Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

announcer was saying. "I figured, at forty, he'd be ready to retire."
    "Yep, time for the old man to join us up here in the booth," the ex-quarterback quipped in reply.
    "It looks like Coach Hubbard plans to make the most of it too. Billy's in the starting lineup next week in Philadelphia."
    "Holly?"
    She jerked her gaze back to David. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"
    With a laugh, he said, "I thought you said you didn't follow football. I would swear the look on your face was one of rapt attention."
    "Oh, I, uh—" Holly swallowed her nervousness with a sip of beer. "I just thought how terrible it must be to be considered over the hill at forty."
    He nodded his agreement. "Yeah, but O'Day's had a good long run and been paid plenty over the years. He won't suffer. Hell, I wouldn't mind being able to retire a millionaire next year."
    "Hah! You wouldn't last a month before you'd be back to work."
    He raised an eyebrow at her. "Think you know me so well already, huh?" Her answer was a slow, confident smile. "Then what am I thinking right now?"
    She stared into his eyes, but the sensual message she received made her lower her lashes shyly.
    "I guess that one was too easy." His tone was light, but inside a heaviness invaded his thoughts. Insinuating she knew his mind better than he did himself was one of the lines a woman cast when they went fishing for a mate. It was one of many clues David had trained himself to beware of. Holly had gone this long without getting married but that didn't mean she wasn't interested in it at all.
    He had wanted to form a bond with her, to gain her confidence and he thought he was beginning to make progress, but he couldn't deny that she was getting much closer than he'd intended. If he wasn't more careful, he could be the one who ends up in a trap instead of her.
    Holly had no idea what had happened, but David's mood changed during the third quarter of the game, and she had the distinct impression it had nothing to do with the action on the big screen.
    When they returned to her apartment, he kissed her quickly and left without following her inside. Though she was confused by his abrupt departure and the absence of any request to see her again, Holly had been hoping he wouldn't insist on staying.
    Hearing William O'Day's name had been a sharp reminder of why she was with David Wells and it had nothing to do with great sex.

Chapter 14

    Someone else had been watching the same broadcast as David and Holly and was delighted to hear that Billy O'Day would be in the starting lineup next Sunday in Philadelphia.
    Philadelphia was an ideal location—near enough to come and go by car, no travel reservations that could turn into evidence.
    Discovering what hotel O'Day was staying in would only take a few phone calls. Assuming the old rule still stood about retiring early and alone the night before a game, the same plan that went so smoothly with Ziegler should work again, only this time there would be no Secret Service agents to prevent the message from being made public.
    The first execution had been dedicated to rape victims in general, with one particular person in mind. Perhaps this one should be devoted to Stella.
    Of course, it would have to be done privately. One couldn't publicly dedicate a murder to one's own mother without being implicated. But the thought would be there.
    Images flashed of the woman who had insisted her child call her by her first name rather than anything vaguely maternal, a woman who preferred the company of a bottle to that of her baby. The baby was a teenager before discovering the reason its mother couldn't tolerate the sight of it, but understanding hadn't erased the hurt.
    Stella had been only a teenager herself when she gave birth. Her parents had tried to get the baby's father to do the right thing, but he had friends who swore they had all enjoyed Stella's generous favors around the same time. The picture they painted shamed her and her family—not enough for them to go against their religion and help her get an abortion, just enough for them to banish her from their home.
    Stella hadn't been raped in the physical sense, but what her boyfriend had done was even worse—he had raped her soul and stripped her of the future she had deserved.
    It was the baby's further misfortune that it bore a distinct resemblance to the father.
    When the child had grown to adulthood, it had searched for that man, only to learn that he had died a few years before. As a young