"But you won't?" The arch of one dark brow was openly skeptical.

"No." He tried to look straightforward. It was actually easier to produce an honest expression when he Wasn't telling the truth. Honesty was far more nerve wracking. "I have too much respect for your intelligence to bullshit you."

Phoebe's laugh was throaty, full of sex. "That's a good line. I can?t wait to hear the rest of it."

The rest of it. Right. "Yeah, well, there isn't much more. I hate to admit it, but I'm jus-curious "

"Curious?" The word pursed her mouth, still moist with soda.

"That's right." He gave a mental wince, but there was no going back, so he went with it. "It's the way I am. Sometimes I just wonder how things work. I mean, I've probably been in hundreds of bars since I reached the age of consent and never thought about what makes them work." He shrugged. "Then I'm in JR's last night, and it hits me. Like a bolt of lightning."

"Curiosity."

"That's it. No deep, dark secret. Just-curiosity."

He swallowed dryly and smiled his invitation for her to trust him into the skeptical furnace of her gaze.

The kicker was, Phoebe almost did trust him. It was just screwy enough to be true. He could simply be a curious guy. Yeah, and I'm the president's lady.

The look in his eyes made it easy for her. Phoebe couldn't, wouldn't trust easily. Whatever he was, whether his interest was in her or the bar, she couldn?t afford to trust him. He didn't have to be a bad guy to be dangerous to her.

She had to know and know fast, what he was after, so she straightened and stepped close to him, giving him a smoky smile. She'd played the vamp before, but this time it Wasn't playing. Or maybe it was that playing didn't feel right.

"Well, Curious Jake, I hate to see a man with an itch he can't scratch. So why don't you come with me today and I'll share with you the deep-" she smoothed the collar of his flannel shirt, her hands just brushing the sides of his jaw- "dark secrets of bar management. Then you won't have to be curious anymore. You'll-know."

Again Jake swallowed dryly. "Sounds-interesting."

"Oh, yeah. It's interesting all right. About as interesting as watching grass grow." She snagged a minute bit of lint from the collar of his shirt and flicked it away, knowing she'd moved past research to playing with fire. Lovely, warm fire. "That just leaves one important point to be decided."

"What's that?" His voice was husky, and his eyes had little flames at the back of them.

It looked as if she'd rubbed the right materials together. She just hoped she could control the fire.

"Whether you want to take your truck or pile in with me." She stepped back, against her own inclination and just shy of outright conflagration. "I should warn you, though, I probably won't be coming back here until...bedtime."

For a moment he didn't have breath to answer. He tried for casual, but his smile Wasn't the only thing woody. "Then I guess I'd better take my truck. I gotta run a couple of errands this afternoon."

Like get some ice to shove down his pants. Lots of it. And maybe take a couple of cold showers. He rubbed the back of his neck and wondered what he?d gotten into.

Her amusement should have taken the starch out of him, but the mischief in her eyes was contradicted by some obvious signs that he Wasn't the only one popping with lust, he decided as his gaze skimmed across that part of her tee shirt lifted by curving breasts.

It felt good to look at her, but it Wasn't good. She was almost certainly involved with Phagan and Hyatt. Maybe if he made that reminder his mental mantra, his body would get the message and quit sending his blood supply south.

"Fair enough." Her lashes hid her eyes. "You can follow me over and sate your curiosity."

"Yeah, well." He stepped back, putting distance that didn't help between them. "I make it a policy not to get too curious. You know what they say about curiosity and the cat."

Her face went blank, her eyes ice cool. "Yeah, I do."

It was, Jake thought grimly, more sobering than a cold shower.

Stern was still at the computer when Peter Harding let himself into the office. He looked up, surprised to see Peter standing there.

"You been here all night?" Peter asked. He surveyed Stern?s unshaven chin and rumpled clothes with distaste.

"The whole network was compromised. I had to restore from the backup." That was the short version of his night but all he'd offer, since Harding wouldn?t understand his pleasure at battling, and beating, who ever had altered the screensaver.

"Bet you wish you'd known about it before you killed the little bastard."

That was true, but not for the reason Harding thought. Perhaps he'd been hasty where Smith was concerned. It was satisfying to kill the good, but even more satisfying to turn them. And Smith, if he was the author these annoyances, might have been able to make RABBIT run.

Harding's intercom buzzed.

"Who else is here?" Stern asked.

"Just the guard." Harding depressed the button. "What?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but an Agent Bailey from the FBI is asking to speak with you. What do you want me to tell her?"

"Her?" Harding looked to Stern for guidance.

Did he realize how often he did that, Stern wondered? "You'd better see her."

"Show her up," Harding said.

Stern shut off the monitor. "I'll wait next door. Leave the intercom open."

Phoebe unlocked the double doors of JR's, releasing the stale smell of bar nights to rush past Jake. There were no windows in the main part of the building, so the rectangle of daylight from the open door was the only illumination in the dark. Jake hesitated, but Phoebe took off her sunglasses and walked forward, the beat of her feet against the wooden floor not faltering once.

Who was she? And why was she willing to accept "Curious Jake" at face value, give him carte blanche to snoop around JR's unchecked? Did she suspect him? Was she using this tour to demonstrate she had nothing to hide? Maybe she didn't have anything to hide. If she didn't, why did her face keep changing like a turning prism, until he Wasn't sure what was real and what Wasn't? Was she part of Phagan and Hyatt's game or someone caught in it like he was?

It was possible that Hyatt was using her to cover his trail without her knowledge.

Yeah, and it was possible he was reaching for straws in a high wind. Or even worse, thinking with his dick instead of his brain.

In the middle of the room one spotlight came on, casting an almost perfect circle on the wooden floor. He pushed the door closed and took a couple of steps forward, then halted when he saw her slowly emerge from shadow, stopping at the edge of the light's heart.

"Here it is, Curious Jake." Her voice was a husky, evocative echo in the big empty room. "The country bar in all its bare, tawdry glory. Go ahead and sate your...curiosity."

Would he take the bait, she wondered, trying to slow her wildly beating heart. It was as provocative, as dangerous as climbing without a proper belay, but Phoebe couldn't help herself. You know what they say about cats and curiosity, he'd said. Was it a threat? If he was dangerous, why did she feel safe around him? There was no way to know anything for sure, only her instincts to guide her on a path that even Pathphinder couldn't see the end of.

On the other side of the light she heard Jake walking toward her, his measured footsteps on the wooden floor beating the same tempo as her heart. He stopped just shy of her circle. She wanted to invite him to step in, and wrap herself around him. She wanted to heal herself in his eyes and to warm herself against his body. She didn't dare move toward him, couldn't make herself move away from him.

All she could do was wait and see what his next move would be.

He stared at her, felt the pull behind her neutral eyes and still body. Longed to close the space that separated them and bury himself in her.

He'd felt lust before, even felt a longing for the emotional completion his brothers had found with their wives. He remembered Luke saying he'd known the first time he looked in Rosemary's eyes that his life would never be the same. At the time, he'd thought it was Luke's hormones talking. Now he understood what Luke meant. How ironic that he was feeling it for the one woman he couldn't have.