Page 37 of Witness To Murder
“Well.” She squared her shoulders, dropped her hands to her sides. “I should go.”
“Take care of yourself, Leah. Make good choices.”
She laughed. “You too.”
She left knowing without a doubt that only one of them would make good choices. The possibility that Chris would be happy on the straight and narrow was highly unlikely.
Leah, on the other hand, was never looking back, and she would do everything in her power to make the very best choices possible.
CHAPTER TEN
Gerard/Morris Apartment
Chestnut Drive, 8:00 p.m.
Owen couldn’t help wondering, even hours later, what Leah and Painter had talked about. The meeting had only lasted seven minutes. Yes, he had ticked off every second in his head.
This case—thiswoman—had totally undone him on some level. He had been with the agency for ten years. He’d started fresh out of university. He’d spent the first four years in research. Then, six years ago, Victoria had asked him to become a field investigator. To say he’d been pleased would be a vast understatement. He’d completed the additional training and took on his first case six months later.
In all the intervening time, he had never once been physically attracted to a client. But Leah…he felt protective of her—sort of the way he felt about his sisters, but not in a sisterly way at all.
His phone buzzed, and he retrieved it from his hip pocket. Ian Michaels, one of Victoria’s closest colleagues and a former US marshal, had responded to Owen’s request for information.
According to Ian’s contact, Painter would be moving into the Witness Protection Program. Although Lorenzo Perez was dead, Painter had considerable and quite valuable information about his network. Once word got out that he had cooperated with the authorities, he wouldn’t be intruding into Leah’s life again—not if he wanted to stay alive.
Another text message appeared, this one from Lambert. He had four members of his team in place at the Underground, Leahand Owen’s destination for the evening. She and the woman who called herself Isla Morris had frequented the dance club over the years. No one expected Alyssa Jones to be hanging out there, but someone who knew her and who was there may have seen her since Saturday night. Leah was acquainted with most of her former roommate’s friends. She had some idea of the faces to look for.
The club was the same place she’d run into Raymond Douglas that one time before the ill-fated date.
“I guess I’m ready.”
Owen turned to Leah and for a moment he couldn’t speak. Her hair was in a high ponytail, making her look incredibly young. She wore a short denim skirt and a pink scoop-necked tee. Her long legs flowed down to a pair of pink high heels. She…looked…great. And sexy as all get out.
“Wow.” He took a breath. “You look very…prepared.” The only photo he’d seen of her dressed this way was from ten years ago in her senior yearbook. She’d had the yearbook hidden in one of her dresser drawers. When he’d searched her room, he hadn’t been able to resist having a look.
“I feel a little ridiculous.” She shook her head. “Dressing for a night of clubbing after what’s happened.”
“Keep in mind it’s part of the investigation.” He grinned. “And you actually look…great. I like it.”
She rolled her eyes. “You look pretty great yourself.” Her gaze roved down, then back up his body, the move starting a fire deep in his gut.
“You said very casual. Do I meet the criteria?” He didn’t generally wear blue jeans and a T-shirt on the job, but blending in tonight was important. Good thing he always packed a pair of jeans. The Guns N’ Roses tee wasn’t his; Leah had suggested he wear it. It belonged to her. She used the vintage tee as a nightshirt.
The idea that she’d slept in the tee, no matter when that might have been, had kept him on the edge of arousal for the past hour. Seeing her in that skirt was not helping.
“It’s perfect.” She gave him a nod. “That tee looks better on you than it ever did on me.”
He doubted that was the case. “Thank you. Shall we go?”
She crossed the room, moving slowly, maybe because those heels were so high, or maybe just to make him more… Well, anyway.
“I have one question first.” She stopped directly in front of him.
“If I’m lucky,” he managed a smile, “I have the answer.”
“If we’re playing the part of a couple,” she began, studying his face as if she expected the answer to appear there, “what exactly does that entail?”
She was going there, was she?
