“ “That” is purely physical,” she said. “And you know Ben’s the type to want what he can’t have, just for the thrill of the chase.”
“How do you know that? He seems like a decent guy to me.”
She turned to Grace and stared incredulously. “How do I know? You’ve seen the stories in the paper I know because you live and breathe the society pages. You’ve even been to a couple of the Donovan functions with Clinton. So you’ve seen them all in action, in person.”
Grace was shaking her head and Victoria looked away from her back to the television.
“What I saw was a close family dedicated to giving back to the world some of what they have. Clinton has even played golf with Henry and Lincoln Donovan. He says they’re good, stand-up guys. They just have a lot of money.”
Her finger pressed the channel button so hard now the pad was beginning to hurt. Irritation grew as the verbal exchange between her and Grace added to the tug of war going on inside her head.
“I really don’t want to discuss this,” she told Grace. “Ben is who and what he is and that has no effect on me.”
“Uh huh, you keep right on telling yourself that,” Grace said. “In the meantime, tell me what work you talked about because as you stated you’re both on opposite sides of the legal table.”
“That’s the weird thing,” she replied immediately because this was something she felt comfortable talking to Grace about. “He thinks the witness in the Vega case is still alive.”
“Who? The girl? But nobody’s seen her in almost a year. The cops don’t even hold out much hope of finding her.”
This time, she pointed the remote at Grace as she said, “That’s exactly what I told him. But he said he has someone looking for her.”
“Why would Ben Donovan have someone looking for Alayna Jonas when he no longer represents Vega?” Grace asked.
“Exactly,” she replied, glad she and her friend were finally seeing eye-to-eye.
“More importantly, why tellyou?” Grace asked with overblown drama added to her voice and a lift of her elegantly arched eyebrows.
Victoria shrugged that question off and was relieved when Clinton came into the room with a tray holding two filled wine glasses and one glass of milk—which Grace detested.
Victoria didn’t want to talk about why Ben was giving her information on Vega, not with Grace anyway. Actually, she didn’t want to talk about work or Ben any longer. For tonight, she wanted to relax and enjoy spending time with her friends. That was something good in this world—friends and family. Not death and betrayal, two things she prayed wouldn’t dampen her doorstep again any time soon.
Chapter 11
Victoria
It was after ten by the time Victoria parked her car and walked up the walkway to her house. A light breeze ruffled her hair that had lost all its curl from earlier today and now lay flat past her shoulders. In her hand, her keys jingled as she walked thinking of the lengthy baby name discussion she, Clinton and Grace had over dinner.
From the house two doors down Yoda, Mrs. Graham’s bichon frise was yipping loudly in front of their open living room window. She could hear him as if he were dancing around on her steps. Leo Mack, her next door neighbor had his blinds closed, probably didn’t want to see anything else after he’d seen the car the other night.
She took the six steps leading to her door one at a time, tired from the day’s work and more than ready to get a hot shower and climb into her comfortable bed. But when she looked up at her door, her heart stopped.
A single piece of blue tape held a sheet of paper in place just beneath the peep hole.
She swallowed hard, kick-starting her brain to send a message for her to take a breath. Her mouth opened and airwhooshed out as she closed her eyes. Opening them again only proved she still had perfect vision as her optometrist had told her just four months ago at her last exam. When she figured standing and staring was as pointless as the fear rippling up and down her spine she reached forward and pulled the paper from the door.
Be Careful Of The Company You Keep
805 Agosta Luna Boulevard
She read the typed message once more before her eyes fell to the bottom half of the page where a picture had been printed. A picture of her and Ben having lunch at the diner earlier today.
Victoria knew exactly where Agosta Luna was and who lived there. She was down the steps and climbing back into her car before she could think of a reason not to go.
Ben
It had been a long day, made into a long evening by the meeting Ben had with Noah. Trent and Devlin had been able to tap the phones at Ethel Jonas’ house.
“There’s a guy sitting on the house in a black SUV,” Noah told Ben when they sat in his car just outside the city limits.
