“Then resells it here on this side of the border for the cash,” Blake added. “The illegal money becomes perfectly legal.”

“And the connection Julie has is Judge Moore,” Luke said, thinking there was no way he was letting Julie snoop around for these guys.

“That’s right,” Hendrix said. “And as of this morning, Ms. Harrison agreed to take over a charity event that Judge Moore’s wife was supposed to host tomorrow night.

Luke didn’t let his surprise show, but damn it, he’d told her to stay away from Moore. “And you know this how?”

“We have the judge well monitored,” Hendrix said.

As in wire taps, Luke assumed. “She’s not playing bait or even snitch, so don’t ask.”

“Look, Luke,” Murphy said. “I know this woman matters to you. But if she is on Arel’s radar, which I suspect she is, then she isn’t safe until he goes down.”

“If she’s on his radar,” Luke said. “She won’t be an easy source of information. And surely you have agents inserted close to her.”

“We do. Well, we did.” Tom ran his hand across his jaw. “We have an agent missing.”

Silence filled the room. After a long moment, Luke said, “How close are you to getting someone new inside?”

“They aren’t,” Blake said. “That’s why they want Julie to help.”

“And a new agent will need time to build trust,” Murphy added, “that we don’t have.”

“There’s more at stake here than you know,” Blake said, “or I wouldn’t even have brought them here. They’ve linked tainted drugs to these guys. The stories in the news about the rising cases of teen overdoses the past few months? They aren’t overdoses. The drugs they’re taking are tainted. Arel has to go down.”

Luke walked to the window and stared out at the street without really seeing it. He didn’t want Julie in this and he only knew one way around that. He turned back to the men. “I’ll get inside the operation.”

“How the hell are you going to do that?” Blake asked.

“I’ll attend the art show and convince the judge that I have a secret hobby to support a few expensive habits.”

“And that would be what?” Hendrix asked.

“I acquire art that no one else can get their hands on...for a price.”

A slow smile slid onto his brother’s lips and Blake leaned back and slid his hands behind his head. “Pretty smart, for a SEAL.”

He’d convinced his brother he had a good plan. Now, he just had to convince Julie that not only was this a good plan, but that he was a good plan for her. Every second he was with her, he was more certain. The problem was, the more certain he became about her, the less she seemed to be about him. It would bother him if he let himself think about it, and even mess with his head. He’d never put himself on the line like this with a woman as he was with Julie. But he couldn’t let it mess with his head, any more than he could let her push him away, because she needed him, even if she didn’t know it. She was deep into something dirty and dangerous that could easily turn deadly.

***

It was nearly nine at night by the time Julie stepped onto the elevator after a partner meeting to head back to her floor. She texted Luke as she’d promised and let him know she was almost ready to leave, despite a long list of things to do. The worst thing on that list was the absolute need to take off the next afternoon to handle the charity event. She loved doing charity work, especially for kids, but the timing and the complete lack of preparation the judge’s email had indicated made this one a small crisis at a bad time.

She exited the elevator and walked past Gina’s long-abandoned desk, drawing up short at the sight of Luke waiting on her in her office.

“You trying to starve me or what?” he asked, shutting his laptop he had open on top of her conference table.

She would never get used to how her skin heated just from seeing this man. “How long have you been waiting?”

He indicated the wrappers on the desk. “Long enough to eat two Snickers and a bag of crackers and be hungry all over again.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought you were going to wait until I texted you. I’ll grab my purse and we can eat. I’m starving, too.” When she would have walked to her desk, he pulled her into his arms.

“I’m starving, too,” he said. “For you. Did you miss me?”

His voice was low, his breath a warm, teasing trickle against her lips and from anyone else, at any other time in her life, that question would have led her to a fun, flirtatious retort. With Luke, it was filled with implication, and still she found herself saying, “Yes. Yes, I did.”

The air in the room thickened instantly and crackled with a spark that could easily turn to outright fire. “Good,” he said, his thumb stroking her cheek. “Because after you left me out there on the sidewalk I wasn’t so sure.”

“You’re very good at making me do crazy things I shouldn’t do.”

He smiled. “So it was my fault?”

“Of course,” she teased. “Everything is the man’s fault, unless he’s my client or you feed me. Seriously. I’m starving.” She kissed him and pushed out of his arms. “I’m getting my purse.”

Twenty minutes later, they’d walked a few blocks down the road to one of New York’s many wonderful hole-in-the-wall pizza joints, many of which Julie frequented probably too often.

“We have the place to ourselves,” she said, settling at one of the tiny white tables with her giant slice of cheese pizza.

Luke joined her with two equally giant slices of pepperoni. “So,” he said, watching her fold her pizza like a sandwich and take a big bite. “Tell me about the charity event tomorrow night.”

She almost choked, and grabbed her drink to swallow. “How could you possibly know that?” she asked, when she finally recovered.

He leaned in closer. “The judge’s phones were tapped even before we planned the same.”

“So the police suspect he killed her?”

“It’s even bigger than that,” he said, and she listened as he recounted what he’d learned that day.

Cartel. She was involved with a cartel. Julie sat back. “I’m suddenly not hungry. I don’t know how I got in the middle of this. I’ve always tried to stay out of the way of trouble.”

“More importantly is how we get you out of it,” he said. “And the best way to do that is to get me inside this thing and back you out.”

“How?”

“I’ll go as your date,” he said. “You introduce me and I’ll pull him aside, make it clear you don’t know what he has going on or what I have going on. Then, I’ll make sure he, and his connections, know I can get those elusive pieces of art their hearts desire, for a price.”

She felt outright sick now. “You’re going to put yourself in the center of a cartel to get me out of it.” She’d been around the Walker brothers enough to know how they operated. They were protectors. So much so that she wondered if that wasn’t what was really drawing Luke to her now. Maybe this was sex, and some manly duty. He’d already given her the ‘we’ll stay friends no matter what’ lecture. And with any other man, she would have said, ‘perfect’. A sexy affair and no strings, no emotional bonds.  And no chance of getting hurt.She swallowed hard.

“Julie,” Luke said, drawing her gaze from where it had settled on her slice of pizza.

She nodded. “Yes?”

“I’m getting you out of this, yes, and I won’t pretend that isn’t a huge motivator to me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I know,” she said, her throat threatening to close. God, who was she? Nothing used to rattle her. Nothing but...Luke.

His eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m glad you’re involved,” she said, and she meant that. He might break her heart in the end, but she’d be alive to feel the pain. That beat dead any day of the week. “You said cartel. Are we talking drugs? Weapons?”

“Yes to both, but the part of this equation that makes this bigger than usual is that not only are they selling illegal drugs, and targeting teens, those drugs are tainted.”