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card.
    Remy Comeaux. Private Detective. The business address was in Houston, Texas.
    Standing next to Remy and staring into his hypnotic eyes, it was easy to believe everything he said. But he’d lied about being Lee’s friend. He’d even lied about his name. Why should she trust what he said now?
    On impulse, she took her phone from her purse and punched inLee’s phone number. He was a friend. She owed him a chance to explain and defend himself against Remy’s accusations.

Chapter Six
    Nicole switched the bag holding cartons of Chinese food into her left hand and used her right to fit the key into Lee’s front-door lock. Once inside, she quickly turned off the alarm system and made her way to the kitchen to unpack the food.
    Lee had given her a key to his house over a month ago, the first time she was to meet him there for an early dinner. He’dexplained that his schedule was so unpredictable that he never knew when he’d be detained.
    He’d also encouraged her to come over and make use of his pool anytime. He’d even shown her where he kept a hidden key to the back door just in case she locked herself out, and a key to the privacy-fence gate in case she wanted to stroll along the shady path that meandered through his country-club neighborhood.
    He had a reputation for being tough on criminals and running the department with an iron hand, but he had never been anything but thoughtful with her. His patience was starting to wear thin with her unwillingness to be intimate with him. But he’d been a lot slower at reaching that point than other men she’d dated.
    Only, where was that reluctance with Remy? Would she have pulled away ifhe’d kissed her tonight, or would she have thrown herself at him like a sex-starved nympho?
    Thankfully, she hadn’t been put to the test.
    Nicole set the table while she waited for Lee. Then she lit candles and put out wineglasses, creating a setting that she hoped would open the lines of communication regarding Remy.
    She left the choice of wines from his extensive selection to Lee.The man did live well. While his spacious home in the Metairie Country Club neighborhood was nowhere near as extravagantly furnished as the Delacroixes’, it had the handprint of one of the city’s most prominent decorators embedded in every detail.
    But then, he didn’t have to live on his salary. His father had been a very successful shipping magnate before he and Lee’s mother had died in aprivate plane crash while flying to their Cape Cod estate.
    Nicole walked out the back door, took a bottle of water from the refrigerator in his outdoor kitchen and then kicked out of her shoes. She took a beach towel and spread it on the side of his magnificent pool so that she could sit and dangle her feet in the cool water. Kids’ laughter and voices drifted from the other side of the six-footprivacy fence.
    Lee’s world.
    Lee Barnaby, the ultimate cop, the celebrated new chief of police, a slave to the law, always driven to keep his city safe. She’d never had any reason to believe he was anything less.
    Until Remy had stepped into her life.
    She had no reason to believe the ex-cop turned private eye. Yet his need to protect her seemed so convincing. Why else would hehave come to see her? Certainly not to seduce her, or he would have at least kissed her when she was practically drooling.
    After ten minutes of agonizing, she went back inside. A phone was ringing, but it wasn’t the one in the kitchen. Still, she should find and answer it in case it was Lee saying how much longer he’d be delayed or if he had to cancel their evening together.
    She locatedthe piercing instrument at the end of the hallway in what appeared to be Lee’s home office. Before she could answer it, the caller hung up.
    The light on the answering machine was blinking. Maybe it had been Lee and he’d left a message. She pressed the button.
    There were two calls, neither from Lee. One was from someone named Mia, and the call sounded