Intrigue Me (9 page)

She needed to stop volunteering, that was all. Tell them her
time was needed elsewhere. She’d miss that, too. Being with people again had
felt great. More than great.

Okay, that was a problem. Her life before Moss Street was just
the way she liked it. Private. Quiet. Uneventful.

There wasn’t room for anyone else. Not even Daniel.

For pity’s sake, could she not go two minutes without having
him pop into her thoughts? Damn it, this thing with him was stirring up emotions
that were better left alone. Despite all the rules she’d set up in her head, she
had...feelings for him. She hadn’t wanted to go home last night. She’d wanted to
wake up next to him.

Just as she was about to get up and stretch, she saw the nanny.
Isabel had arrived with the sound track of a sobbing five-year-old.

“It’s all right, Alice.” Isabel put her bag down on the far end
of Lisa’s bench. “Mommy and Daddy were just having a discussion. Remember when
we talked about discussions? Hmm? That they’re loud, but no one wants to hurt
you?”

Lisa felt bad for Isabel, really, but this was also a good
opportunity. She checked that her recorder was in her pocket and said, “Can I
help?”

Isabel looked over at her. “She’ll eventually wear herself out.
Where’s yours?”

“Don’t have one now. I’m looking. Just finished working for a
family with three-year-old twins. The father left them high and dry, and Mom had
to start working. Grandma flew in from Ohio.”

“Oh, that sucks.” Isabel lifted Alice to her chest and sat
down. Rocking the still-screaming child, she turned to look at Lisa. “Where was
that?”

“Columbus Circle.”

“Ah. I’m Central Park West. I think there might be someone in
the building who’s looking. Who did your résumé?”

“Althea? At the Nanny Connection?”

“Oh, she did mine. She actually found me this job. Pay’s great,
but the fighting is really getting old.”

Lisa turned on the recorder and moved a little closer. “It’s
awful when the parents are having it out. Hell on the kids.”

“You’re telling me.” Isabel sighed, patted Alice’s back. “He’s
not bad, but she’s like something out of a horror movie.”

“I had just the opposite.”

“Did he get high, too? I’m pretty sure she’s addicted to
Adderall.”

“No, but he drank a lot. They used to put all their empty
bottles in other people’s recycling.”

Isabel nodded, and from her look, Lisa inferred the mother
drank in addition to her addiction.

“I keep thinking,” Lisa said, “that they’d fallen in love once.
They’d liked each other once upon a time. Enough to want a life together. What
happened?”

Isabel gave her a long cynical look and laughed. “You must be
new at this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, you know how it is. Everything’s flowers and unicorns
in the beginning. You think you know a person.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t take too
long for their true colors to start showing. Having kids just makes it show
earlier.”

Lisa closed her eyes for a moment. When she got her bearings,
she opened them again. She understood, all right. So how on earth could she have
forgotten for even a minute the most important lesson she’d ever learned? She’d
thought she knew Tess better than anyone except her brother. Turned out Lisa
hadn’t known a thing. And now she imagined she knew Daniel?

She barely knew herself.

9

D
ANIEL
KEPT
CHECKING
his cell phone. Of course Lisa hadn’t called. Why would she? Last night was last night. Today she was busy. Like him. He had no business thinking about her while he was at the clinic examining patients.

He still couldn’t believe she’d been sitting outside in a cab.

Every time he had a spare moment alone, his thoughts went to her. She’d been so beautiful in that blue dress. Even better without it. He’d been upset about the note she’d left, although the apple had been a nice touch. Thing was, he’d wanted to wake up to her. Which was nuts. She’d brought nothing with her. No change of clothes or anything, and she had to go to work. Her leaving wasn’t a statement about their future.

At least he hoped not.

While he was still annoyed that the chef had talked about Warren and the clinic, he’d recognized, albeit slowly and with great regret, that the problem was his, and that it would continue to be a problem until he figured out what he really wanted.

That was why he was still at the clinic. He didn’t know which path to take, not anymore. For now, he liked being at the clinic for more reasons than he cared to share. He was reasonably sure no one knew about his father’s outrageous plans but himself. That was why it was hard to talk to Warren.

It wasn’t all just about that, though, He’d always known that his wild oats would be cut off the moment he graduated. But for now, the free clinic was a safe harbor. Since he wasn’t working at the Center, he didn’t feel the pressure to put on the straitjacket of outward decorum. He would never in a million years have had sex with a volunteer in the Madison Avenue Center. Of course, he wouldn’t have met Lisa, either.

* * *

T
HE
MINUTE
L
ISA
had recorded enough information, she’d left the park, hoping the nanny never found out she’d been a part of her boss’s upcoming divorce.

As she walked down the steps to the subway, Lisa thought about how much time she’d spent at the clinic. How easy it was to have sex with Daniel, and how simple it would be to fall into another trap. At least she had this job. Although she wished she wasn’t stuck with these awful divorce cases so often. They were all boring as hell. Divorces. Custody cases. Runaway dads.

She knew they paid her salary, but she was being wasted. Before her life had imploded, she’d been thinking of asking her captain for undercover work. She knew damn well Logan could use a woman for that sort of thing. She could do it. After what had happened at the clinic, she knew she still had massive skills. No more filing. No more mindless waiting. There wouldn’t be time or the energy to think about Daniel. Or sex. Or anything that might get her into trouble. Boredom was her main problem.

Anyway, it was time she moved on to meatier cases. It had been sixteen months since Tess had stolen her life. All she had to do was convince Logan she was ready.

She boarded her train and stared out the window, trying to decide how she should approach her brother. Fifteen minutes later she pulled out her cell phone, hoping he had a few minutes for her. She knew he was in the middle of coordinating an international sex-trafficking sting. From what she’d overheard, there would be a lot of politicians making headlines next week. It was exactly the kind of case she would’ve loved to be involved with.

“What’s up?” Logan had caught the call on the first ring. Good. Sounded as if he was in the hurry-up-and-wait stage.

“Have a few minutes?”

“Sure.”

“I was thinking—”

“Uh-oh.”

“Come on. I’m serious. I was thinking it’s about time I got involved in some of the more interesting cases.”

“Meaning?”

“I’ve got skills, Logan. You know I do.”

“Okay. That’s something we’ll talk about later.”

She’d heard the sigh he tried to hide. “You do know you’re not Dad, right?”

“I’m not Mom, either. Hold on, I’ve got another call.”

While she waited as Logan took the other call on his landline, she put him on speaker, so she’d know when he was back to her, but she didn’t really listen in on his conversation. Luckily, there were only three people in her subway car, and in accordance with the Official Sanctified Rules of the Subway Riders of New York, no one gave a shit about her or her phone. She was free to get her points in order in case Logan wanted to argue.

First of all, she’d taken down that junkie without a moment’s hesitation. Which Logan didn’t know about because she’d been embarrassed to tell him she was volunteering at the clinic. Even though Heather had taken a pass on Daniel, Logan might not see Lisa swooping in as 100 percent kosher.

But it wouldn’t matter if Lisa Pine never went back to the clinic.

The idea alone made her stomach turn over. That meant not seeing Daniel again. Which, she admitted, was mostly the point. Okay, precisely the point. A more challenging job might distract her from doing something stupid. She couldn’t afford to lose herself again.

And what about the self-defense class she’d agreed to teach? Was she willing to let all those women down?

Christ, this was getting complicated.

“Lisa?”

She took her phone off speaker. “I’m here.”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

She knew that tone of voice. The subway stopped and she got out. From where she was, Logan’s office was two streets away. If he got hardheaded she could swing by for a face-to-face instead of going straight home. Let him try looking her in the eye and telling her she wasn’t ready to take on more responsibility.

“Lisa?”

“Sorry, subway madness.” She took the steps up fast. And practically ran down West Broadway. Thank God for her Skechers. “Hold on a second.”

She waited until she’d made it almost a block and caught her breath. Stalling for time, she asked, “What are you doing for dinner later?”

“Seriously?” Logan laughed. “You know what I’m working on. In fact—”

“Wait.” She crossed against the red light and ignored the taxi that nearly clipped her. “I need more,” she said. “I don’t expect to drop most of the ordinary stuff, but I’d like to add some tougher cases.”

“Define
tougher
.”

“Oh, I don’t know—something I can’t do in my sleep.”

“Look, Lisa—” His landline rang, and she could almost smell his relief. “I have to take another call. Let’s talk—”

“I’ll wait. No problem.”

This time he didn’t try to hold back his sigh. If he pretended to hang up on her by mistake, she’d show him just how capable she was of taking down 195 pounds of hard muscle.

She jogged the last half a block, then inserted her card key into the office door lock. She nodded at Mike, who had the sorry task of acting as receptionist when he wasn’t directly working on a case or a temp didn’t show. Now, though, he pretty much ignored her and went back to whatever he was doing.

“Okay, I’m back,” Logan said and didn’t so much as blink when she entered his office. Of course he was surprised, and maybe irritated, but he didn’t show it. He was a master at hiding what he was feeling. He nodded at one of his guest chairs, but she was too antsy to sit. “What brought this on?”

“I was at the clinic the day before yesterday when—”

“The clinic as in the free clinic?”

She nodded. “All my work here was taken care of. And I’ve started volunteering there...” She cleared her throat. “But I don’t think I’m gonna do that anymore, so it’s a moot point.”

“Why?”

Sitting down in the huffiest way she knew how, she said, “Sometimes you annoy the crap out of me.” She would have put her feet up on the edge of his desk if she wasn’t wearing a dress.

“Sometimes? I’ll work on that.”

She sighed. “This is important to me.”

“All right.” He sat up straighter and folded his hands on his meticulous desk. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

“I walked in on a situation. All I could see was this guy aiming a shaky Glock 17 at one of the staff and holding on to this kid. The temperature of the room was in the stratosphere, so I figured he’d been there for a while...”

She stood up again, walked to the window. “I dropped my purse. He turned around. Called me Barbie, then—”

When she looked at her brother there was concern in his eyes. She knew she sounded hyper but that might not be a bad thing. “He was high. It wasn’t difficult to secure the weapon and take him down. The police picked him up about five minutes later.”

Logan had put his blank face on. He wasn’t supposed to use that on her. “I’m glad it turned out okay,” he said.

She walked back to the chair. It wasn’t easy holding in her frustration. He clearly didn’t understand how much she needed the upgrade.

“Seems like you’re still wound pretty tight.”

“You know how it is.” She leaned forward. “How the adrenaline takes over. Just because I’ve been lying low for a while—”

“Over a year.”

“Logan. Knock that off. What I’m saying is, I may be rusty, but I haven’t got amnesia. I knew what to do, and I did it safely. Remember how I used to tell you my biggest advantage was that I was small?”

“Course I do. I haven’t got amnesia, either. I can see the takedown brought a lot of satisfaction with it. But—”

“I wasn’t through,” she said. “What I want to do while I’m getting back to prime is build a new identity for myself. No help from you. Not yet. I want to be as thorough as I can, straight back to a birth certificate, driver’s license, the whole nine. Meanwhile, I continue taking the easy stuff, and I start working out. Hard.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why a new identity at all?”

“I don’t think it’s an advantage to go by McCabe.”

He leaned back, his gaze unwavering. “You’re not ready.”

“How can you say that? You, of all people, should understand I need to get back into the game.”

“Yep, I do get it. That’s how I know you’re not ready.” He ignored her exasperated sigh. “You’ve got time, Lisa. So take it. Do your volunteer work, get laid once in a while, ease back into life. The job will still be here.”

“Logan, damn it, you’re not being fair. You’ve acclimated to civilian life just fine.”

His brows rose in disbelief and hurt. “Do you really not remember how I was after Afghanistan?”

Shame caught her by the gut. Of course she remembered. He’d been a wreck and trying desperately to prove he wasn’t. “I’m sorry. Of course I do. I don’t think you’re right about me, but I’ll play it safe for a while longer. I’m going to work on getting back to black-belt condition.”

“Great idea. And so is your volunteering. You spent a long time isolating yourself.” He leaned forward and gave her a smile that reminded her just how much he loved her. “Stay in shape. We’ll see what happens in six months or so.”

She flinched at the time frame, but she wasn’t going to bitch. What he wanted to see was proof that she was ready mentally and physically and that was what he’d get. “Fine.” She stood up, anxious now, to leave.

Logan stood, too. He came over to her side of the desk and put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m serious about the volunteering. Doing good things for other people can be empowering. Take it easy on yourself.” He walked her to his office door. “And make good use of that doctor of yours.”

She didn’t shove him away, but she did give him the finger, which only made him laugh. Her phone rang. It was a text from Valeria. Twenty-two people had signed up for her self-defense class. Now they wanted to know which day worked for her.

She gave up. Fine. She’d teach the damn class. But before she could respond, another text came through. It was from Daniel.

She smiled all the way to the street corner.