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“I kind of figured that, but it isn’t the point. The point is, my sister came to Los Angeles to try to get into the movie business.”
“Gee, there’s a good idea.”
“I know, but that’s what she wanted to do. So she might have believed Kyle Bennett could help her. If she was involved with him, maybe he had some part in her disappearance.”
“Fine, I’ll talk to him.”
“He isn’t going to tell you anything. He’ll be a lot more likely to open up to me than he will be to you.”
“You’re a schoolteacher, remember? Not a cop. There is no way you should involve yourself in something like this.”
“It isn’t as bad as it sounds. Babs knows Kyle’s address and what time I should be back. If I don’t get home when I’m supposed to, she’s going to call the police.”
He just shook his head. “No way, no how.”
She set the wineglass very carefully down on the coffee table and stood up.
“You’ve been very nice, Johnnie. Especially considering the way I’ve behaved. Now I’d appreciate it if you would take me back to the club.”
“Shit.”
“I’m doing this. I’m going to find out what happened to my sister.”
He set down his beer and slowly stood up from the sofa. He was a big man, powerfully built, intimidating just standing there in front of her. She forced herself not to back away.
Johnnie looked down at her and his breath whispered out on a sigh. “All right. I’ll help you.”
Amy opened her mouth to tell him she had changed her mind about paying him with sex, but he cut her off.
“No strings,” he added. “I’ll do some digging, see what I can come up with. I’ll do what I can to find out what happened to your sister.”
She started shaking her head.
“What now?”
“I need to be involved in this. I owe it to Rachael. I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
“Were you listening to what I said? You aren’t a cop. You aren’t trained for this kind of work.”
“I’m keeping my appointment tomorrow with Kyle Bennett. I might find out something important.”
His jaw clenched and unclenched. He must have noticed the mutinous set of her chin because he simply nodded. “Fine. You’re probably right about getting him to talk. But if I’m going to help you, we do things my way. Is that understood?”
He was an investigator. He knew what he was doing. She gave him the first sincere smile she had felt all evening. “Understood.”
“One last thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Sooner or later, I’m taking you to bed, but it won’t be because you owe me. It’ll be because the time is right and you want me as much as I want you.”
Her stomach contracted. Just looking at him made her want him but she knew he was right. Her mind wasn’t ready even if her body was more than willing. She didn’t reply. God only knew what she might say if she did.
“We’ll talk more tomorrow,” he said. “Right now, it’s time for me to take you home. I think we both know what will happen if we stay here much longer.”
Ignoring a rush of embarrassment, Amy nodded and let him guide her out the door. Of all the endings she could have imagined for the evening, this wasn’t one of them.
She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed.
Five
Johnnie backed the Mustang out of the garage and headed down the hill. A freakin’ schoolteacher. Jesus, just his luck.
At least his instincts hadn’t been wrong.
He shifted in the seat, trying to get comfortable. He’d had a hard-on nonstop since the first time he had seen Angel at the club.
Not Angel, he corrected himself. Amy. Amy Brewer. Kindergarten teacher.
Christ, how much worse could it get?
“Nice car,” she said, drawing his attention back to the moment.
“Four-hundred-twelve horses under the hood of this little beauty.”
As they passed beneath a streetlight, he caught her soft smile. “When I was in high school, my dad had a Stingray. It was old, but it was hot. He was a mechanic, great with cars. Once in a while, he’d let me drive it.”
“You like cars?”
“I do…yes. I love speed. I like to go fast—when it’s safe. I like the sound a car makes when you step on the gas. I guess I picked it up from my dad.”
His lips faintly curved. The lady was just full of surprises. “So, your dad still around?” If he was, the guy had to be crazy to let his daughter get involved in something as dangerous as this.
“He died three years ago. He was cutting firewood. Tree split wrong. He was killed instantly.”
He could read the sorrow in her face. “That’s too bad.”
“My mom’s back in Grand Rapids. She didn’t want me to come out here.”
Imagine that.
“She’s afraid something will happen. She said losing one daughter was enough.”
He tossed a glance her way as he made the turn off Laurel Canyon onto Sunset and merged with the traffic. “Your mother’s right. Snooping around the way you’ve been doing…that’s dangerous business, honey.”
“Maybe, but so far I haven’t found out much of anything. I’m hoping tomorrow will be different.”
“What time’s your appointment?”
“Two o’clock at Kyle’s house. He lives in Bel Air so it isn’t that far a drive.”
“Bel Air, huh? Pretty ritzy for a scumbag. You got a car?”
“Babs is lending me hers.”
“I need your cell number. Write it down on a piece of paper.”
She pulled a pen out of her purse and scribbled the number on the back of a Kitty Cat Club napkin she dug out of the bottom.
Johnnie pulled into the parking lot and stopped beside the rear entrance. “If Tate gives you any trouble about being out with a customer, tell him I’m helping you with a personal problem. He knows what I do for a living. That should be enough to keep him off your back.”
“All right.” Amy handed him the napkin, opened the car door and got out. He rolled down his window as she walked around to his side of the car.
“I’ll call you late morning,” he said, handing her a business card. “We need to work out the details before you go in. And I need to talk to your sister’s friend Barbara. Can you make that happen?”
“Babs usually sleeps till noon, but I can get her up a little early.”
“I’ll call, set up a place for us to meet.”
She just nodded. “Thank you, Johnnie. I really appreciate this.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He watched her walk into the club and realized it bothered him to think of her working in there. She was a schoolteacher, for chrissake. She shouldn’t be dancing naked in a goddamned tittie bar.
He sighed as he turned the car around and drove away. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. Except find her sister. Then he could send her sweet little schoolteacher ass back to Michigan where it belonged.
Amy usually slept late on her day off, but her nerves were strung too tight. Instead, as the sun came up, she dressed in a pair of white stretch Levi’s and a pink T-shirt, left Babs asleep in the apartment, and walked a block down the street to a little espresso bar called The Caboose.
“I’ll have a skinny double-shot latte,” she said to the barista, a dark-haired girl with braces who didn’t look old enough to be out of high school. With a chocolate biscotti in one hand and the coffee in the other, Amy sat down at one of the small square tables.
She reached over to the table next to hers and picked up an L.A. Times someone had left behind. She did a quick perusal, checked the local news, which was nothing but murder and mayhem, the weather, which never changed in sunny California, and the comics, which at least made her smile.
When she finished her coffee, she headed back to the apartment and found Babs up and dressed in jeans and an orange tank top. Babs was extremely big busted so no matter what she wore, she looked top heavy, as if she would topple onto the floor if she leaned too far over.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Amy said.
“My cell phone rang and woke me up,” Babs grumbled. “Wrong number, can you believe?”
“Why didn’t you just go back to sleep?”
“You said the Ranger wanted to talk to me. I figured I might as well get up and get ready.”
Last night, Babs had still been awake when Amy got home. Her friend had been worried, she knew, though Babs would never admit it. Amy had told her all the gory details, how she had made a fool of herself by reneging on her sex-for-work proposal and how John Riggs had again behaved as a gentleman.
“Johnnie was really great last night,” Amy said. “I was starting to freak and he knew it. He didn’t push me. He agreed to help anyway.”
Babs scoffed. “Don’t expect the same treatment from Kyle Bennett. Your sister said he was a real horse’s ass.”
Amy grinned, having no difficulty imagining her outspoken sister saying something like that. The grin slid away. “I’m not looking forward to meeting him, especially not at his house. I feel a lot better knowing Johnnie is going to be helping us.”
“You can say that again.”
Amy paced over to the window. The room they shared wasn’t glamorous, their only view the parking lot below. Still, she felt safe here, with Bo Jing and Tate to look after them, Dante and the rest of the crew. In the beginning, she had worried that someone Rachael had worked with might have been responsible for her disappearance, but Tate screened his employees well and after she got to know the men she worked with, she didn’t believe they’d had anything to do with it.
Along with that, no men were allowed upstairs, which was one of the reasons the girls liked living there. They could work, pay cheap rent and save their money, and not be hassled by drunken Kitty Cat patrons.
Amy walked over to the kitchen counter, where Babs was making coffee. “Do you think he’ll be able to find out what happened to her?”
Babs pressed the start button on the coffeemaker. She knew what Amy was asking. “In a city this size, women disappear all the time. Some of them are never seen again.”
A cold chill slipped through her. “You mean their bodies are never found.”
“I’m sorry, honey, but yeah. That’s what I mean.”
“We pretend she’s still out there, but I’m not sure either of us really believes it.”
“Oh, she’s out there. We just don’t know if she’s alive or not. Until we’re sure one way or another, we’ll do whatever it takes to find out.”
Amy felt better just hearing the words. They wouldn’t give up—not until they knew what had happened. She could handle Kyle Bennett. He was just a man and their plan was a good one. At least it was a place to start.
And now she had John Riggs to help her.
Johnnie climbed the short flight of steps and shoved through the front door of the redbrick building on North Wilcox Avenue. The Hollywood Community Police Station handled La Brea, Sunset, Hollywood and a half dozen surrounding communities.
First thing this morning, he had run a check on Amy Brewer. Looked like she was exactly what she said—a kindergarten teacher from Grand Rapids. He groaned. Last night’s hot kiss popped into his head and he thought how much he still wanted her, bit down on a curse and forced his mind back to business.
He’d also run Rachael Brewer’s name, and read the few newspaper articles about her disappearance he’d found on the Net and anything else he could find about her. It was a start, but not much help.
Making his way over to the counter in the police station, he recognized Officer Gwen Michaels working behind the front desk.
“Hey, Gwen.”
She looked up at him and a smile broke over her face. “Johnnie! You devil, where you been? And don’t tell me you’ve been staying out of trouble, ’cause that just ain’t happenin’, honey.”
Johnnie grinned. “Trouble’s my middle name, Gwen. You know that.”
“Sure do. So what can I do for you, J-man?” Officer Michaels was in her twenties, black and gorgeous. And a damn fine officer on top of it.
“Is Detective Vega around? I need to pick his brain a little.”
“I think he left a while ago, but let me check for you.” She rotated her stool toward the computer on the desk in front of her, checked the monitor. “He’s out on a call, not due back until the end of the day.”
“Leave him a message, will you? Ask him to give me a call when he gets in?”
“No problem.”
“Thanks, Gwen.”
“Take care, J-man.”
