Bo had his back turned to them, so when Rick moved close, he was surprised to discover them talking in Spanish.

Fortunately, Rick knew enough Spanish to understand what was being said. Something about taking care of things later tonight, when the party was in full swing. And Bo was counting on being able to slip away. Now that Rick was here, he’d be able to see firsthand how things were done.

Perfect.

But Ava was frowning and he’d bet she’d understood every word, too. Not good.

Rick nudged Bo with his elbow. “Hey.”

Bo smiled and made room for Ava. “Evenin’. Don’t you look pretty.”

Ava gave Bo a return smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Thank you. Where’s Lacey?”

Bo rolled his eyes. “Still in the bedroom getting dolled up. That woman takes forever to get ready for a party. Why don’t you go see if you can hurry her up? All the way at the end of the hall.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.”

Ava turned to slip away, but Rick grasped her wrist and planted a short kiss on her lips.

Her lips lifted, her cheeks darkening a dusky pink.

Sometime tonight he was going to find time to make love to her. While she was wearing that sexy red dress.

“You look sad and pathetic whenever she leaves a room. You got it bad, man,” Bo said with a laugh. “Be careful, or we’ll be planning a Hellraiser wedding.”

If only his cousin knew what was really going to happen. A wedding would be the least of his worries. Rick managed a wry smile. “She’s sweet. Like nobody I’ve ever met before.”

“Give her a few months with our gang. We’ll squeeze the sweetness right out of her.”

When hell froze over. Hopefully this assignment would be finished by the time they crossed the border. Then Ava could resume her life in Las Vegas—go back to school—back to the safety of academia, where she belonged. Not out here on the fringes of drugs and destruction.

Look at what it had done to Lacey. He wouldn’t allow the same thing to happen to Ava.

Ava walked out with Lacey, and the truth was right there.

Lacey, though only with the Hellraisers for a year, had the look of a jaded biker chick about her. It started with the way she dressed—tight dress cut up to there—hell she probably figured everyone had seen it all anyway. If she so much as bent over even a little, the mystery would be gone. And the look in Lacey’s eyes as she scanned the room said she’d been there and had done just about everything. Lacey’s lips lifted as if she’d just entered heaven. Innocence lost.

With Ava, the innocence was still there in the way she took in the party atmosphere with a wide-eyed look. Rick took a glance around the room and tried to see it through Ava’s eyes—the free-flowing alcohol, the drugs moving about the room un-hidden, the way people kissed and fondled as if they didn’t care who saw—and this wasn’t even a Hellraisers party. But it was the lifestyle, and one Ava wasn’t yet accustomed to.

If he had his way, Rick was going to get her away from this as soon as possible.

You sound like her father now.

Maybe her father was right. Maybe he understood why Senator Vargas wanted her out of a lifestyle Rick had always found acceptable.

For Ava, it wasn’t acceptable.

She smiled when she saw him. Lacey made a beeline for Bo and Ava came his way.

Dammit, he liked that she only had eyes for him, liked seeing her walk, that skirt swishing around her fabulous legs. The look in her eyes was a punch to his gut—dark, smoldering, barely banked sensuality that with one kiss, one touch, he could stoke into an inferno.

When she reached him, he pulled her into his arms. Despite his better judgment, he was unable to resist her.

“When you smile at me like that . . .”

She let the end of her sentence trail off.

“Yeah?”

“It makes me think all kinds of dirty thoughts.”

He shook his head. “You? A proper young lady with a master’s degree?”

She tilted her head back and laughed. “A proper young lady with a master’s degree who really likes ha**g s*x with you.”

“Consumed by it, are you?”

She laid her palm on his chest. “I wasn’t before. I am now.”

His c**k twitched. “You’re good for my ego.”

“You’re good for all of me.”

Son of a bitch. Women did not give him warm feelings and an unfamiliar tightness in his chest. This wasn’t happening. Not to him. He didn’t fall in love. He didn’t even know what love was. Love wasn’t for a guy like him who’d grown up in foster care, who’d never had the care of even one parent, let alone two, who’d spent all his time on the streets, who’d never had a woman tell him she loved him. He didn’t know the meaning of the word love.

Did he?

No. He didn’t. Ava was an assignment. A fun assignment, for sure, but just an assignment. And when it was over, he was walking away. He was always walking away first, before someone walked away from him.

What the f**k would he do with love? With a woman in his life? His kind of life wasn’t suitable for a woman in it, and especially not a woman like Ava.

Even if he wanted to—try to make things work between them—he’d be no better than Bo if he tried to drag Ava into his lifestyle. She had a career ahead of her. More school. Her Ph.D., followed by a job in social work. Her future didn’t include him any more than his included hers.

But they could have fun f**king until it was over. Then he’d walk away, disappear, and she’d move on with her life, thinking he was some dickhead biker who’d found better things to do. Yeah, it would make him look like an asshole, but it was better for her this way. She’d forget about him soon enough. They always did.

But for now? Yeah, he’d enjoy the hell out of her for now.

“So I’m good for all of you, huh? I’ll have to see ‘all of you’ to find out if I’m good for it.”

She laughed. “I’m sure that can be arranged . . . uh, later.”

“What? Not here in the middle of the party?”

“You have a wicked mind, Rick.”

He bent her over his arm and kissed her, long and hard, then tilted her back up on her feet. “And that’s why you like me.”

She blew out a breath and smoothed her skirt, then leaned into him to whisper in his ear. “That’s one of the reasons why I like you. But not the only one.”

She pivoted and walked away, found Lacey, and the two of them took up a conversation.

Yeah, he was in deep shit with Ava. The woman rocked him back on his heels. He usually found women pretty predictable. Easy to come by, easy to fuck, easy to drop and forget.

Ava? There was nothing easy about her.

For the next few hours, Ava divided her time between him and Lacey. He liked that she didn’t cling to him, needing him for her entertainment. She even talked to some of the other people there, since there were women as well as men. She wasn’t uncomfortable at all in her surroundings, though he kept an eye on her at all times. If any of the guys got too close, thinking she might be there on her own, he was right there by her side to let those guys know she was off limits. From the scowl on his face they got the message loud and clear and backed off right away.

Which seemed to amuse Ava. She started referring to him as her Knight in Shining Armor.

If only she knew how little that applied to him.

Rick divided his time between keeping an eye on Ava, and surreptitiously watching Bo. Though Bo made no moves other than drinking and partying with his guests and with Lacey, Rick knew tonight was the night, and he planned to be right on top of it when it happened.

The suite was packed a little after one in the morning. Lacey was either drunk or stoned, sitting on one of the plush white leather sofas near the open doors by the balcony, looking pale as death and like she might puke at any minute.

Which gave Bo the perfect opportunity to slip away. He motioned to the guys he’d been talking to earlier, and they walked out the front door.

“Lacey doesn’t look like she feels well.” Rick pointed to Lacey, and that’s all it took.

“Oh, no. I’d better go take care of her,” Ava said.

Ava was off seeing to Lacey, which left him free to follow Bo. He walked out the front door and down the stairs, taking three at a time so he’d be there before the elevator. He inched the main floor door open, watching as the elevator doors slid open.

Bo and his friends came out, made a left turn, and headed in his direction. Rick closed the stair doors in a hurry and hoped like hell they weren’t going to take the stairs. After counting a few seconds, he breathed a sigh of relief and cracked the door open again.

Bo and the others had headed though the back doors and toward the parking garage.

Rick followed, keeping a respectable distance so Bo wouldn’t see him.

Lacey’s car had been parked outside the garage, toward the back of the lot, far beyond where anyone usually parked.

Either Bo had her park there, or had moved her car to this remote location.

Rick moved around the back of the building where it wasn’t lit so he could observe without being seen.

And watched another car pull up beside Lacey’s. They cut the lights, the trunk popped open, and within a minute they’d opened Lacey’s trunk and popped down a false inside top from the hood of her trunk. In the space there, Bo and his friends placed several packages. It was too dark to see shapes or sizes or even how many, but Rick knew it was the drugs Lacey was going to transport across the border tomorrow.

Asshole.

They finished up and climbed into the car that had dropped off the drugs, then sped out of there. Rick melted into the side of the building until they passed, then walked toward Lacey’s car.

He waited a good fifteen minutes to be sure no one came around.

They didn’t. It took a little maneuvering but Rick had been stealing cars since he was twelve years old. No amount of today’s technology could get in his way. He popped the trunk and the false inside top, whistling low as he saw the booty there.

Cocaine. Nicely packaged up in tight, brown-wrapped bundles. Probably the same amount on the other side, too.

If Lacey were caught by the authorities smuggling this amount of dope, she’d do maximum time.

And Bo wouldn’t give a shit. He’d just pick up some new, naïve chick and do the same thing to her.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Not this trip.

Never again.

TWELVE

Ava finished wiping up the bathroom in the suite, washed up, then switched off the light and went into the bedroom to check one more time on Lacey.

Her breathing was shallow, but she seemed to be resting now.

God, what a mess. Ava had barely gotten Lacey into the bathroom before she’d lost it. She didn’t know what Lacey had eaten, drank, smoked, or snorted, but she’d heaved for nearly an hour straight, then nothing at all. Once she was empty, Ava had cleaned her up and poured her into bed. Light snores were all she heard now.

If that was the result of drugs, alcohol, and excess partying, Ava wanted no part of it. She was grateful all she’d managed was a few hors d’oeuvres and one glass of wine. Right now her stomach felt queasy after witnessing Lacey’s gastronomical debacle. She turned off the light, closed the door, and went down the hall, making a beeline for the bar so she could grab a club soda with lime.

She searched for Bo, found him, and told him Lacey was sick and out cold.

He rolled his eyes. “She never could hold her stuff. Guess my party is over for the night.”

How sweet of him to be so concerned about her. “She’ll be fine. Thanks for asking.”

She walked away before she could say anything more to him, like what she thought about his inability to watch over his own girlfriend, and went in search of Rick. He was just stepping back through the front door.

She quirked a brow as he approached. “Where did you go?”

“I had to make a phone call and it was too noisy in here.”

“International?”

He laughed. “Well, it’s not like I know anyone in Mexico. I have a line on a job.”

She glanced down at her watch. “It’s almost three in the morning.”

“It wasn’t an interview. Buddy of mine I’ve been trying to get hold of finally got back to me, and I didn’t want to miss the call again since he’s on the road a lot.”

“Oh. So, what kind of job is it?”

“Construction. That’s why he’s hard to get hold of. He’s leaving in a couple hours for Texas and wanted me to hop on this job with him.”

Her stomach clenched. “Do you need to leave right now?”

“No. I’ll meet him in a couple days.”

“Oh. Well, that’s great.” She ignored the stab of disappointment. Of course he was leaving. So was she. They both had lives separate from each other. This . . . thing between them wasn’t permanent. How many times did she have to keep reminding herself of that?

Many, apparently.

“How’s Lacey? She didn’t look good.”

At least someone cared about her. “She’s okay. She was pretty sick there for a while, but she’s resting now.”

He swept his hand down her back. “She’s lucky she has a friend like you to look after her.”

“Thank you, Rick. That’s nice of you to say. I’m not sure how much help I am to her, but I was glad to be here.”

“You help her more than you know. Not everyone has someone to care about them.”

He led her to the table where the food was, his cryptic words ringing in her ears.