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Jared spun around to face her. Between his look of surprise and the way her heart slammed against her rib cage, she was not far from losing it.
One swallow then a second. “I thought maybe we got our signals confused and you were in this office, waiting for me.”
His gaze toured her face, and his expression went blank. “No.”
“Sorry.”
He walked over to her. Stopped right in front of her, still wearing his suit and tie and holding his briefcase. “Are you okay?”
She was a mess. Not her style at all, and she didn’t like it. This whole lost-body thing had her rattled and making mistakes. Maybe that was Aaron’s plan. His way of letting her expose herself.
Jared slipped past her and into his office. He scanned the room until his gaze landed on the desk. A second later, he looked at her with a question in his eyes.
She realized she’d never answered him. “Not really. Okay, I mean. I’m not.”
Not her smoothest moment, but at the sound of her voice his expression changed. Now he looked like the Jared she knew. Open and welcoming. A little wistful as he watched her.
“What can I do to help?”
Guilt pummeled her. “Find Aaron before the entire county comes after me.”
He stared at her for a few extra beats then put down his briefcase. “You should be at home, out of the fray, until we figure this out.”
“It’s hard to stay still.”
“You know I’m here for whatever you need.”
Typical Jared. She could depend on him. “A few minutes of quiet where I don’t have to think about any of this?”
He just smiled. “Done. Let’s go inside and I’ll make you dinner.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Seven Months Earlier
LILA APPRECIATED AN ATTRACTIVE MAN AS MUCH AS THE NEXTperson. This one had deep brown eyes that seemed to watch everyone around him. He sat in the coffee shop on the edge of campus, right by the window. The position gave him a view of the sidewalk and almost every table inside.
A coffee cup sat in front of him, but he hadn’t taken a drink from it in the ten minutes Lila stood there, waiting in line for her turn to grab a cup of tea. He focused mostly on the small notepad in front of him. Jotting down notes then watching and writing again.
When she was much younger, like eight or so, she’d spin wild stories in her head about the people around her. Neighbors. The mailman who lingered on the porch and talked to her mom. The teacher she saw out of context with friends, trying on a lacy dress at the mall. It was the first time she’d realized teachers had friends and gossiped, and her mind danced on that one for days.
All that creativity and fanciful thinking died the day the police came and took her father away. Teams of uniformed men marched through their house, opening everything. Touching her things.
The brutal violation of her privacy didn’t compare to what came next. The taunting and hitting. The woman who yelled at her as she got off the bus.
Lila stopped dreaming. Her mind no longer had the freedom to wander. She had to be on the lookout for anyone who might be lurking, ready to hurt her. She didn’t have time for kid things.
The daydreaming had just started to come back, decades later. At first she quashed it, not wanting to get entangled in unreal things. Survivors stayed awake and ready. Falling into fantasy invited trouble, and she’d had enough of that.
But something about him had her staring and thinking. The dark hair, smooth and straight. The intelligent eyes that were always searching. That pronounced chin and inviting face. She’d seen plenty of pretty people, known some who other people found attractive, and probably were on some objective scale, but their blowhard personalities killed it for her.
He sat quietly. His gaze slipped to a dog sitting on the floor, and he smiled. She waited for him to visually stalk some younger woman so she could write him off as a loser, but it never happened. The watching never shifted to anything prurient.
“Here you go.”
She nodded as she took her tea from the barista and walkedacross the room. After a few steps, the man’s gaze shifted to her. When she got to the side of his table, he stood up.
“Lila Ridgefield?” He extended his hand. “The woman who will help me get out of my condo and into a house. I was hoping that was you. I’m Ryan Horita.”
