Ghost Hunter (14 page)

“I . . . I think so, yes,” she managed.

“Good,” he said. He stopped dancing, took her arm, and steered her purposefully back toward their booth. “In that case, you'll have to excuse me.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I need to go to the men's room.”

“Oh.”

Good grief, had she actually made Cooper Boone come in his pants right there on the dance floor? A wondrous sense of her own female power swept over her.

She gave him her most inviting, most intimate smile and tried not to let her gaze drop below his belt.

“Sorry about that,” she said lightly. “But you were the one who started that fire.”

“What fire?” he asked absently, his gaze going toward the far wall where a hallway led to the men's room.

“You know.” She leaned in close to him and lowered her voice. “I realize that a situation like this must be a little embarrassing for a man like you. Well, for any man, I suppose. But for you, especially. I mean, you're always so in control and all.”

“Embarrassing?”

She laughed airily. “I hope you didn't ruin your nice trousers. They look expensive. But that will teach you to get all hot and bothered on the dance floor.”

He brought her to a halt at the booth. “What,” he asked, polite but blank, “are you talking about?”

It dawned on her that she might have leaped to a very awkward conclusion.

“Never mind,” she mumbled, mortified.

“Damn it, Elly, I thought we were supposed to be practicing our communication skills here.”

She cleared her throat. “It's just that when you said you had to rush off to the men's room, I assumed that perhaps you'd had a little accident out there on the dance floor. Because of that steamy kiss and . . . you know.” She waved a hand to finish the sentence.

He gave her a slow, wicked smile. “Honey, if anyone could make me lose control in the middle of a dance floor, it's you. But as it happens, I didn't. Not this time at any rate. The reason I'm headed for the men's room is that I want to get a quick look at the back of the house.”

“Back of the house?”

“I want to see how this place is laid out behind the scenes. Offices, kitchens, that kind of thing. I also want to locate the executive suite, if possible. Don't worry, I'll be right back.”

So much for her stunning sexual powers.

“I could help you,” she said quickly. “I'll check out the
back of the house in the vicinity of the ladies' room. It's on the opposite side of the club.”

“Like hell you will. You will stay right here and wait for me.”

“We're supposed to be partners in this thing, if you will recall.”

“No one said anything about a partnership.”

“Hey, you wouldn't even be here tonight if I hadn't helped you.”

“Elly, be reasonable,” he said in a very low voice. “This is a casino. That means there's a lot of security everywhere, even if it isn't obvious. You don't know the first thing about evading cameras and guards.”

“And you do, I suppose?” she demanded, aware that she was starting to sound belligerent.

“Before I got this Guild boss gig, I spent years working undercover, remember?”

“Oh, yeah, right. I keep forgetting that you used to be an enforcer.”

“Investigator.”

“Whatever. Okay, okay, go do your thing.” She was about to slide into the booth, but the thought of her damp underwear made her pause. “I still need to go to the ladies' room, though, even if you won't let me do any spying.”

“Run along.” He gave her a pat on her derriere that was both affectionate and possessive. “Probably not a good idea to sit down until your panties dry out, anyway.”

He was gone, melting into the shadows and the crowd before she could take aim at his shin with the toe of her high-heeled shoe.

A SHORT TIME LATER SHE EMERGED FROM AN ORNATELY
carved and gilded green stall inside the small palace labeled Ladies. She washed her hands at one of the
black-and-gold sinks and checked her appearance in the massive, elaborately framed mirror.

Her cheeks were still a little flushed, and she had to make some adjustments to her hair, but otherwise she did not look too much the worse for wear, she decided. Not at all like a woman who had just been making out like a hormone-crazed teenager on the dance floor.

She walked back out of the restroom into the elegantly furnished hall and started to turn toward the opening that would take her back into the main room of the club.

The swinging doors marked Employees Only at the opposite end of the hall caught her eye. She looked at the ceiling and saw no sign of a camera.
Doesn't mean there isn't one around somewhere,
she thought. Cooper was right, this was a casino, and in a casino someone was always watching.

Still, what harm could there be in just walking along the hall toward the swinging doors? If anyone questioned her, she could always pretend to be a little inebriated and say that she had gotten turned around coming out of the restroom.

She started forward, tipping her chin down and angling it to the side. If there was a camera somewhere, hopefully it would only catch the crown of her head. She pretended to rummage around in her small, glittery evening bag as though searching for a lipstick.

The doors opened abruptly just as she arrived in front of them. She had to step back quickly to avoid getting run down by a man dressed in the green-and-black livery worn by the male cocktail waiters.

“Excuse me, ma'am,” the man said, letting the doors swing shut behind him. “Didn't see you. Can I help you?”

“I'm looking for the drinking fountain.” She gave him her best high-rez smile. “Someone told me it was just past the ladies' room.”

“Other direction. I'll show you.”

“Thanks.”

She kept her smile firmly in place as she allowed the waiter to guide her toward the black-and-green fountain at the opposite end of the hall. But it wasn't easy to maintain the facade of the happy, slightly drunk guest. Her heart was pounding.

That brief view of what Cooper had called the back of the house had been a revelation. She had felt as though she were standing on an elaborately decorated stage set, gazing into the wings behind the velvet curtains. The swinging doors were gates that divided the fantasy realm of the club from the real world on the other side.

The walls on the other side of the doors were not covered in gleaming black and amber tiles. Instead, they were painted drab beige. There was no carpet on the floor back there, and the lighting was the bright, cold kind that came from fluo-rez tubes installed in the ceiling.

In those few seconds she had glimpsed a number of people garbed in the various uniforms of their jobs—janitors, restaurant staff, croupiers, waiters—all moving about in a busy, purposeful manner.

She had noticed something else, too, something she was pretty sure would interest Cooper.

Harmony Drew, girl detective, eat your heart out.

SHE WAS SIPPING HER NEW EMERALD GHOST WHEN
Cooper finally reappeared.

“It's about time you got back,” she said when he slid into the booth beside her. “I was starting to think that something had gone wrong on your little tour of the back of the house.”

“Nothing went wrong. I had to borrow a few things, and then I had to return them. Took a little more time than I had planned.” He looked at the magnificent cocktail in front of her. “I see you ordered another one of those froufrou drinks.”

“Actually, this is my third. I had to do something. The waiter was starting to feel sorry for me. He thought my date for the evening had ditched me.”

“Yeah? What did you tell him?”

“That you'd had too much to drink, started feeling ill, and had gone to the men's room to throw up.”

“A colorful story.”

“I thought so.” She jiggled the swizzle stick in the Emerald Ghost. “What things did you borrow and return?”

“A janitor's uniform and set of keys.”

“Where did you get the clothes and the keys?”

“Out of a janitorial closet, where else?” he said.

She choked on a swallow of the Emerald Ghost and hastily patted her mouth with a napkin. “You stole a janitor's uniform and keys?”

“No,” he said patiently. “I told you, I borrowed them.”

“Good grief, Cooper, what if security had caught you? You could have been arrested.”

“I wasn't.” He patted one of the pockets of his jacket. “Got lucky and came across a little photocopied map of the club attached to one of the janitorial carts. Looks like the janitor used it to keep track of the rooms he'd cleaned.”

“What are you going to do with it?” she asked, seriously alarmed now.

“I don't know yet. But it's always nice to have a good map.”

A deep suspicion unfurled inside her. “You had fun, didn't you?”

“Fun?”

She took the swizzle stick out of the glass and aimed it at him. “I can tell you enjoyed yourself slipping around the back of the house, stealing stuff. You've got a real adrenaline buzz going, Cooper Boone.”

His mouth curved faintly. “You can tell that, huh?”

“Yes, I can.” She took another swallow of her drink. “What if I told you that three guys tried to hit on me while you were out playing detective?”

“Point 'em out to me, and I'll fry their brains.”

“Hah. I don't believe that for a second. You only conduct duels when there's Guild business involved, remember?”

“We're back to the duel thing?”

“Sorry. Couldn't help it. Didn't mean to bring up that
subject, honest.” She examined her drink a little more closely. “You know, these things may be a bit sneaky. They taste good going down, but I seem to have become rather chatty in the past few minutes.”

He looked amused. “I think it's time we went home. Been a long night.”

“Yes, it has, hasn't it? Can't waste this, though. It was a very expensive drink.” She picked up the glass and downed the last of the Emerald Ghost. When she was finished she smiled brightly at Cooper. “We can go now.”

He helped her out of the booth and steered her toward the green waterfall. “I do believe that this is the first time I've ever seen you tipsy.”

“Probably because I always had to be very careful about that kind of thing back in Aurora Springs.”

“I see.”

“Other issues, like hangovers, aside, Mom always made it clear that having the daughter of a Guild Council member get drunk in public would be very embarrassing for Dad.” She winked. “Guild image thing, you know.”

“Belonging to a high-ranking Guild family has put a lot of pressure on you over the years, hasn't it?”

“Yep. Want to hear a little secret?”

“Sure.”

“Before I met you, I had made up my mind that I was going to marry outside the Guild, no matter what everyone thought.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep.” She noticed that they were on the path that meandered through the waterfalls. She held out a hand to let water splash on her palm. “I'd been plotting my escape ever since I was a teenager. That's why you never had to worry about me running off with Palmer Frazier or anyone else on your dumb Council.”

“But you changed your mind when you met me?”

“Thought you were different.”

“What do you think about me now?” he asked.

“You're definitely different,” she said. “But in a different way than I first thought. If you see what I mean.”

“Not sure that I do,” he said.

“Me, either,” she confessed.

Outside the nightclub, the streets were still busy. The lights of the cars and taxis were reflected in the veil of fog. Elly took several deep breaths in an attempt to clear her head. After a while she abandoned the effort as futile.

When Cooper bundled her into the front seat of the Spectrum, she collapsed with a small sigh of relief and closed her eyes.

“So,” Cooper said, climbing in beside her on the driver's side. “I've been wondering about something.”

“What's that?” she mumbled, half-asleep.

“Did your panties ever dry out?”

“Don't know. Haven't checked.”

He gave a low, sexy laugh and pulled away from the curb. “What do you mean? Can't you feel them?”

“Nope.”

“Too far gone on those Emerald Ghosts to figure out whether or not your underwear is still damp?”

“Nope. Can't tell if my panties ever got dry because they're in my purse.”

“Your
purse.
What the hell are they doing there?”

“Took 'em off when I went to the ladies' room because they were sort of uncomfortable, and I was afraid that if I sat down in them, they might create a potentially embarrassing spot on the back of my skirt, which happens to be rather expensive.”

“You were sitting there in that little scrap of a skirt without any panties on while you downed those Emerald Ghosts?” he demanded.

He sounded outraged to the depths of his Guild boss soul, she thought.

She smiled and snuggled into a more comfortable position in the seat. “Not exactly the sort of behavior you expect from a proper Guild boss wife, is it? Told you I did you a favor when I canceled our engagement.”

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER COOPER PARKED IN THE FOG-BOUND
alley behind St. Clair's Herbal Emporium. He was still waging a private internal struggle between hot lust and masculine outrage. He couldn't get the vision of Elly sitting in the booth without any panties on out of his head.

He went around to the passenger side and opened the door. She was sound asleep. She did not stir when he hauled her out and settled her over one shoulder.

He secured her with a hand high up on her thighs and immediately regretted the move. In her present position, the hem of her minuscule skirt was all the way up to the bottom of her sweetly rounded buttocks. His fingers were only inches away from the cleft between her legs.
And she wasn't wearing any panties.

He managed to get the door of the shop open and carried Elly inside without banging her head.

When he rezzed the light he saw Rose watching him from one of the workbenches. The dust bunny blinked her blue eyes a couple of times and bounced up and down in agitation.

“She's okay,” Cooper said. “One too many Emerald Ghosts.”

He extended his arm. Rose scampered up his sleeve to his free shoulder.

He walked to the stairs. Pausing there, he adjusted Elly's weight, and assessed the climb.

“A Guild boss has gotta do what a Guild boss has gotta do,” he announced to Rose.

He started up the stairs.

At the top he stopped to take a couple of deep breaths.

“She's heavier than she looks,” he informed Rose. “Probably all muscle.”

He got his burden into the darkened bedroom and dumped her carefully onto the quilts. Rose hopped down beside Elly and nuzzled her chin.

Elly opened her eyes and patted Rose reassuringly. Then she gave Cooper a dreamy smile.

“Thanks for carrying me up the stairs,” she said. “Not sure I could have made it on my own tonight.”

“You're welcome,” he said. “I needed the exercise.”

He leaned down and removed first one flashy little high heel and then the other.

Elly yawned. “No need to undress me. Just throw a quilt over me.”

“It's no trouble,” he said, letting one palm glide up the curve of her leg.

“Go away,” she ordered. “I don't think you could handle the shock of seeing me without my panties.”

“Guild bosses are sturdier than you might expect,” he said hopefully.

She reached for the edge of the quilt and tugged it over herself. “Good night, Cooper.”

He smiled and reluctantly went to the doorway. “Good night, Elly.”

“By the way, remind me to tell you what I noticed when I went to the ladies' room tonight.”

“Does it involve underwear?”

“No,” she murmured, nestling deeper into the pillow. “Psi energy. The kind given off by those psi-bright herbs that Bertha found down in the catacombs. But real intense.”

“What?”
He started back toward the bed. “Are you telling me you can pick up psi from
plants
?”

“I know, it's weird.”

“Elly—”

She wagged a finger at him. “Big, dark family secret. The amber in my earrings is tuned. Promise me you won't tell anyone.”

“Wait a second, Elly. Stay with me here. What were you saying about sensing herbs like those that Bertha found?”

“Bunch of 'em, I think. Enough to give off quite a buzz.” She yawned. “Stored somewhere in that hallway just beyond the ladies' room at the club.”

She closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Cooper watched her for a long moment, aware of the deep, restless need that prowled through him.

After a while he went back out into the alley to retrieve his duffel bag from the trunk of his car.

On the way back up the stairs it occurred to him that he had neglected to tell Elly that he had checked out of his hotel earlier that day.

“Have to remember to mention it to her in the morning,” he said to Rose.