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Riversong asked.
    “We return the bone to the hole and forget about it,” Lee said.
    “Lee, this isn’t how archaeology is done!” Panic jolted through her. Lee sucked at pool. Would she lose this opportunity to work with Riversong?
    The chairman grinned. “I like it. Rack ’em up. I break.”
    She squirmed as Riversong sank three balls before relinquishing the table. “Don’t go for the long shot, go for the corner,” she said. She felt sick. “You’re lousy at long shots.”
    Lee turned to her. His green eyes swept her from head to toe in a blatant caress. “I can sink long with my eyes closed. Earlier I missed on purpose. You looked great, by the way, with your back arched over your stick and your butt up on the table.”
    The sonofabitch had just reduced her to a sex object in front of a client. She would maim him. At the first opportunity. “Just take the shot,” she said through gritted teeth.
    Lee leaned down, lined up the ball, and closed his eyes.
    “With your eyes open!”
    He winked at her and made the shot. Riversong never got another turn.

C HAPTER F OUR

    W ITH S AM R IVERSONG’S PERMISSION , Erica returned to the Thermo-Con house to collect bones for the species and carbon-14 tests. Kneeling over the hole in the floor, she studied a fragment that was the right size and shape to be a human carpal bone. She smiled. This was almost certainly human; the expert might not even need to run a genetic test. If this turned out to be a burial, then Riversong would have to meet with her again, and more than anything, she wanted access to the chairman.
    She packed the bones inside another bag, said good-bye to the plumbers, and left the house. At her car, she slid into the driver’s seat and faced Lee, who’d been waiting while she collected the samples. She still hadn’t figured out how she was going to murder him without being arrested. She faced forward and twisted the key in the ignition.
    “Stop brooding and say it,” he said.
    She glared at him. “You’re a pig.”
    He smiled. “See, was that so hard?”
    She put the car in drive, but his hand covered hers on the gearshift. “You’re pissed, but the truth is, by diminishing you, I made it hard for Riversong to take you or your threats seriously. I saved your ass.”
    The look in his eyes said he was serious. The hand covering hers squeezed slightly, and she had the insane notion he was soothing her in the same way he’d calm a riled cat.
    Who is this man?
    “Did you really do it on purpose?” she asked.
    “I just said I did.”
    “No, I mean miss your shot. Did you set me up for the behind-the-back-shot?”
    He looked at her incredulously, then laughed. “ That’s what you’re upset about?”
    She jerked her hand away from his and pulled onto the road, disgusted with herself for asking such a revealing question.
    “Okay, I admit it,” he said. “Yes. And it was worth it.”
    Ignoring the miniscule ripple of pleasure his words caused, she fixated on the tidal wave of frustration. “You are my intern. I am your boss. This stops here. Now.”
    “Okay, Boss , as your intern, I’m trying to learn about archaeology and want to know why those bones are so important you threatened the casino to get authorization for the tests.”
    “I wasn’t threatening . I was explaining why my client needs to comply with environmental law.”
    “If Riversong thinks you’re a threat to the casino, he’ll have your perfect ass fired.”
    Her grip on the steering wheel tightened. “I told you to stop.”
    “I wasn’t hitting on you. I was merely stating a fact: your ass is perfect.”
    She jabbed at the buttons on the car stereo and turned up the volume until a lovesick girl singing about a boy she’d lost prevented further conversation. Too bad the music couldn’t make her stop worrying about the disturbing pleasure she took from Lee’s callous compliment.
    Back at Talon & Drake, she wrapped the bones for testing, then dropped them in the