had texted her but it couldn’t be traced. Of course it couldn’t be traced. That would have made things slightly more controllable for them. Having one answer instead of just another few questions of who the texter was and how had they gotten her number. Cass had also checked. No one named Eve worked at Hot Spot. Lara let out another not-so-stable breath. Waiting for their killer to strike had her more keyed up than she had originally thought.

      Her attention returned when her phone vibrated in her hand.

      Nothing suspicious out front. Moving back to the van in five, Ty responded. On the heels of that text came Xander’s.

      All’s clear out here too.

      Which meant whatever was going to happen was going to take place inside of the packed bar. Lara gave her reflection a smile before leaving. It was weak, and not even she bought its authenticity.

      Mei was in the middle of doing another scan of the room as Lara walked past to the bar. She was doing an excellent job of looking dejected. It made Lara wonder if the female agent had been stood up before. That thought led to the man sitting at the bar. Nick had opened up to her about his past, and she had let her guard down enough to let him see the more personal side of her. One topic they hadn’t broached was their past relationships. Was he the man who would wait at a bar for his date, or was he the man who kept the other waiting? On cue Lara’s cheeks heated. Her lips tingled at the memory of their quick kiss in another bar.

      The heat that pulsed through them where they had joined.

      The craving to push the boundaries until nothing was between them but skin and sweat.

      Lara shook her head. She needed to refocus and ask the bartender if they knew any regulars who went by the name Eve.

      It was a simple plan—direct, even—but Lara needed to find the connection and quick if they had any chance of potentially saving a woman’s life.

      She went to the end of the bar, to the far left of Nick, and cleared her throat. The two men hanging against the counter paused their conversation long enough to shuffle to the side, giving Lara barely enough room to squeeze in. She thought about flashing her badge or gun to make them learn some manners, but all entertaining thoughts quickly flew out the window as Lara’s eyes settled on Hot Spot’s current bartender.

      Lara found her connection all right.

      Slinging drinks as if she’d been born to do it was none other than Meghan Leary.

      Her sister.

      What the hell?

      Meghan was thirty-two, had long brown hair, wide hazel eyes, legs that kept going, and Bartholomew Grant’s strong nose. What she didn’t have was the same mother as Lara.

      Bartholomew had left Meghan and her mother when she was barely one for a pregnant Anna. It was something that her half sister never forgot and definitely never forgave. Meghan claimed Lara’s mother stole her father. It had created an always present rift

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