Alex POV

Carolyn had been gone too long for my comfort, but as soon as I started to go look for her, Ashley and Elka came in the room.

I thought I was mentally prepared for another night of relentless groping, but I guess one can never prepare quite enough.

Ashley caught me with a hello kiss that caused the men in the room to let out a collective gasp. Great. I was going to have to bribe the tech guy to keep him from producing stills of this footage.

I managed, barely, to keep her tongue out of my mouth during this enthusiastic greeting, and when I was finally able to pull away from her, she picked up my hand and laced her fingers through mine.

"Alexa, meet Elka," she said as though she were showing off a prize. She kept holding onto my hand, staking her claim on me, so I just nodded and said hello.

"Where is Carrie?" Ashley asked. "Elka is anxious to meet her."

I gave Elka a good once-over and was pleased to see that Bobby and I had guessed correctly. She was very similar in looks and body-type to Carolyn, and she was roughly the same age. Ashley was used to deferring to her and so when Carolyn approached us on the sidewalk the other night, it had been natural for Ashley to back off and let us leave without a fuss.

"She went to the little girls' room," I replied. "She'll be back any minute." I hoped. I was really starting to get worried. I looked around the room to catch Bobby's eye.

Where's Carolyn?

I have no idea, but I'm on it.

Bobby took a few steps toward the door, but that was when Carolyn came back into the ballroom. She looked slightly shaken. Well, I thought she looked that way, but she was holding herself together nicely in a manner that would deceive anyone else.

I wanted to know what had happened with Tommy, but with Ashley plastered to my side, it would have to wait. For now, all I knew was the she had left with him and come back alone. That had to be a good sign.

"Carrie! There you are," I called out, waving her over to our little corner of the ballroom. She smiled and headed in our direction.

"Ashley, you were right," Elka whispered.

"I knew you'd like her." Ashley had the sound of someone trying to impress, like a child wanting to make their parent proud. I had no doubt Elka was the one holding the reins in this operation. Now we just had to get her to admit to it.

The party was in full swing. The girls were still mingling with the undercovers, but as soon as we could get Elka to acknowledge that she knew what was going on, we could start sending them out. Once the room was cleared of civilians, then we would arrest them both. I was anxious for that moment to arrive.

"Elka, meet Carrie Logan," Ashley said when Carolyn approached. I noticed some angry red marks marring her neck. Carolyn saw me look and gave me a barely detectable nod. I'm okay, it said.

"It's a pleasure," Carolyn said, holding out her hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," Elka replied smoothly. And then she leaned in close to Carolyn and added, "But I'll be sure to please you later on."

"Honey, what happened to your throat?" Ashley asked her. Carolyn looked back at me and gave me a secretive smile.

"Alexa got a little over-zealous last night in our experimentation," she said easily. And then she leaned in to mock-whisper. "Erotic asphyxiation."

"Oh," Elka replied with a smile. "Well, it happens. A good lover would just be a little more careful," she added with an admonishing look at me. Oh, let's just please get on with this.

"Alexa, this is a lovely party," Carolyn said, deftly disregarding Elka's remark.

"Thank you. It's all Roberto's doing. And of course, Ashley helped."

"Oh? How so?"

"All of these girls. They're her friends," I told her, hoping that by giving Ashley all of the credit that Elka might speak up.

"Really? Wow. And those are some beautiful girls. I'm sure Roberto's clients will be…very agreeable," she said on a laugh. It was tough to joke about such a thing, but Carolyn's acting was top notch.

As we stood and chatted with our new girlfriends, I kept my arm around Ashley, casually running my hand up and down along her side. She seemed to enjoy the attention, and it gave me a good feeling about the fact that she was lacking a weapon.

"We should get out of here for a little bit," she whispered into my ear.

"I don't know if I should leave just yet," I said back. "Roberto might need me."

"There are plenty of women here to keep him company. Come on, you know you want to," she replied huskily. Yeah. About as much as I wanted a root canal.

But then a buzzing sound came from her purse.

"Oh, I'd better get that. I've been waiting for a call from Daddy."

"Sure," I said, easing away from her a bit.

I wasn't crazy about the fact that she had a purse. I hadn't had the opportunity yet to search it. I mean, it was small, but how big did it need to be to hold a needle? The only good thing was that if she had to reach in her purse for a weapon, then it would give us all time to react. And Bobby was packing. I had no doubt whatsoever that despite playing up his part perfectly, he was also keeping a close eye on me.

I watched Ashley as she reached in her purse and pulled out her phone. She didn't answer it, but instead just looked at it. Apparently it was a text and not a call.

And of course, I knew it wasn't Sherman since he was actually in a holding cell at 1PP. Orders had been given to keep him from making his one phone call until we gave the word.

Ashley's face fell a bit as she read the text and my mind raced. It's not Sherman. It's not Tommy. Who else would it be? Who would be giving her disturbing news? We didn't know any other players in this thing. We hadn't seen her with any other friends. And Elka didn't have a purse or anything, so there was no way she had surreptitiously sent a message. Besides, she was far too into Carolyn to have bothered.

"Everything okay?" I asked. She didn't type a text reply, but was instead slowly putting the phone back into her purse. She looked up at me with a confused expression, but then she shook her head.

"I'm sorry. I'm fine. I just got some bad news from home."

Home? Jocelyn?

"Anything I can do?"

"No, it's okay. My…um…my grandmother is sick. My mom is taking her to the hospital."

"I'm sorry. Maybe we should do this another time." Of course, there wasn't going to be another time. Ashley wasn't going to be leaving this hotel in anything other than a cop car.

"No, really. I'm fine," she assured me, putting her arm back around my waist and hugging me tight up against her. "It's all just fine."

Bobby POV

I was having some serious flashbacks. My dream last night had just been too real. I was trying to keep a cool head and remind myself that everything was under control, but on the inside I was sweating bullets.

From across the room, I saw Ashley talking with Alex. They were standing close, like two people who had intimate knowledge of each other. Only this time I didn't have to tamp down feelings of jealousy. I knew she was working. And I knew there was nothing to be jealous about.

Standing slightly apart from them were Carolyn and Elka. They were speaking intently, ignoring the rest of the room.

As in my dream, I was surrounded by a bunch of cops pretending to be rich Swiss, but this time the girls were there as well. Tommy hadn't been late. And while I wasn't completely sure, I had a feeling that Carolyn had managed to neutralize him. I smiled a little at that thought. Somehow I knew she would find a way to go up against him after Alex had warned her about his fighting skills. And clearly she had come out ahead since she was here and he was not.

So I sipped my drink. Club soda. And I pretended to be deep in conversation while I watched as Alex was manhandled by Ashley.

Then I looked at Carolyn. One second she was talking to Elka, and the next she was whipping her head toward Alex. What the hell?

And then Carolyn turned quickly to me.

"Bobby!" Carolyn shouted as she shoved Elka into the wall with one hand and with her other hand, she instinctively reached for a gun that wasn't there.

As this was going on, Ashley grabbed Alex around the neck and pulled her back up against her. She held a hypodermic against her throat.

Oh my God, this was not happening.

But this was real. I was awake. And it was happening.

"Eames!" I forced my way through the crowd, and this time I could move. I could get close. I stopped about ten feet away from her with my gun drawn. The other cops in the room were either hustling the girls out the doors, or lined up near me with their weapons pointed at Ashley. Carolyn still had Elka pinned up against the wall, and she wasn't putting up a fight.

"Eames!" I cried again as I levered my weapon at Ashley.

She looked at me calmly. Was that resignation I saw on her face? Acceptance?

No. Definitely not. It was irritation that she'd let Ashley get so close. It was confidence in my ability to make this right.

It was determination.

"You come another step closer, and I'll kill her. I swear I will. You need to put your guns down and let us go."

"You know I can't do that," I replied coolly.

"I can kill her right now. You can't stop me," she threatened, her finger on the end of the plunger. My heart was slamming in my chest. It was making so much noise that it was hard for me to hear anything else.

I pointed my gun at Ashley's head, but she was so close to Alex that I was afraid to pull the trigger. What if my aim was off?

I looked at Alex and she stared straight into my eyes.

"Do it," she mouthed to me.

And I did.

Before I could doubt my abilities, I pulled the trigger.

The shot echoed throughout the now nearly-empty ballroom.

And Ashley and Alex both went down to the ground.

TBC...