Crossing the Line. Lori Wilde

life, Elle.”

      Warmth spread from the center of her heart outward in a sweet glow. Elle smiled and softly scratched the fawn behind one ear. She’d saved a life. Nothing made her feel happier than that.

      “I’ll keep him at the office for a while, make sure he’s going to be okay and then we’ll take him to Dr. Levy’s sanctuary.” Dr. Levy was the vet Charlotte was training under and he had donated several hundred acres along the Colorado River as an animal sanctuary.

      “Thanks. I knew you’d know what to do.”

      Charlotte looked over at her assistant. “Hop in the back with the baby, Linda. I’ll drive.”

      “Will do.”

      Linda climbed inside the back of the van. Elle gave the little buck one last parting look and sighed wistfully as Charlotte shut the door.

      “Elle’s going to make a great mother someday,” Charlotte said to Dante. “She’s so good with babies, whatever the species.”

      “No doubt,” Dante said.

      Elle sneaked a glance over at him, but she couldn’t read a thing from his impassive face.

      Sorry for my matchmaking sister-in-law, she telegraphed him with her eyes.

      He gave her an enigmatic smile and a slight shrug as if to say: Family, what are you going to do?

      “Are you still planning on coming to the family softball tournament? It’s three weeks from Saturday,” Charlotte asked Elle. “Tom’s ordering this year’s jerseys and I need a head count.”

      “As if I could skip out. Dad would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t show.” Elle said. The first weekend in May the Kingstons staged an annual family reunion centered around a weekend-long softball tournament. It had been a family tradition long before Elle was born.

      Charlotte tucked her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans and sized up Dante. “Why don’t you come, too?” she asked. “Our team is short a catcher since Mark divorced Elle. If you don’t come we’ll be forced to play Aunt Gertie.”

      Mortified at her sister-in-law’s forwardness, Elle couldn’t bring herself to look at Dante. “Char, for heaven’s sake, let it be. Dante has no interest in playing softball with the Kingston clan.”

      “Maybe not,” Char said. “But he might have interest in spending some time with you.”

      Kill me now, Elle thought.

      “Thank you for the invitation,” Dante said. “It sounds like a lot of fun, but I have to check and see if I’m scheduled to be on call that weekend.”

      “Just know that we’d love to have you,” Charlotte said. “Aunt Gertie can’t catch to save her life.”

      “We’ve gotta go now. Thanks for looking after the deer.” Elle said, and then lowered her voice so only Charlotte could hear her. “You are so dead.”

      Her sister-in-law laughed. “You’ll thank me on your golden anniversary.”

      “I gotta get back to work,” Elle said, turned on her heel and hurried back inside the hospital before her matchmaking sister-in-law found yet another way to embarrass her.

      AFTER ELLE WENT BACK inside the hospital, Dante returned to the office to find Mark waiting for him.

      Mark took one look at the damp, muddy suit that would have cost Dante half a month’s salary if he’d been the one to pay for it and shook his head. “Hell, man, what happened to you?”

      “Got lost in the forest.”

      “Huh? What were you doing in the woods?”

      “Never mind.” Dante shook his head. “Where could I get a set of scrubs to change into?”

      Mark shook his head. “No, no, we’re going to lunch in Austin with Covey and Butler. You can’t wear scrubs.” Mark eyed the width of Dante’s shoulders. “We’re still about the same size. You can wear one of my suits.”

      “You keep extra suits at the office?”

      “Don’t you?”

      “You forget,” Dante said, following Mark into his office. “I’ve been working for a county hospital.”

      That was the phony cover the FBI had provided for his résumé. And he’d worked at enough county hospitals as both an intern and resident that he knew they were as different from Confidential Rejuvenations as Park Avenue was from the streets of Baghdad.

      Mark stepped to a mahogany wardrobe in the corner of his massive office and threw open the door. Inside were four suits, all much more expensive than the one Dante was wearing. “Long way from our UT dorm days, huh?”

      “You’ve done very well, Mark.” Dante selected a navyblue suit from the wardrobe and looked over at his colleague. They’d shared a dorm room and the football field, but they hadn’t been the best of friends, mainly because Dante never let anyone get that close. Still, he couldn’t help feeling like something of a traitor.

       If Mark’s involved in this mess, he’s going down. You have no reason to feel guilty.

      No, he shouldn’t feel guilty, but lying didn’t come easily. “Thanks for the loaner,” he said. “I’ll go change.”

      After returning to his office, Dante closed the blinds on his window before changing into the clean suit. As he reached for the string on the louvered blinds, he found his gaze drifting to the edge of the forest and his memory flashed back to Elle.

      He thought about how she’d looked with her auburn hair curling up around her face in the rain. She really could have been a water nymph with her dewy skin, mischievous lips and womanly figure.

      The setting hadn’t been sexual, but he’d gotten aroused. It had taken every bit of the self-control he possessed not to kiss her. When Dante had touched her hair, he’d come so damned close to falling into the abyss.

      It scared him.

      Not only because she was just as much a suspect as anyone else at Confidential Rejuvenations, but because she made him feel things he had no business feeling.

      He wanted to take her to bed.

      Bed? Hell, he’d wanted to take her right there on the forest floor.

      And she’d looked at him as if she wouldn’t resist.

      Then he thought about how tender she’d been with the baby deer. A true earth mother. That thought made him feel something else entirely. Longing, sadness and a bittersweet loneliness he hadn’t experienced since his mother had taken off when he was a kid.

      He smiled, remembering about how flustered she’d gotten over her sister-in-law’s matchmaking attempts. Clearly Elle was still touchy on the subject of marriage, not that he could blame her. From all accounts, she’d been through a rough time with the divorce.

      Dante shook off thoughts of Elle along with his muddy suit. He was a professional, an undercover FBI agent. These emotions could only trip him up. There were only two feelings he could afford to indulge in.

      One was justice.

      The other was revenge.

      Elle Kingston was Mark’s Achilles’ heel. No one knew more about a man than his wife. And no one could flip faster than an ex-wife scorned. She was Dante’s route to Lawson’s downfall.

      He knew then what he had to do. He must capitalize on the chemistry between them. Get closer to her. Find out exactly what secrets she was keeping about her exhusband. He would have to use her, manipulate her and then, in the end, he was going to have to walk away.

      It was a dirty job.

      But he’d been assigned to do it and Dante Nash never shirked his duty.

      TWO