'What are you going to do?' Gabrielle asked as she watched him slip inside the first room they'd come to. He quietly shut the door without answering, leaving her alone in the hall.
She stood perfectly still, hoping he'd hurry, trying to hear above the sound of her pounding heart. She felt like a spy, but not a very good one. Her hands shook and her scalp grew too tight. She wasn't cut out to be a Bond girl. Somewhere else in the house a cabinet door slammed shut, and Gabrielle jumped like someone had zapped her with a stun gun. She ran her fingers through her hair and took deep cleansing breaths. She didn't have nerves of steel. She glanced at her wristwatch and waited the longest five minutes of her life.
When Joe appeared again, a deep frown wrinkled his forehead and lowered his brows. Since he didn't look happy and wasn't calling for backup or breaking out the handcuffs, Gabrielle figured he hadn't found anything. She relaxed a little. Now they would leave.
Joe shoved her purse at her, then moved across the hall and quietly slipped into another room. The door had barely shut when she heard his familiar curse.
'Sweet baby Jesus!'
Everything within Gabrielle stilled. He'd found something. She sneaked inside the room and shut the door behind her, half expecting to see Mr. Hillard's Monet hanging on the wall. What she did see was just as shocking. Mirrors. Everywhere. On the walls, the backs of the doors of the walk-in closet, and on the ceiling. A round bed sat in the center of the room and was covered with a black-and-white sheepskin spread that had a big Oriental symbol in the middle. There were no chests of drawers or nightstands to restrict the view through the mirrors. Positioned beside the arched doorway leading to the bathroom stood a small pedestal table with an ivory chess set on top. Even from a distance of half the room's width away, Gabrielle cotdd see that the set was antique, Oriental, and, typical of that period, the nude pieces were not quite anatomically proportional. Gabrielle felt as if she'd stepped into a room at the Playboy mansion. Hugh Hefner's babe lair.
'Look at this place. Makes you wonder what kind of action he sees in here,' Joe said just above a whisper.
Gabrielle leaned her head back and looked up. 'And how much Windex he goes through.'
His gaze met hers through the mirrors on the ceiling. 'Yeah, that was my second thought.'
She hung her purse on her shoulder and watched him walk silently across the room, the thick white carpet muting the sound of his leather loafers. No matter where she looked, she was surrounded by his image. Caught by his dark intent eyes and the sensual lines of his mouth. The profile of his straight nose and the square, stubborn set of his jaw. The curls at the base of his neck, and his wide shoulders outlined perfectly in his ribbed polo. Her gaze moved down his back to the waist of his gabardine trousers, then he disappeared inside the closet, and she was alone with her own image. She frowned at her reflection and stood a little straighter.
So, Kevin was a little perverted, she thought as she pushed her curls behind her ear. It wasn't her business. Covering a bedroom with mirrors wasn't against the law. She ran her hand down the bib of her jumper, tilted her head to one side, and viewed herself with a critical eye. She was nothing like Nancy. She wasn't petite or blond or flirtatious, and once again she wondered what Joe saw when he looked at her.
She saw every little flaw multiplied around the room and couldn't imagine watching herself making love. Totally naked. Obviously Kevin didn't have the same qualm, and that was just a little more information than she wanted to know about him.
She walked to the bathroom, passing the chess set, with its rows of largely endowed and extremely erect pawns. She, didn't pause to inspect the other pieces; she really didn't want to know.
The bathroom space was filled with more mirrors, a shower stall, and a big Jacuzzi tub surrounded by tiles. A set of French doors led outside to a small deck and another Jacuzzi. Except for the mirrors, she could visualize herself drawing a bath for a nice relaxing soak, maybe adding some ylang-ylang, definitely lavender and rosemary.
Gabrielle sat on the edge of the
'What are you doing?'
She looked up into Joe's face and shoved her skirt down. His brows were pulled together in a straight line across his forehead.
'Looking at my mole. How did you know about it?'
He laughed quietly and lowered to one knee in front of the sink. 'I know everything about you,' he answered and began a search of the cabinet.
She opened her mouth to tell him she doubted her moles were a matter of police record, but the bedroom door swung open and she recognized Kevin's voice.
'What did you want?' he asked.
Gabrielle's breath caught in her throat, and her gaze found Joe's reflection in the mirror above the sink. He slowly stood and raised a finger to his lips.
The female voice that answered Kevin didn't belong to his girlfriend. 'I want to show you something,' Nancy answered.
'What's that?' There was a long pause before Kevin spoke again. 'Very nice,' he said.
'China told me about this room. About the mirrors.'
'And you wanted to see for yourself?'
'Yes.'
Joe reached for Gabrielle's hand and pulled her with him to the French doors.
'Are you sure? China might find out.'
'I don't care.' There was a sound like clothes hitting the carpet and Kevin said, 'Then come here and say hello to Mr. Happy.'
Silently, Gabrielle and Joe slipped outside onto the deck and shut the door behind them. A cool breeze lifted her hair and the bottom of her dress. The last orange and pink rays of the setting sun shot across a mackerel sky, and the lights of the city blinked to life in the valley below. Any other time, Gabrielle might have paused to appreciate the view, but tonight she hardly noticed. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she now knew a few more pieces of information about Kevin that she really wished she didn't. Like he cheated on his girlfriend with her best friend, and he called his penis Mr. Happy.
'Do you think Kevin heard us?' she asked just above a whisper.
Joe walked to the metal railing and looked over. 'No. He sounded pretty busy.' He straightened and moved to the left corner of the deck. 'We can jump from here.'
'Jump?' Gabrielle moved to stand beside Joe and looked over the side. The back half of Kevin's house and the whole deck hung from the side of a mountain and were supported by several substantial stilts. The earth below was corrugated with a succession of three-foot-wide terraces and braced with concrete to prevent erosion. 'When I signed the confidential agreement, it didn't say anything about jumping off Kevin's deck and breaking my neck.'
'You won't break your neck. It's only about ten or twelve feet from over here. All we have to do is climb over the rail, hang from the bottom of the deck, and let go. It'll only be about a four-foot drop.'
Her shoulder brushed his as she leaned out a little further. He made it sound so easy. 'Unless you miss the terrace you're aiming for, then it's about four more feet.' She turned and looked at his profile, bathed in the first shadows of night. 'There has to be some other way.'
'Sure. We could always go back inside and interrupt Kevin. I imagine things are getting really interesting just about now.' He looked across his shoulder at her.
'Maybe we could just wait a bit and then go through the house.'
'And what are you going to tell Kevin took us so long to get your purse? He’ll think we were knocking boots in the bathroom the whole time.'
'He might not think that,' she said but didn't really believe it.
'Yes he would, and I'd have to give you a big sucker bite on your neck and mess up your hair just to make sure that's exactly what he'd think.' He leaned way over the railing. 'It's up to you, though. But if we're jumping, we better do it before it gets any darker out here. I don't want to miss that terrace.' He straightened, looked at her,
