Reunited With The P.i.. Anna J. Stewart

rare enough to bleed, so she stabbed it. Again. “Despite your best efforts to break it.”

      “Our efforts. Okay, truce. Let’s talk about something neutral. How are Eden and Allie? Other than unavailable?”

      “What makes you say that?” She cut her broccoli into tiny florets.

      “Because you’re sitting across the table from me and not having one of your wine-and-pizza confabs with them.”

      “It’s kind of creepy how you remember everything about me.”

      “You’re a difficult person to forget.”

      Great. Something else to dwell on when she couldn’t sleep tonight. “You’re right. Normally I’d have talked to them, but Allie left town tonight on business and Eden’s on her honeymoon—”

      “Eden got married?” He held up a hand. “Sorry.” She grinned at his laugh, which she’d wished for only moments before. The sound didn’t disappoint. “That came out far ruder than I’d planned. Who had the nerve to take her on?”

      “Remember Cole Delaney?”

      “Detective for major crimes?” She tried to recall Vince ever looking so shocked. “Eden St. Claire married a cop? How did I miss the headline? I didn’t think she had any time for them.”

      Simone relaxed, happy to shift to a topic she couldn’t resist. There might be conflicts between them that they’d never resolve, but one thing she’d always loved about Vince was how much he’d liked her friends. He’d also understood how important they were to her. Never once did he appear to resent them or ask her to choose between him and them. He got the importance of family. All the more reason to regret her actions when it came to his brother. “You heard Eden had a hand in catching the Iceman a few weeks back?”

      “That I did read. Sounded as if she had a close call.”

      “Mmm.” Simone nodded. “A wake-up call, too. She decided to...shift her priorities. Good thing given what’s coming down the road.” A chill shot up her spine as she thought about Chloe’s killer rearing his head after two decades. Vicious monsters should stay locked in basements where they belonged.

      Vince shrugged and then tilted his head, a silent urging for more details that she quickly detoured away from. Chloe’s murderer didn’t have any bearing on the Denton trial, and besides, it wasn’t any of Vince’s business.

      “What about Allie?” he asked.

      “Flitting about like the goodwill fairy she is. Still a child and criminal psychologist, and still doing family counseling when she’s not consulting for the police or the FBI. Speaking of goodwill, I talked to my boss while you were in the kitchen. There’s been a change in plan.”

      “That’s a good trick considering there isn’t any plan yet. But let me guess.” Vince carved up the rest of his steak before gesturing to Travis for another coffee. “He doesn’t approve of you attempting to hire your ex-husband.”

      “I didn’t tell him about you.” She focused on her dinner again.

      “Why not?” His tone sounded as if he was suspicious.

      “Because I don’t want anyone knowing what I’m—what we’re doing. It’s tricky.”

      “I can solve that, I’m not taking the case.”

      “Yes, you are.”

      “Really?” Did he have to make it sound as if she’d issued a personal challenge? “No, wait. First things first. Before I turn you down again, what’s this change you’re talking about?”

      “I need to find Mara by Monday.”

      “Three days.” He stopped eating, set his fork and knife down, and picked up his napkin. He stared at her while he wiped his mouth, then pushed his plate aside and leaned his forearms on the table. “You want me to find this girl in seventy-two hours and she’s got what—almost a twenty-four-hour head start?”

      “You’re good, Vince. If I didn’t think you could do it—”

      “You said you had over a week before you had to be in court again.”

      “I do. But I need to have information to give him on Monday morning if I’m going to keep my job.”

      “So this is a bait and switch. Lure me in with promises of a cash payout and no sex and hope I’ll come through. Yeah, not real tempting, honey.”

      How did he manage to make that endearment sound so inviting? “What if I sweeten the offer?”

      “Clearly you overestimate how far my goodwill will stretch.”

      Simone reached for the blue file in her briefcase. “If you won’t help me because of the demons nipping at your heels or because it’s the right thing to do, how about you do it to help your brother?” She set the file down and waited for him to read the name Jason Sutton scrawled across the top.

      She’d considered every angle, spent the day thinking this through. As much as she hated the idea of dangling his brother’s case over his head, she couldn’t take the chance he’d turn her down. She was betting big here and not only with her career. She was gambling with Mara’s life.

      “It’s been enough time for me to gain some power in the DA’s office,” she said, dropping into the rehearsed explanation. “I can justify taking a second look at Jason’s case without raising suspicions. Help me find Mara Orlov by Monday morning and I’ll take that second look.”

      She couldn’t remember ever seeing his hands shake, but they did now as he brushed his fingers over the file before he asked, “What are the odds you’ll find something to get him out?”

      “Slim.” She sat back and crossed her arms. “I told you, I’ve been over the files before. He could have flipped on his accomplices for a lenient sentence, he could have done a lot to help himself, but instead, he played martyr and threw himself on his sword. I could have missed something,” she lied, shoving the guilt aside as she kept an image of Mara in her mind. “Something that might lessen or end his sentence.”

      “This case, your job, they’re that important to you?”

      “Mara is that important to me.” This was what she’d been dreading, what she’d hoped to avoid. Admitting the truth to anyone, that whatever trouble Mara was in could very well be her fault. “I told her I’d take care of her, Vince. I promised she’d be okay.”

      He shook his head in that slow, disbelieving manner he had. “You’re a smart woman, Simone. You know finding her, saving her, fixing her life, none of that will change what happened to you and your friends all those years ago.”

      “I am well aware.” She flinched and swallowed the tears that threatened to form. That he refrained from mentioning Chloe’s name touched her heart. “Mara’s a starry-eyed kid trying to do the right thing, Vince. Partly because she loves the excitement, but also because I talked her into it. This can’t go bad for her. I can’t let it.”

      He winced as he shifted his gaze to her empty wineglass before he took hold of her coffee cup and downed the last of its contents. “I can’t promise you the outcome you want.”

      “I know that, too.” But she’d cling to hope as long as she could. “Does this mean you’ll do it?”

      “You’re asking me to trust you with my brother’s life. Again. You want me to believe you won’t put your job, your career above Jason or even me. You’ve shown me before you’re incapable of doing that.”

      His words, however softly spoken, felt like arrows to the chest. “You’re right. I have.”

      “There’s only one thing you can say to me to convince me you’re worth taking a risk on.”

      “What’s that?”

      “You