Murphy's Law Read Online Free Page A

someone to answer. A young woman in hot pink shorts and a midriff shirt pulled open the door and smiled broadly. “Jack!”
    The girl spoke French, and Lilly couldn’t understand anything that followed. The woman led them to a back room. Jack talked with the owner, a beautiful, dark-eyed siren. She smiled in Lilly’s direction and then left them alone.
    Lilly glanced out the office window at the parade of half-naked women traipsing by on their way back from the stage. The smell of cheap perfume lingered. Theater, her foot! He’d brought her to a burlesque house. The dancers strutted past in little more than gold sequined G-strings. She hadn’t seen that many tassels since the night of her high school graduation. She refused to remain there ten minutes, let alone spend the night.
    “A regular hangout of yours, Mr. Murphy?” she asked, anger burning deep within her.
    “Do you have a better idea? I know these people and I trust them.”
    As her pulse rate leveled, her temper soared. “You know them? You trust them?” she shrieked. He reached for her arm. She twisted away and scooted around a chair. “This is my life we’re talking about, you crazy bastard. You damn near got me killed tonight.”
    He came up in front of her and held her hands against her side. “Keep your voice down. Chantal is doing us a big favor by letting us use an upstairs room for the night.”
    “Your girlfriend is too generous.” She paused and sucked in a deep breath. “A room? You mean two rooms, right?”
    He shook his head. “No. If I meant two rooms I would have said so.”
    “I’m not sleeping with you again. You can shoot me first.”
    “I wasn’t offering you a choice. You seem to have forgotten that I’m a terrorist. I issue the orders, and you follow them.”
    “I also remember you denying that accusation,” she reminded him sharply.
    He obviously meant her no direct harm. If she hadn’t dragged her feet, making them both late, he too would have been killed on that boat. Apparently, he lost his partner but he didn’t blame her.
    She could sympathize, but she had her limits. She no longer controlled her own life. Her right to exercise freedom of choice boiled down to no choice at all: spend the night in a strip joint with a man she didn’t know or take her chances alone against some killer she couldn’t identify.

     
    * * * *

     
    “Is it safe to let your arms go?” Jack asked ruefully. He saw every one of her emotions clearly in her face. From fear to fury to resignation, Lilly’s features animated each of her changing emotions. Her blue eyes burned like sapphires, perfect gems that he could admire but never own.
    “Yes.”
    He shook his head, wondering if he’d been foolish enough to speak his thoughts aloud. “What?”
    She glanced down at the fingers that clutched her wrists like tight handcuffs. “You can let me go now.”
    He dropped his hands and took a step back. “Would you like to have a bath?”
    “Not if I have to share that with you too.”
    Jack laughed. He hadn’t thought about the logistics. She couldn’t be left alone or she would disappear out a window. “I’ll figure something out.”
    He took Lilly’s hand and led her to toward the apartment. She repeatedly   stumbled over his feet as they passed the scantily clad dancers in the narrow corridors. Thank goodness she didn’t understand French. If she had any idea what the women were saying to him, she’d be out the door in a flash. Although the comments complimented her   well -endowed figure, he didn’t think Ms. McGrath would be flattered.
    The apartments above the theater had been built as a brothel during the First World War. Chantal restored the furnishings to their original splendor with the exception of a few added modern conveniences. Lilly’s aversion to the theater in general stopped him from telling her about its notorious past.
    “Chantal. Can you have someone run a bath for Lilly?”
      “A shower would be fine,”