Page 5 of Caught
The saleswoman was giving her a curious look, head cocked. “You look so familiar to me.”
Busted, Leilah thought. The car saleswoman was either a racing fan or a fashionista who’d caught the Vogue spread. Based on Holly’s silk blouse and nicely tailored trousers, she was a bit of a fashion horse herself.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” Leilah said truthfully.
“Huh. So weird. Well, give me your license. I’ll make a copy and grab the keys from the office, then we’ll take this puppy out.”
“Great.”
As Leilah reached into her purse, the Forester cruised into the lot, and Ryan hit the horn with a short beep beep. She frowned at him, but he gestured for her to come to the car.
“Can you excuse me for one minute?”
“No problem,” Holly said.
Leilah walked quickly to the car. “What’s up?”
“Hop in for a second,” Ryan said with a heavy sigh.
She dropped into the passenger seat. “What is it?”
Ryan handed her a fresh cell phone. “Here. This one’s yours. I called your brother to let him know we need someone to come pick up this car.”
“Okay?”
“They want to pick us up instead,” Ryan continued.
“Pick us up? They want us to go back to Shenandoah Falls?”
“Right. There’s too much heat on us. Omar said they’ll send Trent to pick us up and another team to get the car.” He eyed her steadily.
“Is that what you want to do?” she asked.
He didn’t respond for a long moment, then he shook his head slowly. “No,” he told her, his eyes fierce behind his glasses. “That’s not what I want to do. I want to talk to Natsuo’s cousin. I want to find out whether we’re right about the ketamine theft, and I want my life back.”
“Well, then, let me buy the car. And we’ll go to DC,” Leilah said.
He shook his head. “We’re the prime suspects in Grover’s murder. I can’t put you in any more danger. You wait here for Jake’s team, and I’ll go alone.”
“Absolutely not!” she exploded. “We’re in this together. We’re a team.”
A rare flash of anger blazed in his eyes. “Are we? Because it sure doesn’t feel like it.”
She stared at him for a long moment, not comprehending. Then she rubbed her hand over her forehead. “Are you kidding me right now? This is why I said we can’t—we have to pretend like nothing happened last night. We don’t have time to be distracted by relationship stuff, Ryan. Someone’s trying to kill you. Focus. We need to prioritize.”
“Relationship stuff? What relationship? A one-night stand isn’t a relationship.”
Out of patience, she vocalized her exasperation. “It’s—I don’t want it to be a one-night stand. I want to hit pause, okay? We need to take a step back for now, focus on finding out who’s trying to kill you, and stop them. I can’t exactly have a relationship with a dead man, can I?”
He laughed without humor. “Okay, you have a point there.”
“Great. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a car to buy.”
“I still think you should—”
“I didn’t ask. I’ll buy the car and then meet you back at the campsite.”
He held her gaze for a long moment. “You don’t have to do this.”
