by SUE FINEMAN
“Yes, she is,” said the nurse.
Mia knew without a doubt that Darlene and her mother had done the right thing in giving her to the Gregory family. She vaguely remembered Mr. Snyder, a hateful man who swore all the time. No wonder Darlene left home.
Mom would take good care of Mrs. Snyder, and after they found the missing girls, Mia would spend some time with her grandmother. Mom’s parents had passed away many years ago, and Dad’s died before Mia was born. She may not have this grandparent for long, but she’d cherish whatever time they had together.
<>
Dave needed to get back to Clover Hills. He didn’t want Mia there, didn’t want someone coming after her again, but he couldn’t leave her alone in Tacoma. The kid he’d caught belonged to a gang, and the others could come after her again. As much as he wanted to be with Mia, the best solution was for her to go with her grandmother to Texas.
He drove Mia back to her apartment. “Mia, I want you to go to Texas with Mrs. Snyder.”
“Trying to get rid of me, Montgomery?”
“No, I—”
“You know I can’t go anywhere until we find those girls.”
“Mia, this is not your investigation.”
“I may not be FBI, but I know something that’ll help find them.”
He glanced at her and back at the road. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know yet, but you need me, and if you call this a time-of-the-month thing, I swear, I’ll slap you silly.”
He did need her, even if he couldn’t pin down the exact reason.
As he pulled into the parking lot of Mia’s apartment building, his cell phone rang. Kowalski said, “Hey, boss. We may have found Nadine Lynderman.”
Dave turned off the engine. “Where?”
“In the Portland morgue. Someone pulled the body out of the Columbia River ten days ago.”
“Aw, shit. How long had she been in the water?”
“Too long. I don’t advise a family ID on this one. We’ll try to do it through the lab. The body is the same size, hair color, and she wore a pinky ring identical to the one her friends said Nadine never took off.”
“Cause of death?”
“Drowning, but she had a head injury before she went in the water. Portland police thought she might have been boating, got struck by something, and fell overboard, but there were no missing person reports around that time, and this happened weeks after she disappeared from Clover Hills.”
“If it’s the same girl. What’s your gut telling you?” Kowalski had the best instincts of anyone Dave had ever worked with.
“My gut says it’s the same girl. Someone hit her on the head and pushed her into the water to drown. Chances were slim to none of her getting out of that river alive, especially with a head injury.”
“Have you notified the family?”
“No, not yet. I sent her hairbrush to the lab this morning. We’ll have them do a hair analysis and check dental records. If that’s not enough, we’ll see if there’s enough hair to get DNA.”
Dave glanced at Mia. “I’ll be up tomorrow. I want to check out something here tonight, and Mia and I have something to do in the morning. Look for us after lunch. Did Knight talk?”
“Hell, no, and he’s getting sick of bread and water.”
“Tough. No shower, no phone calls, no visitors, and I don’t give a shit if he sues me. We have a dead girl and two more missing. He’s going to talk or I’ll wave my magic wand and make him disappear.” Dave closed his phone.
Mia put her hand on his arm. “Which one?”
“Nadine Lynderman, but we don’t have a positive ID yet.”
“The only one I knew was Tonya Ayers, and I hope to God we find her alive.”
“So do I,” said Dave. “How’s your head?”
“Better.”
“Do you feel like going out tonight?”
A slow smile spread on her face. “Dancing?”
“In hiking boots?”
“Didn’t you bring any other clothes?”
“Yes, but they’re in the plane.”
She gave him a raised-eyebrow look that he knew meant well, what are you waiting for, and he started the engine. He’d left his other clothes on the plane at the Tacoma Narrows Airport, about five miles from Mia’s apartment.
Dancing with Mia. This assignment looked better all the time.
<>
That evening, Dave drove Mia to the strip club owned by Tarik Assad.
“I’ve been in this club before,” said Mia.
“Business or pleasure?”
“Oh, please. I don’t come to strip clubs for pleasure. One of the girls decked a customer, kicked him in the face, and the customer whipped out his cell phone and called 911. She accused him of groping her and he said she assaulted him.”
“Who won?”
“She had his handprint on her breast, so he’s the one we took in, even though his lip was bleeding. Customers are not allowed to touch the dancers, if you can call them that.”
Mia wore a black dress with a flared hem and strappy high heels, and Dave wore a leather jacket over a black sweater, and they were way too overdressed for this dive. And way too sober.
“Al owns this place,” Dave said after he ordered their drinks.
“And here I thought you took me out on a real date.”
“This is a real date.” He cocked his head and his eyes sparkled. “They’re playing our song. Let’s dance.”
As he spun her around and the dress flared up around her waist and her long hair fanned out around her, Mia drew attention away from the stage, where a nearly naked girl gyrated around a pole. Mia’s dress looked like it came right off a Marilyn Monroe poster. The front dipped so low, Dave was afraid she’d fall out of it. He shouldn’t have worried, because Mia knew exactly what she looked like and how to move in the dress.
Dave’s mother had insisted he take dancing lessons, and that skill had come in handy many times, especially when he wanted to impress a woman. And he definitely wanted to impress this woman, although he wasn’t as polished as Mia. She’d had years of practice and won dozens of awards.
As the music changed from bouncy to slow and sensuous, Dave slid his hands down her bare arms and showed her some fancy moves of his own. Someone pushed tables out of the way to give them room. At some point, the dancer left the stage. They didn’t need a show when every eye in the place was on Mia.
Dave spun Mia around and, as their hips worked in unison, bumping and rubbing, and Mia’s hands skimmed her breasts and down her hips, a man said, “Damn, she’s hot.”
She sure is. Dave’s pants had grown so tight it was almost painful. From the way Mia kept bumping him there and the way she looked at him, she knew what she was doing to him. He lifted her to his left shoulder and spun around, knowing her dress would fly up. She arched her back and posed there, and the room filled with hoots and whistles. He knew she could dance, but he had no idea she was this good.
After they finished their dance, Mia grabbed her purse and walked back to the restroom. She heard the girls talking nearby and followed their voices to a dingy little room in the back. One of them spotted her and called her into the room.
“Girl, you are good,” one of them said.
“Thank you. I love to dance. I’m looking for some friends who may be working here or who may have worked here in the past.” Mia pulled out three pictures and passed them around. “I hoped to work with them, but I don’t know where they are.”
A blonde who looked young from a distance said, “This one was here for a few days.”
“Which one?”
“The redhead, Dinah.”
“When?”
“Maybe a month or so ago. The boss talked about getting her breast implants.”
Mia put her hands over her breasts. “I should probably have something done, too. I don’t have much.”
“You got enough, honey, and you can dance. You don’t need to work in a dump like this.�
�
Another girl nudged the first one and glanced at the door, and Mia knew someone was there. From the nervous way the girls looked around, she expected trouble, but she forced herself not to turn and look.
“Nobody is allowed back here without an okay from the boss.” The man’s deep voice came from the doorway.
“Sorry,” said Mia. Without looking at the man, she lowered her face and escaped to the restroom. She knew that voice, and he probably knew her, too.
Whoever he was.
Minutes later, Mia and Dave drove away from the club. “Make sure we’re not followed,” she said.
“Why? Did something happen in the back?”
“One of the dancers ID’d Nadine’s picture, said she worked there about a month ago.”
A car came up on them from behind and Dave swerved into the left lane. “Hold on, Mia.” He crossed the median to go in the other direction, but the other car followed them.
She took her gun out of her purse. This time she had no qualms about using it. The people following them weren’t kids, and they weren’t armed with knives. Semi-automatic weapons poked out the windows. “How come the bad guys are better armed than we are?”
“Unfasten your seatbelt and reach under the seat. Careful, it’s loaded.”
As she lowered the window, the car came up on the left. Dave cut them off and they swerved to the right. “Ready?”
“Ready,” said Mia. As she took aim, Dave slammed on the brakes. Bullets spewed from the windows of the other car, Mia fired off three rounds, and the other car ran off the road and into the ditch. “I hit the driver, but I don’t think I killed him.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure I hit him.”
He handed her his cell phone. “Call it in.” He recited the other car’s license plate number while she punched in 911.
As she disconnected, Dave said, “Somebody doesn’t like us.”
“A man chased me away from the girls in the back. I’ve heard his voice before. I wish I could remember his name.”
Police and paramedics took care of the two men in the other car. The passenger, the man who’d shot at Dave and Mia, tried to run away, and one of the officers shot and killed him. The paramedics took the driver to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his shoulder and jaw. Although she hated having to shoot, Mia had no choice in this situation. She had to stop them from spraying bullets all over the highway.
Mia and Dave spent two hours in the police station with her captain, filling out reports and looking at mug shots. Dave showed Mia a picture of the man he called Al, but she didn’t recognize him.
“The man I heard tonight had a deep, smooth voice, and he was much taller than me,” said Mia. “The voice came from above my head.”
“Why didn’t you look at him?” asked the captain.
“Because I didn’t want him to recognize me. I always wear my hair up when I’m in uniform. I look different tonight, but if he saw my face—”
“He would have known you were a cop,” said Dave.
“Someone should see about the safety of the four women who dance in that place. He saw them talking to me.”
The captain motioned to his office door. “They’re in the other room.”
Dave stood. He had a frustrated, why didn’t you say so, look on his face. “Would you mind if I spoke with the ladies?”
“Ladies?” said the captain. “Help yourself. We haven’t charged them with anything, so we’ll have to release them.”
Mia invited herself along. The woman who’d told her about Nadine had a dark, swollen spot on her cheek. Someone had hit her. “Hey, I’m really sorry,” said Mia. “I didn’t mean to get you girls in trouble.”
“Who are you?” asked the pretty brunette.
“Mia Gregory, Tacoma Police. This is Special Agent Dave Montgomery, FBI. Two of the girls in those pictures are missing. We think we may have found the body of the third one, the one you called Dinah.”
“Oh, no,” groaned the blonde who’d ID’d the picture.
“The captain tells me you’re not under arrest, so you can leave any time, but Dave and I would really like to talk with you first. We want to find the other two girls before they’re killed, too.”
“You’re not busting us?” asked the brunette.
“No.”
“Then I’m outta here.”
“Please take care of yourself,” said Mia. “You’re too pretty to end up in a body bag.”
The color drained from the woman’s face and she walked out the door. To say this was a dangerous business would be a gross understatement. Every one of these women knew the kind of people they worked for and the kind of clientele the clubs attracted.
As they walked through the station, someone whistled and another officer said, “Hey, look, Gregory is a girl. Did you know Gregory was a girl?”
Mia smiled and twirled around, and someone whistled again.
The captain said, “Maybe we should put you in Vice.”
Mia followed him back to his office. She handed over her gun and badge. “When my administrative leave is over, you can take me off the payroll.” She thought she might change her mind about police work, but she hadn’t. She’d gotten into it out of respect for Dad. Greg thrived on the excitement and danger, but she’d had enough.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Mia hung up her dress and put on her flannel PJ bottoms and red cropped T-shirt.
Dave eyed her. “Do you always sleep in that?”
“What do you sleep in?”
A slow grin tugged at his lips and he wiggled his eyebrows. “Wanta see?”
She giggled and he grabbed a handful of air from in front of her mouth. “Catching laughter again, Montgomery?”
“There is a better, more direct way.” He moved closer and leaned down to kiss her. His hands moved from her waist up her ribcage, under her shirt, until he had one hand on her back and the other on her breasts.
Mia moaned when his thumb found her nipple and rubbed. She knew getting involved with him would end up in heartbreak, but at that moment all she could think about was how he made her feel. He played her body and made it vibrate with sexual need. She lifted her knee to rub it across the hard ridge in his pants.
“I want you,” he whispered. “God, how I want you.”
He followed his words with a kiss so passionate she’d give anything if only he wouldn’t stop. Without conscious thought, her arms wrapped around his waist and under his pants in the back. He unfastened his belt and pants and she reached in to grab his buns. He had a great ass, a sexy, solid body, and tonight it belonged to her. “Special Agent Montgomery, I need a big, strong man in my bed to protect me tonight.”
The light in his eyes grew brighter. “Maybe I’m the one who’ll need protection. Are you going to have your way with me?”
“I certainly hope so,” she quipped, reaching up for another kiss.
Dave’s cell phone rang. He ignored it, but as soon as it stopped ringing, it started again. Mia said, “It might be important.”
“Not as important as you.”
She stepped back and he grabbed his phone. “Yeah?”
“Hey, Montgomery,” said Greg. “Where are you?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Hey, did I interrupt something?”
“You could say that.”
“Well, then go to it. I’ll take Mom to Mia’s.”
Dave froze. “Where are you?”
“In Tacoma with Neen and Mom.”
Dave groaned. “Find a hotel, Greg. Mia is busy tonight.”
From the silence on the line, Dave knew he’d caught Greg by surprise. “If you—”
“This is none of your fucking business, Gregory. Butt out.” He disconnected and said to Mia, “Greg and Neen and your mother are in Tacoma.”
She inhaled audibly. “Tell me they’re not coming here.”
“I hope not, but Greg warned me before about—”
“
About me? Oh, he didn’t,” she said on a groan.
“It was the Christmas I spent with your family. He told me you weren’t a fuck-and-forget girl and to stay away from you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll kill him.”
“He just wanted to protect you, Mia.”
“From what?” she yelled. “From the man I’ve had a crush on since the day I met him? From the man I dreamed about every night for years?” As she spoke, her voice grew softer. “From the man I want to make love with so much I—”
He stopped her with a passionate, bone-melting kiss, and lifted her off her feet. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he carried her into the bedroom and set her gently on the bed. As he nuzzled into her breasts and suckled an aroused nipple, the doorbell rang.
“I hope to hell he came alone,” muttered Dave.
Mia rolled off the bed, straightened her pajamas, and unlocked the door. Greg pushed his way past her into the apartment. “Where in the hell is he?” Greg said through clenched teeth.
One karate chop to Greg’s neck dropped him to the floor. Mia knew he wouldn’t hit back. Mom and Neen would both give him hell if he did. Dad had taught the boys not to hit girls, and although they’d wrestled when they were little, he had never hurt her.
Mia stood over Greg, hands on her hips. “If you ever stick your nose in my love life again, I’ll shoot you, brother or not. You got that, sheriff?”
“Jeez, Mia, you could have killed me.” Greg pushed himself off the floor, grabbed Mia, turned her over his knee, and gave her a smack on the behind. She sank her teeth into his arm and he let go.
She scrambled free and pointed to the door. “Get the hell out of here, and don’t come back without an invitation.”
Greg rubbed his arm and looked past Mia to Dave, who stood in the bedroom door. “Do you always have girls do your fighting for you, Montgomery?”
Dave shrugged. “She’s a better shot than me, and she can handle herself in a fight, probably because she grew up with you.” He walked toward Mia and put his arm around her. “If I were you, I’d get the hell out of Dodge. She’s already shot two men tonight, and from the fire in her eyes, it looks like she might do it again.”
