And his eyes—they were a warm, golden brown that radiated both intelligence and courage. He'd watched her every move with an intensity that bordered on… hunger.

"Hey, don't fall asleep standing up."

She jerked her eyes open to find Captain O'Brian regarding her curiously. "Sorry. It was a long night."

"It takes a while to adjust to the graveyard shift, but you're doing fine. Finish up and go home, Boucher."

"Yes, Captain." She hurried back to her desk to finish her report without the incident at the Plaza. But it had happened. Jack might look like a dream, but he was real.

She usually changed into civilian clothes before taking the train back to her apartment in Brooklyn. After a long night of dealing with drunk and disorderly people, she just wanted to fade into the crowd unnoticed. But this morning, she kept her uniform on and took the subway back to the Plaza hotel.

"I need information on Room 1412," she told the registration clerk.

"Just a moment." The young man typed on his keyboard. "That's one of our Edwardian suites. Would you like to reserve it?"

"It's already occupied. I want to check on it."

He frowned at his computer screen. "That suite is vacant at the moment."

"Well, maybe they checked out, but they were there last night. They had a wild party. Hotel security called the police."

He gave her a confused look. "I don't know what to tell you, Officer. According to our records, that room was vacant last night."

Lara swallowed hard. How far had Jack gone to erase his steps? "Is the night manager here? I'd like to speak to him. And hotel security, too."

The story remained the same. The night manager had no record of Suite 1412 being occupied. Lara asked him to check on any room reserved by a man named Giacomo, but no such name emerged in their files.

Hotel security was even worse. They got all huffy when she claimed they had called the police. They could handle matters on their own, thank you very much. And there hadn't been any wild parties the night before.