Had to be a cop. When the car pulled away, the skinny little whore in the red leather jacket went back into the building. Man, she was a busy little beaver. He settled back into his chair and laughed at his own joke.

v

“Hey, babe,” Dell said as Sandy leaned against her back and wrapped her arms around her from behind. She shivered when Sandy kissed the side of her neck. Technically, she wasn’t on duty, but she was scanning shipping manifests for Jason, looking for discrepancies that might indicate other deliveries of girls from Eastern Europe. “I’m sort of working here.”

“And I’m sort of hungry. Maybe a few other things too.”

Dell grinned, closed the file she was working on, and swirled her chair around. “Yeah? Already?”

Sandy let out an uncharacteristic squeal as Dell pulled her down into her lap and nuzzled her neck. “Jesus, Dell,” she snapped, pushing her away. “What if Sloan walks in?”

“She won’t care.”

“Well, Frye would kick your ass.”

Dell stiffened. “She’s still here?”

“No. Watts is taking her home. She shouldn’t have been here at all this afternoon. What’s wrong with the bunch of you?”

“She’s the boss. She calls the shots.”

Sandy snorted. “Are you gonna take me somewhere for dinner or do I have to go by myself?”

“I’m done here for now. Take off your jacket.”

• 41 •

RADclY fFe

Sandy punched her. “I said not here. Geez, rookie. What’s wrong with you?”

Dell rose, pulled her leather jacket off the back of a nearby chair, and held it out.

“I don’t want your jacket,” Sandy said.

“You do if you want a ride. You’ll freeze in what you’re wearing.”

Dell waited. “Besides, it turns me on when you wear my clothes.”

Sandy rolled her eyes, but she took off her skimpy vinyl number and accepted the black leather jacket Dell slung around her shoulders.

“What about you?”

“You’ll figure out some way to keep me warm.”

“If you’re lucky.” Sandy slowly ran the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip.

“I’m always lucky.” Dell kissed her quickly and held up five fingers as she started away. “See you downstairs.”

When Dell pulled up in front of the building on her Ducati, Sandy climbed on behind her, leaving the heavy leather jacket unzipped. It enclosed them like a tent as she wrapped her arms around Dell’s waist.

The only thing between her breasts and Dell’s back was her thin bra and Dell’s T-shirt. Sandy’s nipples got hard.

“I’m not so hungry anymore,” she breathed, licking the rim of Dell’s ear. “Maybe we should just go home.”

Dell grabbed one of Sandy’s hands and cupped it in her crotch.

“We’ll pick up some takeout and eat it in bed. Later.”

Sandy laughed and squeezed until Dell yanked her hand away.

“Much later.”

v

Angelo craned his neck to watch as the motorcycle roared down the street. Then he shut off his video camera. “Gotcha.”

• 42 •

Justice for All

ChAPTER FOUR

Catherine slowed as she turned the corner onto her block, a five-minute walk from the hospital. Streetlights in her West Philadelphia neighborhood of Victorian twins were few and far between, making visibility a challenge, but she thought she recognized the dingy gray Crown Victoria idling at the curb in front of her house. She told herself she was imagining things. It couldn’t possibly be a departmental vehicle, and the hulking form behind the wheel couldn’t possibly be William Watts. It was almost 7:00 p.m. and Rebecca must have been home hours ago. William wouldn’t be coming by to discuss business at this hour. He knew Rebecca needed more recovery time.

Catherine took a few steps, chiding herself for her overactive imagination. She’d barely slept in the last few days and had been stressed and apprehensive in the weeks leading up to the raid. It didn’t matter that she knew Rebecca was superb at her job, or that the odds of a mortal injury were low. She didn’t believe in statistics, not where the woman she loved was concerned. So she’d worried and tried to keep her fear from distracting Rebecca. Because Rebecca would do what Rebecca would do, and she needed all of her mind on the job to do it safely. Then Catherine had opened the door in the middle of the night to find Sloan on the porch, and for one terrifying second the rest of her life gaped empty and barren before her. Rational thought or even the reality of Rebecca beside her could not mitigate the agony of that moment. It would haunt her forever.

Let it go, she thought, although she suspected that was one battle she wouldn’t win.

Then Rebecca climbed out of the passenger side of the sedan.

• 43 •

RADclY fFe

She didn’t notice Catherine but walked slowly up to the house, obviously exhausted. For a few seconds, Catherine hovered on the verge of turning and walking away, she was that angry. Not only angry. Hurt.

At times like these, being a psychiatrist was not the least bit helpful.

It didn’t matter that she knew what she should do, what she should say, what might help defuse the emotional situation. It didn’t matter that she understood some of the things that drove Rebecca to drive herself. At this moment, she didn’t care about all the things she knew or sympathized with. She was hurt and disappointed and frightened, and thinking her way through this was not going to be easy.

She waited until the Crown Victoria pulled away because she didn’t want Watts to witness anything personal between her and Rebecca.

Rebecca would hate for a colleague to get a glimpse of their private life, and Catherine was far too personally reserved to allow it either.

Rebecca, moving at only a fraction of her normal pace, had just reached the landing in front of the door when Catherine fished her house keys from her briefcase and climbed the four broad marble stairs to reach around her.

“Are you just coming home?” Catherine fitted her key into the lock.

“Yes, I—”

“Don’t,” Catherine said softly. “I’m not quite ready to hear it just yet.”

Rebecca hesitated on the threshold. “I can call Watts. Have him come back and take me to my apartment.”

Catherine looked back at her for a second. “Rebecca, I’m upset.”

She deposited her briefcase on the parson’s bench in the foyer and shrugged out of her coat. “You look exhausted.”

“I didn’t do—”

Catherine shook her head. “Now is not the right time to talk about this, but what’s happening is part of being together. Come inside.”

“I hate this,” Rebecca said.

“I know. So do I. Are you hungry or do you want to go straight to bed?”

“I’m not hungry, but you must be. I’d like to sit in the kitchen with you while you have something to eat.”

Catherine took her hand. “Come on, then.”

• 44 •

Justice for All

v

Kratos Zamora poured another glass of Bollinger Blanc de Noirs and leaned across the table in the private dining alcove to light the redhead’s cigarette. He enjoyed watching her slowly exhale a thin stream of fragrant smoke. Even in the candlelight he could make out the emerald tones of her eyes. Her shoulder-length curls were the color of a summer sunset over the ocean, the same blood-red that often heralded a storm. She regarded him with a hint of amusement, but rather than be annoyed, he was intrigued. Women usually fawned or primped or seduced, but they never laughed at him. Or challenged.

“You think very highly of my talents,” she said.

“You’ve never disappointed me.” Kratos never ate at the same restaurant twice in a row, and there were half a dozen private dining areas like this one in the restaurant. The likelihood that a listening device had been planted was slim, but his men had swept the space earlier, and he felt secure discussing business here.

Talia raised an eyebrow. A smile played over her perfect lips.

Kratos shrugged. “Where business is concerned.” He’d tried to seduce her once, and she’d refused. He’d been surprised and that was rare. He wasn’t deluded enough to believe women were drawn to him rather than his power and wealth, but he was used to getting what he wanted. This woman had merely said no, but when she refused she’d held his eyes in a way few men dared, and he understood that persisting would be to no avail.

“Five years ago almost no one had the skill to detect electronic intrusion. That’s no longer the case.” Talia tapped the delicate ash against the edge of a crystal ashtray and it shattered into powdery shards. “What you ask is difficult.”

“But not impossible.” Kratos watched her maroon-tinted lips close deliberately around the end of the cigarette. Her mouth tightened slightly as she inhaled and her flawless high-boned cheeks hollowed.

His erection throbbed, and he enjoyed the sensation, but didn’t let the pleasure distract him. “Disrupt the communications and you create chaos. Chaos leads to inefficiency and distrust.”

“What about the new investigative division at One Police Plaza?”

she asked. “How much of a threat are they?”

• 45 •

RADclY fFe

“My friends there tell me that the unit is barely functional. I doubt there is any danger from that direction.”

“And yet you said our plant inside City Hall was identified. That took a sophisticated cyberinvestigation.”

Kratos waved a hand. “He was careless.”

He was not about to admit his concern that the HPCU might be able to trace the man they’d had inside back to him. Besides, he was always careful to keep several layers of people between himself and culpability. If by some miracle the authorities were able to determine who had placed the spyware in the PPD computer systems, they would not come up with his name. But he doubted that was a possibility.

Talia regarded him through narrowed eyes as the smoke curled in the air between them. “Tapping into computer files is different than actively sabotaging a police communications network. The government no longer takes cyberterrorism lightly.”

“Of course,” Kratos said. “And your payment will reflect the risk.”

“Three hundred thousand,” Talia said evenly. “Fifty percent to be wired immediately to my account.”

Kratos nodded.

“I need everything you can tell me about the principals. Can you be certain of your sources?”

“My family came to this city almost a hundred years ago.

Politicians and lawmen have always been our friends. Nothing has changed, it’s only more subtle.” Kratos handed her a piece of paper folded lengthwise and covered in single-spaced typing. “The names and background briefs.”

Talia took the paper and slipped it into her purse. “Which one is my target?”

“Her name is JT Sloan.”

v

The first thing Sloan saw when she stepped off the elevator into the loft was Michael curled up on the sofa in front of the fireplace, a book on her lap and the firelight casting her face in a soft, warm glow. She wore a loose white shirt and silky black slacks, and she was barefoot, her legs drawn up beneath her. When she turned in Sloan’s

• 46 •

Justice for All

direction and smiled, Sloan’s heart stutter-stepped in her chest. Michael was the calm center of her universe, solid ground in the surging seas of her unrest and barely contained anger. She didn’t deserve her, and she knew it.

“Hi, baby,” Sloan said, her throat tight.

Michael patted the couch beside her. “Come sit down and tell me about your day.”

“Sorry I’m so late.”

“You don’t have a curfew. Did you eat?”

Sloan shook her head as she dropped onto the sofa next to Michael.

When Michael put her book aside and shifted to lean against her, Sloan drew her close and kissed her. “Do potato chips count?”

“I’m not answering that.” Michael stroked Sloan’s face. “There’s a plate with chicken and pasta in the kitchen. It should still be warm.”

“How was your day?”

“I asked you first,” Michael teased.

“Routine.” Sloan rested her chin against the top of Michael’s head. Michael’s hair was fragrant, her body supple, her breath warm against Sloan’s throat. Sloan saw herself stretched out in a green glade in the warm sunshine, a breeze ruffling the leaves overhead and teasing over her sweat-damp skin. She caught her breath as Michael eased her T-shirt from her jeans and slid a hand underneath. The breeze carried a hint of distant thunder now and Sloan tensed.

“Your days are never routine,” Michael murmured.

“How was yours?”

“Tiring but good.” Michael kissed the hollow of Sloan’s throat, then the side of her neck, then just below her ear. She laughed softly when Sloan shivered. “I had a nice talk with Sandy, and then I took a nap while I was waiting for you.”