Justice for All by Radclyffe Read Free Book Online

At this moment, she didn’t care about all the things she knew or sympathized with. She was hurt and disappointed and frightened, and thinking her way through this was not going to be easy.
    She waited until the Crown Victoria pulled away because she didn’t want Watts to witness anything personal between her and Rebecca. Rebecca would hate for a colleague to get a glimpse of their private life, and Catherine was far too personally reserved to allow it either. Rebecca, moving at only a fraction of her normal pace, had just reached the landing in front of the door when Catherine fished her house keys from her briefcase and climbed the four broad marble stairs to reach around her.
    “Are you just coming home?” Catherine fitted her key into the lock.
    “Yes, I—”
    “Don’t,” Catherine said softly. “I’m not quite ready to hear it just yet.”
    Rebecca hesitated on the threshold. “I can call Watts. Have him come back and take me to my apartment.”
    Catherine looked back at her for a second. “Rebecca, I’m upset.” She deposited her briefcase on the parson’s bench in the foyer and shrugged out of her coat. “You look exhausted.”
    “I didn’t do—”
    Catherine shook her head. “Now is not the right time to talk about this, but what’s happening is part of being together. Come inside.”
    “I hate this,” Rebecca said.
    “I know. So do I. Are you hungry or do you want to go straight to bed?”
    “I’m not hungry, but you must be. I’d like to sit in the kitchen with you while you have something to eat.”
    Catherine took her hand. “Come on, then.”

    *

    Kratos Zamora poured another glass of Bollinger Blanc de Noirs and leaned across the table in the private dining alcove to light the redhead’s cigarette. He enjoyed watching her slowly exhale a thin stream of fragrant smoke. Even in the candlelight he could make out the emerald tones of her eyes. Her shoulder-length curls were the color of a summer sunset over the ocean, the same blood-red that often heralded a storm. She regarded him with a hint of amusement, but rather than be annoyed, he was intrigued. Women usually fawned or primped or seduced, but they never laughed at him. Or challenged.
    “You think very highly of my talents,” she said.
    “You’ve never disappointed me.” Kratos never ate at the same restaurant twice in a row, and there were half a dozen private dining areas like this one in the restaurant. The likelihood that a listening device had been planted was slim, but his men had swept the space earlier, and he felt secure discussing business here.
    Talia raised an eyebrow. A smile played over her perfect lips.
    Kratos shrugged. “Where business is concerned.” He’d tried to seduce her once, and she’d refused. He’d been surprised and that was rare. He wasn’t deluded enough to believe women were drawn to him rather than his power and wealth, but he was used to getting what he wanted. This woman had merely said no, but when she refused she’d held his eyes in a way few men dared, and he understood that persisting would be to no avail.
    “Five years ago almost no one had the skill to detect electronic intrusion. That’s no longer the case.” Talia tapped the delicate ash against the edge of a crystal ashtray and it shattered into powdery shards. “What you ask is difficult.”
    “But not impossible.” Kratos watched her maroon-tinted lips close deliberately around the end of the cigarette. Her mouth tightened slightly as she inhaled and her flawless high-boned cheeks hollowed. His erection throbbed, and he enjoyed the sensation, but didn’t let the pleasure distract him. “Disrupt the communications and you create chaos. Chaos leads to inefficiency and distrust.”
    “What about the new investigative division at One Police Plaza?” she asked. “How much of a threat are they?”
    “My friends there tell me that the unit is barely functional. I doubt there is any danger from that direction.”
    “And