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“This is what is called Miami-Dade County. You know it?”
She nodded.
He continued. “As I said, this picture was taken in Miami, not in Las Vegas.”
“That could be a random bridge. How do you recognize it if you’ve only been here a few times and not that long?”
“A few years ago, I participated in a video conference with the police in Miami. A drug trafficking ring were operating their business out of Tokyo and smuggling cocaine to Miami. We shared many photographs, which included Asian nationals. A few of the photographs showed this bridge. I spent hours studying them, so I remember it well.” He tapped the picture. “This is Miami.”
“All this time,” Shae muttered as she tucked the photo away. “If it wasn’t a bear, what was it?”
She looked up at him as she closed her purse, but Eiji had started walking again. She caught up with him and touched his arm. “Eiji, what did it?”
“I don’t know.” His gaze had gone cold and his bearing stiff.
“Don’t know or won’t say!”
“It is not for me to solve this case, but for your policemen. If they did not see the evidence at the crime scene that I quickly saw from a photograph, I don’t know how you will get justice.”
Her mouth fell open, and she put her hands on her hips. “Are you serious? You’re going to go all high and mighty, like we don’t know what we’re doing over here? This is my mother we’re talking about, not some stranger. I know you didn’t know her, but she was everything to us. Everything!”
Tears flooded Shae’s eyes, but she blinked them away. More formed until she couldn’t see. She found herself in Eiji’s arms, crushed to his chest with his arms like steel bands around her waist.
“Gomen,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
As far as Shae was concerned, the date was ruined. She dismissed Eiji, telling him she needed to be alone, and she continued down the street toward the boardwalk. Daring a look over her shoulder, she saw him standing there watching her but not following. Even while he had pissed her off and made her cry, which she hated doing in front of others, an urge to go back to him rose inside her. She resisted it, calling him an arrogant dick to keep her feet moving in the opposite direction.
Once she reached the long strip that bordered the ocean, she walked along it, taking in the sights. Early in the day, there weren’t as many people crowding the walk, but a few meandered along. A sectioned-off area had been set up as an outdoor gym complete with weights and other exercise equipment. She paused to watch a couple of muscle heads working their biceps and then realized she recognized one. He had been with Darryl the night before, and she remembered thinking he liked to impress his friends too much. He’d shown off coming at Eiji. She suppressed a laugh recalling it. Bet he didn’t expect Eiji to deflect his punch with such ease.
Rather than stand around risking Travon noticing her, she moved on. Impulse led her to keep Darryl stewing for a couple days. The city was big enough for her to find plenty of action without him or Eiji.
She found breakfast when her appetite demanded it and spent the day shopping. Later, when the sun went down, she left the house in a minidress designed to hug her curves and show off more cleavage than was decent. In spiky heels, she slipped into the taxi she had called and instructed the driver to take her to a hot area for clubs. He drove a good five miles at least, and then Shae spotted a place she thought looked interesting.
“Stop here, please.”
Traffic forced him to go to the end of the street before he found an opening to let her out. She paid the driver and left the taxi to walk back. Music spilled out onto the street from various spots, and she knew often a club would feature a live band. Lines formed, and people milled along the sidewalks.
“Hey, pretty lady,” someone called. From the corner of her eye, the man standing in front of one establishment spoke to her. She raised a brow and eyed him before letting her gaze to the people entering. She didn’t spot any women, and the men seemed too excited to get inside.
“Um, yeah, I don’t think that’s my kind of place,” she informed the bouncer.
He gestured for her to come over. “Beautiful women are always wanted, right? You’re beautiful. Come on. Have a little fun.”
“What the hell.” She stepped into the dark interior and was blasted with music. A woman strolled by dressed in a white top that looked like it had been ripped apart to just a strip of material covering her breasts. The shorts—or maybe they were panties from the look of them—didn’t cover the lower half of her ass cheeks. Shae scanned the room and discovered quite a few women with their men at the tables. When she stepped forward, a small crowd of people crossed her path, and one of the men holding a bottle of champagne caught her eye. His eyes widened with interest, and he smiled.
“Care to join me and my friends?” He wasn’t half bad looking.
“Where are you going?”
“Private party.” He winked and jerked his head toward a set of doors to her right. “I’m Jeff, by the way.”
“Why not? I’m Shae.”
She linked arms with him and joined the procession. The room turned out to be quite large, with several couches. A few dancers were already present, and Jeff’s female friends kicked off their shoes and began gyrating with each other and a couple of the men also there. Shae watched Jeff pour her a glass of champagne and thanked him. She took a sip and began swaying her hips as well. An hour or so later, she’d ordered a mojito and a couple shots and had kicked her heels off as well.
Jeff clung as she worked her way around the room, meeting new people, laughing and dancing with a few of the girls. The music blasted nonstop, and she didn’t sit down once. When she raised an arm and wiggled her hips while sipping her drink, another girl copied her. Jeff shoveled chocolate truffle bread pudding into his mouth and sidled up behind her. His jerky movements made her wonder if he was drunk or spastic. She didn’t know what had happened to the champagne bottle.
Her host’s enthusiasm to drag more and more people into his party had the room jam-packed, but when Shae looked out over the crowd, she thought she saw Darryl. She blinked and checked again, and he wasn’t there. Well, the place wasn’t that big, so if he was around, she would have spotted him. West Los Angeles was a huge city, and she didn’t believe she’d stumble onto him so easily miles from the house she’d rented.
