“Do you trust them to do this?”

“Yes. They’re both bright and resourceful. And when the time comes, they’ll follow orders.”

Tory looked slightly doubtful. “Are you sure? Sounds like they haven’t followed orders very well so far.”

“No, they didn’t,” Reese agreed. “But we’ve discussed that, and I expect they’ll exercise better judgment in the future.”

“Ah,” Tory said with a ghost of a smile. “Was your ‘discussion’ followed by them cleaning large areas with toothbrushes?”

Reese looked affronted. “You’ve been watching too many movies.” Then she grinned. “But every cruiser in the department has been washed and hand waxed, right down to the gleaming wheel wells.”

“It’s not as if I don’t know that any of the ordinary calls that you take during the day might be dangerous. Most of the time, I try not to think about it.” Tory picked up Reese’s hand and cradled it in her palm, running her thumb over the long, strong fingers. “But knowing that you’re going to be involved in something that’s potentially dangerous makes it impossible not to worry and imagine the worst.”

“Tor,” Reese said gently, moving closer on the sofa. “We’ll be well prepared. This is likely to be nothing more than a few hours of surveillance, a quick roundup of a few midlevel dealers, and a long night of paperwork.”

“I don’t imagine that Nelson’s very happy about Bri and Allie’s part in it.”

“No, but he’s behind the operation.”

Tory sighed. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to defend your professional decisions to me.”

“Hey,” Reese protested, “you have every right to ask about my work, and if it makes you feel better for me to explain, then I will.” She kissed Tory’s temple and then her mouth. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Sheriff,” Tory murmured, turning to tuck her head beneath Reese’s chin and holding her close with an arm wrapped around her waist. “Promise you’ll wear your vest.”

“I will.” Reese kissed Tory’s hair and smoothed a hand up and down her back comfortingly. She’d wear the Kevlar, but she wouldn’t be the one who’d really need it. And Bri and Allie, who might, wouldn’t be able to. They’d be lucky to get inside wired up without blowing their cover.

“You nervous?” Allie asked as she sat in the windowless interrogation room in the rear of the sheriff’s department.

“No. You?” Bri paced back and forth in front of the chipped and scarred table that was flanked on either side by matching pairs of equally decrepit slat-backed wooden chairs.

“No. Uh-uh.”

Bri stopped walking and stared at Allie, who stared back. Silence stretched between them for thirty seconds before Allie giggled.

“OK. Maybe a little,” Allie admitted.

A smile twitched at the corner of Bri’s mouth and then she laughed quickly. “Me too.”

“But I’m psyched, too,” Allie added quickly.

“Yeah. I know. It’s weird, huh?”

“I never expected to be doing this.” Allie drummed her nails on the top of the table, her only outward sign of nervousness. “I figured, you know, we’d be doing mostly community service and keeping the peace. But not really catching criminals.”

“I don’t know,” Bri mused. “My dad has arrested a few people who were really…bad. Someone held up the Cumberland Farms market when I was about ten. And then there was the guy burning down buildings for insurance. And there’s always, you know, the domestic stuff. That can get pretty crazy when you have to get in the middle.”

Allie nodded solemnly. “I know, and I’m not putting down our job. I love doing what we do. But…” Her eyes sparkled. “This is undercover. This is the real deal. Man.”

Before Bri could reply, the door opened and Reese walked in with a small cardboard box, which she put in the middle of the table. She looked from Allie to Bri. “Who’s first?”

When Allie quickly stood up, Reese motioned for her to come around the table. Then she reached into the box and extracted a wire so thin it was nearly invisible from several feet away. At the end was a round disk slightly smaller than a watch battery. She held it up. “This is the microphone. I want you both to see how and where it’s attached in case there’s a technical problem and one of you has to switch mics or try to fix this one.” Glancing at Allie, she said, “It’ll be easier if you take off your top.”

Without a second’s hesitation, Allie reached for the hem of the sleeveless, low-cut silk tee and pulled it off over her head. She wore nothing beneath it. Bri, who had come to stand beside Reese, turned bright red. Reese’s expression never changed.

“I can’t wear a bra with one of these,” Allie explained nonchalantly. “The straps just ruin the look.”

Reese dabbed a tiny amount of skin adhesive just below Allie’s right breast and slightly off center toward the midline. After waiting twenty seconds, she carefully pressed the tiny microphone to the spot. Her movements were precise and certain, and she managed the maneuver without touching Allie’s body anywhere. When she gave the thin wire a brief tug, the microphone remained securely in place.

“Good.” Then Reese applied the adhesive in two or three more spots leading down Allie’s abdomen and around her flank to the middle of her back, fixing the wire in place. The transmitter was a box about the size of a deck of playing cards.

“I can’t wear that back there,” Allie said matter-of-factly. “My jeans are cut low and if my blouse rides up, that’s going to show.”

“It’s the most secure spot.”

Bri shook her head. “That might work on a guy, but not a girl. Not at a party. Someone’s going to put their hand there. It’s just natural.”

Reese frowned and surveyed Allie’s outfit. Her jeans were skintight, and if they were any lower, they would be illegal. “You ‘re going to have to change into something a lot looser.”

“I can’t. It’s not my style, and if whoever was watching us in the bar is there, they’re going to know something’s up if I walk in wearing a baggy T-shirt and cargo pants.” Allie looked from Reese to Bri. “Just wire Bri. We’ll be together, so I won’t need one.”

“Not possible,” Reese said shortly. “If you get separated, I won’t be able to monitor you.”

“I’m not letting her out of my sight,” Bri said immediately.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen once you get inside,” Reese insisted. “You both go wired or you don’t go at all.”

Allie shrugged. “OK. Put it on my back, but higher up. Not where you’d put your hand if we were dancing. That’s”

“I think I can figure that out,” Reese said dryly.

Bri glared at Allie, who smiled sweetly back.

At shortly before 10 p.m. on Saturday night, Reese followed Bri’s motorcycle along Route 6 East into Wellfleet. Nelson sat silently beside her in the Blazer, his hands pressed fiat to his thighs, his eyes riveted to the two figures on the bike as they were intermittently illuminated by the headlights of the SUV.

“You sure we’ll be able to hear them the whole time?”

Reese answered his question exactly the same way she had the previous four times he’d asked. “Yes. These are powerful transmitters, and we should be able to get very close. I imagine there are going to be plenty of cars around, and one more won’t matter.”

“If the locale they gave Allie over the phone is legit, we’re going to be in a sparsely populated area very near the ocean side of the Cape. There might not be much in the way of cover. It could be one of those big solitary beach houses, which makes sense, if there’s a lot of money involved.”

“We’ll be able to hear them,” Reese repeated with certainty. Allie had been given directions but no specific location. Just follow the crowd, honey, the anonymous male had said. So Nelson and Reese hadn’t been able to do any advance planning beyond placing cruisers in the general area to move in once the target was identified.

“I don’t know why I ever thought I could stand having her on the job,” Nelson mumbled as he chewed a Turns.

“How about because she’s a natural at it, and you’re proud of her.”

“Hmmph.”

“Here we go,” Reese said quietly as the big Harley in front of them turned off 6 behind several other vehicles onto a much smaller road like so many that wound through the dunes along the coastline. Nelson turned on the receiver and adjusted the volume. All they could hear was the roar of the engine. Ten minutes later, Bri banked into a driveway that presumably led to a house that was hidden from view by a thick stand of trees.

“Damn it. We’re not going to be able to follow them up there,” Nelson said in frustration,

Reese drove another fifty yards until she could pull off the road and nosed the SUV into the trees so that it was less visible to casual inspection. “Looks like we’re going for a walk.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“I could do this a lot better if I took the wrist immobilizer off,” KT grumbled.

Pia tightened her arms around KT’s neck and settled more closely into the curves of her body. “You’re doing just fine.”

KT nestled her face into the lush thickness of Pia’s hair and closed her eyes, reveling in the sensation of Pia pressing everywhere against her Pia’s soft, warm skin brushing over the curve of her neck, Pia’s breasts caressing teasingly against her achingly sensitive nipples, Pia’s abdomen and thighs cleaved to hers. Everywhere so good, everywhere so breathlessly exciting. She rubbed the fingertips of her right hand in the hollow at the base of Pia’s spine, gently echoing the circular motion with her hips. When Pia sighed into her neck, a soft low moan of pleasure, KT’s heart lurched and her blood raced toward the boiling point.

“God,” Pia murmured, “you’re good at this.”

“You should see what I can do with two hands.”

Pia leaned back in the circle of KT’s arms and gave her a heavy-lidded, hazy-eyed look, her full lips parted into a lazy smile. “Considering that we’re in a room with a hundred other people, it’s probably better that you only have the use of one.”

KT was dimly aware of the other dancers and of the low, heavy beat of music keeping time with the pulse of blood deep in her belly, but her senses registered only the heat of Pia’s body and the fine mist of excitement on her skin and the hunger in her eyes. “You’re all I can see, all I can feel.” She brushed her lips over Pia’s forehead, then her lips. “You’re all I think about.”

“I like that,” Pia whispered. She combed her fingers through KT’s hair and caressed the back of her neck with one hand while bringing the other to rest between them in the center of KT’s chest.

As they swayed to the music, she danced her fingers over the inner curves of KT’s breasts. “I like that a lot.”

“You’re driving me out of my mind, Pia.” KT’s voice was a desperate groan. Her thighs trembled with the effort it took not to pump her hips in response to the insistent pulsations between her legs.

Marveling at the hard point of KT’s nipple against her palm, Pia skimmed her lips along the curve of KT’s ear. “I like that a lot, too.” It was true. So true. Never before had she taken such delight in another woman’s desire for her. Never before had she felt the exquisite pleasure of being wanted with a force that equaled her own. She’d had relationships with women she’d cared for, women whom she’d admired and respected and liked, women who had excited her with their kisses and their caresses, but never never a woman who made her yearn so desperately to give of herself and to take from her until she was empty and completely filled.

“Baby, stop,” KT implored when Pia’s fingers closed around her nipple and gently squeezed. She couldn’t breathe. She could barely see. “I can’t take it.”

Pia wanted more, not less. She wanted to feel KT quiver again the way she just had. She wanted to hear that swift intake of breath and the barely stiffed moan. She wanted KT to touch her and quench the fires that threatened to consume her. She wanted. Oh, how she wanted. “We can either go outside on the deck and cool off, or we can go back to my house and do what we both want.”

Summoning every ounce of resolve left to her, KT found Pia’s hand, turned, and led her through the crowd toward the rear of the dance floor and the deck beyond.

“You ready to party, babe?” Bri inquired as she and Allie walked hand in hand up the sidewalk to the front door of a multistory, rambling wood-framed home that stood on a tree-studded knoll above the beach and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. She wondered briefly as she spoke the prearranged words to signal that they were about to enter the house if Reese or her father could actually hear her. Then she put the question from her mind. They were out there. They said they would be.