Free Limbo by Amy Andrews Page B

because the thought that people like that were out there in a world Katie inhabited made him want to load up his gun.
    ‘Okay, no more panties.’
    She snorted. ‘Not for you anyway.’
    Dash shrugged philosophically. That was pretty much par for the course where his sex life was concerned at that moment. ‘The point is ,’ he continued, ‘you should leave this stuff to the professionals.’
    ‘So you are going to help me?’
    Dash gave an emphatic shake of his head and blew on his coffee. ‘I’m busy.’
    She raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Reading the paper?’
    ‘I have irons in fires.’
    She looked around his empty office pointedly. ‘ This is irons in fires?’
    ‘A lot of P.I. work is waiting.’
    The look she gave him was one hundred percent sceptical. ‘Fine. I’ll…’
    She let the sentence hang for long moments and he could see her brain scrabbling behind those solemn brown eyes for something, anything that might sway him. ‘I’ll pay you.’
    Dash snorted. ‘I don’t come cheap.’
    She glanced around his office again, clearly finding his spartan tastes wanting. ‘So you blow it all on child support? Or booze and bad women?’
    ‘I’m a guy. We don’t go for prissy or any of that feng shui crap.’
    ‘Nope. Looks more like sad, divorced guy circa 2011.’
    ‘It gets the job done. The décor doesn’t matter.’
    ‘Yeah but what about poor Ralph?’
    She looked over his shoulder and Dash turned to eyeball the fish-that-refused-to-die. When he’d been married and it had been their turn on Katie’s class goldfish roster at least one of the little bastards would die. Not so Ralph. He just swam aimlessly around his small bowl in one continuous loop.
    Day after day after day for over three years now.
    ‘He has a seven-second memory. He’s pretty chilled.’
    ‘Are you kidding? He doesn’t have any memory left. He’s been lulled into a stupor from chasing his tail around the world’s smallest bowl for the few years. He’s not chilled, he’s freaking hypnotised. He needs…greenery or something. Even you have a plant.’
    Dash watched Ralph’s current slow revolution. ‘That would probably kill him,’ he mused as he turned back to face Joy. ‘Probably shouldn’t upset his routine.’
    She eyed him for long moments, her gaze squarely on his face now. ‘How much do you charge?’
    He told her and there was a certain sense of satisfaction as she blinked in a way that told him she was seeing him in a completely new light.
    ‘You can have the reward money,’ she blurted out, surprising even herself if the angry eyebrow v and the little circle she made with her lips was any indication.
    He cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘I thought you didn’t want anything to do with the money?’
    Joy sighed. ‘I don’t…’
    ‘Eve has an opening next door if you need to make a little extra cash.’
    ‘And you know this how?’
    He grinned. ‘She always has an opening.’
    And then, as if she knew her name was being uttered, the door opened and a woman stepped into the office.
    Joy blinked at the Jessica Rabbit vision before her. Tall, blonde and curvy with a nice full mouth that curled up prettily at the ends. She looked like a fifties screen siren in her tight pencil skirt and clingy v-necked sweater.
    ‘Eve,’ Dash smiled. ‘We were just talking about you.’
    Joy stared. Eve? This was Eve? This was far from Dolly Parton. This looked like the kind of woman searching for a Maltese Falcon.
    Frankly, Eve was hot.
    Hell, if she’d been into women, she’d be drooling all over the floor about now. In fact, Eve was the type of woman that other women turned for.
    Joy was sure as shit thinking about switching sides.
    ‘All good I hope,’ she laughed in a sexy vibrato that reminded Joy of smoky clubs and earthy blues.
    ‘But of course.’
    Joy blinked at the grin Dash dazzled Eve’s way. It was all slow and easy, emphasising the fullness of his crooked mouth and those killer dimples. It transformed