Desperate Measures

3

Stone and Dino had worked homicide together, so Stone thought about this the way a cop would. “Anything else in common?”

“The manner of their deaths,” Dino said.

“Which was?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Stone frowned. Dino never didn’t want to talk about anything at all. Stone took a breath to ask another question, but Dino gave him the slightest shake of his head, and he didn’t ask it.

“Come on, Dino.” This was Faith talking, and she looked as though she was going to get an answer.

“I haven’t had enough to drink to tell you about that,” Dino replied.

Faith was going to persist, but Stone said, “Drop it. He’s serious.”

“Well, I have a license to carry,” Faith said, “so I will.”

“A New York City license?” Dino asked.

“New York, Florida, and California,” Faith replied. “It’s an option for airline pilots. I have to shoot twice a month, requalify once a month, and pay for my own gun and ammunition, but it makes me feel better. I fly charters, and sometimes the groups get rowdy. I’ve had them banging on the cockpit door.”

“Have you ever had to draw your weapon?” Dino asked.

“Only once. I didn’t point it at anybody, and there wasn’t one in the chamber. Still, its presence had a calming effect on the two-hundred-and-fifty-pound guy who wanted to fly the airplane.”

“Good for you,” Dino said. “That shows judgment and restraint. Would you like to be a police officer? I’ll give you a good assignment right out of the Academy.”

“Do you have an assignment available that involves flying an airplane?”

“How about a helicopter?”

Faith shook her head. “They scare me shitless.”

“Me, too,” Dino said, “and that’s just riding in them.”

“Well, this is a first,” Stone said. “Dino has never offered my date a job.”

“I’m serious,” Dino said.

“I know,” Stone replied.

“Thanks, Dino,” Faith said. “I’m flattered, but I like wings on my aircraft, and I enjoy travel.”

“You should hire her, Stone,” Viv said. “You’ve been flying the Latitude with pro pilots.”

“Only because it’s illegal for me to fly it alone. Anyway, it’s not my airplane; it belongs to your boss.” Viv worked for Mike Freeman, at Strategic Services, the world’s second-largest security company. Viv was also a retired NYPD detective. Stone had recently swapped airplanes with Mike — on a temporary basis — when he had wanted to fly to London, and he would have to give back the Latitude soon.

Dinner came, and they enjoyed it.

Dino’s car dropped them off after dinner. “Nightcap?” Stone asked Faith.

“Sure.”

They went into the study.

“You haven’t seen the master suite, have you?”

“No,” she replied, “but I have the distinct feeling I’m about to.”

He poured them each a drink. “Right this way,” he said.

They took the elevator to the top floor, and Stone showed Faith into the master suite. Shortly after that, he gave her a tour of the bed.

“Well,” she said afterward, toying with the bed’s remote control until it sat her up. “When my day started in Miami this morning I didn’t expect to finish it in your bed.”

“I’m glad to be of service,” Stone said.

“You serve well,” she replied. “There’s something I have to explain to you, though.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, unless you have an angry husband tucked away somewhere.”

“I have an angry ex-husband,” she said, “but he’s well out of the picture, in Chicago, and I hardly ever fly there. But he’s not the problem.”

“All right, what do you need to explain?”

“I’m a three-time girl,” she said.

Stone shook his head. “I’m not following.”

“I’m not interested in getting married,” she said, “not even interested in having a regular boyfriend.”

“Okay,” Stone said.

“Maybe not,” she replied. “The way I keep either of those things from happening is, I never fuck any man more than three times.” She sighed. “Not that I don’t love sex.”

“How did you happen to select the number three?” Stone asked.

“Three times is a turning point: either I’m sick of a man by then or I want to continue to fuck him. The way I keep from continuing is by stopping at three times.”

“We’ll see,” Stone replied.

“I’m not kidding,” she said.

“It’s too early to make that decision,” Stone pointed out.

“You’re right, of course; we’ve got two more times to go.”

Stone reached for her. “Let’s use number two now,” he said.

“Good idea,” she replied. “We can save ourselves for number three.”

He pulled her on top of him and slipped inside of her.

She smiled. “No lubrication required,” she said.

They moved together. “This is awfully good,” Stone said. “Seems like a shame to limit it to three times, when we’re just learning about each other.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said, moving faster, “by the time we’ve done it three times, we’ll know all there is to know about each other.”

He rolled over on top of her without losing his place. “I think you’re the smallest woman I’ve ever made love to,” he said.

“Do you like that about me?”

“There isn’t anything I don’t like about you, except the three-strikes-and-you’re-out thing.”

“This isn’t a strike,” she said, “but it’s a ball.”

“Well put,” Stone said, sensing that she was about to come and moving faster.

Faith began to make the right noises, and in a moment, they came together.

When they recovered themselves, Faith produced an iPhone from the purse at her bedside and began to tap it.

“Checking your e-mail?” Stone asked.

“That and the New York Times online,” she said. “Oh, Jesus.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just found out why Dino didn’t want to tell me how those two girls died.”