Page 110 of An Indecent Longing

“Well, yeah. That’s what we were talking about.”

“Maybe you just have to ask them for it.”

“Right. I’ll just say, ‘Hey, would you both like to get naked and have sex? Or maybe you could switch off nights?’ What if they don’t want me anymore? What if they had me and now they want to move on but they can’t because the local crime lord paid them to guard me? What if—”

“Whoa, sis. Slow your roll—”

“—they think I’m not worth the trouble? I’m not even sure they’d make a move if I stripped naked and spread myself out on the dining room table during dinner. They’d probably throw a tablecloth over me and decide to eat in front of the TV in the living room.”

Risa laughed. And couldn’t seem to stop. She laughed so hard, she actually snorted, which made her laugh even harder.

“I’m glad you’re so amused by my plight. Where are you, anyway?” Dorrie unclenched her fist from around her pen and dropped it onto her desk. “Obviously somewhere no one can see you.”

“I’m at home. Dad has me under lockdown. He hasn’t said anything since Sunday, but I’m pretty sure he’s gotten some pretty graphic threats about me.”

“Are you worried? I mean, if he’s this freaked out, maybe something’s really wrong.”

“I don’t have a clue. I only know that it makes him overly twitchy if I even hint about going out so I’ve spent most of the past three days stuck in the house. I’m going stir crazy so I want us to meet for lunch tomorrow. Can you make it? We can talk about your little problem some more and maybe come up with a plan to get at least one of those men in your bed.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t wait until he gets this situation under control?”

“Absolutely not. If we wait until life is safe, we’ll never do anything.”

Risa had been telling Dorrie that variation on a theme for the past ten years at least. But for the first time in her life, Dorrie thought she actually might be tempted to take the advice.

“Tomorrow. The Lazarus?”

“No. I’ll get a suite at Haven. It’ll be safer. Tell your guys you’re meeting a private patient and make them wait by the door. We’ve gotten away with it before. We’ll be fine.”

“Fine but—” Her phone chimed in her ear and she pulled it away to look at the screen. And grimaced. “Hey, I gotta take this. I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you.”

As soon as she picked up the other call, a man said, “Incoming. GSW to the leg. ETA five minutes.”

She recognized the voice right away. One of her father’s oldest lieutenants, Matthew Kaverin handled the most dangerous aspects of the business. And the one aspect of her dad’s life she absolutely loathed.

The drug trade.

She also knew if her dad didn’t control it, someone else would. And that someone might not be as ruthless as her dad. He had strict rules for his dealers. No kids. No pregnant women. No dealing near schools or hospitals or churches.

“Acknowledged.”

The call cut off and Dorrie closed her eyes, shoving all the stuff in her brain into little compartments to deal with later.

Then she headed out to patch up the drug dealer headed for her back room.

* * * * *

Ben had drawn the afternoon shift that Friday, so he was sitting in Dorrie’s reception area, keeping an eye on the security feed from the hallway on his tablet while he flipped through a magazine without seeing the pages.

For the past four nights, Dorrie had slept in his bed. Alone.

He told himself he and Ian had made the right choice by not sleeping with her until this situation was resolved. That they were more focused and that she was safer for it.

Which was true.

But Ben’s neck had been itching again. And he was pretty sure it had to do with that back door into her office.

That door connected to a service hall that ran between the office suites and could only be accessed through a steel door inside the office suite, meaning someone inside the office would need to open it for access.

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