Anna J. - Reunited With The P.i.

“I didn’t tell him about you.” She focused on her dinner again.

“Why not?” His tone sounded as if he was suspicious.

“Because I don’t want anyone knowing what I’m—what we’re doing. It’s tricky.”

“I can solve that, I’m not taking the case.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Really?” Did he have to make it sound as if she’d issued a personal challenge? “No, wait. First things first. Before I turn you down again, what’s this change you’re talking about?”

“I need to find Mara by Monday.”

“Three days.” He stopped eating, set his fork and knife down, and picked up his napkin. He stared at her while he wiped his mouth, then pushed his plate aside and leaned his forearms on the table. “You want me to find this girl in seventy-two hours and she’s got what—almost a twenty-four-hour head start?”

“You’re good, Vince. If I didn’t think you could do it—”

“You said you had over a week before you had to be in court again.”

“I do. But I need to have information to give him on Monday morning if I’m going to keep my job.”

“So this is a bait and switch. Lure me in with promises of a cash payout and no sex and hope I’ll come through. Yeah, not real tempting, honey.”

How did he manage to make that endearment sound so inviting? “What if I sweeten the offer?”

“Clearly you overestimate how far my goodwill will stretch.”

Simone reached for the blue file in her briefcase. “If you won’t help me because of the demons nipping at your heels or because it’s the right thing to do, how about you do it to help your brother?” She set the file down and waited for him to read the name Jason Sutton scrawled across the top.

She’d considered every angle, spent the day thinking this through. As much as she hated the idea of dangling his brother’s case over his head, she couldn’t take the chance he’d turn her down. She was betting big here and not only with her career. She was gambling with Mara’s life.

“It’s been enough time for me to gain some power in the DA’s office,” she said, dropping into the rehearsed explanation. “I can justify taking a second look at Jason’s case without raising suspicions. Help me find Mara Orlov by Monday morning and I’ll take that second look.”

She couldn’t remember ever seeing his hands shake, but they did now as he brushed his fingers over the file before he asked, “What are the odds you’ll find something to get him out?”

“Slim.” She sat back and crossed her arms. “I told you, I’ve been over the files before. He could have flipped on his accomplices for a lenient sentence, he could have done a lot to help himself, but instead, he played martyr and threw himself on his sword. I could have missed something,” she lied, shoving the guilt aside as she kept an image of Mara in her mind. “Something that might lessen or end his sentence.”

“This case, your job, they’re that important to you?”

“Mara is that important to me.” This was what she’d been dreading, what she’d hoped to avoid. Admitting the truth to anyone, that whatever trouble Mara was in could very well be her fault. “I told her I’d take care of her, Vince. I promised she’d be okay.”

He shook his head in that slow, disbelieving manner he had. “You’re a smart woman, Simone. You know finding her, saving her, fixing her life, none of that will change what happened to you and your friends all those years ago.”

“I am well aware.” She flinched and swallowed the tears that threatened to form. That he refrained from mentioning Chloe’s name touched her heart. “Mara’s a starry-eyed kid trying to do the right thing, Vince. Partly because she loves the excitement, but also because I talked her into it. This can’t go bad for her. I can’t let it.”

He winced as he shifted his gaze to her empty wineglass before he took hold of her coffee cup and downed the last of its contents. “I can’t promise you the outcome you want.”

“I know that, too.” But she’d cling to hope as long as she could. “Does this mean you’ll do it?”

“You’re asking me to trust you with my brother’s life. Again. You want me to believe you won’t put your job, your career above Jason or even me. You’ve shown me before you’re incapable of doing that.”

His words, however softly spoken, felt like arrows to the chest. “You’re right. I have.”

“There’s only one thing you can say to me to convince me you’re worth taking a risk on.”

“What’s that?”

“You swear to me on Allie’s and Eden’s lives that you’ll do your best by my brother. You’ll come with me to see him, you’ll talk to him, reexamine every file, every bit of evidence. You swear that oath and I’ll believe you. I’ll agree to take the case.”

“Why?”

“Because Eden and Allie are your family. Just as Jason is mine.” He held out his hand, curling his other around the edge of his brother’s substantial criminal file. “Do we have a deal?”

Power plays had been her bailiwick for longer than she could remember. She could outlast, outmaneuver anyone. Except maybe one man. This man. But she was out of options and Mara might be out of time. “As long as you understand this is my case. And that means following the law. My rules. My playbook.”

“Until it needs to be mine.”

It was as close as she was going to get. Desperation overrode common sense. Getting anywhere near Vince was asking for trouble, but if she was going to find Mara, win her case and solidify her future with the DA’s office, she didn’t have a choice. “I swear on their lives.” She locked her hand around his and braced her heart against what was to come.

“Then we have a deal.”

Chapter 4

“Thanks for meeting me, Kyla.” Simone slipped into the chair across from her assistant at Monroe’s and offered her a small smile. The fifteen-minute drive from Vince’s bar to the coffee shop had given her enough time to think. And question. And have second thoughts. Then third...

Vince had been right about one thing: she really wished she’d had Allie and Eden to talk to if for no other reason than to convince her she was wrong about where she and the case were headed. Maybe she was overreacting to something and letting fear get the best of her. Simone might have been able to cling to that belief if Vince hadn’t voiced his own similar suspicions. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Like a date?” Kyla flipped the multicolored scarf behind her narrow shoulders and sent her ebony curls bouncing. “Well, I was deeply involved with this ten-inch-thick textbook on property and tax law. Do you want coffee?”

She’d already had enough to ensure she wouldn’t blink for weeks. “No, thanks.” Simone shook her head and waved the waitress away. “Were you able to get the information I asked for?”

“I boxed up all your files and left them underneath the desk in your office.” Kyla cringed. “Glad you reminded me about the new email monitoring program. Printing the hard copies didn’t take me as long as I thought it would and I would have brought it all with me, but there was no way to be sneaky about it.”

“Not to worry.” Simone added an early morning stop to the office to her mental agenda.

“I also added the background information on Mara and everyone else that’s involved, however peripherally, in the case. I’m surprised the copy machine didn’t short out.”

“What would I do without you?” Simone couldn’t wait to start combing through everything from top to bottom. “I appreciate you covering for me today.”

“Felt like I was in a spy movie. Nice break from studying for the bar.” Kyla folded her hands on the table. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on or is this some roundabout method of giving me more ‘tests’ for homework?”