Have Mercy. Jo Leigh

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      The diamonds in the collar glittered in the sun but Drina’s eyes narrowed for another reason. The two of them—her holding the leash, him with his hand in his pockets—walked through the garden as if they weren’t evil. As if they’d never betrayed the family. Never spit on the memory of their ancestors.

      They wouldn’t gloat for long. Soon, they would be sorry. They would curse the day they’d turned on Marius, and they would have the rest of their lives to think about their sins. The dog was the key.

      Fools. Did they imagine she needed Marius to figure out their con? Drina had known from the first. It had taken strength and perseverance to figure out their plan, but she’d been trained by the best. She would have her revenge and it would taste like her husband’s kiss.

      FOUR DOGS, each of them over seventy pounds, walked behind Mercy in polite formation, undistracted by the pedestrians, the cars, the scents of Madison Avenue. They knew they were heading for the park, and the park meant rolling in the grass, sniffing all manner of things, running like mad.

      Gilly had four dogs of her own, not as large as Mercy’s group but just as well-behaved. The two women couldn’t walk next to each other as they would have owned the whole street, but they still managed to talk.

      This morning’s walk, there was only one topic. Will Desmond.

      “He was totally flirting with you,” Gilly said. “I was across the room and I saw it.”

      “He was trying to get me to help train his dog.”

      “That was his excuse, Mercy. He wants you.”

      Mercy laughed. “Yeah, right. Did you look at him?”

      “The more important question is have you looked at you?”

      “I have,” she said. “I’ve even had dinner with me, and I’ll tell you right now, a man like Will Desmond is as interested in me as he is a toaster.”

      “Wrong, wrong, wrong. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”

      “Gilly, don’t be absurd.” They turned the corner, and her dogs got a bit excited, lunging forward. They all knew the route to the park, and they wanted to be there now. She corrected the behavior and like the good puppies they were, they eased back into contented pack mode.

      Gilly followed suit with her group.

      Gilly had already been at Hush when Mercy had gotten the job. She’d been a cocktail waitress at Exhibit A, the downstairs club that had been the sight of the recent scandal, but she’d hated the work. She’d taken a huge pay cut, but Gilly had a real affinity for the animals.

      Mercy had liked her from the first day, and while she’d never had a lot of friends, she and Gilly had grown closer and closer as they’d worked side-by-side.

      Mercy loved that Gilly was so open and friendly, although it probably would have worked out better for both of them if Gilly would stop trying to fix her up.

      Although she was as honest as she could be with Gilly, she hadn’t been able to tell her a lot about her past. A person doesn’t just come out with that kind of stuff after a lifetime of holding it in. Gilly didn’t understand that Mercy hadn’t lived the kind of suburban, middle-class life that included boys and dating and sock hops or whatever the hell people did in the suburbs.

      “When’s the last time you went out?”

      Mercy sighed. “Gilly, let it go.”

      “No. I won’t. You haven’t been out with a guy in a hundred years.”

      “That’s true. And it’ll be another hundred until the next one.”

      “Mercy!”

      “I’m not pursuing this. It’s ridiculous. The man is so far out of my league he’s in another dimension, so let it go.”

      “What if he isn’t? What if I’m right and he was hitting on you?”

      “So?”

      They stopped at the street corner, Gilly moving up so that all the dogs were lined up as if they were going to race. Mercy ignored the evil glances from their fellow pedestrians. Normally, she’d have pulled back, but the light was going to change in a hot second.

      “Let’s make this hypothetical.”

      “No. Let’s not.”

      Gilly glared her way, then went on as if Mercy hadn’t said a word. “Let’s say Will thought you were hot. That he asked you to help train Buster as a way of getting to know you.”

      “Gil—”

      The light turned green and the team crossed the street in a frenzy of sniffing and lurching. They were too close to the park to be having this stupid conversation.

      “Let’s say that you agreed to help him train the dog. And you agreed to do it in his suite. Which is suite fourteen-twelve, by the way, one of the really, really expensive suites.”

      “I’m not listening.”

      “You are so. Anyway, you go up to his room. Get Buster to sit. Will pulls you into his arms for a bone- melting kiss—”

      “Gilly, stop.”

      “You tear off each other’s clothes and go at it like poodles. You’re happy and exhausted. He’s happy and exhausted. Buster knows how to sit on command. What’s so terrible about that?”

      “Aside from the fact that he’s a guest?”

      “In your case, we can make an exception. I think I saw it in the employee’s handbook. Anyone who hasn’t been laid in a year gets to screw any guest they want to.”

      Mercy looked at her ex-friend. “Gee, next time, maybe you can have that printed on a T-shirt so everyone would know.”

      “No one on this street cares if you’ve gotten laid.”

      “I do.”

      Mercy jerked around to see a grinning homeless man standing a few inches away.

      She scowled at Gilly and speeded up.

      Gilly laughed so hard the dogs got scared. Not that she cared. Gilly was one of those people who walked through life as if it was her playground. She didn’t get scared, didn’t blush, and when she made a fool of herself she shrugged it off with such ease it made Mercy cry from envy.

      It didn’t hurt that she was pretty, either. Tall, voluptuous, with dark curly hair that framed her face and made her look a hell of a lot more innocent than she was. Gilly also had a fabulous boyfriend, Gordon, who was a concierge at the Muse.

      The park was just across the street, and while they waited to cross there was no use even trying to talk. All focus was on the dogs, who were salivating to go inside the fenced-in doggie area and run around in the grass.

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