Sin on the Strip Read Free Page B

what kind of connection did the lieutenant and the lady have?
    She handed the article back to Christian and crossed her legs and arms with an uneasy sigh. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
    He chose his next words carefully, revealing only what she needed to know, what was useful for him to get her on board. “The other victim was Sammy Wise, but she was born Samantha Wiseman.” He waited for a moment to see if she’d recognize the name of her former employee. She didn’t. “Mr. Wiseman hired me to find his runaway daughter.”
    Her eyes widened as she angled in her chair to face him. She leaned in, one delicate hand clutching his armrest, the other draped over her knee.
    â€œShe was a runaway?”
    Her visceral response threw him. “Yes.” Why did she care if the girl had been a runaway?
    â€œHow do you know? I mean, what ties these—” Taking a moment, she noticed where her hand had shot to. She released her grip on his chair and sat back. “How are these cases related? The other girl was killed in Sacramento. Serial killers don’t travel, do they?” She glanced at a stone-faced Cooper, waiting for an answer.
    Cooper opened his mouth, but Christian cut him off before the lieutenant did exactly what the feds had asked him not to do, and maybe ruined his chance to catch this bastard. “The women were found in a bathtub. That’s the connection.” It was the truth, just not all of it. They’d been raped, marked, and then drowned. Just like his sister.
    Regardless of her less than ethical way of making a living, the woman exuded class. From her small pearl earrings to her stylish clothes and expensive shoes, Maggie Anderson knew how to present herself. Not exactly the gruff, cigar-smoking slimes he’d worked with in the past. But that didn’t mean he could trust her. She wasn’t exactly a femme fatale, but he’d bet his boss’s Beamer that Lizzie Borden’s parents never saw the ax coming.
    After some consideration, her frown lessened, only to reemerge. She focused on Christian, and for a moment he lost himself in the undertow of her blue eyes. Damn, had he thought she was pretty? She was beautiful. What the hell was she doing working in a strip club?
    â€œYou were hired to find the girl, but she was killed. Not to be harsh, but that would end your involvement on the case,” she said, putting him on the defensive.
    If she meant that he’d screwed up, he didn’t appreciate the reminder. “I wasn’t given much to go on; an old picture and her name, one she changed often. She had a habit of never staying in the same town for long. When I was hired, she’d been missing four years. Now her father wants his daughter’s murderer caught.” And dealt with.
    Whatever had occurred between father and daughter, it had been enough for Samantha Wiseman to take off at sixteen, just like Christian’s sister. It’s what prompted him to take the case. He’d gotten close a couple of times, but suspected she knew Daddy was looking for her and, well, she didn’t want to be found. Usually Christian went after women who desperately wanted the opposite.
    â€œFine,” she said, when plainly it wasn’t. “What makes you think,” she cleared her throat, “that one guy did this? And how can I help? I didn’t know the other victim.”
    She was lying. But for now, he had to consider how much he dared trust her with. “There are similarities, though nothing is certain.” And in case she was going to persist, he added, “That’s all you need to know.”
    She narrowed her gaze and the first impression he’d had of her, the “girl you brought home to mother,” was eaten alive. This was a woman who took no shit, a viper who just might suck you dry and not in a pleasant sort of way. Harsh? Maybe, but she ran a strip club, not a Girl Scout