He picked up the hotel phone, knowing the call wouldn’t be traced because no one would ever know he had been there. The line rang three times before he heard a clipped hello.

“We have problems,” he said without any greeting.

“Damn you, I told you to never call me at work.”

“Unless you want Arel to know his trusted man Dragonfly did him wrong, you’d better listen.”

Silence greeted him for several long moments in which he could tell the other man was walking, probably to privacy. Finally, he said, ”Go on.”

“My wife had a journal which she gave to her sister. I doubt it exposes us to the police, but she saw you with me several times. We need that journal so Arel can’t get to it.”

A series of muffled curses rumbled across the line. “So I’ll do the sister and get the journal.”

“She gave it to Julie Harrison and if you kill either of them, you know damn well it’s going to bring attention on me.”

“No bodies, not murder. Believe me, I know how to make people disappear.”

“And if you bring me down, I’ll take you with me.”

More silence. “What do you propose we do then? Sit on our f**king hands?”

“I have someone close to Julie who’s going to get me the journal. Once we know what’s inside, we can decide what to do about anyone who’s read it.”

“When will you have it?”

“Soon.”

“Get it and get it now, because if you don’t make me feel as warm and fuzzy as a school girl in pink quickly, I’ll deal with this my way.”

The line went dead.

Chapter Sixteen

Tuesday flew by for Julie. She stood in Luke’s bathroom, dressed in an emerald silk knee-length gown, applying her lipstick, and wondering where he’d gotten to. They’d spent the afternoon at the gallery readying it for tonight, and Luke had used the excuse of helping her to plant some surveillance equipment. The charity event included a live band and the dancing began at seven. Fortunately there were volunteers the door, so she didn’t have to be there any longer than she had to be without Luke. Her nerves were jumping all over the place, but worrying about him was making her crazy. He and one of his men were going to break into the judge’s house while he was at the event and look for the safe Elizabeth mentioned in the journal. And while she knew Luke was an ex-SEAL, she also knew exactly what she’d told him back at the airport. SEALs could die, too.

Voices carried from the other room and she grabbed her small cocktail purse from the bed and went looking for Luke. She found him and Blake both in all black, and there were two other, also very good looking, men – one with a short, military cut, the other with longish blonde hair that curled at the ends.

Good lord, she thought. Their mothers must have taken some sort of hormone to breed hot men. There was so much testosterone in the place she was afraid the apartment might go up in flames.

Luke pulled her under his arm, his big body warm and wonderful, and she clung to him. She didn’t want him to die.

“I told you about the task force that’s in on tonight. They’ll be nearby watching, but we have our own team in place, and they are the only ones you are to trust, ever. I don’t care who shows you a badge, the people in this room are the people you listen to.”

“Okay,” Julie said. “Do we think there’s a problem with the task force?”

“We have a judge involved and the Dragonfly who has yet to be identified. We aren’t taking any chances.” He motioned to the dark haired man. “This is Jesse. He’s going to be driving the cab that is taking you to the gallery.”

“He’s a former NYPD detective,” Blake said, leaning against a counter, arms folded. “We couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t be recognized at the event so he’ll stay out of sight. He’ll be nearby if you need him though.”

Jesse gave her a two-finger salute. “Your chauffeur awaits, madam.”

Julie tried to smile but failed and Luke tightened his grip on her, as if he sensed how tense she was. She didn’t want him to go tonight, and it was all she could not to turn to him and beg him not to.

Luke motioned to the other man, the blonde. “And this is Kyle. He’s our tech expert and if there is a safe in the house, he can get in.”

“He also removed the snake from Lauren’s apartment when she had that crazy man stalking her a while back,” Blake mentioned, referencing the hell that Lauren had gone through that had led to her leaving the District Attorney’s office.

“That would be me,” Kyle said, and lifted the lid to a small steel case on the counter before flipping it around for her to see what looked like some sort of tiny chip. “This will be your mic. Blake will be on the other end until I take over for him, at which time, you’ll have Luke back with you as well.

“You so much as need an escort to the bathroom you just say the word and I’ll be there.” Blake added.

Julie nodded. “Thank you, Blake.”

“And he was serious about saying a word,” Blake added. ”I need ‘a word’. Something you can say discreetly that lets me know you need me.”

For an attorney known to think on her feet, Julie’s mind was utterly blank. “I don’t know.”

“Apple,” Blake said. “Orange. Oh what a beautiful day it is. A spoon full of sugar.”

Julie actually laughed at that. “A spoonful of sugar?”