Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(28)

That fact says everything about their relationship.

I also don’t know how Leo managed to get me to agree to go out with him again. Our first date proved how much I suck at it. I can’t even carry on a normal conversation without bringing it back to me and especially back to what happened to Beau. I never used to worry about how that little quirk of mine affected my relationships with people. After losing just about everyone in my life after Beau’s conviction, there weren’t a lot of people left around to offend. And those who stuck accepted my obsession.

What does he see in me? He could have just about anyone. Hell, he had Savannah and probably a dozen girls just like her. What does he want with me and my cargo ship of baggage?

I pace our tiny office, waiting for Leo to get back from talking to Cassandra’s friend Maisy. It took us a few days to track her down. To our surprise she agreed to meet with Leo, totally buying his ruse of being a law student researching a high-profile local case. Leo had an appointment with her first thing this morning and texted me an hour ago to tell me he has some news, but he didn’t say what. It’s killing me not to know.

At some point in the past few weeks I’ve come to see Leo as a partner in this fight. Before I met him I never would’ve been comfortable sitting on the sidelines while someone else worked on Beau’s behalf. No, that’s not true. I can pinpoint exactly when it was that I gave over all my trust to Leo—when he got Beau to agree to his visit.

The outer door opens and I rush out to the reception area, hoping it’s Leo at last. I come to a screeching halt at the sight of my mother peeling off her sunglasses.

“Hello. I’m here to see Cora Hollis.”

My first reaction is to back away slowly and pretend I’m not here. No such luck. Both my mom and Savannah turn toward me. I have no choice but to paste on a smile.

“There she is,” my mother says.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I came to see you, since you don’t answer your phone.” She says this as though she sees me all the time. I haven’t seen her since Mother’s Day and I saw her then only out of guilt.

And there’s a reason I don’t answer my phone when she calls.

Savannah leans back in her chair with a smirk, totally onto what a giant farce my mother’s visit is.

“Why don’t we take this to the conference room?” I don’t want my mom to see Leo’s and my office. It’s littered with snippets of Beau’s case. She’d take one look and launch into some shit about how I don’t take her feelings into account and how could both of her children have turned out so badly?

“Mr. Nash has a client coming in fifteen minutes,” Savannah says. She’s enjoying this way too much.

“We’ll be finished by then,” I say. “Mom?” I motion for her to follow me down the hall and close the door after us. “What’s wrong?”

“For starters, you can tell me why a private detective—one of your coworkers, I assume—called me, wanting to talk about your brother. I’m trying to put that chapter of my life behind me. I don’t need my failings shoved in my face all the time. I can only assume this is your doing. Why do you have to constantly find new ways to torment me?”

I take a deep breath. When my mom gets that look of righteous indignation she reminds me so much of Beau that it makes it hard to look at her. He gets most of his features from her, whereas I look my like our dad, except for my eyes—those are all Mom. She used to like it that Beau looked so much like her. Now she does all she can to separate herself from him. Hence the blond highlights and colored contacts. I have good memories of my mom, but they’re washed over and scarred from moments like this.

“You assumed wrong. I didn’t tell anyone to contact you.” Goddamn Leo. Why didn’t he check with me first before involving my mother?

“I don’t understand you.” She looks around the room. “What are you doing here? What happened to that nice job at the law office? And when are you going to stop dying your hair that god-awful color? It’s not professional. Men, real men, aren’t going to give you a second look, let alone a first one, with that blue hair. You’re a beautiful young woman. Why are you trying to turn people off?”

“I don’t care what other people think of me.”

She props a hand on her hip. “That’s obvious.”

“I’ll tell Leo to leave you alone.”

“Who’s Leo?”

“You said someone from this agency contacted you.”

“His name wasn’t Leo.”

If it wasn’t Leo, then who? “What was his name?”

“I don’t remember.”

“If it wasn’t Leo Nash, was it Ed Nash?”

“It was nobody named Nash.”

“Jerry Sullivan? Al Torres?” She shakes her head after each name. I’m stumped. Those are the only guys who work at the agency. “Then it wasn’t anyone from this agency. Probably a crank caller and you came down here for nothing.”

“No, he said he was with a private detective agency and that he wanted to talk about your brother.” Your brother, not Beau or her son, as if his conviction is somehow my fault.

“Which detective agency?”

“I told you, I don’t know. I assumed you’d know, since you’re the one who won’t let anything go.”