Her arms squeeze me tighter as the chatter outside the window grows restless, everyone waiting on me.
“I love you too,” she says on a long sigh. “I take it you have somewhere to be?”
“Sort of have to find the guy who just skinned a grown man alive.”
She nods and steps back, wiping something away from her eye. “Right. Sorry.”
“You okay?” I ask, lightly gripping her chin and turning her to face me.
She peers up at me, her eyes hesitant. She never asks for anything, but always gives so much. Yet I see a question in her eyes, and I’m willing to do whatever she wants. Even if it’s getting the hell out of here and abandoning this case.
Then again, I still have a lot of justice to find in an extremely unjust town, while pretending to focus only on the current killer. Although, considering Johnson and the sheriff are already plotting my demise, I suppose I could give up pretenses. They know by now I’m doing more than gathering some background that could point to our killer. Hell, I’ve basically announced it.
I’m building a whole fucking case against them.
It’s just really hard to do without any physical evidence.
“What do you need?” I ask her when she grows silent.
“This afternoon, if you get a chance, do you think we could spend a couple of hours together?”
It’s the first time she’s ever asked that. Usually it’s me asking her to bend her life around my crazy schedule, not to mention put up with possible death threats.
“I can take off the entire afternoon,” I say, strumming her cheek with my fingertips.
I really can’t afford it right now, not with Johnson scheming with the director as I speak. But I won’t tell her that.
“Just a couple of hours,” she says with a small smile. “I know you have a lot on your plate.”
The chatter outside keeps growing louder, and I bend to press a kiss to her lips.
“I’ll be back at seven, and then I’m all yours for the rest of the night.”
She closes her eyes as I touch her, as though she’s absorbing the feel of my hand on her cheek.
“Okay,” she says softly, her eyes opening to reveal those haunting green eyes that have forever been seared into my memory.
I kiss her quickly, and head for the door, feeling like I’m doing something wrong. Never once, until now, has she seemed so vulnerable.
When I reach the outside, there are people lined up all around, everyone talking at once. What the hell? How long was I inside? This wasn’t going on when I came in.
“What’s going on?” I ask Elise.
She turns to me with a stoic expression.
“Apparently the amnesia is gone, and suddenly everyone wants to tell the tale of what happened ten years ago, along with everything that’s been going on before and since then. We’re going to be taking statements for the rest of the night.”
People are lined up all the way down the street, and I run a hand through my hair. I turn to see Lana standing on the porch, her eyes settling on the long line of people who are ready to spill the secrets they’ve kept for so long.
That coldness is back in her eyes.
It’s as though she resents them right now.
Fear is always a good motivator to make people grow honest.
I turn back to Leonard, and he gestures me toward him.
“I’m supposed to ride with Donny to the M.E. to get the report on Davenport,” I tell him.