Page 19

Chapter

Seven

Last night on the plane, she’d been about to tell him everything.

Every thing.

All the deep dark secrets of her soul.

Even the ones her brother didn't know about.

If she hadn't drifted off to sleep, she probably would have spilled her guts.

The knowledge had Florence on edge.

It wasn't like she hadn't known that she was falling for cocky, charming, oh so sexy Eli Lennox. She’d already been falling hard and fast, but the Valentine’s Day date in Florence had her landing right smack-dab in the middle of a relationship.

Only the landing hadn't been sharp, and prickly, and terrifying like she had been expecting. Instead it had been soft, and warm, and like walking into an embrace.

That alone had been enough to throw her off.

Obviously, given that she had nearly told Eli everything.

How could she even consider telling him that?

Eli was already way out of her league, and she was probably never going to fit into his world, those differences were only going to grow more pronounced when he learned just how messed up her childhood had been.

As if being poorer than poor, abandoned by one parent, ignored by another, and ostracized by the other children wasn't bad enough, when he learned that she had also been…

“Hey.”

Florence jumped at the voice.

Literally jumped.

Sprung so far up and out of her chair that it toppled over, landing with a crash on the floor, the stack of files she was supposed to be reading joined them, scattering everywhere.

“What’s going on? What was that about?” Jake asked.

“Sorry, nothing,” she mumbled as she bent down to collect the files.

“That was not nothing,” Jake argued, righting her chair and holding it out for her. “What’s with you today? You’ve been quiet, distracted, and jumpy. How was the date with Eli? Being flown to Florence on a private jet must have been pretty cool,” her partner prompted as he went back to his desk.

“Yeah, it was cool,” she agreed, sitting down and rubbing at her temples where a headache was forming.

“But?” he prompted.

What did she have to lose by talking things through with Jake? They were friends, they worked long hours together and talked about anything and everything. Maybe having someone to bounce things off would be a good idea. “I'm falling for him,” she began.

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“It depends.”

“On?”

“He says that he really likes me and that he sees a future for us. I know he lost both his parents over the last couple of years, and his brother died years ago, he wants to replace his family.”

“He’s looking for a wife and thinks that could be you,” Jake summarized for her. “I still don’t get why that’s a bad thing.”

“Because we have nothing in common. You know how I grew up, and Eli grew up in private schools traveling the world in private jets. He has enough money to do anything he wants, have anything he wants, get anything he wants. So why does he want me?”

“Is that a real question?” Jake arched a brow at her. When she didn't respond, he continued, “Maybe because you're smart, pretty, funny, compassionate, caring, thoughtful, I can go on if you're not convinced.”

Florence waved off his compliments. “I don’t come from his world. How am I going to fit in with those people?”

“Okay, well, I can get how that would be intimidating, but I don’t think Eli cares about any of that.”

“No, because he wants to get me into bed,” she muttered.

“What?” Jake choked on the coffee he’d been drinking.

“Eli is cocky, I think if I'd said yes he would have slept with me the very first night we met. But I didn't. I said no when he asked me out on a date. That made him determined, I don’t think he’s used to hearing the word no. You’ve seen him, I know you're a guy, but you have to admit that he’s off the charts sexy, not many women would be able to resist him.

Especially when he turns on that charm of his.

What if I'm just a challenge to him? A conquest. When he finally charms his way into my bed what if he loses interest and he moves on? Or what if he’s just after any woman because he’s decided he’s lived alone long enough and wants a new family?

” Ashamed to admit her insecurities, even to her partner, Florence picked up a pen and began to spin it between her fingers.

“You want my honest opinion?”

“Of course.”

“I think you're falling in love with him and it has you running scared. I get why, you don’t have a great track record when it comes to people sticking around in your life. But I don’t think Eli is like that.

I'm with you on the cocky thing, but when he spoke to me about setting up that special date for you he was excited, he couldn’t wait to share his love of Italy with you.

I don’t think he’d go to that amount of trouble just to get you into bed.

Wine and dine you at a fancy restaurant, yeah, maybe buy you expensive jewelry, but not fly you to Florence. ”

She absorbed what her partner had just said.

She had learned early on in life that people didn't stick around.

Her mother’s men were like a revolving door, and each one seemed to be worse than the one before.

She had learned to be self-sufficient because she had to be.

There hadn't been anyone around to take care of her, and it was so much easier just to rely on herself.

Letting Eli in was a scary prospect. That she was on the verge of doing just that made her want to withdraw, send him on his way, and hide back down in her safe little hole.

It was one thing to fall for a nice, boring guy who would never hurt her or let her down, but someone like Eli who flew to Italy on a whim, he could decimate her if she let him in and he left like everybody else had.

Exhausted from thinking about all of this, Florence raked her fingers through her hair, then awkwardly twisted it into a ponytail as the strands stuck to her cast.

“Enough about my love life, or lack thereof. Let’s talk about the case.

No hits on CODIS yet?” The blood from the apartment had been running through the Combined DNA Index System for forty-eight hours now and had yet to find any matches.

She was starting to believe it never would.

But their killer had to be in the system somewhere.

You didn't go from nothing to murder with no stops in between—especially not the kind of smooth, well-coordinated, well-executed murders of the Dumpster Killer.

“Nothing yet, doesn’t mean we won't get one though.”

“Yeah,” she agreed half-heartedly. “We can wipe Justin Bates off our suspect list. He was in jail when Jana Friedrick was murdered, and I don’t think we can ignore the eye that whoever killed her painted in blood on the wall as a link to the dumpster killings.

” The fact that Jana’s killer had drawn that specifically instead of writing his usual message felt like it was a message directed at her.

She was the one who had figured out his body dump pattern, and he knew it because he’d tried to run her down.

Memories of the other morning when she’d thought someone was watching her flitted through her mind.

Had it been him? Was he fixated on her now?

“Yesterday, while you were enjoying Tuscany, I went through all the other reports we had when we ran the sketch of the killer, and I found two that I like as suspects.”

“Oh, yeah?” Her spirits lifted at the notion.

“Yep. One is a twenty-seven-year-old Frank Butterman. He’s not in the system, but he had been interviewed in the assaults of two women that he had previously lived next door to.

There wasn't enough evidence to arrest him either time, but the cops were pretty positive he was their guy. The other is thirty-year-old Michael Stypes. He’s also not in the system, but there are nearly half a dozen stalker reports all where the women accuse him of following them and leaving nasty, vile messages scratched into cars and windows.

He was arrested, but it never went to trial, again, not enough evidence for the DA to take it to court.

His fingerprints are on file but not his DNA, so we wouldn’t get a hit in CODIS for him. Which one do you want to look into?”

“I’ll take Frank Butterman,” she said, taking the file he held out to her.

Two suspects, and the time pressure of knowing that the Dumpster Killer wouldn’t be able to wait long before going after another woman should be enough to keep her mind occupied, so she didn't obsess over her very own cocky savior, Eli Lennox.

6:10 P.M.

“Hey, princess, how was your day?” Eli straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the car and walked over to greet Florence as she walked out of the police precinct.

She looked over and offered up a smile, but he could tell immediately that something was off. “My day was fine. How was yours?”

“Fine. I missed you.” He leaned down to kiss her, and while she kissed him back without hesitation, he still got the feeling that something was up. “I thought I would take you out for dinner. Something fancy, I wanted to treat you.”

“I think the trip to Florence was enough of a treat for one week.”

“A trip around the world wouldn’t be enough of a treat for one week,” he countered. “I thought we could go for drinks and then for dinner.”

“Actually, Eli, do you mind if we take a rain check? I have a headache, and I was going to go straight home, take a hot bath, and then go to bed early.”

What she said sounded logical, and she did look tired and a little drawn, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was pushing him away. She had a distant look in her eyes and her tone, and he felt like she was trying to dismiss him, albeit politely.

What had happened between last night and tonight?

Last night she had been curled up at his side, fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder after opening up to him about her childhood, and today she was pushing him away again.