“I didn’t mean to blurt it out. I just meant that this wasn’t going to lead to sex. We’re colleagues, as you told my mother. We’re not…anything else,” she said for lack of a better term.
He reached out a hand, traced a finger along the line of her jaw and Victoria held her breath. He was standing so close, too close. Her heart hammered in her chest and she was so…what? What did his closeness do to her?
“We’re not anything else,yet,” he whispered, then dropped his hand from her face and turned away.
He was out of the kitchen and at the front door before Victoria could get her feet to move again.
“Lock the doors when I leave,” he said when she finally made her way back to the living room. The windows have locks already installed. Keep a dim light on down here when you go up and sleep well,” he told her as he walked out.
She grabbed the door handle and watched him go down the three steps in front of her door. She wanted to say something, to correct him, admonish him, something.
“Goodnight,” was what finally fell from her lips and she felt like biting off her tongue the minute she did.
He stopped, turned back to face her and grinned. “Goodnight, Victoria.”
Closing and locking the door Victoria slowly leaned against it, letting her head drift back as she whispered a word she’d never thought would apply to herself, “Idiot.”
Chapter 9
Victoria
Fear was not an option for Victoria. It was one of those things she’d boxed up and stuck in her mother’s attic along with her father’s belongings. He hadn’t been afraid, even when those robbers had approached him and stuck the gun in his face.
“If people know your fears, they’ll have a tool to manipulate you with. Show no fear and you maintain the upper hand.”Porter Lashley had never been afraid of anything, and he’d instilled that mantra in his only daughter.
Sitting at her desk at almost noon, two days after her home had been violated, Victoria remembered those words. She recalled them in her father’s voice as if he were standing right in the room with her and she wanted to cry. At night sleep evaded her, during the day the headaches taunted her and thoughts of Ben steadily crept forward to fill the in between times.
He wasn’t what she thought he was. At least, she’d begun to give some credence to him being a normal guy. Except he was still rich and privileged and didn’t need the job he did, the job that allowed a man like Ramone Vega to walk free. She understood the justice system and knew that everyone was entitled to a good defense. Ben gave above and beyond a gooddefense for all his clients. He was actually one of the best defense attorneys in Clark County. And a few weeks ago he would have been the attorney she planned to beat in court. But he’d stepped away from the case. She wondered why?
She also wondered why he’d continuously turned up in her life. No, there was no need to wonder about that because it was a question she’d always known the answer to. There was something between them, a sort of thunder and lightning type of reaction, he roared like a boastful peacock, and she struck like an angry eel. And yet they couldn’t seem to stay away from each other. To counter that, she’d tried to head him off by declaring that she wouldn’t sleep with him. And instead of arguing his case or insisting that he knew he’d somehow convince her to do just that, he hadn’t seemed phased. That had intrigued her.
Enough so that yesterday she’d been expecting him to show up at her door or at her office. She’d even stayed downstairs longer than usual under the pretense of working after she’d had dinner with her mother, waiting for him to come knocking on her front door. But he hadn’t. That had her wondering too. Until now, she felt like a bundle of contradictions, like her normally cut and dry go to work, win a case, start over again, life seemed a little out of control.
And then there was the fear.
She was trying to keep it at a minimum, trying like hell to not let the thought of Vega seeking some kind of intimidation toward her take hold. He was a killer, she knew this. So, if he wanted her out of the way, she wouldn’t been without a second thought. But she was still here working on a way to convict him. Why, was a question that she didn’t want to explore, yet couldn’t help considering.
“If you’re thinking about this case that hard we’re in for a conviction,” Grace said as she made her way into the office.
“When does your maternity leave start again?” Victoria asked instead of replying about the case. Talking about Grace and the baby was a much better idea.
Grace shook her head, her long ponytail swishing behind her. “Not until my water breaks. Clinton says I should stop now but we only get six weeks maternity leave and I want every second of that time to be with the baby. I don’t want to use any of my vacation time to go out early. Besides, things are heating up around here,” she said rubbing her hands together. “You know Karl Maddow, down in the economic crimes division, he and Roxanne are dating. Now ain’t that some mess? Roxanne’s clearly ten or fifteen years younger than that man.”
Victoria nodded because Grace could always be counted on to take her mind off things. She hadn’t told her about the incident at her house, hadn’t wanted to worry her so close to the end of her pregnancy. And as she watched Grace continue to talk with the animated way she did everything, she realized it was a good decision. Grace would’ve wanted to come right over after she heard what happened. And then she would’ve wanted to come over the next day and now, instead of telling her the office gossip, she would’ve been questioning Victoria about her locks and security systems and whatever else came into her mind.
“So anyway, Jules wants you to wrap this case up quick. He’s putting in for a transfer out of the felony division and doesn’t want this hanging over his head.”
“What? It’s just another case. He’s had at least a dozen mistrials he hasn’t even bothered to re-try. What’s so special about this one?” As Victoria asked the question, other questions she’d been mulling over as she’d reviewed the file took hold.
“Probably all the media attention,” Grace replied with a shrug. “I think the transfer thing is a front. Clifton says he’s already filled out the ballot. He’s going to run for DA.”
“Really?” That was certainly interesting. The District Attorney’s position was a public office, one that a person had to campaign and be elected to fill. Jules wanted to enter the world of politics and he needed the murder of a congressman and his wife to be cleared before he did. Very interesting indeed.
“Who do you think will take his place?” Grace asked at the same time there was a knock on the door.
Grace was sitting close to the door and they’d both assumed it was someone who worked at the office. So, she reached out her arm and turned the knob to let them in.
But it wasn’t someone from the office standing on the other side. It was him. Victoria wasn’t sure if she or Grace was more shocked to see Ben standing there.
