Leah got into the front seat and shut her door. Ali didn't shut hers, because she wanted to be able to hear someone coming up on them. "I've got his gym bag," she said. "I bet my iPod's in here. He stole it."

"Seriously?"

"I had better music, and he was always borrowing it for workouts. I want it back."

Leah flicked on a penlight and twisted to shine it so that Ali could see.

"Nice," Ali said.

"I like to be prepared."

"You have any candy in there? You know, in the name of preparation?"

Leah handed her a lollipop.

"I love you," Ali said. She popped the lollipop in her mouth and unzipped the gym bag. In unison, they both wrinkled their noses and jerked back from the odor of stinky guy emitting from the bag.

"Ew," Leah said. "Guys are disgusting."

Ali pulled the lollipop out of her mouth and stared into the bag. How badly did she want her iPod? Enough to move the stinky clothes around?

"Just do it," Leah said.

"You sound like a Nike commercial. I need more light."

Leah leaned closer with the light. "Hey," she said.

"What?" Ali instinctively checked out the windows to see if anyone was coming. "What's wrong?"

"You tell me. You've been crying."

Ali sighed. "Forget it."

"Oh, crap," Leah said. "What did he do?"

"Who?"

"Luke."

That Leah assumed Luke had blown it brought a warm fuzzy to Ali's heart, even as she laughed without much mirth. "It was me," she admitted. "He's got this way of making me feel like the prettiest, smartest, most wonderful woman on earth," she said.

"That bastard."

"No, you don't understand." Ali hesitated. "I fell for him. And it'd never work between us."

"Why not?"

"Why not?" Ali stared at her. "Have you seen him? He's totally out of my league."

"Bullshit," Leah said.

"And he's law enforcement."

"So, hot guy with a gun." Leah shrugged. "Still not seeing the problem here."

"My people don't go out with law enforcement," Ali said, "it just isn't done."

Leah laughed. "Your people? You mean women? Because, honey, women in general melt over guys like Luke Hanover."

"Yes," Ali said, diving into the unpleasant task at hand to search Teddy's bag. "But you can't make him melt back, now can you?"

Leah paused. "He doesn't feel the same as you?" she asked, sounding quite up in arms over this possibility.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure he does," Ali said, "but he told me right up front, he wasn't going to get involved. I wasn't going to get involved either, so there's no one to blame here but my inability to follow my own decree."

"Men suck."

"I am in complete agreement. And look." Ali pulled her iPod from a side pocket of Teddy's gym bag.

"Wow. He's perfect for politics. He's got that lying, cheating, stealing thing down."

"Are you keeping a lookout?"

"Yeah- oh shit."

This was immediately followed by the back door opening, and a big body sliding in next to Ali. "Yeah, oh shit," said a low male voice. A low, unbearably familiar voice, and both Ali and Leah squeaked.

"Luke," Ali breathed, a hand to her chest.

"I need the both of you to go back to your vehicles and drive away," he said in his cop voice.

Ali blinked. "What's going on?"

Luke slid a look at Leah. "Give us a second?"

"No," Leah said.

"Excuse me?" he asked, voice still low and authoritative but with a hint of disbelief.

Women probably didn't tell him "no" very often.

"No," Leah said again, "I'm not deserting Ali."

He softened slightly. "You aren't deserting her," he said. "You wouldn't. But I need a moment with her, alone."

Leah looked at Ali questioningly. Ali nodded, and Leah started to get out of the Lexus, but then whirled back and put a finger right in Luke's face. "I'm watching you," she said.

Luke didn't laugh. He didn't get pissed off. Instead he nodded seriously and touched the tip of his finger to Leah's. "I'm watching me too. It's okay, Leah. It's going to be okay."

Leah stared at him for another moment, then nodded. "See that it is."

Ali had no idea what to make of that exchange, but apparently Leah didn't have the same problem. She flashed Luke a small, but much warmer, smile and then vanished into the night.

In the dark interior of the car, Ali closed her eyes. "You didn't go. Why didn't you go?"

"I couldn't leave you."

Oh. Oh damn, that was good. "Luke-"

"What are you doing here?"

"Aubrey called. Bree's gone off the deep end. I think she'll come here."

"I told you she was under surveillance."

He had told her that. Why hadn't she remembered that?

"Listen to me, Ali," he said, all cop again. "Teddy's car, house, and office are under surveillance too. Half the police department is staking out Town Hall. Bree's already been there. Aubrey finally left work for the night, and Sawyer's covering all the bases. We've got someone in place in Teddy's backyard. No one's home that we can see."

"So...you want me to go."

"I want you out of here, yes. I want you safe. Bree's moving the money tonight. We're sure of it. She needs to get rid of it since the word is out about an arrest first thing in the morning."

Ali nodded. She understood all that, but she didn't move. She couldn't take her gaze off his face. "I really thought you were gone," she said softly. "Oh, Luke. Your job. Your review-"

"It'll have to wait." He paused. "Or not. Ali," he said very seriously, "I know that the men in your life have fucked you over. I promised myself that I wouldn't do that to you. I didn't want to get involved."

She tried not to react to that blow. "I know."

"But things change."

She tried to see his expression, but with little to no ambient light in the backseat, she couldn't see it clearly. "Your job, your life, is in San Francisco."

"As it turns out, only the job," he said. "And it also turns out that I'm not just the job."

She wasn't sure what that meant, whether to accept the odd surge of hope that suddenly blocked her throat or go with the panic licking at her gut. She worked at getting herself calm and wasn't entirely there yet when she said, "I'm sorry I said you're distant and that you don't feel. I shouldn't have. I picked a fight because I was hurt."

"I know. But you did mean it, and that's okay. It's true. And I want you to say what you mean, always. I can take it." He paused. "We can take it. We're tougher than words, the two of us."

Ali's heart stopped and then started again in staccato beat. "Luke-"

The front passenger door jerked open. Cool night air rushed in and so did a figure.

A female figure, but not Leah.

Luke squeezed Ali's thigh, but she didn't need the warning to be quiet.

There was a fiddling in the front seat and a very small beam of light. The woman had a flashlight.

Bree.

"Shit," she muttered when she couldn't get the glove compartment open. "Shit, shit, shit..." Then the thing suddenly opened and some stuff fell out.

"God, he is such a slob," she said, dumping everything in the glove box to the floorboards. Then she began to stuff something back in there from the duffel bag in her lap.

Money.

Chapter 26.

Ali couldn't believe it. Bree was working on getting money-and lots of it-into the glove compartment. But then she couldn't get it closed, no matter how much she pushed and shoved and swore. Bills were sticking out, and Bree swore at them too. Finally, she used the heel of her very wicked-looking boot to kick it closed.

Luke was doing something with his phone. Ali was working really hard on holding her breath, because Bree's perfume was getting to her. She was running out of air...

And then it escaped, a very loud, unladylike sneeze.

With a startled shriek, Bree whirled around, penlight in her mouth.

And a gun in her hand.

"Oh for God's sake," she muttered when she saw who it was. "Could this get any worse? Hands up," she ordered, swinging the gun back and forth between Ali and Luke like a pendulum.

Ali raised her hands, but Luke was slow to respond.

"Now," Bree warned him.

"You need to put the gun down, Bree," he said calmly.

She didn't. "What the hell are you two doing here?" she asked. "Especially you," she said to Ali.

"Me? What about you?"

"I'm having a fucked-up day, obviously!" Bree yelled. She blew a strand of hair out of her face, which was damp. In fact, she was uncharacteristically ruffled from head to badass-boot-covered toe.

"Put the gun down, Bree," Luke said again.

"Well, I can't now!" She glanced at Ali. "You screwed everything up. Everything," she said. "You and your stupid, sweet, easy-going, artsy-fartsy ways. This is all your fault, you know that? Teddy was mine. And then you fell for him, and he couldn't resist you, another sweet little thing who thought he walked on water. He was mine first, dammit!"

"But"-Ali stopped to sneeze again, twice in a row-"you're married to the mayor."

"Yeah. And he's also a financial planner, don't forget. I can't, because he's always working. He's a workaholic whose lover is his job. And the great thing for him is his lover doesn't care that he stopped working out and snores."