Shadow Prey

trying to get me drunk, Davenport,” Lily said. Her voice was clear, but her eyes were moving too much. “It’ll probably work.”
    Sloan laughed immoderately and started on the second round.
    At midnight, they checked the surveillance room. Nothing. Both of Hood’s roommates were home. The lights were out. At one o’clock, they checked again. Nothing.
    “So what do you want to do?” Lucas asked when King’s closed.
    “I dunno. I guess you better take me back to the hotel. I doubt he’d be driving this late.”
    Lucas pulled the Porsche into the hotel parking lot and hopped out.
    “Time to collect?” Lily asked.
    “Yeah.”
    A half-dozen people were walking through the lot, and more were going in and out.
    “This is not an invitation, so I don’t want you to read anything into it . . . .”
    “Yeah?”
    “You can come up for just long enough to collect.”
    They rode up in the elevator without speaking and walked down the hall to her room, Lucas feeling increasingly awkward. Inside, when she closed the door, it was dark. Lucas fumbled for the light switch but she caught his hand and said, “Don’t. Just collect and then you can leave.”
    “All of a sudden, I feel like a fuckin’ idiot,” Lucas said, abashed.
    “Let’s get it over with,” she said, a little drunkenly.
    He found her in the dark, pulled her in and kissed her. She hung in his arms for just a fraction of a moment, then returned the kiss, powerfully, pushing him against the door, her face and pelvis pressed to his, her hands clenching his rib cage. They clung together for a long moment; then she broke her lips away and squeezed him tighter and groaned, “Oh, Jesus.”
    Lucas held her for a moment and then whispered in her ear, “Double or nothing,” and found her lips again and they walked in a tight little circle and Lucas felt the bed hit the back of his knees and he dropped on it, pulling her with him. He expected her to resist, but she did not. She rolled to one side and held him, kissing him again on the lips, then on the edge of the jaw, and Lucas rolled over half on top of her and pulled at her shirt, getting it out of her trousers, slipping his hand inside, fighting the brassiere, finally reaching around her, unsnapping the bra and then catching one of her breasts in his hand . . . .
    “Oh, God,” she said, arching against him. “God, Davenport . . .”
    He found her belt, pulled it open, slipped his hand inside her trousers, under the edge of her underpants, down, to the hot liquid center . . . .
    “Ah, Jesus,” she said, and she rolled away from him, pushing his hand away, off the side of the bed onto the floor.
    “What?” It was pitch black in the room, and Lucas was groggy from the sudden struggle. “Lily . . .”
    “God, Lucas, we can’t . . . . I’m sorry, I don’t mean to tease. Jesus, I’m sorry.”
    “Lily . . .”
    “Lucas, you’re going to make me cry, go away . . . .”
    “Jesus, don’t do that.” Lucas stood up, pushed his shirt back in his pants, discovered he was missing a shoe. He groped in the dark for a second, found the light. Lily was sitting on the floor on the far side of the bed, clutching her shirt around her.
    “I’m sorry,” she said. Her eyes were black with remorse. “I just can’t.”
    “That’s okay,” Lucas said, trying to catch his breath. He half laughed. “My fuckin’ shoe is missing . . . .”
    Lily, her face drawn, looked around the edge of the bed and said, “Under the curtain. Behind you.”
    “Okay. Got it.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Look, Lily, whatever is right, okay? I mean, I’m going back home to blow my brains out, to relieve the pressure, but don’t worry about it.”
    She smiled a tentative smile. “You’re a nice guy. See you tomorrow.”
    “Sure. If I survive.”
    When he was gone, Lily stripped off her clothes and stood in the shower, letting the water pour down her breasts and then her back. After a few minutes, she began reducing the temperature until finally she stood in what felt like a torrent of ice water.
    Sober, she went to bed. And just before she went to sleep,she remembered that last shot. Had she flinched? Or had she deliberately thrown the shot?
    Lily Rothenburg, faithful wife, went to sleep with lust in her heart.

CHAPTER
10
    The knock came a few minutes after ten o’clock. Sam Crow was washing a coffee cup in the kitchen sink. He stopped at the knock and looked up. Aaron Crow was