LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Four

      Cody stomped down the steps. Dana was just as irritating as she’d ever been. Sometimes he wondered how he’d stood her rigid insistence on order for even two years. When they’d first met, she was so focused on getting her law degree, that he’d have to coax her to take an afternoon off. In her life, there was no room for spontaneity, no room for joy. Everything had to be just so, from the way the toilet paper rolled to the way they planned their vacations. The only time she let down her guard was when they made love.

      The thought of her beneath him, her body covered with a sheen of sweat, her eyes filled with passion, her lips parted and swollen with kisses, hit him unawares. He almost stumbled on the last step.

      “Hell,” he muttered.

      That part of it had always been good. Not just good…great. It always amazed him to watch the transformation he could bring about in her with just a touch.

      Never, before or since, had a woman responded to him the way Dana had. Not that there had been many since, he thought wryly.

      Somehow it wasn’t the same anymore. The edge, the wonder, wasn’t there like it had been with Dana, so he’d found himself withdrawing, until he’d just about become a monk.

      Cody shook his head to rid his brain of the distracting thoughts. What he needed to do was make sure Fontenot hadn’t done something else, like booby-trap Dana’s car. A sick fear gnawed at his insides. If anything happened to her…

      He looked up and down the street, but there was nothing going on. It was Friday morning, and the only people stirring were businesswomen and men leaving for work.

      He walked around her car, his eyes and his thoughts focused on noticing anything unusual, anything strange. He reluctantly dropped to the ground with a grunt, wincing as his shoulder throbbed with pain, and crawled underneath the car, looking for wires, or anything else that looked out of place. Nothing.

      He dug his key, which he’d never given back to her, out of his jeans, and opened the car door, moving carefully, deliberately, listening and watching. The bastard wouldn’t catch Cody Maxwell off guard again.

      DANA REALIZED SHE’D BEEN staring at the apartment door ever since Cody had slammed it. She shook herself mentally. He was gone. He wasn’t her problem anymore.

      Then why did his hurt blue eyes still haunt her? Why did she feel like she’d just been treated to a brief moment in the sun, then had it snuffed out, leaving her alone and cold?

      A shiver, like a cold rigor, slid up her spine. She pushed her maudlin thoughts away as she brushed her hair back from her face, and walked into the kitchen. She could still drive up to the lake and spend a quiet couple of days. If she’d thought she needed a relaxing weekend before, now she was even more convinced. And it was obvious she wasn’t going to get any rest around here with Cody playing cops and robbers.

      She picked up the two coffee mugs to rinse them, then stared at her hands.

      Cody’s mug. Her fingers spasmed and she almost dropped it.

      “Damn it, Cody,” she muttered. “Why didn’t you take it with you?”

      She didn’t want the rickety, chipped thing around. It was silly to have kept it all this time. She should have thrown it away years ago. She touched the little chipped place.

      He’d made fun of it when she brought it home, but every time she’d tried to throw it away he’d insisted on keeping it.

      “Once you get used to the way it wobbles,” he’d told her, “it’s a pretty nice mug.”

      She washed it carefully and dried it. Stupid sentimentality! Well, if Cody wanted the worthless thing she’d mail it to him or something. She set it beside her purse.

      Looking at the clock, she hurried into the bedroom and threw some clothes into a travel bag. She didn’t need anything fancy. She wasn’t going to see a soul.

      She stepped into the bathroom to get her makeup and nearly tripped over the pile of bloody clothes and towels. With a grimace of distaste, she picked up the towels. Underneath was Cody’s leather jacket.

      She picked it up half-reluctantly. The brown leather was creased and cracked, with scrapes and tears that Dana was sure Cody could identify without missing a one. She knew several of them herself.

      That huge scrape on one shoulder was where he’d been thrown out of a car going about sixty miles an hour. The tear in the cuff—

      “Stop!” Dana yelled out loud. She wasn’t going to get caught up in useless reminiscing. Without realizing it, she’d hugged the jacket to her breast. Deliberately catching it between finger and thumb like a dirty diaper, she went back into the kitchen.

      There was no way Cody was going to insinuate himself back into her life. She didn’t care if he’d gotten himself shot again. She didn’t care if Fontenot was out of prison. Cody was wrong. It had nothing to do with her.

      She avoided thinking about her earring.

      She’d just take the cup and the jacket by his apartment on her way to the lake. That way he wouldn’t have any reason to contact her.

      After making sure her apartment was secure, the coffeepot was turned off and the timer was set to turn the lights on at dusk, Dana grabbed her travel bag and Cody’s stuff and let herself out.

      AFTER CODY HAD SATISFIED himself that he’d checked everything, he positioned his car at the corner of Dana’s street, where he could see her front door, but she’d have a hard time seeing him, then he dialed Dev’s cell phone.

      “Dev, where y’at?”

      “Trying to keep your sorry butt out of trouble, as usual. The captain’s hot. I convinced him to let you alone last night, but you’ve got to make a statement.”

      “I know,” Cody acknowledged. “I’ll be there in about an hour. Just as soon as Dana leaves for work. I want to be sure she’s not followed.”

      “Code, my man, this little booby trap here at your place is pretty slick.”

      “I’ve been trying to tell you guys that Fontenot’s a freaking genius. What’d you find?”

      “What you’d expect. Nothing. It’s a common .38 special. A street piece, no ID. We can run it through, but ten to one its pattern won’t be in our files.”

      Cody shook his head. “Yeah, I know. And there are no fingerprints, and the cord was from my kitchen drawer.”

      “You got it, my man.”

      Cody flexed his shoulder and groaned. “Look, Dev, I’m headed to the doctor as soon as I make sure Dana gets to work okay. Then I’ll be on over. See if I can spot anything you guys missed.”

      He held the phone away from his ear and grinned as Dev let loose with a string of colorful Cajun expletives that described in vivid detail what he thought about Cody finding anything he’d missed.

      “Yeah, right. See you later.”

      “Hey, buddy. The captain’s got a place on his wall where he’s planning to hang what’s left of your ass after he chews it. I’d get over here sooner, rather than later.”

      “On my way.” Cody cut the connection, and briefly debated the advisability of taking the time to run to the doctor. His

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