Free Tempted by Fate by Kate Perry Page A

can handle that?”
    “Hey, stranger.” Turning her bright smile on him, she hopped up and hugged him.
    He unbuttoned his coat. “Your husband driving you to drink already? You’ve been married, what? Two days?”
    “Two weeks. And, no, Max is perfect.”
    Ramirez felt a pang of envy. Not that he’d ever expected to be in a relationship. With his hours, the danger, thestress… definitely not conducive to long-term relationships. “I think Max is the lucky one.”
    “Well, duh.” She laughed and knocked his arm. “Where have you been? I know my husband is territorial and jealous, but he won’t hassle you too badly for visiting me.”
    Her husband, Maximillian Prescott, was actually a solid guy. He seemed stable and clearly worshiped the ground Carrie walked on. Ramirez had to like anyone who took care of his own as carefully as Prescott did. “My caseload has been heavy.”
    Carrie got serious, putting a hand on his arm. “Are you okay? It’s not getting to you, is it? You know, if you need a vacation, Max has a great house in Santa Monica. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind it if you used it. Actually, he has houses all over the world. Pick one. I’ll have Max loan you his plane, too.”
    Houses all over the world. A private plane. Ramirez shook his head. “Your reality is so skewed.”
    “I know.” She laughed. “Isn’t it great?”
    He felt the air shift behind him. He turned right as Gabrielle ducked under the bar top.
    She had her hands full of empty bottles, but that didn’t stop her from glaring at him. “Aren’t you supposed to hang out in donut shops?”
    “Why, when you have such a sweet disposition?” he asked blandly.
    Carrie snorted.
    Gabrielle flashed a glare at her friend and then dumped all the bottles into a bin. Without a word, she pulled a bottle of Patrón from the top shelf and poured him a shot. She shoved it across the bar at him and, with another evil look, went to engage another customer in conversation.
    Ramirez picked up his shot glass. “She grows more charming each time I see her.”
    “Can you blame her? You’re out to lynch her brother.” Carrie clinked her glass to his. “They may have World War Two–type history between them, and she says he deserves what he gets, but deep down she cares. Gabe is very sensitive on the inside.”
    He raised his eyebrows but said nothing.
    “She is.” Carrie grinned. “I don’t get why you guys hate each other so much. You’re like oil and water. And to think, at one time, I thought you were interested in her.”
    His moral code forbade him from being interested in a woman who was on the other side of the law, and he was fairly certain Gabrielle Sansouci Chin crossed the line whenever it suited her. So did
Sophie Mitchell—
he had no doubt about that, either.
    His frown deepened. Watching her take out that man had been exciting. She was so tough, and then she’d surrendered to him so sweetly. So passionately.
    He could still taste her on his lips.
    He shook his head and shot back the rest of his tequila.
    “Hmm.” Carrie leaned back and looked at him speculatively. “Do I detect woman issues?”
    He pushed the glass away from him. “You should leave the detecting to the professionals.”
    “So are you going to tell me why you called me in the middle of the night?”
    “How did your professor actually die?”
    She froze, her glass raised halfway to her lips. After a moment, she set it down with a
thunk.
“Not this again.”
    “Wait.” He held her arm when she started to retract from him.
    “No.” She tugged away from him. “If I knew you were going to beat this dead horse, I wouldn’t have agreed to meet with you.”
    “That’s not what I mean.”
    “Well, then, what
do
you mean?”
    His jaw clenched tight. Everything in him fought saying the words, but it had to be done. “Have you noticed that there’s something going on?”
    Carrie rolled her eyes. “You’ll have to be more specific than that.”
    “Strange