Primary Justice (Ben Kincaid series Book 1) by William Bernhardt

walking viral infection! God knows what you’ve brought home to my bed!”
    “Louise, that’s all in the past.”
    “Sure, that’s your story. How the hell would I know?” Her face was becoming red and blotchy. “It’s not as if you’re ever home!”
    Derek sighed, stepped off the down escalator, brushed past her, and rode back up again. “I work very hard—”
    “At certain things, yes.”
    Derek began to get angry. “Look, I do it for you . You and the kids.”
    Louise laughed bitterly. “The hell you do. Look, Dick , if you’re doing it for me —don’t . I’d rather have a husband than a super-stud lawyer.” She laughed again. “The only person in your whole life you’ve ever done anything for is yourself. You’re the most goddamn selfish man ever !” Tears were beginning to stream from her eyes.
    Derek started back down again on the other escalator. “You’re not being fair.”
    “Who says I have to be fair? God knows you’ve never been fair, you egotistical son-of-a- bitch !” Derek stepped off the escalator and moved toward her. “And you keep your fucking hands off !” She wrapped her arms around herself and walked away.
    Derek sighed, got back on the escalator, and rode all the way up. He strode into the lobby and disappeared.
    Louise began walking toward Ben. Her face looked as if it had aged five years in five minutes.
    Ben decided this would be an opportune moment to make himself scarce.
    He turned left down a narrow hallway opposite the north side of the ballroom. Almost immediately, a door on the left opened and a familiar hand with long black fingernails reached out to him.
    “Pssst. In here.” The hand gripped Ben’s wrist and gave him a tug. Champagne spilled on Ben’s tuxedo. The hand pulled him into a tiny dark room.
    “What is this ?” Ben asked.
    “Janitorial closet,” she whispered. She took the champagne glasses away and yanked off his jacket.
    “But I thought—”
    “This is better,” she said. “More intimate. More dangerous.” She started untying his bow tie.
    “Right,” Ben muttered. “Just what I was hoping for. More danger. Ow!” He banged his head on an overhead shelf. Shifting positions, he managed to rest himself against a dusty shelf loaded with cleaning fluids. “Not much room in here.”
    “That’s right, Benjy, nowhere to go but into Mona. Come to Mama.”
    Ben reached out into the darkness to stop whatever overture she was making, but his hand alighted on soft warm flesh that could be nothing other than a woman’s breast. With a sudden frisson of horror, Ben realized that she was not wearing any clothing.
    Ben began to feel queasy. “Look, Mrs. Raven, let’s examine this rationally—”
    “Examine this , you tease.” She bit down on his earlobe and pressed her hot naked body against his. “First you lure a girl into the janitor’s closet, then you play hard to get. You sexual sadist! Stop talking and get on with it.”
    Ben felt a skilled hand systematically eliminating the pearl-studded buttons on his shirt. She was out of control, an unstoppable, elemental force of nature. He prayed that no one in the hotel got a sudden urge to do some dusting.

10
    B EN WAS AWAKENED THE next morning by the harsh sound of a ringing telephone. He gave it six chances to relent, but the fiend demanded to be answered. Groaning, Ben crawled out of the sleeping bag he was using for a bed and snatched the phone receiver from its cradle.
    It was Mike.
    “What gives? Don’t tell me you were still in bed?”
    Ben sighed. “Yes, Mike, I was still in bed. Sound asleep. Dreaming sweet dreams. Until you called.”
    “Well, you should thank me. It’s almost ten o’clock.”
    “And I do thank you, Mike. Truly.” He rubbed his tongue across his dry, fuzzy teeth. “I was up late attending a Raven festivity.”
    “Oh, well, that explains it. Get lucky?”
    “ No ,” Ben said immediately and with great force. “No, I most certainly did not get