Page 71 of Lawbreaker

“I love sushi,” she remarked.

“Me, too.”

“Have you ever been to Japan?” she asked, wanting to know.

He nodded. “Just once. It was great. But the trip over...” He groaned. “I thought I’d go crazy cooped up for that long.”

“I know what you mean. I can never sleep on long flights.”

“Alcohol helps,” he teased. “But there’s never enough to knock me out, no matter how far I have to go.”

“Have you ever gone down to the Caribbean?” she wondered, lost in his dark eyes. It took a few seconds for her to remember what Stasia had told her, that Tony had been accused of a murder he didn’t commit, and he’d stayed in the Bahamas with Marcus Carrera, another big name in deadly men. She flushed. “Sorry. I forgot.”

He reached for her hand and locked his big fingers in her long, soft ones. “It was a bad time. One of my adopted daughter’s in-laws helped me clear myself. Hell of a thing, to be framed for a murder I never committed. I got lucky. The vicious little jump-up who thought he’d take over my territory made an enemy of the biggest man upstate. Big mistake.”

The feel of his fingers in between hers made her heart jump. She was trying to concentrate, though. “What happened to him?” she asked.

He leaned toward her, his cheek sliding gently against hers. “Bad things,” he whispered, and his lips brushed her ear. He chuckled deeply at her soft gasp.

He drew back just as Ben pulled up to the curb. “Lunch,” he announced.

He opened the door for Tony and Odalie and helped them into the Japanese restaurant. They were greeted and led to a booth near the window. Odalie slid in, and Tony slid right in beside her, close enough that his leg was against hers. The waitress handed her a menu with a smile before she put one in Tony’s hands and then in Ben’s.

“Would you like hot tea?” she added.

“Please,” Odalie said. “Green tea.”

“Same,” Tony replied.

“Me, too,” Ben added.

The waitress grinned and went to get it.

Odalie barely looked at the menu.

“What?” Tony asked.

“Miso soup and ebi,” she said with a grin. “It’s my favorite. Lots and lots of ebi.”

“Shrimp.” Tony rolled his eyes. “You have to try it all. You might like different things.”

“I tried different things,” she assured him. “That’s why I want shrimp. Because I tried the other things.” She made a face. “I ended up with sashimi instead of sushi.” She closed her eyes and gave a mock shiver. “Some fish,” she whispered, “absolutely must be served cooked!”

“Wimp,” he teased, and his dark eyes sparkled as they met hers.

Her breath caught in her throat just looking at him. He was so handsome.

He was thinking the same thing about her. She was a true beauty, inside and out. It was useless to try and backtrack now, no matter how it ended. At least he’d have sweet memories. In the meantime, he could try to keep his enemies away from her.

One of his enemies, in fact, was fuming. He’d just been warned by the senator he thought was in his back pocket that a full investigation was being initiated into the massacre in Iraq.

“It’s ancient history,” Phillip James snarled. “Nobody cares anymore!”

The senator just smiled. “One of the victims had a relative who lives in New York City. He’s a United States marshal.”

James went pale for a few seconds, until he remembered that he had reasons to know that important people in Justice would back him up. They wouldn’t want to. But they’d do it. So he smiled, too.

“I’m not frightened,” he told the senator. He laughed softly. “So there’s no evidence to convict you. But—” he toyed with a paper on his desk “—you have a daughter who’s involved in some very bad things, don’t you?” he added, lifting his eyes suddenly to catch the senator’s.