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CHAPTER 7
Beck
TWO HOURS LATER,I was still sitting at the bar when the guy from earlier strolled back in. He and Nora had disappeared after he’d interrupted us sucking face.
“Mind if I sit down?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I’m not looking for any trouble.”
The guy grinned and took the seat. “Looks like you found her anyway.” He surprised me by extending his hand. “Richard Logan.”
This was fucked up, yet I shook.
The bartender walked over and set a napkin in front of Richard. “What can I get you?”
“I’ll take a vodka tonic. Make it a double.”
“You got it.” The bartender looked to me. “You want another?”
“I’m good,” I told him. “Thanks.” Keeping my head screwed on straight might be important with the guy currently sitting next to me.
Nora’s fiancé,or ex-fiancé—whichever it was—sat quietly to my left until after he’d gotten his drink and lifted it to his lips.
“You ever hear of aconitum?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Don’t think so.”
“It’s a plant. Gorgeous. Tall, deep purple or blue usually. The flowers are helmet shaped, and there’s a shitload of them on a single stem. They grow wild and sort of billow in the wind, giving you that free feeling when you look at them. Chinese medicine uses the extract to take away pain, but if you eat too much of it, you die.” He gulped some of his drink and pointed to me. “That’s Nora. Gorgeous and able to take away all your aches and pains. But try to take too much of her, and it’ll kill you inside.”
I held up a hand. “We’re not together.”
He smiled halfheartedly. “She told me the same thing for a long time, too.”
“It’s not like that.”
Richard shrugged. “Whatever you say. But remember, I warned you.”
A few minutes went by. Since the guy hadn’t slugged me yet, I figured it was safe to poke around—not that I was interested in more than what was about to happen between Nora and me, but she was traveling with my grandmother, after all.
“What’s her story?”
“You got a month or two?”
“Complicated, huh?”
“Like having a chocolate teapot to make your hot tea.”
I chuckled. “You were engaged, I take it?”
“Split up eighteen months ago.”
“Yet she called you when she got arrested…”
“I’m a lawyer. Probably the only one whose number she knows by heart. It was the first time I’ve heard from her in over a year.”
I nodded.
He shook his head. “Finally just moved on a month ago, too. New girlfriend’s not going to be too happy when she finds out I hopped on a plane the minute my ex called and said she needed help.”
