“Never invited you along. Now hush and I’ll be out of your hair in no time.”
Mrs. Bogetti spun on her heels and marched off, her slippers slapping on her linoleum floors.
“Finally,” Gina muttered. She had no way of knowing for sure when Tony and his latest flavor of the month would show up, but the weekend right after payday was always a good bet. The other two break-ins had occurred when Tony usually got his paycheck. Making her more certain it was him. Payday was about the only time the man had cash to take a date out. He wasn’t the type to put money aside for a rainy day. If he wanted to go out, he did it when he got paid, because by the time the next payday rolled around, he was broke.
Which meant tonight was a great night for him to try it again.
A cop car pulled up beside the apartment building, and Gina swore under her breath. She leaned over and poked her head into Mrs. Bogetti’s open window. “You seriously called the cops on me?”
“For you, dear. Not on you,” the woman said with an angelic smile. “Well, maybe it’s more like a killing-two-birds kind of thing. I don’t want no Peeping Toms hanging around my fire escape. And you need help catching your pervert.”
A knock sounded at the door and Mrs. Bogetti said, “Look at that. Here already. I bought their calendar last year, so I must be on the fast-response list.”
Gina scowled and rolled her eyes but got back to watching for Tony. “There’s no such thing as a fast-response list. And I’m not leaving.”
Mrs. Bogetti shrugged. “Says you. Let’s see what the nice officers have to say. You should have called them in the first place, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Gina muttered. The cops couldn’t make her leave. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She didn’t think. Until then she was going to wait for… And speak of the devil…
Gina sat up straighter and aimed the binoculars at the corner near the bakery.
“Son of a bitch.”
Tony strolled down the street, his arm wrapped around some bleached blonde with hooker heels and a dress that looked painted on.
“Gotcha, douche bag.”
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to come inside.”
Gina jumped, startled at the deep voice behind her. Her gaze met a pair of incredible eyes belonging to an insanely gorgeous man. His eyes looked blue, but that might have been because of what he was wearing. When he leaned out the window a little farther so she could see his face without his clothing being in her eyesight, they appeared grayer. His thick brown hair was cropped close to his scalp on the sides, a little longer at the top. His full lips were moving, but she wasn’t registering what he said. A tiny scar trailed down from the corner of his mouth. What had caused that?
She had a vague recollection of someone who looked like him only with a whole lot more skin showing. A lot of seriously chiseled, orgasm-inducing, rock-hard, mouthwatering skin showing. Where had she seen him before?
“Ma’am?” he asked.
His eyes looked blue again. The dark blue of his uniform must be…wait, uniform?
Shit, he was a cop.
She jerked away, but before she could scuttle off, his hand shot out and grabbed her ankle.
“I’m going to have to ask you to stay put, ma’am,” he said, not squeezing her ankle but holding on tightly enough that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
That didn’t mean she was going to stop trying. She tugged on his grip. “It’s miss, not ma’am.”
“Sorry. Miss.”
“Her name is Gina Silvano. She lives a few blocks down but she works right across the street. She’s trying to catch a pervert and I don’t want no part of that!” Mrs. Bogetti helpfully supplied.
The cop’s mouth quirked up. “Out here trying to catch perverts, huh? Seems like a strange hobby for a nice young lady like yourself.”
Gina frowned at him. “You have no idea what kind of woman I am, though I think it’s pretty obvious I’m not all that young. And you don’t look much older than me, so it’d be great if you stop talking at me like you’re some geriatric rent-a-cop. And yeah, I am trying to catch a pervert. He’s standing right down there and if you don’t let go of my foot he’s going to get away. So. Let. Go!” she said, kicking out with each word. Didn’t help, though. The man had a viselike grip on her leg.
Mrs. Bogetti pushed the cop’s shoulder. “Well go on, get her off my fire escape. I don’t want no pervert-watchers hanging around my window. She’s a nice girl deep down. She needs help, she just doesn’t want to ask for it.”
The cop looked like he was barely containing his laughter, but he dutifully climbed out the window onto the fire escape and gently hauled Gina to her feet. He peered down at the street.