Not if youre dizzy. I can hold you a little longer, if thats what you need.
What she needed was for Blu and Brodie to suddenly appear and tell her this entire night was all a mistake. That the stranger on the pier was alive and that none of tonight was real.
He eased her back against the headboard, then tossed her ruined shirt to the floor. When she saw his eyes stray to her chest and the bloodstains covering her white satin bra, she said, The least you could do is be subtle, Detective Archard. Ogling a woman when shes in need of help borders on disgusting.
He shrugged off her words and reached out to trace her bruised rib cage, then locked eyes with her again. How did that happen?
The injury to her ribs could be easily explained, but detailing how Blu had slammed her to the pier in order to keep her alive was out of the question. Margo brushed his hand away. I dont remember.
You dont
bruise easy, Margo. I know that for a fact.
I must have fallen.
Must have? When she didnt answer him further, he stood and strolled to the closet where he retrieved a clean shirt. As he came back to her, he said, Do you want your jeans off before I get you drunk? I think it might be more comfortable sleeping in one of my shirts once you pass out. Without hesitation, he ripped the sleeves out of his shirt to accommodate her injured arm, not to mention the heat outside.
Pass out? Margo lifted one dramatic black eyebrow. From the whiskey or the pain youre going to inflict on me with that needle? She gave the needle a wary glance. It looks awfully big Couldnt you have found something a little smaller? She looked back and saw him smiling. It was the first time since hed burst into the room wielding his gun that hed allowed himself to relax.
Second thoughts, baby?
He was waiting for her to turn chicken, she decided. Feeling the need to win another round, she popped the snap on her jeans and slid the zipper down. She could feel his eyes hot on her, feel her own body feed off those damn unrelenting memories.
Determined to get through tonight no matter what, she asked, You havent acquired any kinky fixations I should know about before I pass out, have you, Detective Archard?
Chapter 3
Oh, she hadnt lied about everything, Ry reasoned. Shed been shot, all right. But how and where still had to be determined. It certainly hadnt happened on her way home from the Toucan.
And the story shed concocted about a mugger was no doubt a lie, as well. Hed seen plenty of gunshot wounds, and the bullet that had grazed Margos arm hadnt come from a handgun a mugger would have pulled quickly and fired at point-blank range. No, Margos wound had come from a larger caliber weapon, fired from a distance; hed say at least thirty yards, give or take a foot or two.
That ruled out a face-off near her apartment. And to confirm that, no one had reported a disturbancehed called and checked after shed fallen asleep. Then there was the lie about work. She hadnt been at the Toucan; he knew that to be true because hed been there.
Rys gaze slowly drifted over Margo asleep in his bed, her pale face pillowed in navy-blue satin. Where had she been tonight? It had been fairly quiet in the city, as quiet as it could be for New Orleans. But it hadnt been nearly as quiet across the river in Algiers.
The minute the thought entered his mind, Ry shook it off. No, Margo couldnt be mixed up in the shooting on DuBay Pier. But even as he dismissed the idea, he remembered how hed found the crime scenethe way DuBay Pier had been riddled into sawdust by a high-powered gun, and his gut twisted a little tighter. Was it a coincidence that the pier wasnt far from the duFray Fish Market, owned and operated by Margos mother? Or that Blus fishing fleet was docked less then a mile away at River Bay?
Ry mulled over a dozen possibilities, then cursed out loud. So what if Mickey Burelly had stumbled onto the case of the century? And what if that case had involved Blu duFray?
Goddard had mentioned a turncoat, or someone possibly looking to make a fast buck. Everyone who knew Blu knew his financial situation. It wasnt news that the duFray Devils were struggling, doomed to go under at any moment. The repair bills alone on the aging boats were staggering. Knowing the way Margo felt about her brother, all Blu needed to do was give her a sad song and dance and her damn duFray loyalty would rise to the occasion.
Ry honestly believed Margo would risk her life for her brother if she found it necessary.
Had it been necessary tonight?
Dammit! Ry focused on Margos proud, beautiful face. She had been a curious teenager when hed first laid eyes on her, and so beautiful it had hurt just to look at her. They had met by accident. Hed come upon her and an overeager boyfriend one night behind her parents fish marketthe boy testing his right to more than simply her company at the movies.
Ry had played the big bad cop that night. Hed chased the kid off, and promptly been swept away by the faultless beauty left standing in front of him all wide-eyed and obviously impressed by his white-knight antics. It had fed his egoher admirationand so it had begun, an older mans obsession with a teenager twelve years his junior.