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Not knowing where to look, she glanced around him and saw the notes on the pad. A rough sketch of what looked like a floor plan. When she glanced up again, he was staring at her.
He smiled. “It’s nice to finally put a face with a name.”
That’s exactly what she was thinking.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Present Day
THEY MET AT THEIR USUAL SPOT. CORNELL’S BIRD SANCTUARY.It had a more official name, Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary, but that wasn’t the point. They’d picked it because it was away from his campus and her job and provided over two hundred acres of trails and swamps and trees for privacy.
Over the last few months, they’d walked through the area and talked. Lila would listen to his ideas for future books. Ryan would laugh as he heard the complaints people made when looking at houses.
Today they met because they had to. They’d had a brief talk after Aaron first went missing. She’d called him from a phone she asked to use at the bank and given him a heads-up. But today was in person, as Ryan had insisted. He’d sent an email from a dummy account and used their emergency code, which they’d picked specifically because it looked like spam.
The overcast skies and threat of early snow had more visitors staying inside, doing behind-the-scenes tours. She rarelywelcomed cold, but today she did. They needed time alone to talk, and this was as close as they could get.
She spied him sitting on a bench near a clump of trees and speeded up her walk. She sat down next to him without glancing his way or acknowledging his attempt to move closer.
“This is risky.” She hadn’t meant to blurt that out. She’d honed her control, her ability not to show any response or react, but having Aaron’s body disappear messed with her hard work to never panic.
“I had to see you.”
She picked up on the pleading in his voice and pretended to ignore it. She couldn’t afford to have him unravel. “This is not the right time.”
“Tough.” He turned to face her, making it clear to anyone who might be watching that they were together. “Investigators came to my office yesterday.”
“Who?” She waited as he dug the business cards out of his pocket and flashed them at her. Ginny and Pete. No surprise there. At least the investigation hadn’t expanded to state and federal law enforcement, both of whom were crawling all over the county as part of that task force searching for Karen Blue. “That’s what I thought.”
He frowned as he tucked the cards back in his pocket. “You know them?”
“We’ve spent too much time together lately.”
“What the hell is going on?” He stretched an arm across the back of the bench, leaning in and casual.
His hand hovered. Part of her wanted to shove him away,but another sensation, a slight thrum that ran through her, called out for him to come closer. The collision between craving comfort and being ready to flee left her breathless. “What did they ask you?”
“How I knew you. If we went out. If we had sex.”
The final sentence screeched across her brain.Sex.“They asked about sex?”
He exhaled, tipping his head up and showing off that pronounced Adam’s apple that intrigued her so much the first time they went to bed. “Danced around it for about fifteen minutes but eventually got there.”
Her thoughts scattered as memories mixed with fears of getting caught. Panic rose in her chest until it clogged her throat. She coughed the questions out over the invading lump. “What did you say? How did you answer?”
“Thanks for being concerned enough to warn me, by the way.”
The words sent the crescendo of sensations crashing down, and her mind went blissfully blank. The absolute last thing she needed in her life was one more man who worried about his life and his safety as he discarded hers. “They’re checking my phone records. How do you think they got to you?”
“We usually stuck to coded texts that sounded house-related.”
“There were other times I called. Times when I used my cell or contacted you from work.” He was right that as his real estate agent contact made sense. She’d figured the few stray calls would get lost in a series of other ones. “They have all ofthose records and are likely following me, so I couldn’t exactly stop by your house to warn you.”
He glanced over her shoulder. “Following you?”
“No one did today.” She’d doubled back and took random turns. “And it’s not my car.”
“I didn’t admit to the affair.” His fingertips brushed against her shoulder then off again.
