THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

knew better than to trust a man with her life, but trusting one with her heart? Now that was a real stretch.
    Dreams are for other women. Her throat tightened. She didn’t have a future and not a chance of one with him. Nice guys didn’t want a convicted criminal for a girlfriend.
    Nothing could change the past.
    Angel never indulged in self-pity, but her eyes burned with tears she refused to let fall.
    She was falling in love with Zane.
    Stupid, stupid, stupid!
    Must be your lot in life to want only what you can’t have.
    Of all the things she’d lost in her life, losing him would be the hardest.
     
    Chapter 25
     
    Zane dialed Ben’s lab number as he whipped his truck around the marina parking lot to head for the exit.
    After ten rings he hung up and dialed the cell Ben carried for work.
    “This is Ben.”
    “Hey, buddy, it’s Zane. Where are you?”
    “I’m at the hospital. Kerry went into labor. I just stepped out to call her parents.”
    Zane was torn between being thrilled for Ben and disheartened he couldn’t ask his friend to run the prints. “Don’t let me keep you.”
    “The doctor says it’s going to be a while, so I’m good.”
    What kind of friend didn’t go to be with his buddy for the birth of his first baby? Shit. Ben might not want anyone there now anyhow, but Zane had to go once the baby was born. “Congrats, man. I’ll pick up some bubbly so we can toast when Little Ben pops out.”
    “Kerry will kick your ass if you bring in champagne and she can’t have any yet. So what’s up, Zane? You called for a reason.”
    “It’ll wait.”
    “Don’t tell me you finally got prints?” Ben razzed.
    “Yeah. I’ve got some data to run, too.”
    “You don’t sound thrilled. Why do I get the impression something’s not right?” Ben asked, no longer in teasing mode.
    “You could say things have gotten ... involved,” Zane said.
    “I don’t like the direction this is going. Why don’t you turn this over to somebody else? You’ve got a lot on the line, which reminds me. I have news.”
    “What?” Mac came by to see me on his way out of town.”  Mac was Dan MacPherson, the SAC or Special Agent in Charge of the DEA task force that used the information Zane uncovered. “He wants to talk to you. The stuff you’ve been handing us is great, and I think they’re wanting to do something permanent or maybe bring you in to work more closely with a team.”
    “ No way. I’m not flying a desk for anything. Not even part of the time.”  Zane hated bureaucracy. Yeah, he knew how to work the politics, had done it for years in the Air Force, but that was the one part of flying fighter jets he’d been glad to give up. Besides. The informant gig he had was too sweet to let go.
    “Hold your fuckin’ horses, Luke Skywalker. You don’t know what they’re gonna offer.” 
    Zane’s response came out as an irritated growl. He couldn’t stay in one spot long enough to organize his own package tracking system. He just held everything in his brain. No way could he play their game.
    Besides, he’d take a pay cut he couldn’t afford.
    Desk jockey was out.
    Ben’s heavy, weary sigh came through loud and clear on the phone. “Listen, I’m guessing you’re holding back about this woman because you two are doin’ the mattress dance.”
    “I’m – ”
    Ben bulldozed right over him. “If you blow your cover – and this gig – because of her, I’m gonna kick your butt into next year.”
    Zane couldn’t argue that point with Ben. He was supposed to be helping catch criminals. If he was caught hiding one, he’d face more than watching a reputation and a business crash and burn.
    Still, he couldn’t stop trying until he knew for sure. That’s why he trusted no one but Ben to check out the prints. Even Vance didn’t need to know because it would put him in a tight spot, and that wasn’t fair to their friend who played the third musketeer alongside him and Ben in his small cadre of buddies.
    One thing Zane had learned from flying. He had to go with his gut. He could no more turn his back on Angel at this point than he could his sister.
    Angel needed him. She was too stubborn to accept his help willingly. Tough. She was getting it anyhow.
    “It’s complicated, Ben. I have to find out this woman’s background.”
    Ben made a noisy sound of blowing out air. “I finished taking apart that chopped-up silver band you brought me. It did have a tracking device inside.”
    “Agency