“No, thanks.” She rubbed her hands down her bare arms. “Are they gone?”
“The police and EMTs? Yes. Simone—”
“If you’re about to tell me that you quit so you can work for Eden, please, can we discuss it another time?” She tried to smile as she walked over to her desk. A desk that she couldn’t find any purpose for. The awards on her shelves, the evidence of her success, pictures with political stars and up-and-coming movers and shakers. She picked up the pen her father had given her. Clenched it in her fist. None of it seemed real.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Kyla said as she entered the office. “This wasn’t your fault. No one knew about her condition. You couldn’t predict she’d—”
“That she’d die during questioning? Not even my overworked imagination could come up with that one.” She sat behind her desk. There was something she needed to do. Something she was forgetting. But all she could see was the image of Senator Beverly Wakeman, a woman she’d admired, modeled herself after, dying right in front of her. “I’m fine, Kyla. Why don’t you go home. Take the week off. With pay, of course.”
“Not a chance. I’m sticking with you.” Kyla moved closer, but Simone held up her hand.
“Kyla, I love you and I appreciate what you’re saying, but believe me, there’s nothing anyone can do right now for me except leave me be.” She turned tear-filled eyes on her assistant. “Please. I’ll call you when I’m ready for you to come back, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” Kyla nodded and backed out of the room.
Simone sagged in her chair, waiting for the door to click, but it didn’t. Instead, it opened again and Vince walked in, looking every bit as determined as she’d expected him to. “If you’re here to talk about Jason, not now.”
He stopped, his hand still on the doorknob, a flash of anger crossing his stony features. “I’m not here about Jason. I’m here for you.”
“I’d rather be alone.” She gripped the edge of her desk, trying to find something, anything, to concentrate on. If she didn’t, she was afraid she’d shatter.
“I’m not going to give you the ‘this wasn’t your fault’ speech if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Good, because Ward, Agent Fitzhugh, Cole, Jack and Kyla beat you to it.”
“That’s because I thought you’d take it better from them than me.” He walked over and sat on the edge of her desk, inches away from her. Warming her. Making her want nothing more than to bury herself in his arms even as she wanted him to leave. “Life stinks, Simone. The two of us know that better than most people. I’m not going to cry over that woman’s death. Nor should you.”
“Then maybe you should have been the one lobbing verbal threats in her direction.”
“Her dying does mean Lance Wakeman won’t have any choice but to testify against Babin. He’ll get a deal, sure, and he’ll serve some time, but we’ll get what we were after—Alik Babin. Fitzhugh said his men have already taken him into custody. And you know what? First thing he did was confess to Tandi Crawford’s murder. They’ve got agents out looking for her body as we speak. You did it, Simone. You got him.”
“And it didn’t cost me a thing.”
“It didn’t, actually,” Vince said. “Sitting around here feeling sorry for yourself isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
“What would you like me to do, Vince?” She rose and stared at him, jaw set. “Maybe we should take that little jaunt down to the prison to talk with your brother? See what bits of useless information I can pry loose in the lost hope I can get him out of there? Does that work for you?” She jerked open her desk drawer and yanked out her purse. She needed him gone, out of her life if she had any hope of being seen as impartial and getting his brother out. “Well, let’s go. I haven’t got anything pressing on me anymore. I’m free and clear, got to make sure I live up to my end of my bargain.”
He was quiet for a long time, but she wasn’t going to give in. She couldn’t. Not when this had to be done.
“Is this how you want to end things between us, Simone? On this note? By going back on your word to me?” He crossed his arms and looked at her. His pinpoint gaze had her squirming, and not in that mind-blowing way he had last night.
He’d opened the door she’d needed. Now all she had to do was walk through it. “How could you have been so blind? I never had any intention of talking to your brother. How could I when he’s part of the reason I’m sitting in this chair? I needed your help, Vince. I did what I had to in order to get it. I used Jason. I used you.”
“I know.”
She barely hid the gasp. “What do you mean you know?”
“Correction. I suspected.” And there, right in front of her eyes, she saw the man who had walked out on her three years ago. The hurt. The betrayal. The disappointment. “I wanted to believe you could put me and what I needed ahead of your career, your desires, but I didn’t quite manage it. Now I know why. You just confirmed it.” He walked to the door. “Did you ever do what I asked and think back on the night I left you?”
“No. I haven’t had—”
“Time, yeah, I figured. I asked you to come home, to help me celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?”
“That was the day I bought the bar. I wanted to surprise you with it, to share it with you because it was something you told me to go for. And I did. But you got caught up in a case and didn’t call. And when you finally got home at around midnight, you didn’t even ask me about the dinner or the wine or the key to the custom glass doors I planned to have made. You just forgot.”
Simone couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t remember. Even now, she had no recollection of his call, of his invitation. Of the excitement he must have been feeling.
“I’m glad you’ve closed the Denton case, Simone. Glad for whatever else will come of it.” He gave her a smile, dipped his head and opened the door. “Have a good life.”
And then he was gone.
* * *
“You’re not even going to offer to go kick his butt this time, are you?” Simone asked Allie and Eden as they poured generous glasses of wine and joined her on her sofa.
“Nope.” Eden shoved her feet against Simone’s thighs. “But I might kick yours. You’re a class-A fool, you know that?”
“I did what I had to do.” Simone wondered when the tears would stop threatening to spill. It had been almost two weeks since the Denton case had been officially closed. Alik Babin had been charged on numerous federal counts, Lance Wakeman was being sequestered by the FBI, US Marshals and at least a half dozen California police departments in regard to several missing persons cases, including Tandi Crawford’s.
And last week, Washington had paid homage to Senator Beverly Wakeman, who, as far as anyone else knew, had died of shock after learning of her son’s lifetime of misdeeds.
That the senator’s bodyguard and hit man had pled guilty to the deaths of Natalie Subrov, aka Mara Orlov, and Special Agent Cal Hobard and was going to a penitentiary for at least two lifetimes should have been the icing on Simone’s professional cake.
“You two are always taking things to the extremes.” Allie sighed and grabbed a handful of the tortilla chips Simone had become addicted to. “Eden filled me in on how you managed to get Jason Sutton an early release. There wasn’t any reason you had to cut ties with Vince to make it happen. You could have figured a way around that if you’d really wanted to.”
Could she? Or had she just been too scared to take the chance? “I didn’t want any of the favors I had to call in coming back on him.” Simone tugged at a loose thread on her yoga pants. Her black yoga pants. Her days as the DA’s Avenging Angel were over. Oh, she still had her job, as did Kyla, but she had yet to find anything remotely appealing about returning to work. Everything felt different now. Tainted. Painful. �
�Jason was wrongfully convicted by the system I represent. He got cheated partly because of me.”
“And that means you needed to sacrifice your own personal happiness? And you call me egotistical.” Eden leaned over and hauled out her bag. “And honest to Pete, could you please start stocking some chocolate in this place? My daily venture into the store that must not be named is costing me a fortune.” She revealed a white candy box familiar in the valley and popped open the lid. “Considering we’ve got a murderous stalker breathing down our necks, I’d think you’d want to grab a little happiness where you can.”
“That sounds like the perfect way to top off the day.” Simone glared at her friend. “Let’s talk about Chloe.”
“Maybe we should.” Allie stunned them into silence. “We never have. We never do. We tiptoe around her like we’re walking on her grave. We lost a friend whose murderer was never caught. He’s celebrating that, reveling in it, and I can’t go another day without dealing with it. Now we have a chance to find him, to make him pay for what he did and instead we’ve been trying to find something, anything else to focus on as we just hope it’ll all go away.”
“Allie,” Eden whispered. “That’s not what we’ve—”
“Of course it is. You with your super-dangerous investigations and Simone with her avenging angel thing and then there’s me, who’s spent more than half her life trying to figure out why that psychopath killed our friend.”
“Allie, what’s going on?” Simone shifted out of her self-imposed melancholy and took her friend’s hand. “This doesn’t sound like you at all.”
Allie blinked big dark eyes at them. “I’m tired. I’m so tired of thinking and worrying and analyzing. I want all of this to be over and know he’s been ended, to know that Chloe can finally rest in peace because we got him.” She sobbed. “I want to sleep through the night, just once, and not wake up in the morning to realize the nightmare’s still happening. And above all, I want what you two have. Eden with Cole, and you, you big dummy, if you don’t understand and see how much Vince loves you, you’re even more of a blockhead than I thought you were.”
“He has done a lot for you, you know,” Eden said.
“Yes, I know.” Simone sighed. “Coming to work for me even when he didn’t believe I’d help Jason—”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Eden glanced across Simone to Allie, who shrugged.
“No reason not to tell her now. Not if she doesn’t care about him.”
“I never said I didn’t care about him. And tell me what?” Simone demanded.
“Sounds a little like she cares to me.” Eden tapped her fingers along the chocolates. “Which one is the coconut again? I always forget.”
“It’s the one I’m going to cram into your face if you don’t tell me what you’re talking about,” Simone snapped. “What did Vince do?”
“Aside from falling even harder for you than the first time around?” Eden rolled her eyes. “Come on, Simone. You don’t really think you got that continuance from Judge Buford by your arguments, do you?”
“Settle in.” Allie patted Simone’s leg. “This is going to be good.”
* * *
“We’re not open until five!” Vince bellowed through the door of the bar when the knock sounded for the second time. “Come back then.”
Or don’t. Whatever. Vince slapped the dishtowel against his leg and rounded the counter. He noticed Travis and his manager giving him a wide berth these days. Not that he could blame them. Watching the tributes to Senator Wakeman pour in over the last few weeks was enough to turn him into a giant green rage monster.
“They’re not going away.” Travis stepped back as if getting out of the line of fire. “Maybe we should make an exception?”
“I’ll make an exception all right.” Grateful for someone to yell at that wouldn’t end with him being sued for abusive behavior, he ripped open the lock and pulled on the door. “Can’t you—” He blinked, staring at the young man in front of him. He was taller than Vince remembered, hunched, but that pretty-boy face of his hadn’t changed save for the feather-thin scars on his left cheek. “Jason?”
“Hey.” A sheepish smile crept over his brother’s mouth and lit his blue eyes almost to the point of brilliance. “Sorry about the time. I was afraid I might lose my courage—”
“Oh, Jason.” Vince stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his brother. He held on, remembering all the times he’d held this frightened little boy as his father had raged, protected him as best he could even when he’d feared for himself. He didn’t want to let go for fear his brother would disappear again. Only when Jason returned the embrace did he force himself to do so. “How are you here? When did you get out?” He gripped Jason’s face in his hands. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good.” Jason nodded. “Better than good. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me, but I thought I’d take a chance.” He beamed. “I guess I’m glad I did.”
“Get in here.” Vince slung his arm around Jason’s shoulder and dragged him inside. “Travis, this is my kid brother, Jason.”
“Hey.” Jason’s trademark shyness seemed even more intense than before, something Vince should have expected given how he’d spent the last few years.
“You hungry? You want something to eat? I want to hear everything, beginning with how long you’ve been out.”
“Ah, a burger would be great and I’m happy to fill you in. I got out this morning.”
“This morning? Why didn’t you call me? Wait.” Vince frowned as he pushed Jason into the booth Simone had sat in only weeks before. Simone...“I thought your parole hearing wasn’t for another few years.”
“Me, too. My new lawyer has some major pull, I guess. Some bigwig out of Los Angeles. Two weeks ago I went into a meeting room and there he was. Knew more about my situation than anyone else and told me he was getting me out.”
Suspicion grabbed Vince around the throat. “How is that even possible?”
“He wouldn’t give me any details, except to say none of it would have happened without someone pulling strings on the other side. And he mentioned some reporter woman, Evelyn, Elaine—”
Vince’s breath caught in his chest. “Eden?”
“That’s it. Eden.” Jason grinned. “Should have remembered that. Pretty name. Why? You know her?”
“Oh, I know her. I also know she doesn’t work alone. Let me get you that burger.” He pulled out his phone as he headed into the kitchen. “Eden? Vince. I’d like to speak to you. In person. Come to the bar. Tonight. You know why.”
* * *
“Are you sure about this leave of absence, Simone?” Ward looked across his desk at her as if he expected her to explode. “That’s a pretty big decision to make after everything that’s happened. You could ride this publicity straight through to the election.”
“I’m sure.” Other than her decision to go to law school and become a prosecutor, she’d never been more sure of anything in her life. “The job isn’t for me. It’s not what I want.”
“Maybe I haven’t made being DA appear as glamorous as I should.”
Simone smiled. “Not sure that’s possible.”
“You have to know the job’s yours if you want it, election aside. You’ve got some of the best approval ratings they’ve seen in decades. The FBI and police department have heaped enough praise on you that you can write your own ticket from here on.”
“I’m happy where I am.” But that didn’t mean she didn’t need a break. “A few more rungs up the ladder might be nice someday...”
“Consider it done.”
“But District Attorney?” She considered her options once again. “No. I want my freedom, Ward. I want to have a life.” And she’d have one, of some kind at least, once they finally brought Chloe’s killer to justice. Something s
he couldn’t do while under the active employ of the DA’s office. “And there are some things I want to do when I get back. I’ve got some vacation time I want to take.”
“Ah.” Ward referenced what was showing on his computer. “All at once?”
Was that a gasp she heard? “How about I take a month and you give the other month to Kyla. She’s got the bar coming up and I’d like her to be able to focus on it completely.”
“You two make quite the team. I heard she was instrumental in puzzling together Mara’s, um, Natalie’s evidence.”
“If she hadn’t thought to look through the old fraternity pictures, we wouldn’t have connected Wakeman to Babin.” And none of this would have happened. “You might keep that in mind if and when she applies for a position in this office.”
“I will. You heading out today?”
“Yeah. Just need to clean a few things up first. I’ll give you a call and let you know when I’ll be back.” She headed to the door.
“Whatever else you might think, Simone, you did extraordinary work on this case. You’ve made a real difference.”
“Thanks.” She only wished his compliments mattered as much as they used to. “Have a good day.”
“Oh, hey, Simone.” Kyla jumped up from her desk looking as if she’d been bitten by something. “Everything go okay?”
“Mmm-hmm. You’re officially off for a month with pay. So get to studying. Don’t let me down by failing the bar your first time out. Messages?” She held out her hand for the stack she’d come to expect. Requests for interviews, consults, old so-called friends reaching out, she’d been inundated by them ever since she’d become a front-page headline thanks to Benedict Russell and his new syndicated national column.
“Not too many today. You should get through them quickly.” She handed over the pile. “And one more thing?”
Simone stopped at her door. “What’s that?”
“You have a visitor.” She bent down to retrieve her things.
“You leaving already? I thought maybe we could get lunch.” She tried to hide her disappointment as Kyla headed down the hall.
Reunited with the P.I. Page 23
