God, he was glad to get out of there. He could feel his blood pumping again.

But he needed Yank working with him. He couldn't imagine going any further without Yank's engineering genius behind him. He knew he had to stay patient while SysVal rode the crest of its publicity wave, but before long the company would stabilize, and he could have everything he wanted. Yank would freak when he found out what Sam was working on, and as long as Yank was certain that SysVal was safe, Sam would have no difficulty convincing him to come to work for his new company.

But Yank wasn't all Sam wanted. As he approached the entrance, he shoved his hand impatiently through his hair. His divorce was going to be final soon, and he had to move quickly.

His heart began to beat faster. God, he loved a challenge, and this was going to be the biggest challenge of his life. He could get Susannah back. What was it she had once said about him? That he had the ability to make sensible people do impossible things. Now he had to convince her that he'd settled down. Life was exciting again. He no longer had anything to prove by screwing around with other women, and he was finally ready to cope with a kid. Those were his bargaining chips.

Maybe it was good that they'd had this time apart, because now he understood how much she meant to him. Before she'd left him, he had been bored, restless, and he'd blamed it on her. He'd lost sight of how smart she was, how sweet. He hadn't felt complete since the night she had walked out on him. She seemed to have taken part of himself with her.

The last few times he had tried to talk to her on the phone, she had brushed him off, so he had decided to use Yank to get to her. Drop in on him at work. Make it seem casual. He had to get more aggressive with Yank anyway. This way he could kill two birds with one stone.

He didn't have any trouble getting past the SysVal security desk. Even at seven in the evening, the halls were bustling with activity, and he shot the bull with some of his former engineers before he left to find Yank. Somebody said he was eating dinner.

As he made his way toward the small kitchen in the back of the building, the loudspeaker blared. "Whoever ordered thirty-six pizzas and a box of Milk Duds, pick your order up in the main lobby now."

He shoved his hand in his pocket. It felt good to be back. And then he scoffed at himself. That was the sort of nostalgic bullshit that kept people from moving forward.

As he approached the kitchen, he saw Yank and Susannah sitting across from each other at one of the blond wooden tables. A picnic basket was propped between them. Too fucking cozy for words.

Ever since he and Susannah had split up, he'd been worried about Yank's feelings for her. He knew that years ago Yank had had a crush on her, but he'd never taken it very seriously. He'd even gotten a kick out of the way Yank used to look at her. Now he wondered if he'd been too casual about the whole thing.

Susannah laughed and Yank smiled back at her. He looked like he wanted to eat her right along with the piece of chicken on his plate. Since when had Yank ever taken time out from the lab to eat dinner?

Susannah saw Sam first and her smile faded. Her lack of welcome hurt. Jesus, he still wanted her. She was part of him, for chrissake.

"Sam." Yank put down his fork, stood, and held out his hand. As Sam shook it, he sensed a wariness in Yank, and that hurt almost as much as Susannah's lack of welcome.

He heard someone moving behind him and realized they weren't alone. Susannah's sister Paige stepped forward opening a wine bottle with a cork screw. He had only seen her once before, the night she and Susannah had walked in on him with Mindy. He could tell right away that she was a real bitch.

"My, my. Don't you look spiffy with your pants on." She ran her eyes up and down his body.

He wanted to slap her right through the wall.

Susannah didn't reprimand her sister for the wisecrack, and that really pissed him off. It scared him, too. What if he couldn't make her care again?

"Have a seat, Sam," Susannah said. "I think we can come up with an extra piece of Paige's chicken."

He sat, but refused the food. As Susannah reached for her napkin, he saw the faint scars on her wrist and remembered what she had gone through the night Theroux had tried to kill her. He felt rage, and something else he didn't want to identify. Maybe some kind of guilt bullshit.

Yank asked Sam what he had been doing, and Sam began telling him about his new company. Before long, he had thrown off his sport coat and was pacing the room, his fingers splayed, his arms making arcs in the air as he talked and talked and talked.

Hallelujah and amen! Brother Love's traveling salvation show was back on the road.

Susannah watched him without much expression, but Yank hung on to his every word. When Sam finally stopped talking, he noticed that Yank's eyes had grown unfocused, and he could sense his old partner's excitement as he pondered the miracles of engineering necessary to transform a wafer-thin credit card into a tool that could interface with the world.

Even Paige had lost her superior look. She had set down her wineglass and was staring at him as if he had just dropped in from another planet.

Susannah had noticed Yank's reaction, too, and she immediately rounded on Sam. "What do you want? Why are you here?"

He had forgotten those hair-trigger reflexes of hers, and he realized too late that he had miscalculated by talking to Yank when she was present. God, she was feisty. He had only wanted to pique Yank's interest, not steal him away in front of her.

But he could feel his adrenaline pumping at the idea of going into a battle with her again. Jesus, he loved a good fight. He had too many yes-men around him now. Not enough scrappers like Suzie. She liked everything up front, so why not give it to her? Why not have his fight and let her know what he wanted? That way she couldn't ever accuse him of having gone behind her back.

"What do you think I want?" he asked, spinning around the only empty chair at the table and straddling it.

"Suppose you tell me."

"I want the best, babe. Just like always."

"You can't have him."

"Yank's a big boy. He should be able to make up his own mind."

"He has. He's staying here."

"SysVal's getting old and respectable. Yank likes new challenges."

Paige's eyes were going back and forth between the two of them as if she were watching a tennis match. Yank was regarding them thoughtfully.

Susannah threw down her napkin. "I heard you were making some personnel raids. I thought you'd have enough decency to know that Yank is off limits."

Sam turned to confront Yank. "Still letting other people do your talking for you?"

Yank gazed at him with those gentle, infuriating eyes. "I'm not the only person you want. Am I, Sam?"

For the first time, Sam hedged. "What are you talking about?"

"Susannah's been through enough," Yank replied. "When are you going to leave her alone?"

Sam propped his arm over the back of the chair, still keeping it casual. "I'm not trying to recruit her. I know Susannah won't leave SysVal."

"But that's not what you want from her, is it? You don't want her to work for your company. You want her back as your wife, your good luck charm."

Susannah pushed her plate away and stood up. "I want you to leave, Sam. We don't have anything more to say to each other."

But Sam barely heard her. All of his attention was focused on Yank. Yank, the nerd-the goofy genius. Yank, who forgot his socks and lost his women. How could Yank think-how could be even imagine that he had a chance-at a woman like Susannah?

Sam's lip curled. He wanted to be cruel, to slice them both to the quick. "If you think I'm going to play dead and leave the field clear for you, buddy, you'd better think again. All I need is one night in bed with her. One night in bed, and I'll have her back. Isn't that right, Suzie?"

Susannah tightened her hands around the back of the chair. "Get out of here right now."

"I'm afraid this can't go on any longer," Yank said abruptly. "Susannah, we have to put an end to Sam's delusions about you right now. He's obsessed with you, and it has to stop."

"The divorce will be final in a few weeks," she snapped. "That'll put a stop to it."

"A piece of paper doesn't mean shit." Sam knocked over the chair as he leaped to his feet. "Get a divorce! Get a million of them! I don't care. Marriage doesn't mean anything, and neither does divorce. I want you back with me. We belong together. That's the only thing that matters."

Susannah slapped her palms on the table. "That's enough! Get out."

"He isn't listening to you, Susannah," Yank said. "He refuses to listen. Sam doesn't understand about divorce papers. But he understands how to make a deal. Don't you, Sam?" Yank leaned slightly back in his chair.

Paige's eyes were huge in her face as she took in the scene these lunatics were playing out in front of her.

For a moment, Yank stared at a spot in the air directly in front of him, and then he said, "What about a contest? A contest and a deal."

Sam was poised, all his senses alert. "What kind of contest?"

"A contest between you and me. The winner gets Susannah. The loser steps aside forever."

"Are you out of your mind?" Susannah exclaimed. "Are both of you crazy!"

Sam laughed. "Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You want the two of us to have a contest? If you lose, you'll stay away from her forever?"

Yank nodded slowly. "And if you lose, Sam, you leave her alone for the rest of your life."

Susannah made a choking noise, but neither of them paid any attention.