“All right. Well, she’s not going anywhere. Not when she thinks she’s going to take me down for the murder of her mother. She’ll come after me again. And she’ll do it alone. You can leave a message from me to her ensuring that’s the case.” He grabbed a scrap of paper he’d been using for his daily crossword puzzles and wrote a note: You want me, come and get me. But if lover boy is with you, consider him dead.

He folded the note in half, wrote Alicia Greiston, Room 101 on the top of it, and handed it to Danny. “Go buy an envelope, stick this inside with her name and room number written on the envelope, seal it, and drop it off at the front desk—but only leave it when it’s busy enough that no one will notice you. Can you do that? It’d be easy enough to do when a clerk is busy with a customer. Just leave it on the counter and walk away. All right?”

“Yeah. I can do that.” Danny acted annoyed that Mario had to spell it out for him as though Mario thought Danny wasn’t bright enough to do the job right.

But hell, Mario had made the mistake of trusting him before. The problem was that he needed someone damn loyal, and Danny was it.

Mario glanced back at his crossword puzzle. “Go. As soon as she’s following me again, grab her, and she and I will have a little talk.”

He smiled darkly. This time he’d learn what her mother might have passed along about his operation, and then—he wasn’t sure. He glanced out the window at the ski slopes and felt the waxing moon stirring his blood. The mother wouldn’t succumb to his needs. Maybe the daughter would do.

But he still had another problem. Danny’s brother, Ferdinand, was a loose cannon. Mario needed to get rid of him as soon as he could get hold of him. The last time Mario had attempted to have Ferdinand murdered had only made him madder… and more willing to get Mario back.

***

In a tangle of legs at the ice-skating rink, Alicia laughed out loud as she found herself on her butt on the ice again with Jake. His eyes were bright with laughter as he pushed her hair out of her face and grinned at her. She hadn’t laughed this much in forever.

“I haven’t fallen this many times in an hour on the ice since I was a little girl. And I was a lot lower to the ground then. But then again, I haven’t had this much fun in years.”

And she meant it. She had applauded every wobbly bit of success Jake had accomplished. And when they’d fallen, she’d laughed and enjoyed his good-humored responses. She wasn’t the only one who was interested in Jake, though. From older teens to college-aged women, he had their undivided attention. She was certain they wished they were entangled with the hunk on the ice instead of her and laughing their heads off. She had to admit, they looked fairly risqué at times with his leg wedged between hers and her short flare skirt thrown back, exposing the panties of her leotard.

If Jake hadn’t had such a difficult time staying on his feet and keeping from tripping Alicia up, she figured he would have been more hot and bothered in an intimate way by their close proximity. But he hadn’t let on, and for that, she was grateful.

Two of the women watching him with hungry, desirous gazes had been bold enough to come to speak with him when he told Alicia he wanted her to demonstrate how she did the figure eight and other ice skating maneuvers. She hadn’t wanted to leave him for a second, and now she knew for certain what a mistake that could be.

Even though she had wanted to chase off the voluptuous blond and striking brunette, she concentrated on her performance and gave Jake the show of her life as if she were trying out for the Olympics while he stood propped against the railing, smiling at her with admiration. She loved him for it because no one had ever cared how she skated except for her mother and her grandmother. But this was different, seeing the look in his eyes as she skated for him—a sexual attraction, a feral desirous look in his gaze—and his lips curving upward as if he was thinking sinful thoughts about some of her sexier moves.

When she was through with the last jump, she skated back to Jake. He pulled her into his arms, holding her tight, and gave her a kiss that could have melted the ice. It certainly warmed her from the tip of her cold nose to her cold toes, and he made her feel special all over again.

“You’re beautiful, you know?” he murmured against her ear.

His two new fans gave her simpering smiles, but their smiles were designed to get his attention. He ignored them, thankfully.

She smiled up at him. He was beautiful and fun and the best thing that had ever happened to her. “You make me feel beautiful.” She leaned against him, loving the heat and hardness of his tall body but knowing they needed to skate or leave. Before they got kicked out of the rink for too much sexy cuddling. “Do you want to ice skate some more?”

“I need to drop by the art gallery and sign some consent forms. And it’s past time for lunch. If you’ve had enough fun and are ready to go. I’m afraid watching you skate is getting harder and harder for me.” He cast her a wickedly salacious grin.

She chuckled, wanting to check out his package, but… what the heck. She glanced down at his crotch, saw the rigid bulge in his stonewashed jeans, and was ready to ease his discomfiture anyway that she could.

“All right.” She gave the women a smile that said, “He’s mine, so hands off,” and then skated slowly to the exit with him so that he could keep up with her. “You were gathering quite a fan club.”

“I was the only male on the ice, and I looked a bit needy,” he explained.

“You looked anything but that. I think the idea of you getting tangled up with one of them was more what they had in mind.”

He laughed. “I wasn’t interested in getting tangled up with anyone else, believe me.”

When they reached the sitting area, she helped him off with his skates first. His hands reached up to cup her face as she crouched in front of him. “You’re lovely, Alicia. A free spirit, unpretentious, charming.”

Her face warming, she smiled a little shyly, not used to any man complimenting her like that. She hoped he didn’t feel obligated to say such things to her. She didn’t expect them, and she was a little suspicious of his motives for doing so.

“You’re not used to anyone complimenting you, are you?” he asked, tilting her face up to look at him. His eyes challenged her to respond, but she couldn’t. “Are you?” he asked again.

She gave a small exhalation of breath and said, “No. Once when I was in high school, some guy said he liked the way I smelled. I had spritzed on one of my mother’s perfumes before I left for school that morning. Anyway, he asked me out to have pizza, and on the way over to the pizza place, he pulled into a park and said how much he wanted me. How beautiful I was. That was right before he copped a feel and was suddenly all over me, tugging at my blouse with his other hand under my skirt. I demanded he take me home before I screamed rape.”

Jake’s expression hardened. “The guy was lucky I wasn’t around.”

She smiled at Jake. “I’m afraid a lot more would have gone on at the park if I’d been with you instead. You’re sort of… addictive and hard to say no to.”

He pulled her to the seat and switched places and removed her skates. “I would have meant everything I said, if it had been me with you in the car.” He looked up at her. “I just hope you’re not wearing a ton of bruises after all the falls that I caused.” His hand caressed her calves over her tan skate tights.

His caress was gentle but oh so provocative. She shook her head. “A couple, but they’ll soon fade to nothing.”

He helped her from her seat, then escorted her outside, his fingers interlocked with hers as if they were a boyfriend and girlfriend on a date. She liked the sensation and would have wanted more if only her mother hadn’t gotten mixed up with Mario and his thugs. Alicia was destined to play the scenario with the mobsters out to the end, no matter what.

Jake unlocked the truck doors with the push of a button. “I have to admit, seeing you do some of those spins, jumps, and landings, and thinking of the figure skaters who dance together made me wish I could glide across the ice with you in my arms, like ballroom dancing only, to my way of thinking, a hell of a lot sexier.”

“Hmm,” she said, climbing into his truck. “That’s because the women’s tiny little skate skirts, or the form-figure skating dresses that barely cover anything, are so revealing. And then tights or tan panty hose look pretty—”

“Sexy.” He reached over from the driver’s side and stroked her thigh. “Good thing no other men were there watching you perform. I would have had to fight them off.”

She laughed. “My ex-husbands thought my skating was boring. After watching me the first time, neither of them would bother. They were into ice hockey—guys beating up guys on the ice.”

“They were crazy. I’d much rather watch you dancing solo as eloquently as you do or be the one making the moves with you on the ice.”

She gave him an appreciative smile as he started the engine. Where had Jake been when she could have used him years earlier in her life? Her life was way too messed up now.

She peered out the window on the drive back to her hotel from the skating rink. She kept watching for any sign of a black Mercedes, but she didn’t see either one of them. With the way Jake was glancing up at his rearview mirror or out his windows, she thought he was watching for anyone following them, too.

“Lunch next after I sign the papers at the gallery, all right?” he asked.

“Sure. I’ll just change while you’re gone.” She looked over at him to see him glancing down at her short skirt and nearly bare legs, and she had the sneaking suspicion he wanted to do something else first. “Don’t tell me you need to work up an appetite first.”

He chuckled, and the sound was deep and dark and aroused. But he shook his head and ran his hand over her thigh with a gently caressing touch. She got the distinct impression it wouldn’t take much for him to change his mind.