Wise Moves by Mary Burton Page B

desirable. “Let’s just chalk this up to bad judgment.”
    For a moment he thought sadness flickered in her eyes but it was gone as quickly as it had come. “Sounds good.”
    She nodded toward the coffeemaker. “You still want that coffee?”
    A cold shower would have been better. “Yeah, sure.”
    Kristen poured a cup and handed it to him, careful not to touch him. Whatever had happened between them had surprised her, as well. Good. He wasn’t the only one off balance.
    “Thanks,” he said, taking the cup.
    She turned to pour herself a mug. “Something puzzles me.”
    The cup to his lips, he hesitated. “What’s that?”
    A wrinkle furrowed her smooth forehead. “What were you doing here this morning?”
    The tension in her voice sharpened his senses. “We had an appointment.”
    The worry in her eyes remained. “For seven o’clock. Not six.”
    He grinned. Charming, not defensive. “I am a little compulsive about time. I was hoping if I showed up early I could get a jump on the project.”
    The truth was he’d been outside all night. After he’d met with Lucian, he’d returned and parked down the block from her house. With cash in her pocket, he worried that she’d slip away.
    His explanation seemed to satisfy her somewhat, but not completely. “You’d have sat outside for an hour waiting if I hadn’t answered.”
    He shrugged. “It was a risk.”
    She studied him as if trying to put the pieces of the Dane Cambia puzzle together. “You must really want the work.”
    “You’ve got to have a little skin in the game if you want to build your name.”
    “Right.” She drew out the word, telegraphing her uncertainty.
    He set down his cup. Questions only stirred trouble. “I better start unloading. Come down when you’ve finished your coffee.”
    “I’m finished. I can help you.”
    “No heavy lifting today.”
    She didn’t argue, a sign that her ribs still hurt. He thought about that punk hitting her. Swift hot rage sliced through him.
    They headed down the hallway to the front reception area. “Why don’t you wait inside?” he said. “I’ll be back in a minute with the supplies.”
    “Sure.”
    She stood inside the studio as he went out to his truck, stopping and glancing from left to right. Benito, Tony, there was no telling who was going to crawl out of the woodwork.
    Benito would arrive soon enough, but Dane suspected Tony wasn’t likely to come back while he was here. The punk would wait until Kristen was alone to take his revenge.
    A satisfied smile tipped the edge of his lips when he remembered the fear in Tony’s eyes. What the punk didn’t get was that she had his protection now. Tony would never get a second chance to hurt her.
    Dane unloaded his sledgehammer and then moved around the side of the van, out of Kristen’s line of sight. He set down the tool and snapped his cell phone out of its belt holster. He flipped it open and dialed Lucian.
    The phone rang once before Moss answered. “Yep.”
    “So give me the details.” He turned his back to the house, still scanning the streets for trouble.
    “Like I said earlier, the prints are a perfect match. Little Miss Yoga is Elena Benito.”
    “There’s no mistaking the results?” The edge of hope in his voice surprised him.
    “I don’t make mistakes.” Lucian sounded offended.
    “Good.” He shoved his hand through his hair. Like it or not he had a mission to finish. “So we move forward.”
    “I’ll start leaking news that Elena Benito is living in Virginia. It won’t take more than a couple of days for the information to filter through Benito’s organization before word reaches him.”
    “Let me handle that. I’ve got a source that could be helpful on this one.”
    He hesitated. “Okay.”
    “And in the meantime I babysit.”
    “She is the golden goose. Without her we have nothing to bait the trap with.”
    “Right.”
    Lucian hesitated. “You sound different. Is something wrong?”
    He squinted as he