“There are still people you can trust.”

When Sloan turned around, Rebecca was gone. She wanted to believe her, needed to believe her. She needed not to feel so alone.

v

Mitch was a lot better at dressing than he used to be, but he really missed having Sandy around to approve the details. He smoothed his hand over his chest to be sure the Ace wrap lay smooth beneath his black T-shirt. Lucky for him, he didn’t have a lot to hide up top and his naturally rangy build meant he didn’t have much in the hip department either. He opened a drawer on his side of the dresser and selected a new item he’d never used before, a semi-rigid cock that let him pack comfortably, show a little more in his jeans than a softy would, and have a pretty functional dick if he needed it. Not that he planned on using it with Irina, but if he was taking her out and about, he wanted to come off to anyone checking them out like a guy who planned on treating his girl right.

As he checked his hair and the little bit of makeup he used to darken the angle of his jaw, he thought back to the first time Jasmine had shown up in his apartment with an array of dicks. He’d been embarrassed and excited. Jasmine had helped him get ready, but it had been Sandy, who had looked at him and immediately seen Mitch, that had made everything work. That still made everything work. He didn’t

• 150 •

Justice for All

think he could do this job without her. He checked his watch. He had two minutes. He called her.

“Hi, babe,” he said when Sandy answered.

“Mitch?”

“Uh-huh.”

After a moment, Sandy said, “Ready to head out?”

Mitch knew she was trying to sound casual. “Soon. Whatcha doing?”

“Watching an old movie with Michael and getting buzzed. I think I like red wine.”

“What movie,” Mitch asked, smiling at the thought of Sandy getting into wine.

“St. Elmo’s Fire. There’s this guy who kinda reminds me of you.

Except he’s an asshole.”

“Who?” Mitch heard Sandy say something to Michael, but couldn’t quite make it out.

“Rob Lowe.”

“We’ll have to watch it together.”

“So I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah,” Mitch said. “It’ll be late.”

“I don’t care about that.” More silence. “So be careful, rookie.

See you.”

“See you, babe.”

Mitch disconnected, patted his pockets to be sure his wallet was in place, double-checked that his jeans didn’t bunch up around his ankle holster, and grabbed his jacket on the way out the door. When he got to Irina’s—his—apartment, he knocked. When she didn’t answer after a few minutes, he knocked again. Swearing, he used his key and let himself in. The efficiency was empty. The blanket was folded neatly on one corner of the mattress. He checked the refrigerator. A container of milk, a carton of eggs, butter, an apple. A pot rested upside down on the drain board next to the sink. So she’d shopped. She probably wouldn’t have done that if she were skipping out on him.

He walked to the closet and pulled it open. A stack of clothes sat on the top shelf. A few blouses hung from hangers. He sniffed them.

They were clean. She’d done laundry. But where had she gone? Maybe she had a contact in the city they didn’t know about. Maybe she’d been free to move about between safe houses the whole time, and she was

• 151 •

RADclY fFe

already back with the Russians. Maybe she had a secret boyfriend, or girlfriend.

He’d been up most of the night before, so he stretched out on the mattress to wait and closed his eyes. The Army had taught him to sleep lightly, and he was instantly alert at the first scratch of metal on metal.

He sat up in the dark room.

“Come in and shut the door,” Mitch said when he saw Irina backlit by the hall light. He didn’t want her standing there like a target.

Irina closed the door and flipped on the wall switch. She stared at him from across the room, her gaze traveling slowly over his body.

“Hello, new boy.”

“Hi.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me where I’ve been?”

Irina removed a thin quilted jacket and hung it in the closet.

Beneath it, she wore formfitting black slacks with narrow tapered legs and a red wraparound top. She couldn’t be too much older than Mitch, but her body was lush and womanly and Mitch had the sudden image of rich fertile fields bursting with life. He unexpectedly had the urge to plant some part of himself in her, and he quickly forced the thought away.

“I told you I wasn’t your keeper.” He didn’t add that she could easily lie to him, so what was the point of asking.

“So you didn’t follow me today?” Irina asked.

“Jesus. No.” Mitch jumped up. “Was there someone?”

Irina shrugged. “Sometimes I thought yes. Sometimes no.”

“You’d be able to tell?”

She smiled grimly. “I am used to making myself invisible. And I know when eyes are on me.”

Mitch spun around to the window. The sidewalks below were deserted. In the patchy light filtering through the neighboring rowhouse windows, the cars lining the street all appeared empty. For one brief second he was so happy Sandy wasn’t here. Then he concentrated on Irina.

“Did you actually see anyone?”

Irina shook her head. “Many someones. No one I recognized.”

“All right. If you see anyone suspicious, or even think you see anyone, tell me.”

• 152 •

Justice for All

“Where are we going?”

“We need to let people know we’re a couple, so your…associates…

believe us. I’m taking you to a club. Then we’ll go to Ziggie’s.”

“Like a date,” Irina said.

“Like work,” Mitch replied. “We need to get you a warmer coat.

We’ll be riding my motorcycle again.”

“I’m all right.”

“No, you’re not. We’ll stop on Market Street and get you something.”

“It’s nighttime, Mitch.”

“Those places are always open.” Mitch held out his leather jacket.

“Wear this for now.”

Irina studied him curiously. “Why do you care? I am…an enemy.

No?”

“No.” Mitch couldn’t say that she reminded him of Sandy. She was very proud and in her own way, very brave. He couldn’t say that he wished someone had given Sandy a warmer coat, or that she would take his more often.

“What will you do with these men you want me to help you find?”

“They’ll be arrested, and they’ll probably go to prison.”

“They will be killed?”

Mitch shrugged. “I don’t know. It depends on what they’ve done and what can be proved.”

“I will be sent to prison?”

“What did Clark tell you?” When Mitch saw her blank expression, he said, “The federal agent who said you had to help us?”

Irina laughed bitterly. “He told me I would go free.”

“You don’t believe him.”

“Would you?”

“No, probably not.” Mitch held his jacket open and after a few seconds Irina slid her arms into it. When she turned to face him, he gently tugged it closed. “We’re going to try to help you.”

“You should not be a cop, new boy.”

“Why?”

Irina kissed him. “You are not hard enough.” She put her hand over his heart. “In here.”

• 153 •

RADclY fFe

Mitch hadn’t anticipated the kiss, not here and not like this, but he hadn’t felt anything other than an odd sadness. He put his hand on her back and guided her toward the door. “Let’s go.”

“Do your friends believe we are together?” she asked him as they walked down the hall.

“Yes.”

Irina smiled. “Good.”

v

Talia sipped her wine, stretched her stockinged feet out onto a silk brocade hassock, and launched another probe. She didn’t really expect the bot to strike pay dirt. Thus far, she hadn’t found any easily accessible back doors in JT Sloan’s corporate system. No admin shortcuts, config errors, easily deciphered passwords, or unsecured remote access ports.

Sloan’s system was completely unlike the one she’d encountered at Police Plaza when she’d done a quick scan a few hours earlier. After only moderate effort, she’d gotten in deep there. Granted, the average hacker would not have had such an easy time, but then she wasn’t average. She hadn’t launched a serious assault because she didn’t want to risk leaving a trail back to her home base—she’d only created her own back doors for access at some future time. With luck, a few would remain hidden long enough to be useful.

She chuckled as she encountered yet another roadblock. JT Sloan was very good. She thought back to the grainy newspaper images and the dark good looks that even the poor photographs couldn’t hide.

Intelligent, handsome, and something of a cipher herself, Sloan had stood among the players whose names Kratos had provided. Talia had run background checks on all of them, and while several were notable locally, Sloan and her partner McBride were ex-federal agents, and both their dossiers had more blacked-out sections than available information.

Sloan’s in particular had been thoroughly cleansed. Whatever she had done for the U.S. government, it had been cloaked under deep cover and high security.

“You’re going to be fun,” Talia murmured, sending a Trojan horse she doubted would get past Sloan’s firewalls. But even experts made mistakes sometimes, and she had no doubt she would eventually find this woman’s weakness.

• 154 •

Justice for All

Being able to envision Sloan’s face while battling her mind, on a field where few could compete with her as an equal, excited her. She was looking forward to meeting her in person. Bedding her, knowing that Sloan was unaware of her identity, would make the climax all the sweeter. Talia let her fingers drift over her nipples. They were hard and tingling beneath her sheer blouse. The wine warming her depths, the arousal that always accompanied a hunt, and the persistent image of her quarry made her want sex. The brief caress had created an answering echo between her legs, and she was aware of her clitoris throbbing. No one had captured her attention, mind and body, so completely in a very long time.