Passions in Death by J. D. Robb #JDRobb @StMartinsPress

Chapter One

The party was a killer!
Erin Albright paused a moment in the madness to take it all in. The slash and crash of
music designed to get your ass moving had those asses crowding the dance floor. Lights shi?ing from steamy red to electric blue to hot pink made it all so frigging sexy!
The bartender’s generous pours on tonight’s signature drink, Girl Power, didn’t hurt a thing.
They’d chosen a Monday night at the Down and Dirty because they’d wanted the heat, the sexy, and an off night so they’d have plenty of room for the couple dozen friends they’d wanted to join in the celebraJon.
Plus, Monday nights at the D&D meant holo-bands, so people could jump on the stage and join right in.
And when they did, it added to the fun.
Shauna jumped up onstage—again—and someone made the mistake of giving her a mic. Shauna had a voice like a cat in heat, and she used it to screech out the lyrics to “Bang Me
Hard.”
God, could she possibly be more adorable?
And in five days, only five more days, Erin thought, on August 20, 2061, she’ll be my
wife, and I’ll be hers. Together forever.
At five-two, Shauna Hunnicut made Erin think of a sexy fairy, one with a wild tangle of red hair and big, beauJful blue eyes. And that smile? Another killer.
The hair had caught her eye that first Jme, and the eyes had dazzled. But oh, that smile. It had simply done her in from the get-go.
She’d walked into Fancy Feet for a pair of shoes, and walked out completely infatuated. She, the no-strings, live-life-for-today street arJst had fallen, and hard, for the shoe store manager.
Who’d have thought that fi?een months, three weeks, and two days later, they’d promise each other lifeJmes?
She couldn’t wait to make that promise, to hear Shauna make it to her.
Shauna’s friend Becca—her friend, too, now—grabbed Erin’s hand.
“Go\a shake it, baby!”
She shook it with Becca on the dance floor, and like everyone else, joined in on the
chorus.
“Bang me, bang me harder. Oh! Bang me, bang me harder. Oh. Oh. Oh!”
“This is so much fun!” Becca shouted, and shoved her swing of strawberry blond—now
sweaty—hair back from her pre\y face. “Why haven’t I ever been here before?”
“Because it’s a sex club and you’re an upstanding young professional and execuJve at a
stuffy Madison Avenue markeJng firm?”
“Junior execuJve at a stuffy Madison Avenue markeJng firm.” Becca executed a spin.
“Woo! And I might not be so upstanding a?er tonight! You and Shauna have to get married more o?en!”

“One and done for me.” She looked back as Shauna wound up for the finish. “God, isn’t she cute? Is anybody more adorable than my soon-to-be wife?”
“Loved her for years—in a straight-girl kind of way. I’m so happy for her. For you, too!” A li\le bit drunk, and sweaty with it, Becca wrapped her arms around Erin.
Cheers erupted. Erin added her own as Shauna threw her hands in the air.
“I’m going to go get my girl before she decides to do an encore.”
Waving her own hands in the air, Erin wove her way through bodies to the stage. “Come
down and dance with me, you sexy thing!”
“AnyJme, anywhere.” Face glowing, Shauna dropped down to her bu\, then scooted the
rest of the way off the stage. “This is so much fun!”
In her Jny blue dress and mile-high heels, she wrapped around Erin.
“You have the best ideas.”
“My best idea ever was deciding to try on those wild pink shoes I saw in the window.
Pink shoes led me to you. I love you, baby.”
“I’m the luckiest woman in this club, in this city, possibly the world. Because I have you.” Swaying to the music, wrapped Jght, they kissed. So?, sweet, even as music boomed
out a franJc beat.
Who knew, Erin thought again. Who knew she’d find the woman of her dreams—dreams
she hadn’t thought to dream? A woman who’d open her life to love, to plans, to the future. Everything before Shauna had been the now. Always just the right now, forget tomorrow. Now she loved, and wanted thousands of tomorrows.
So they danced, then danced some more as a couple, in groups. More cheers blasted as
the next holo-band stripped down to G-strings. Becca rushed the stage, stripped off her short, slinky dress, and danced.
More cheers.
“We’ve corrupted her.” Eyes full of delight, Shauna laughed. “She was the poster girl of straitlaced in high school. A complete doof. Now she’s drunk and dancing in her underwear in a sex club.”
“It’s pre\y underwear.”
On another laugh, Shauna gave Erin another kiss. “Buy me a drink, gorgeous.”
“You got it.”
They made their way to the bar tended by the owner. Crack, a big, muscular, ta\ooed
Black man, wore a leather vest over his bare chest. He shot them a wide grin.
“Another round, brides-to-be?”
“Girl Power!” Shauna shouted, pumping fists in the air.
“You got that going.” He mixed drinks with his big, experienced hands. “Brought me a
wild bunch tonight.”
“More than a few out there would go for a handsome kick-ass dude like you,” Erin told
him.
“Got me a one-in-ten-million woman be waiJng when I get home.”
“Hey, I didn’t know you had a serious going on.”
“Ain’t been in my place for a while, have you?”
“I guess not.” Erin Jpped her purple-streaked shaggy blond bob to Shauna’s mass of red.
“Because I’ve got my own one in ten million now.”

“Aw.” Shauna kissed her again. “But we’re coming back, bunches, because I love this place. I thought we’d get all glammed up and go to an upscale bar and . . . I didn’t mean your place isn’t upscale.”
He sent her a wicked flash of a grin. “Honey, it ain’t the Down and Dirty for nothing. Now, if any of the chicks and slicks in my place hassle any of your group how you don’t want to be hassled, you let me know and—”
“You’ll crack their heads together,” Erin finished. “It’s how he got his name.”
“For serious?”
Face fierce, Crack made a head-banging gesture with his hands.
“We don’t be upscale, but we got standards.” He slid the drinks toward them. “Drink up.
This round’s on me.”
Shauna toasted him, then drank a third of the glass in one go. “God, this is so good, and
I’m going to get so wasted. Let’s dance some of this buzz off!”
Within twenty minutes, Shauna jumped back onstage to scream out another song, and
this Jme stripped down like Becca.
Astonished in the best possible way, Erin watched her shimmy and shake. A couple
others, inspired, climbed up to join in.
Erin checked the Jme and, pleased she’d esJmated when the party would hit peak, sent
a text, smiled at the response.
Then slipped away from the dance floor.
She’d planned this surprise, a winner, every detail, including that Jming. Her accomplice
would be waiJng in the privacy room she’d rented.
She intended to make her bride’s every dream come true, starJng now.
The love of her life’s dream? Hawaii.
She’d worked her ass off to sell enough painJngs to afford the trip—something they’d
started saving for, for later.
This Jme? Forget later. Now would shine.
She’d kept this secret for nearly three weeks—and that hadn’t been easy for her. But
she’d let Shauna think they’d hold off on that dream honeymoon for a year, maybe two, as they’d agreed.
Even her trusted accomplice—actually, her backup accomplice—didn’t know. She’d just needed someone to smuggle in her overnight case holding the grass skirt, coconut bra, leis, and the crazy pink shoes that had started it all.
And those Jckets to Maui.
Once she’d changed, she’d take the stage!
She headed toward the back. The privacy rooms weren’t a hot Jcket on a Monday
night—she knew from previous experience. Dimmer lights, soundproofed doors offered an opJon for those who wanted a quick round between drinks.
She didn’t regret that her days of those quick rounds had passed.
She’d already slipped her accomplice the swipe, so pressed the buzzer that would flicker the lights inside.
The door opened, and she slipped inside the darkened room.

“Really appreciate this,” she said as she walked in, then turned to close the door so the privacy locks clicked behind her. “She doesn’t have a clue! Oh, she’s going to go crazy! I’m going to need more light to—”
Something thin and sharp circled her neck, cudng off her air. Blood dribbled down her throat as it broke through the skin.
She flailed, tried to scream, struggled to drag the wire away. When her head slammed against the door, she saw stars.
As the wire cut deeper, the stars went out.