A Small Tattoo (Book 1 of "Tracie Dumas, Bounty Hunter")

Tracy is a bounty hunter and her instincts are good. Following a lead, she thinks she's found a woman with a juicy price on her head tending bar, but she has to be sure. The woman's in disguise and her only identifying mark is a small tattoo of a scorpion in a very private place. Johnny, who owns the bar, has the hots for both of them, and when the woman makes a play for Tracy, a whole lot of opportunities open up. A hot threesome will let her find out the truth and should be a lot of fun, too. Tracy prides herself on being thorough, and Johnny deserves a good checking out, too.

~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~

Suzy was already working when I came in on Sunday night. She was dressed more provocatively than she'd been on Saturday, with a short, short skirt and halter top that showed her bare belly. If she'd dressed a little skimpier a little breeze might've been enough to let me see the tattoo I was so hungry to see.

When I sat down I could see Alice in the office trying to make the books look better. Johnny stood behind the bar with Suzy. He smiled at me. "This place is dead," he said as he poured me a drink.

It was. I was the only customer. "Well I'm prepared to do my part for the cause," I told him. "Do I have to drink more?"

That earned me a smile. "That might help." Then he disappeared into the back.

Suzy looked over at me and gave me a sexy smile then ran her tongue over her lips, really slowly. It was provocative as hell. As I was the only other person there, I knew she was playing up to me. I wasn't surprised. After what she'd said, and what Alice told me, I'd figured out what she wanted. She had a thing for me. If I understood right, she liked the idea of banging Johnny, but she was in the mood for a girl-on-girl fun. I needed to figure out the best way to play this. I'd made some contingency plans, set things up just in case, but I didn't have a clear vision.

Part of my problem was conflicting emotions. Someone, at least one someone, would get hurt before this game finished. I didn't care if it was Suzy, but I didn't want Johnny hurt and I didn't want to get hurt. The large number of variables and uncertainties made the scene a tough one to manage.

I tried to kick my thoughts into high gear. Under normal circumstances I'd brush off the attentions of another woman. Having an attractive person come onto you is a compliment. In this case, I had to consider that letting her seduce me was a simple way to find out for certain about that damn scorpion tattoo. If she came on to me I'd be a fool not to let the game play out. And all I really needed to do was get her naked. I didn't have to have sex with her. When she stripped, if I saw the tattoo then I could bust her. There was no need to let it go further. If there was no tattoo, she wasn't Charlotte, and I'd have to play that as it came. I was pretty sure it was her, but I've been wrong before and I had to consider the outcome if that was the case.

I've done worse and far more stupid things to get a bounty than playing along with someone's amorous intentions, but this one presented some serious dangers. Romantic dangers. I'll be honest…getting Johnny to pay attention to me had become almost as important to me as doing my job. As Alice had noted, getting Suzy out of the way would be a big step forward.

Unfortunately her intention was more complicated than seducing me. She clearly wanted a threesome with Johnny. That blew any chance I had of going to bed with her without him knowing. Even if Johnny was game, even if it didn't turn Johnny off to me, if Suzy was Charlotte I'd have to arrest her. I couldn't see how to do that without Johnny thinking that was the only reason we'd had sex.

And then there was the bar itself. During the day I'd gone over the numbers carefully and thought about what I wanted from life and come to some decisions. The bounty for Charlotte, if Suzy was her, would be enough to buy out Alice. That would make me Johnny's partner. He couldn't ignore me then.