She whirled to face him, her skin hot. “Last night has nothing to do with it. We don’t have to ever touch again, but if we’re going to work together to take down Duncan, I thought it might be nice if we talked like human beings. Maybe even friends. Or does your ‘killer’s code’ prevent you from having those too?”
His lips compressed and his jaw tightened. She usually rejoiced when she could get him to show any emotion, but the menacing look on his shadowed face made her instinctively shrink away.
The driver’s side door snapped open and Alan slid into his seat with a jangle of keys. “Who’s up for some dinner?” He glanced between her and Scott, frowning. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” they said in unison.
Alan shook his head. “Why don’t you guys just fuck and get it over with already?”
Before he even returned to the car from the Taco Tavern restroom thirty minutes later, Scott could tell something was wrong. Somethingelse.Half of him had expected Alan’s Acura to be gone. The tension after Scott and Valerie’s argument had driven them all to silence for the short ride to get food and relieve themselves.
Under the yellow lamplight that penetrated the windshield, he could see Valerie and Alan talking animatedly. Her eyes were narrowed, her mouth turned down. She crossed her arms and turned away from Alan, her lips compressed. And then she noticed Scott approaching.
Her eyes widened, and she glanced at Alan before exiting the SUV and intercepting Scott on the sidewalk that ran between the drive-thru lane and the side door of the building.
“What’s up?” he asked.
She looked over her shoulder at Alan, who fumed in the front seat, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, mouth stuck in a scowl. “We need to talk.”
A group of young Hispanic men in dusty hoodies and baseball caps entered the restaurant, a thirty-something blonde with a screaming toddler dragged her kid toward a minivan, and two weathered cowboys—either of whom could have auditioned to be the next Marlboro Man—stood next to a dented F-350 shooting the shit. None of them spared a glance for Scott or Valerie.
“In the car,” he said.
“No.” She shook her head, causing the light to throw sparks off her newly blond hair. “Just you and me.”
The thought made him breathless. “Not here.” He took her small, cool hand in his and tugged her across the parking lot to a stand of gnarly trees with low-hanging branches and plenty of shadows. He faced her with a view of Alan over her shoulder. He didn’t trust the guy not to leave them behind, especially if Alan and Valerie were fighting. “What’s wrong?”
Her gaze strayed to darkness behind him. She took a deep breath and hugged herself. “Alan’s been keeping an eye on the news, and the reporters have dug up some new information.”
“About Hollowell?”
“No.” Her feet shuffled in the dark. “About you.”
Shit.Scott’s heart boomeranged in his chest. The sound of passing cars, the faint voices from the parking lot, the buzz of overhead power lines all faded, overridden by the rush of blood in his ears. “About me.”
Valerie nodded and swallowed hard. “He said you were in jail. Is that true?”
“Yes.” He should have known she’d learn his secrets. His records were protected, his name had been kept out of the papers due to his age back then, but it wasn’t hard for anyone with half a brain to put the story together. The townspeople had figured it out pretty fast. It wouldn’t surprise him at all to find out his old neighbor had contacted the national press when he saw Scott on TV.
“For…” She cleared her throat. “For killing your dad?”
His face turned hot and he fought the urge to flee. Maybe it was better that she knew. Better that she understood why he kept pushing her away. He locked gazes with her in the dark. “Yes.”
Her shoulders trembled but he didn’t dare touch her.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because…” She pressed a fist to her chest. “In my heart, I don’t believe you’re a murderer. And if I’m wrong, how can I trust myself?”
He scoffed. “Valerie, I got paid to shoot people.”
She shook her head. “That’s not the same. That was war.”
