Evidence of Desire

by Lexi Blake

  Isla started toward the rocks. “Thank you for being gentle with him.”

  “It’s hard to watch that man fall,” one of the officers said.

  David rushed to keep up with her. “Isla.”

  She simply kept moving.

  If she got herself killed, he was going to be pissed.

  He glanced over and Liam and Erin had joined the officers talking to the woman in scrubs.

  Isla sat down next to Trey. “Hey.”

  His head came up. “Isla? Isla . . . Sorry. They gave me so many drugs I can’t think straight anymore. I think better here. I always did. I can see them playing here, but I know they’re older now.”

  “It’s okay,” she replied, her voice soothing. “How are you feeling right now?”

  Trey put a hand on his chest. “I feel like I forgot something. It hurts here. Like my heart knows something is wrong but I can’t remember. I hurt so bad.”

  David felt wrong listening in, but he couldn’t step away. This was private, a conversation between friends, but he couldn’t leave her alone. Wouldn’t leave her alone. No matter how kind Trey Adams had been, he had an illness that made him unstable.

  “And where are my shoes?” Trey asked and suddenly laughed. He looked up and caught David’s eyes. “You. You’re the lawyer.” He took a deep breath and his head hung low again. “You’re the lawyer Isla brought in for me. God, I wanted it to be a bad dream. She’s gone. Portia’s gone.”

  Isla looked past him, as though trying to judge whether or not the cops were going to run in.

  He thought they had some time. The cops seemed very willing to try to bring this to an easy, no-drama ending. “I am your lawyer and I’m going to help you. Do you know where you are?”

  He nodded, not looking up. “In the park. We liked this space. The kids could run around. Miranda would get a Popsicle and Oscar liked ice cream sandwiches. We have lots of pictures from this exact spot. Why is my wife dead? Did I kill her?”

  He hoped the cops were far enough away that they didn’t hear that. He knelt down, getting to the same level as his client. “Do you remember anything at all about that night?”

  “I remember she told me she would get them. She would take them all down.” He frowned. “I don’t know who she meant. She held me for the longest time and she was angry. She stayed in bed with me until I went to sleep. She does that a lot. Did that a lot. She would tell me stories about us, stuff I forgot. Sometimes it helped me remember. If it didn’t, then at least I can remember the story. You know what I mean. She liked it here. Now, Portia wouldn’t get ice cream. Said it went straight to her hips, but I thought they were beautiful hips. She was pretty when she was pregnant.”

  Isla put a hand on Trey’s bulky arm. “She was always beautiful, but let’s talk about what happened that night. She was angry about something?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t remember what,” he said, his expression contorting to a mask of pain. “She said something about how I couldn’t do it so she would. Do you think she knew someone was coming to hurt her and that I wouldn’t be able to protect her?”

  “No,” Isla said quietly. “She knew you would do anything to protect her.”

  “Did you hear something that woke you up?” He wasn’t sure how Trey would respond to being back in the hospital, especially since they would move him to a prison hospital. This might be his best time to get some questions answered, though the cops wouldn’t wait forever.

  “I thought someone was screaming, but when I got up, I didn’t hear anything. There was a light on downstairs. I thought maybe Portia had made tea or something. She does that when she can’t sleep. But when I called out she didn’t answer. I wish she could sleep with me, but I have bad dreams. I move around a lot when I sleep.”

  He couldn’t hold a thought for more than a few moments. His eyes would dart around, looking for threats. Trey’s hands shook, likely from withdrawal since they kept him doped up every few hours.

  Was this his future? Drooling and unable to catch a single idea?

  Would Isla be the one trying to get him to hold on? Who held him until he could sleep and then went to her own lonely bed because he was too unstable to sleep next to?

  “You said there was a light on downstairs?” Isla prompted him.

  “I think it was from the living room. It puts shadows on the stairs when you leave it on. They can make me think I’m seeing things. Portia never leaves it on. She turns on the hall lights before she goes to bed.”

  “The hall between the upstairs bedrooms? The one that runs by the stairs?” David asked, shoving those old fears to the back of his head.

  Trey held his head like it was hurting him. “Yeah, those. But they weren’t on that night. I heard something move downstairs. I thought I should check on her.”

  Had Trey walked in as the killer was walking out?

  “Counselor?” The tall police officer stepped up, a pair of shoes in his hand. “I’m sorry. The press is coming. We need to get Mr. Adams in a car and back to the hospital. I had some shoes in my gym bag. Like I’ll ever actually hit the gym. I think I’m the same size.”

  Trey’s head came up. “That’s very nice of you. I don’t know what happened to my shoes. I must have left them in the locker room. I’m such a dummy sometimes.” He took the shoes and socks and started putting them on. “How can I lead the team to victory without my shoes?”

  He gave the cop a brilliant smile and started talking about the game to come. Apparently he thought it was Sunday and he was playing the team from Miami. He started talking about stats and potential plays. He was calmer.

  Liam joined them, leaning in to speak quietly. “Erin and I convinced a couple of people to get on social media and talk about how they’ve spotted Trey Adams by the fountain.”

  Smart man. They weren’t close to the Bethesda Fountain. It could buy them a bit of time if they could get the press to the wrong spot. He didn’t want Trey or Isla to have to deal with a crowd of rabid reporters. “Thank you.”

  “Can I ride with him?” Isla asked the second officer.

  He shook his head. “Ma’am, we’ve already broken too many protocols and rules. I can’t allow that, but I promise we’re going to do everything we can to keep him calm. We’re taking him back to the hospital and arresting the crazy chick who got him out. She was a fan. She thought if she ‘saved’ him, he would fall in love with her. Yeah, she’s going on a psych hold, too. Lots of crazy going around this morning.”

  “You’re taking him to the hospital and not prison?” Isla asked.

  “He’s not under arrest for murder and the counselor here has a restraining order until a judge decides where he’s going. I’m sure the ADA thinks I’m hauling him out to Rikers, but the ADA is an asshole. I don’t even want to think about what Sunday dinner would be like if I was the one who tossed Saint Trey in the clink. Ain’t happening. Not when they’ve given me an out.” The officer looked over to where Trey had gotten to his feet and was still talking about the big game. “The way I see it, Mr. Adams got a police escort more than once during his career. We’ll keep him talking about the game. Why don’t you go on ahead and meet us there?”

  Isla looked up at him as though asking him if they could.

  “Of course. We’ll leave now and meet you there,” he said, shaking the cop’s hand. “And thank you for your kindness and discretion.”

  He stepped back, Isla’s hand in his. Erin and Liam joined them.

  “What do you want me to prioritize?” Li asked.

  There was no question about that. “The Algonquin. I need to know who Portia was meeting there. And I need to know what, if anything, was taken from the penthouse. I think the reason the DA’s office hasn’t arrested Trey is because they don’t want to have to share intel with us. They want time to prove their theory before letting me start to work on my own. I need to know
what they’ve got on forensics, too. If what Trey told us is true, he might have been in the same room as the person who killed his wife. He said he heard something downstairs. I bet that something was a someone. The kitchen is below those stairs. We know the police believe the chef’s knife from the butcher block is the murder weapon. What if he interrupted the killer while he was cleaning up?”

  A shudder went through Isla. “That’s close to the servants’ entrance, the same one whose security camera mysteriously went out.”

  “I need to know if the police found prints on that knife.” Even if they had and they’d matched them to Trey’s, he wouldn’t put it past Osborne to have buried it to buy himself more time before he started the clock by arresting Adams.

  “We’re on it,” Erin promised.

  “Hey, Isla!” Trey was smiling and looking more like the man he’d been. “I’m going to the stadium. You going to be at the game?”

  She nodded, her face flush with emotion. “Yep. I’m going to have David take me, but I’ll be there. I promise.”

  Trey gave her a thumbs-up. “Awesome.” He stopped in front of David. “She’s a great kid. You should be careful with her or you’ll have to deal with me. She’s important to my family. We understand each other?”

  He’d completely forgotten that they’d just met. David nodded. “I’ll take good care of her. I promise.”

  Trey walked away, amiably talking to the officers. If he thought it was weird that he had a procession of six officers surrounding him, he didn’t let on. Likely because he was firmly in some world that existed only in his memory, one where his wife was alive and his family was whole, one where he was still the hero and not utterly broken.

  Isla turned into David, tears on her cheeks as she watched her boss walk away.

  He held her, his brain turning even while she cried.

  TEN

  Two days later Isla stared at the piles of folders currently taking up space on the gorgeous dining room table. The police had finally released her apartment, and David had all her paperwork transferred to the penthouse. She was in the process of matching the original documents to the copies she’d kept on her laptop.

  So far nothing. Everything was here. There wasn’t a contract out of place. Her safe hadn’t been messed with.

  From what the police could tell, Paloma had gone through her mail. He’d opened several boxes that had come in from various places she shopped, but he hadn’t taken her new shoes or the new sheet set she’d bought online.

  What the hell had he been looking for?

  “Anything?” David stepped out of the bedroom, dressed for work.

  She couldn’t help but stare for a moment. A couple of days in bed with him had done nothing to get her used to how handsome he was, how masculine and protective he could be. She kind of hated that he was going into the office, but after two days of dealing with Trey’s state of mind and the question of where he would be held, she understood that he was ready to be in the office for a while. He was good at making her feel like she was the center of the universe, but he did have other clients.

  He was wearing a designer suit and she was in jeans and a T-shirt, her hair up in a messy bun, and she hadn’t put on makeup yet.

  “Nothing’s missing. I’m going over to Trey’s place in an hour or so. The police released it last night and they sent over the key. Don’t worry; Erin’s staying with me until Margarita gets here. She’s going to Trey’s with me,” she explained. “Erin is going to escort us over there and then she wants to interview a couple of people in the building about what they might have seen or heard. Liam is meeting with the reservation manager of the Algonquin this afternoon.”

  “Are you sure you want to go?” David crowded her, but she was kind of used to it. If she was in a room with him, he liked to be close to her.

  This would be the first day they’d spent apart, and she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. But then they had to find some normalcy. She couldn’t cling to his hand for the next forty or fifty years. “Absolutely. The police know Portia’s laptop and phone are missing. They’ve inventoried all the expensive stuff, but I want to see if there’s anything else. How about you? What are you doing today?”

  “I’ve got a couple of things I have to do on other cases,” he said. “But I could put them off if you need me today.”

  She reached up and straightened his tie, resolute in her decision to not cling. “You have to go back sometime. Now that the question of where Trey is going to be held has been answered, we have to move on.”

  The doctors had been clear. He shouldn’t be kept in the general population of a prison, but the judge had compromised and shifted him to the high-security psychiatric facility at Rikers. Thinking of her sweet employer in some dark place where they kept him cooped up and drugged made her heart break. They’d allowed his children to visit briefly, but only Miranda had shown up.

  “Speaking of moving on,” David said. “I still think we should stay here until they catch Kristoff Paloma. I talked to Noah, and his brother isn’t expected in New York for a couple of weeks. We’ve been invited to stay as long as we like.”

  “You don’t want to go home?” That was the decision she’d truly been dreading, that moment when he decided they were safe enough to go their separate ways. Oh, she had no doubt he would keep up with her, but she wasn’t sure what time and distance would do to them. They were both dedicated to their jobs and spent most of their time working. Could they keep this relationship alive?

  “I think I should stay close to you,” he admitted. “The McKay-Taggart investigators are heading home for the weekend tomorrow and I want someone with you. Now that Erin and Liam have positive proof that Paloma was in both Paris and London when Portia was, we have to consider that he’ll be back. He was looking for something, likely something she promised him. My working theory of the crime at this point is that their relationship went wrong and he killed her, but she had something on him. He’s looking for information.”

  “You think that’s what Portia meant when she told Trey she would ‘get them’? That’s what he said. Them. Not him.” That talk with Trey in the park haunted her. She couldn’t get him out of her mind, couldn’t stop thinking about how hollow he’d looked.

  “Maybe Paloma has a partner,” he offered. “Though according to everything the investigators found on him, he works alone. I don’t know how much we can trust what Trey remembers. I’ve also got a call in about a bail hearing for Trey. Right now the only count against him is reckless endangerment from the incident with the policeman’s gun, but now we’re waiting on the new psychiatric report before the judge will hear us.”

  “At least the press has calmed down.” She tilted her head up and he leaned over to kiss her.

  “At least we have that. I believe they’ve moved on to a happier story,” he said, his arms around her waist. “Some Hollywood star recently had a baby, I think.”

  He was out of the loop. Of course, he’d fallen asleep while she watched TV the night before. He’d put his head in her lap and was asleep within minutes. She’d sat there stroking his hair and was so content she wished it would never end. “Not exactly. Josh Hunt’s wife had a baby. It’s their first. Did you know Erin and Li know her? She used to work at McKay-Taggart years ago. She was hired as his bodyguard and they fell in love. Isn’t that romantic? Anyway, apparently Hollywood’s hottest action star having a baby boy trumps our troubles for the moment.”

  “Let’s hope Liam is able to find something today.” He stepped back. “Even if I’m able to get all of this thrown out, you know what you have to do, right?”

  He seemed so serious. It made her nervous. “Do?”

  “If I can get the case thrown out for lack of evidence, they’ll release Trey. They won’t keep him unless we file a motion to keep him,” David said, his words seemingly carefully chosen. “That wouldn’t be difficul
t.”

  “I have to find a round-the-clock nurse for him,” she said.

  His jaw tightened. “I don’t know that’s going to work.”

  She couldn’t see why it shouldn’t work. “There’s plenty of money in the estate. I can hire three and they’ll work in shifts.”

  “And when he decides it’s time to play football and tries to walk out to go to the stadium?”

  He could potentially overpower the nurses. “A bodyguard, too.”

  David looked down at her. “You need to speak with Miranda and discuss what’s best for all involved.”

  She’d been avoiding having to think about this. There had been so many other troubles, she didn’t really want to consider what would happen if they won, but she knew a couple of things. “Miranda will likely try to take her mom’s place. That could help a lot. He’ll listen to Miranda.”

  “And she’ll give up her whole life to take care of a man who might not remember who she is half the time?” David asked.

  “She’s his daughter.” It should be clear to him. Family was important.

  David stared at her. “Yes, she’s his daughter. Think about what he would want for her. Would he want her stuck in that cage with him? She could maybe handle school, but could she have a job? Or would he become more and more dependent on her?”

  His words were making her antsy. “I would help.”

  “And still take care of your other clients? What happens when you’re in the middle of a meeting and you get a call that he’s lost? Because no matter how many bodyguards you put on him, if he’s not in a hospital, he’s likely to get out.” David’s tone had lost a lot of the sympathy it’d had before.

  “You want me to confine him to one of those terrible places? I thought that was what we’re fighting against.”

  “No, I am representing him in a criminal case. My job is to give him the best defense I possibly can. You need to understand that if it comes to it, I’ll recommend he takes a deal that would at least let him stay in a hospital where he can get help. You have to think about this. I know what I would want if it was me, and I would absolutely want to be somewhere I wasn’t a burden and I didn’t hold the people I love back.”