The Select

losing her balance.

Suddenly Tim loomed up beside them, bloody nose, bloody mouth, and he was yanking the big one around and slamming his fist into the bump of the nose behind the mask. Quinn heard a crunch, heard a cry of pain, and then the smaller one was there, pulling his partner away, pointing toward the underside of the boardwalk.

Quinn kept up her shouting. She craned her neck above the level of the boards and saw security guards rushing toward them from the casino entrance. When she turned back the two muggers were already disappearing into the darkness under the boardwalk. Then she saw Tim slump against the hand rail, gasping, retching. Quinn darted to his side and hung there, not knowing what to do, where to touch him, where not to touch him, but knowing too well that her control was tearing loose and that all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and cry.

So that was what she did.

MONITORING

Louis Verran snatched up the phone on the first ring.

'Yeah?'

'Chief—it's Elliot.'

Tell me something good, Elliot!

'We got it.'

Verran let out a long, slow sigh. At last. All this grief over a lousy bug.

'Where are you now? You made it out of town okay?'

'No problem.' He sounded pumped, half delirious with relief that he'd come through without getting pinched. 'We're at a rest stop on the Delaware pike. We took him outside on the beach. It was too perfect to pass up. He put up a fight but we nailed him good. Then we ducked under the boardwalk, ditched the ski masks, and reversed the jackets. Kurt ran north to his car and I went south to mine, just like we planned. Nobody gave us a bit of trouble. Very smooth, Chief. Very smooth.'

Of course it was smooth, Verran thought. You plan out all your moves ahead of time, it always goes smooth. Even if the AC cops could have got out an APB in time, they'd have been looking for two guys of unknown race wearing black or dark blue windbreakers. A lone white male driving out of town in a red jacket wouldn't get a second look.

'And the cops? You give them a call?'

'Didn't have to. The hotel fuzz was coming to the rescue just as we were leaving.'

Perfect.

'Where's Kurt now?'

'He's in his car not ten feet from me, waiting to get home.'

'Good. Both of you come straight here. I'm proud of you guys.'

And besides, Verran wanted to see and feel that rotten lousy defective bug in his very own hand. Tonight.

SIXTEEN

'At least I didn't lose any teeth.'

Tim sat on the bed with an ice pack against his right cheek. Quinn knelt beside him, her hands clasped between her thighs, still shaking inside. The room was warm but her hands felt cold; she felt cold all over.

'You could have lost your life.'

They'd been to the hotel infirmary once, in and out of the hotel security office twice—she had to say the Taj Mahal had been genuinely solicitous, even though the mugging had occurred off their premises—and to the Atlantic City Police department and back. They had filled out forms, given descriptions, and recounted the events leading up to and during the attack until they were both sick of talking about it.

The consensus was that it had been a random mugging, but Quinn remembered that feeling of being watched. She hadn't said anything to the police about it, though. But she suspected the two attackers had watched them win heavily, seen them go outside to the deserted boardwalk, and made their move.

Tim fingered the tears in his sport coat with his free hand.

'Look at this. Torn to shreds.' He looked at her, reached out and rubbed her arm. His warm touch felt good. 'You okay?'

She nodded. 'I only got shoved around a little. But I feel completely worn out.' She felt as if she'd been inflated to twice her size, and then had her plug pulled. A dull, throbbing headache topped it off.

'I know what you mean. But you got more than just shoved around. That goddamn creep!'

She didn't want to talk about it, even think about it. She put her hand over his. 'You were very brave.'

He snorted. 'Brave? They had me down on my back and were punching my lights out.'

'No. I mean after, when the big guy was attacking me. I know they hurt you, but still you got up and...came to help.'

'I couldn't very well lie there and let him maul you, could I?'

'But you were hurt.'

'Yeah, but I've seen all those John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies. They sort of make you feel there are things you should do even though you know you're going to get hurt.'

Quinn slid closer and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

'Does this hurt?'

'I'd say that's just what the doctor ordered.'

Quinn felt oddly warm, with rushes of heat coursing through her. Short of breath too. All the good feelings she had for Tim crowded close around her, pressing her to him, and all the doubts and reservations she'd had, all the irritations he caused were gone, blown away. They didn't matter any longer. Tonight they'd walked together through a fire. She felt joined to this man.

She lifted her head and kissed him on the lips, gently.

'Sorry,' she said. 'I don't know why I did that.' And that was true. She hadn't planned it, or even thought about it. She'd just...done it.

'Do it again,' he said softly. 'But easy on the lower lip. It's killing me.'

And what followed came very naturally, very slowly, with their clothes being shed bit by bit, like old skin, and the heat building incrementally but irresistibly till it pulsed and throbbed with an incendiary life of it own as they joined like longtime lovers who'd known each other forever.

*

Quinn lay face down on the sheets and shivered in the dark as Tim's fingers traveled lightly up and down her spine. On one trip they continued further down and he ran his hands gently over her rear.

'I always knew you had a—'

'Don't say it.'

'—nice butt.'

'You said it.'

'It's true.'

'I have a caboose butt on an Olive Oyl body.'

'No, you've got a Bluto brain. You need therapy for your distorted body image.'

She lay quiet, her thoughts in turmoil, as he continued his feather-light caresses.

'What have we done, Tim?' she said finally.

'What comes naturally.'

'I'm serious.'