CHAPTER FIFTEEN
BELLA
“Son of a bitch,” Bella gritted at her disloyal ex-husband.
Dean chuckled and had the audacity to kiss her on the damn forehead. Bella had asked his ass for one thing, and that was to run interference between her and Lucas. But he couldn’t even do that. When Lucas cut them off at the path, Dean politely introduced himself as a friend of the family. Then, he actually had the nerve to tell Lucas that he’d heard wonderful things about him before excusing himself to the men’s room.
Reluctantly, Bella looked up at Lucas. No matter how sexy, the smirk on his handsome face was irritating.
“What?” Bella scoffed.
“Did you bring a bodyguard?”
Bella rolled her eyes. “I don’t need no bodyguard for you, Lucas.”
“Ha! You sure?” Lucas asked through a chuckle.
Bella opened her mouth to speak, but Lucas moved fast, closing the small distance between them. He was as close as he could be without actually touching Bella. She inhaled a sharp breath. Her heart was racing. It was her body’s normal reaction to his nearness. Bella couldn’t deny how her body responded when Lucas was close. He covered her face with his hands and ran his thumb across her cheek.
“I am going kiss you again, Bella,” Lucas rasped passionately. “Tonight,” he declared.
Bella was speechless. If there was a fight in her, it wasn’t coming out. Lucas was, for lack of a better word,compelling.
It didn’t help that Bella was running on fumes. She was working multiple homicides. And not just your everyday, run-of-the-mill homicides. The murders that she was investigating were hitting very close to home. Her friend had already been gunned down. And it was highly probable that she was still in danger.
Bella had been working overtime to find her mystery woman and bring her to justice. And, luckily, the lab was able to pull a partial print from a box of gloves that were dropped in Collier’s hospital room. Although the print wasn’t a match for anyone who was working in the hospital the night he was killed, it was still a long shot. The print could have belonged to anyone, from the manufacturers to distributors. What Bella needed to go forward was a positive match.
“Bella?”
Bella blinked out of her work haze and focused on Lucas’ hypnotic green eyes. “Huh? What?”
“Are you okay? Where were you?” he asked with concern etched on his face.
“Oh, I’m good. Just…well, work shit,” Bella admitted truthfully.
Lucas nodded as if he understood. He gripped Bella’s wrist. “Come with me. Let’s get you a drink.”
Bella nodded. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but she needed something to take the edge off. She looked back at Taylor as she allowed Lucas to lead her to the bar. Bella's eyes rolled involuntarily when she saw Victoria sitting next to her. But it wasn’t Victoria’s presence that concerned her as much as the woman that was standing right behind Taylor. She appeared to be overly invested in Taylor, and whatever she was saying. Bella had never seen the woman before. She could have totally been a friend that Bella had never met or someone associated with Victor. But, for some reason, Bella’s sixth sense told her otherwise. She tugged at Lucas until he stopped walking.
He looked back and frowned curiously. “What?”
“Do you know that woman standing behind Taylor?”
Lucas squinted until he spotted the woman that Bella was talking about. “In the black?” he asked.
“Yeah. You know her?”
“No. She doesn’t look familiar. Why?”
Bella turned to look at Lucas. “Look how close she is. Does that shit look normal to you?”
Lucas pondered the question before saying, “Maybe Taylor knows her. Or maybe she’s a friend of one of Taylor’s friends.”
Lucas’ explanation made sense since they were in one of the restaurant’s private dining rooms.
“Maybe,” Bella contemplated. “But maybe not. Come on. Let’s go see.”
Lucas looked from Bella back to the woman. “Okay, let’s go,” he said, grabbing her hand.
