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She pressed the phone to her ear. The line rang. And rang. It wasn’t like Orson carried the burner around with him. It was probably tucked in a drawer.
“Put it on speaker,” Brian said.
She tensed. “Why?”
“Because I’m asking.”
She’d asked him to prove that she could trust him. Over and over. And he had. Until the football hiccup, which turned out to be a misunderstanding that he’d wanted to explain. She stared in his eyes and realized she needed to show him that he could trust her, too.
With a nod, she hit the speaker button right as Orson answered.
“Hey, sweet lips.” His voice was deep and sultry, warm as a summer night.
Her cheeks flushed and Brian scowled.
“I told you not to call me that,” she snapped.
Orson chuckled, the sound reverberating in her belly. “Sorry. It’s fun getting a rise out of you. Hey, at least I didn’t call you sweet p—”
“I need a favor,” she said, cutting him off.
“Of course, you do. It’s the only reason you ever call. What is it this time?” Orson asked.
“My latest client, Haley Olsen. She really has disappeared. Possibly. I need you to help me find her if she’s still alive.”
“I’m listening.”
She briefly recounted what happened the night Haley vanished.
“Sounds gnarly. That was Wednesday night?” Orson asked.
“Yes. So, look for someone who has been paying for a hotel in cash since then. Say a sixty-mile radius from here.” Haley was worried sick about her mom. She wouldn’t want to go far. Especially if she was trying to keep tabs on what was happening back here in Laramie.
Brian shook his head and extended his hands, like he was widening a circle.
“On second thought,” she said, “double it. Make it a hundred and twenty miles.”
Brian nodded.
“I can use my facial recognition program if you want,” Orson said.
Her heart leaped. “Yes. That would be perfect.”
“For a price.”
He’d never charged her before.
“How much?” she asked. What she was asking for would come with a hefty price tag.
“I don’t want your money,” he said, sounding insulted. “Come to Denver. Spend a week with me. I miss you.”
Sucking in a breath, Charlie turned her back to Brian. For too long, she had allowed this flirtatious banter that skirted a thin line. “You don’t miss me. You miss the idea of me. You miss having dinner with someone and a person in your bed who actually knows you.” A woman who recognized how special he was, what he was capable of. His brilliance. His drive. His staggering loyalty. He might not have been faithful as a boyfriend, but he was a diehard friend that she could count on in a pinch. “But mostly, you miss the pretense of a relationship. Not me.”
They never talked when they were together. Not the way she did with Brian about things that mattered. Orson had never asked her questions, forcing her out of her comfort zone. He preferred to learn about people on the computer. And he certainly never admitted that he cared about her.
Silence stretched, seconds bleeding into a full minute, until it unnerved her. “Orson?”
He sighed. “I hate it when you’re right. I guess I just regret the way it ended. You didn’t deserve that.”
