“This time,” Reese groaned when Tory resumed stroking. “Need to come this time. Please don’t stop this time, baby.”

Tory kissed her forehead and picked up speed. “All of it, darling.

Give me everything.”

Reese’s body bowed, her breath halted in her chest, and Tory took her surely and certainly to the edge, and beyond.

v

Bri cruised past Reese and Tory’s darkened house, slowing to check that no one loitered around the driveway or in the neighboring yards. “Everything looks quiet around here.”

“The guy is probably miles away by now,” Carter said to her new partner. Bri had been quiet since they’d met at the station house.

After a short briefing, Bri had palmed the keys to the cruiser on their way out, and Carter didn’t even consider asking to drive. Right now, her first night on the job, all of her experience meant nothing. Not in the delicate hierarchy of her new posting. She didn’t mind needing to earn her stripes, and she didn’t mind not driving. She preferred to ride shotgun because she could watch the streets more carefully. Given a choice, she’d rather walk the streets than ride them, but right now, she went where she was told.

“Yeah. It doesn’t make sense he was local,” Bri muttered, slowly heading west on Commercial. In the East End, the galleries and restaurants were all closed for the night. As they drew closer to

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MacMillan Wharf, activity picked up. More people on the street, making the rounds of the bars and clubs along Commercial and tucked away in narrow alleys. “You’d have to be crazy to break into the sheriff’s house!”

“Can’t rule out that possibility,” Carter said quietly. “Crazy, I mean.”

“Yeah. I hear that.”

“So what’s the routine?” Carter asked.

Bri shot her a glance and then looked back to the street. She was used to riding with Allie. They had a rhythm. They didn’t have to talk about what they’d do, how they’d handle a situation when they took the call, how the shift would spin out. Thinking about it now, she realized that she’d kind of fallen into the role of shift leader, not because Allie wasn’t capable, but because Allie really didn’t care who was in charge.

And that suited Bri fine. She couldn’t take any of that for granted with Carter, but it seemed as if Carter was handing her the ball. “We’ll cruise for a while if no calls come in, and then when the bars start to close, take a walk through town. Check for trouble.”

“Drunk and disorderlies?”

“We can always count on a few fistfights, some lewd and lascivious that’s so in-your-face we can’t ignore it. Once in a while a drunk gets rolled and we’ll need to get the EMTs out.”

“Much trouble with DUIs?”

Bri nodded. “Yeah. We’ll need to head out to Six when the ones who aren’t staying in town start heading back up Cape.”

“And there’s what, one other car out?”

“Smith and one of the seasonal guys—Girelli. They’ll mostly stick to the highway and out around the beaches. Since the storm, there hasn’t been much action out that way, but we’ve had problems with boats bringing drugs in.”

“For a sleepy little town, there’s a lot going on here,” Carter remarked.

Bri laughed and then quieted abruptly as the radio crackled.

“Charlie five, copy?” the officer manning the desk back at the station asked.

Carter grabbed the mic. “Charlie five, go ahead.”

“Auto burglary—parking lot at Bradford and Standish. Female motorist needs assistance.”

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“Charlie five, affirmative. Suspect in the vicinity?”

“Negative. Requested motorist wait with vehicle—break…”

“Go ahead.”

“Gray Lexus, Massachusetts license Victor Bravo three-sevenone.”

A lead weight dropped into Carter’s stomach. “That’s Rica’s car.”

Bri leaned forward, flipped on the sirens and light bar in one fluid motion, and floored the gas pedal.

v

Ash wasn’t sure why she’d come out to the Pied. She hadn’t had more than a few hours’ sleep a night in almost two weeks and had logged over ten thousand miles driving up and down the eastern seaboard from one devastated area to another. But sleep wasn’t what she wanted. Her head buzzed with stress and her skin tingled with restless energy, so she’d changed into a navy shirt and jeans and sought out the one place where she might find a diversion. She’d never been much of a drinker, but she seemed to be leaning on alcohol a lot lately to soothe her nerves and dull the constant low-level ache of loneliness that threatened to mushroom into the unrelenting pain of despair. When she thought about it, which she tried not to, the last eight months had been pretty much a blur. She worked as much as she could, until she was physically exhausted and mentally too weary to think about the direction her life had taken. When work wasn’t enough to keep her from questioning the decision she’d made, she tried to block out her unhappiness with transient trysts. Frantic couplings in no-name motels with women whose faces all ran together. There hadn’t even been much of that lately because she couldn’t muster enough interest to pretend she cared about the women she was with, and she couldn’t tolerate the self-loathing in the morning. Even a one-night stand deserved to be seen.

“Is this seat taken?”

Ash looked up from her beer at the slight, curvaceous blonde in the very short skirt and low, tight top who stood with one hip canted and a smoldering look on her face that said she knew exactly how sexy she was. She had to be a dozen years younger than Ash, if not more,

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and the irony was not lost on her. The same twelve years separated her and Allie. Shaking her head, Ash said, “The seat’s free, but you don’t want to sit here.”

Surprise flashed across the blonde’s delicate features and she tapped one manicured nail on the tabletop. “What makes you think so?”

“I’m halfway drunk and I can’t offer anything except a quick fuck and good-bye in the morning.”

Laughing, the blonde pulled out a chair and sat down. She was braless and when she leaned toward Ash her pert round breasts swayed invitingly. “So you think you’ve got it all figured out? What makes you think I want any kind of fuck?”

“My apologies.” Ash lifted her beer bottle and when the woman reached out to take it away, she let her. “I’m afraid my conversational skills are impaired at the moment as well.”

“What about a dance? Can you manage that?”

Ash frowned and focused on the music. “If it doesn’t get any faster.”

“If it does, we’ll pretend we don’t notice. My name is Lisa.”

“Ash. Ash Walker.”

Lisa stood and held out her hand. “Then come along, Ash Walker, and dance with me.”

v

Allie waved to the women on the door at the Pied and some of the locals she knew as she made her way through the late-night crowd toward the bar. She hadn’t been out in weeks. The last woman she’d dated had gone and fallen in love with someone else. As every weekend rolled around, she’d kept telling herself she’d go out, relax, find a woman to play with for a few days or a few weeks, but she hadn’t.

She’d always found something else she needed to do that kept her from spending a night with a stranger. And before those few weeks with Deo Camara, who was the first woman since Ash she’d thought she might be able to get serious about, she hadn’t been to bed with anyone for a few months. So to say the last six months had been a dry spell was an understatement. She was twenty-three years old and she liked sex, and

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even more than that, she liked to wake up to the feel of a woman in her arms. She was lonely and she was horny, and she was tired of being both.

Flynn was easy to pick out, leaning against the bar. She wasn’t wearing her navy blue EMT jumpsuit now. Taller than Allie by a head, with her thick blond hair slicked back from her strong, bold face, she looked lean and sexy in tight black pants, a white open-collared shirt, and black motorcycle boots.

“Wow. You look hot,” Allie said as she sidled up next to Flynn.

Grinning, Flynn ducked her head and kissed Allie’s cheek. Her gaze drifted down Allie’s body, taking in the rich fall of ebony hair, the full breasts straining against the stretchy top, and the hiphugger jeans accentuating a tight round butt. “And you look gorgeous.”

“Thank you.” Allie smiled and waved at the bartender. “Sammy!

Draft?”

“Got ya covered, baby,” the husky dyke called back. “One minute.”

“So how was the rest of your night?” Flynn asked.

“Quiet.” Allie paid for her beer and took a sip. “You?”

“A couple of minor callouts. Nothing serious.”

Allie liked the way Flynn leaned with one elbow on the bar, her eyes fixed on Allie’s face, as if they were alone together and not in the middle of a packed bar. “Where are you from?”

Flynn looked momentarily taken aback, as if the question had thrown her somehow. Then she quickly said, “Chicago.”

“This place must seem like a big change,” Allie said lightly, having noticed Flynn’s hesitation. Okay, so she didn’t want to talk about her past. Fair enough.

“Yeah.” A look of relief tinged with sadness passed over Flynn’s handsome features. “I’ve only been here a few weeks, but it already feels like home.”

“I know what you mean.” Allie ran her fingers down Flynn’s arm and squeezed her hand. “I hope that means you’ll be staying.”

“Don’t worry,” Flynn replied, the mischievous light returning to her eyes. “Now that I’ve gotten your attention, you won’t get rid of me so easily.”

Allie laughed, enjoying the flirtation. “Believe me, you’ve had my attention all along.”

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Flynn eased a little closer and settled one hand on Allie’s hip. She ducked her head and whispered in Allie’s ear, “Well then, I want to be sure to keep it.”

“You’re doing pretty good so far.” The pressure of Flynn’s hand on her hip, the tease of warm breath in her ear, stirred a tingle of excitement low in Allie’s belly. She tilted her head just a little to bare her neck to Flynn’s mouth. Flynn’s lips were so close she could almost feel the kiss about to drop onto her skin. Enjoying the pleasant anticipation, she let her gaze drift over Flynn’s shoulder out to the dance floor, and thought she glimpsed a familiar face. She blinked, not quite believing, as Ash’s face came into sharp focus.

Flynn kissed her neck and murmured, “How about now? Still good?”

Allie wanted to look away but she couldn’t. Ash stared into Allie’s eyes, her mouth twisting sardonically. Then Ash buried her face in the neck of the slinky blonde who was plastered against her body, her hands sliding down to cup the woman’s ass.

“Even better,” Allie said, her voice sounding flat to her own ears.

She tugged on Flynn’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

Flynn lifted her head, clearly surprised, but she smiled and let Allie pull her hurriedly through the crowd and out into the street.

v

“There she is!” Carter pointed to Rica standing next to her Lexus, parked halfway down the outer row of cars. The huge parking lot was separated from the street by a thicket of trees. Despite the late hour, the lot was still half full, but the attendant’s booth was at the far end, around a bend. The section where Rica had parked was isolated, and the street lamps, mounted on poles every thirty feet or so, left substantial areas in darkness.

“Man, this place is a setup for robberies and assaults,” Carter said, bolting from the cruiser before Bri had even pulled to a stop. She reached Rica in three long strides and slipped an arm around Rica’s waist. Hustling her back to the cruiser, she pulled open the rear door.

“Wait inside, babe.”

“Carter,” Rica began, but Carter just shook her head, guided her into the vehicle, and closed the door.

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Bri came around the front of the cruiser and together they approached Rica’s car. Carter scanned the lot but saw no sign of anyone else. The driver’s side window of the Lexus was smashed, glass littering the ground.

“The perp was most likely gone by the time she got here,” Carter said, her mouth dry and her stomach twisting. “Christ, if she’d walked up on him—”

“It was probably a smash and grab,” Bri said, shining her Maglite into the front seat. “Radio’s still there. We’ll need to find out if she left something in the car.”

“Maybe, but Rica is usually careful.” Carter took a breath, clearing her head. “We should walk around, see if any of the other cars have been broken into.”