Hooked

.”
    Angry heat came off her neck and worked its way down her back. She rarely lost her temper. Couldn’t remember the last time. And she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of losing it now. “Don’t forget my undergrad at Brown. You know all about me.” But not everything. “Yes, I paid for my college education turning tricks. Sorry, I didn’t have a hundred thou back then. Everyone got what they wanted. I had no loans to pay back, and half the faculty, as you wrongly think, fulfilled their fantasies. I was good at what I did. No one ever complained of being ripped off.”
    He tsked and sputtered, his cool dissipating, apparently frustrated at being bested. Good. She was getting his goat too. “Now, are you going to tell me what you want? What about Cooper?”
    “You got anything to drink in that cabinet?”
    “I don’t know. I wasn’t thirsty so I didn’t check.”
    He opened the mini bar and took out a small bottle of vodka, uncapped it, and drank half of it straight. “Want one?”
    “I don’t drink, but you can get me a Coke from the mini fridge.” He glared at her. “You asked.”
    He pulled one out. “I thought high-priced hookers drank nothing but champagne.”
    “And I thought cops weren’t supposed to drink on duty.”
    “I’m on break.”
    She didn’t say anything else. Let him stew. He wasn’t the first man she’d driven to drink. Men who thought that paying for one evening meant they owned her. Well, they didn’t. Go ahead, Mister Detective, drink away. The longer you do, the more time I have before facing whatever it is you want me to do.
    The room closed in on her. She slid open the glass door to the balcony and stepped outside. Leaning against the rail, she sipped her drink. The breeze had picked up, swirling her hair around her head, plastering her dress to her body. A thunderhead gaining momentum had driven everyone off the beach. White crests danced on the surface of the water as far as the eye could see; waves crashed onto the shore, spewing frothy sprays into the air. It was as if Lincoln Walsh had brought the dark clouds and ruined her sunny day. Now she sensed he was about to ruin her life. Movement in her peripheral vision announced his presence, his body sheltering her from the south wind’s blustery onslaught.
    “Sorry. I had no right to throw all that in your face. It’s what you do…did,” he corrected. “Your past life is none of my business.”
    “You’re right, it isn’t. But I have a feeling you’re going to ask me to do it again, aren’t you? And I have four-hundred-thousand reasons why I can’t refuse.” She faced him. “Right?”
    He shifted his focus from the horizon to the beach to the vee of pelicans gliding by overhead. Everywhere but on her. “Right.”
    She wondered if she could tempt him into forgetting about her. Cop or not, she could think of worse punishment. Now he was looking down the beach to the fishing pier, his jaw set tight. It wouldn’t work. Not with this guy. He’d probably haul her in and add bribing a cop to the charges.
    She’d been so careful, so private. All those years, she never spoke out of school either to or about her clients or to the few friends she’d made. How the hell did he find out? “I’d like to know how you found out about the money.”
    * * * * *
    T he woman was too damn smart for her own good. She knew Cooper, and she didn’t lie about it. When Linc first got this assignment, he couldn’t believe her profile. Tawny Dell earned a doctorate in art history. She could fucking teach at Columbia. Instead, she was a high-dollar call girl. He didn’t understand it. She had everything going for her. College tuition aside, there were only two reasons a woman did that. She liked the money and liked screwing men to get it. His first glimpse of her photograph almost knocked him over. She’d been careful, but all it took to take her down was one friend who ratted her out. With friends like that…
    “Sheri Markham,” he said.
    Tawny didn’t say anything for a while. “I tried to help her, you know, but she couldn’t kick it.” She gazed at Linc. “I hope you got her into a drug program for the information.”
    He nodded.
    “She didn’t know anything for sure. Just giving it her best shot. It figures. She needed a bargaining chip, and I was it. I might have done the same thing.”
    Somehow he doubted that. “What were you planning to do?”
    She shrugged. “Oooh, I don’t know. Go to some