Page 29 of See You There

This is bad. Very bad. Get control of yourself, Dahlia!

“Great, um,” Dahlia shifted awkwardly before forcing her body back to stillness. She took a surreptitious deep breath in through her nose. Calm. Peace. She repeated her mantra silently. Dahlia pulled a phone from her purse. “You don’t have to wait for me. I’m going to order a car.”

“I can’t leave you out here in the heat. I’ll give you a ride.”

“No! I mean it’s fine. I’m actually going to the hospital to see Chandler. I don’t want you to get stuck in all that traffic on Peachtree Street.”

Why is everything in this city named Peachtree?

“Ah.” The light in his eyes dimmed and his smile dropped from his face. “The boyfriend. Right. That makes sense. At least let me give you a ride there, and we can go over any questions you might have.”

Dahlia kept her smile perfectly in place. “I don’t have questions.”

“Humor me.” Luke smiled good-naturedly, but there was a gleam in his eyes—was he daring her? An old rebellious streak threatened to rear its head inside her.

Luke pressed a button on his key fob, and a car in the parking lot beeped.

Say no, she commanded herself. Dahlia should get away from him as soon as possible before she did something stupid. Like flirt. Or tear his clothes off.

Instead, she heard her own voice betray her. “All right, thank you.” It was only because she didn’t want to make it obvious that she didn’t want to sit in close quarters with him, she rationalized.

Right.

Luke led her to a sleek, gray Audi SUV, and she was slightly surprised when he opened the door for her. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone but a paid driver had done that. It would never occur to Chandler, and Victor wasn’t that type of man.

She hissed a little as the back of her knees hit the hot leather. “How is it already so hot?” she complained, as Luke climbed into the driver's side. “It’s only 10:30 in the morning!”

“July in the South.” Luke pressed a button on the console, and cool air blew on her back and legs. “I could kiss the person who came up with in-seat air conditioning! Which hospital is he at?”

Dahlia’s eyes darted to his mouth and then away again. She gave him the hospital’s name and fiddled with her phone.Do not think about Luke’s lips, or kissing or…

Her grandmother’s reedy voice sounded in her ear.

I’m not surprised. Little slut. No better than your mother.

Dahlia banished the ugly memory. “I’m going to text these pictures to James, and then I guess he can forward them on to you.”

“That seems like a lot of extra steps. I’ll just give you my number now.”

Dahlia’s mouth pinched. She didn’t want his number on her phone, but what logical reason could she give? “Great,” she muttered, as he rattled off his phone number. She put him under the contact name,Luke, lawyer—professional–it would remind her to keep her distance.

Dahlia pulled up the photos from the casino. She thumbed through the photo burst she’d taken with Jace and enlarged several of them to make sure they were good pictures of them both. Dahlia chose four that she thought the studio would feel comfortable appearing in the media—because of course Jacewould post them. After she pressed send, she squinted at one picture and then enlarged it.

“Oh my god!” she yelped.

“What?” Luke turned in his seat when he stopped at a traffic light.

“I got a picture of the robbers!” Dahlia held up her phone to show him. On the screen, the figures stood in the open doorway, guns raised.

Luke’s mouth fell open. “Holy shit! That’s fantastic! Can you make out their faces?” He turned forward again when the light turned.

Dahlia enlarged the photo even more. “No, they wore masks.” Something in the photo caught her attention. One of the gunmen’s sleeves had ridden up his wrist, away from his glove, exposing a small mark. “There’s a tattoo, though. Maybe they could use that to identify them?”

“This is great news! It’s going to be good leverage, too, if they decide to charge you.”

“Fabulous.”

Luke flashed a smile at her wry tone. “I don’t think it will come to that. Particularly if I offer it up preemptively.” Stopping at the next light, he turned and met her eyes. The butterflies turned into a tornado.