Free The Lady in Pink - Deadly Ever After 2 by J. A. Kazimer Page A

Izzy walks in on you and me, and what? She ends our partnership? She stabs me with a toothbrush? What?”
    Bo licked her lips. “You don’t need her. Without her interference you can be the man you are meant to be.” She reached for my arm, but I pulled back before I caused real harm. I’d done enough as it was. “Give us a chance,” she said. “With your insider knowledge of your clients and my savvy, we can make a pile of money, and in the end, we will rule this city. You and I. Together.”
    “You and I, huh?”
    Her lips lifted into a stunning and sexy smile. She ran her finger down her robe, dipping into her nakedness with the promise of a million earthly delights. “Yes. Us.”
    I laughed but without humor. “I’d rather screw a light socket.”
    With that parting shot, I walked across the room and pressed the elevator call button. Not the smoothest of exits, but I was merely a man, a man who sure as hell didn’t want to walk down a hundred flights of stairs. The elevator finally arrived, and I stepped in, not once looking at Bo.
    As the elevator doors slipped shut, the faint scent of fairy dust and what smelled like the sea brushed over my senses. I pictured Izzy and her utter lack of emotion. My chest gave a small squeeze in response. Great. On top of a dead intern, I now had heart disease.
    Sometimes life just wasn’t fair.
     
    The unfairness of it all faded as I headed back to my apartment. I’d known better. Bo wasn’t hard to read. She did whatever it took to get what she wanted in the end. Nothing was ever what it seemed when she was around. I vowed to avoid playing her hide-and-sheep games from then on.
    After a thirty-minute hike to my apartment, my anger had receded along with the pull of lust in my loins. I’d just have to tell Izzy the truth, that nothing had happened between Bo and me, that I’d gone to pump her for information, and not for anything else. Not that Izzy would believe me. After all, she had little reason to believe that I’d changed. That I’d matured. But I had, damn it! The last hour aside.
    Tossing the half-smoked cigarette into the street, I entered my apartment building and climbed the four flights of stairs to my apartment. The faint twitter of bells and music reached my ears as I pressed my key into the lock on my door.
    Before I could open the lock, the door flew inward, as did my entire body. I tried to catch myself but ended up tripping over the electrostatic mat on the floor and landing facefirst on the hardwood. The sticky residue of melted rock salt scraped against my cheek as the faint aroma of charred intern burned into the floorboards assaulted my nostrils.
    I quickly leapt to my feet, expecting a jolt of electricity beyond any I’d known to rocket through my body. When nothing happened, I let out a shallow breath and looked around the apartment for whoever had opened the door. I was surprised and pleased to see a set of pink wings.
    “Izzy,” I began. “I’m so glad—”
    She cut me off. “We have to leave in an hour for Clayton’s fund-raiser. I brought you something to wear . . .” She held out a black tuxedo, the same style worn by dapper spies who liked shaken martinis.
    “You didn’t have to—”
    She snorted. “Oh, but I did. We all know how busy you are . . .” “I can explain. Bo said she—”
    “If you want to make a fool of yourself again, I couldn’t care less. What and who you do are your business.” She threw the tuxedo on the couch, her actions at odds with her words. “I’m going home to get ready for the gala.” She paused, looking me up and down. “Unless you asked Bo Peep to be your date.”
    “Damn it, Izzy. It wasn’t like I planned—”
    She held up her hand to cut me off. “I’ll expect you in one hour, unless, of course, you accidently fall on top of another naked woman.”
    I raised an eyebrow at her snarky statement.
    She smiled, showing off sharp white teeth. “But what are the odds of that happening