Pretty Little Wife(42)

The overcast skies and threat of early snow had more visitors staying inside, doing behind-the-scenes tours. She rarely welcomed 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 of those 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.

“Maybe not the best move. They already suspect, Ryan.” She wanted to grab his hand and shake it, make him understand. “If they talked with you, called you in, then they’ve figured it out or are close to doing so.”

“Witnesses told them about us having coffee. They didn’t mention us meeting at my house or about that hotel in Syracuse, but we both know we used both.” He shrugged. “Paid cash at the hotel, thank God.”

He might think they were home free. She knew better. Ginny would pick and poke. She’d get it in her head there was something to find then hunt it down. Lila knew because that’s exactly what she’d do if she were Ginny.

Lila fell against the back of the bench. “Discovering that, or most of it, is likely coming.”

“To throw them off I told them about the ongoing water issue.” He played with the ends of her hair. Wound it around his finger. “Made it clear there was a perfectly good reason for us to keep meeting.”

So sure. Real or not, only a man would find solace in such flimsy excuses at a time like this. Women were programmed to fight to be believed.

She sat up straight again as she batted his hand away. “That investigator, Ginny? She’s smart.”

“I’m smarter.”

So much ego. She hadn’t seen that in him until the end.

He understood violence and familial destruction. He listened and seemed to get it. Didn’t judge. She could keep him over there, away from her daily and mundane life and just enjoy. Then she ruined it.

As her plan to deal with Aaron came together a few weeks ago, she merged the pieces of her life. Ryan had priceless intel she needed, so she began asking questions. Going deeper. When the topic dipped into his expertise, his ego flared. It was all about him and how he “got” things his contemporaries didn’t.

The hubris burned through the zing, leaving her bored and itching to get out. What she’d felt for him flickered and died. For the last month, she’d been going through the motions. With him. With Aaron.