Crazy Hot by Tara Janzen Page B

spend much time at all in the museum between April and September.
    “Way before,” Quinn said, the natural mischief in his smile taking on a whole new meaning.
    Oh, brother,
she thought, feeling her stomach tighten. He was doing it again, thinking about the night in her tent, when he most definitely had not been staring at her intelligence.
    “Call Nikki for me, Regan,” he said, leaning even closer over the table. His smile faded. “I don't know how you showed up on Branson's radar, but you did, and we need to control the damage. If Kid's with Nikki, she'll be safe. Your only other option is to tell her to run, and that's the last thing I'd want my little sister doing, especially on her own.”
    He was right. Regan hated it, but he was right. She had to call Nikki. She had to warn her sister about the trouble headed her way.
    God, what a mess. Her gaze slid away from his. Suddenly the faintest curve of a smile threatened the corner of her lips.
    Nikki wasn't the only one in for a wild night.
    Too bad there wasn't anybody to warn the boy wonder.

C
HAPTER
    8

    Q UINN'S CELL PHONE rang on their way across Jake's parking lot.
    “Quinn,” he said, holding the phone to his ear while reaching for the passenger door of the Camaro.
    “Kid is more than halfway home, and I've got McKinney with me in a warehouse on the Lafayette exit,” Hawkins said. “Where the hell are you?”
    “Vail. How's McKinney? All in one piece?” His hand fell away from the door, and he looked up at Regan. The wind had come up, and she was holding her hair back off her face in an intrinsically feminine pose, the soft curve of her arm limned by the sun. Her eyes, gray and intense, were focused on him.
    When Hawkins answered “Fine,” Quinn gave her the okay sign.
    “What's Kid clocking in at?” he asked.
    “He isn't saying, but he must have pushed one-forty at least once before he hit Glenwood Springs.”
    “So there were bones in the crates?”
    “Seven tons and nothing else, but don't get any ideas. Dylan wants you out of this, Quinn. Roper Jones is after your head.”
    “Cisco is no good.”
    “Then stay at Jake's. You still have a key. Hell, everybody from L.A. to Denver has a key.”
    Quinn didn't answer, just waited for Hawkins to realize what he'd just said. He didn't have to wait long.
    “Hell, even I've got a key. Okay, so Jake's won't work.”
    “What about Branson? How did he get into this?”
    “McKinney is pretty high profile in the dinosaur business, and Roper is missing a bunch of old bones. He must have put two and two together and taken a pretty damn accurate stab in the dark. I had Skeeter do some checking, and the oldest granddaughter is in the dinosaur bone business, too. Given nothing else to work with, following her must have looked like a good bet to Roper.”
    That was the way Quinn had figured it had all gone down. McKinney was
the
dinosaur man. Anyone looking for missing fossils would have put him on their short list.
    “Maybe we ought to start getting our intel from Roper's guys. Their batting average looks a hell of a lot better than ours on this deal.”
    “Yeah.” Hawkins didn't sound any happier about the fact than Quinn did. “Roper's looking for you hard, Quinn, you and the fricking bones, so find a place and hole up. Give me a chance to get this all sorted out, and—”
    “Bullshit.” The damage was already done. It had been done the minute Regan had pulled into Cisco with Branson on her tail—and now he was back in, all the way in.
    Turning away from the car, he stuck his hand in the front pocket of his jeans and dropped his gaze to his boots.
    “I'm not holing up anywhere. I'm going hunting,” he said into the phone. “Should be good game, if you want to come along.” Inside his pocket, he wrapped his fingers around the tracking device Kid had taken off Regan's Taurus hours earlier. A high-tech GP M21, it was the perfect calling card. All he had to do was pick his place, switch it on, and