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“I’ll take a look. In the meantime, keep me apprised. I don’t like the twist things took today, with Reese being targeted that way. We may have to consider a safehouse out of state.”
“I need to be here,” she protested. “I’ve only got a few weeks to prepare for the conservatorship meeting.”
“Which you could do from anywhere.”
Adam nodded at Hayes’s statement. “Exactly. Keep me updated.” The connection halted and the screen went dark.
Hayes gave a slight smile. “Adam is famous for his sudden end to calls. Ramsey Stryker, one of my colleagues, calls him an abrupt hanger-upper.”
She was too distracted by Raiker’s reference to a safehouse to smile. “It’s not just the court proceeding. I have to be in the city to figure out what might be going on with Rivers. Whether Greenley’s death is related to the trust. And I need to set up a meeting with Ben’s doctor, if only for some background.”
“Given proper precautions, we can still do that.” He powered down the laptop and pushed it away. His gray gaze was sober.“But things took a dangerous turn today, and Adam’s right. We have to keep the main thing the main thing.”
She lifted a brow. “That sounds like it came from a fortune cookie.”
“Your safety is what brought me here,” he continued flatly. “And it’s central to every decision I make. I’m no good to you if I’m distracted.”
Her pulse jittered as she recognized what came next. “I get that.”
“I’m not going to apologize for kissing you.”
Okay, maybe she hadn’t been ready forthat. Hayes’s gaze was intent. Warmth suffused her skin, diffusing the earlier chill. “As ideas go, that was one of my better ones.” Her lips curved a bit. “But bad timing. Neither of us can afford diversions right now.”
It’d be easier to agree if his eyes didn’t resemble an impenetrable fog. She wanted to search it for glimmers of the softness she’d seen there earlier. Reese wondered what it would take to bring it back.
Her mind scrabbled away from the thought, and she nearly toppled her chair over pushing it back to put some space between them. “Agreed.”
“But Adam was wrong about one thing.” His voice gentled, drawing her gaze again like iron filings to a magnet. “This doesn’t end when Thorne is in custody again. If they haven’t cleared up who was responsible for Greenley’s death, I’ll stay and look into it further.”
Her heart stuttered a beat. “You don’t have to do that.” Thorne was the job, and once he was captured, Hayes’s duty here was over. And that’s what she wanted. Didn’t she?
“I damn well do.” His jaw tightened. “Someone clearly wanted to put you at risk, Reese. Either to stop your questions,or because you were a convenient diversion for the police. But I won’t leave until I’m certain you’re safe. From every threat.”
She’d knownshe wouldn’t get any sleep tonight. Usually, Reese would resign herself to that. But she couldn’t face hours of lying awake, trapped in an endless mental replay of the day’s events.
She kicked off the covers, quietly got out of bed, opened the door, and peeked her head out. The apartment was dark, except for a sliver of light beneath the other bedroom door. She sped to the second bathroom, the one she’d relinquished for Hayes’s use, and opened the medicine cabinet.
Rows of unused medicine bottles lined the second shelf. She’d brought the eye drops she used daily to with her when she moved some things to Julia’s room. The rest were from her therapist, who’d been entirely too pill-happy. She hadn’t wanted to spend her days in a medicated fog. Her idea for working through the trauma was to grapple with it head-on.
Her fingers closed on the bottle of sleep aids she’d relied on occasionally, when the memories bared their fangs at night. She took one out and tiptoed back to her room, taking it with a few sips of water before slipping back into bed.
Reese’s mind flashed to the picture Hastings had showed her, of the box lying on the blue carpet. Her imagination supplied her with a vision of Greenley, who’d been alive and healthy that morning, lying in a crumpled heap next to the box purportedly from her.
One hand clenched, before she consciously eased it. She recalled the screech of brakes near Greenley’s office, and mentally ducked the internal reel of Julia’s accident. Reese employed the deep-breathing techniques she’d learned, andsearched for another subject to occupy her mind. Choose a happy memory when waiting for sleep, Dr. Atlin had often suggested in therapy. One that’s comforting.
Instantly, Hayes’s face swam across her mind, and she mentally backtracked. Tried to re-focus. But his image remained fixed and she saw again his face lower to hers. Slowly. Giving her ample opportunity to move away. She hadn’t. Instead, she’d returned his kiss, which had started as light as silk. Testing, but not tentative. An invitation to more, which she might have accepted if the doorbell hadn’t interrupted them.
Bad timing. And a worse decision. Muscles relaxed, Reese snuggled more deeply into her pillow. She already had plenty of regrets to haunt her. Something told her that Hayes Moreland would be one she might not recover from.
19
Aslight sound awakened her, and Reese raised herself to one elbow, blinking drowsily. Soft light edged the window blind. Morning, barely. Her fingers searched the bedside table for the phone. She brought it up and squinted at the screen to read a text message from an unknown number.
Got some info on your brother. Meet me at 3Cs on Freemont and 100th West. 7:45. Bring $$$. If you’re not there within 5 I bounce.—K
Her lips flattened. As Hayes said, paying for information elicited greed, which colored the veracity of anything she learned. But she was starting at zero. If the CNA really knew anything about her brother, he was already ahead of Reese. And she could work on substantiating his input before any future meeting.
Reese squinted at the time on the cell’s screen. She had an hour to get dressed and across town. She texted a response.