Livvy nodded. “Yes, he possibly could, but only if it doesn’t incriminate him in some way.”
“There’s that,” Grace grumbled. “And his legal watchdog is keeping a tight leash on him. He’ll probably go in thedeny, deny, denymode.” She sighed and got to her feet. “Still, he wanted to have a chat with his lawyer about that sketch that I showed him, so he might be ready to spill something.”
That was a hugemight. Because even if it didn’t directly incriminate him, Livvy figured that Franklin would do prettymuch anything to keep New Hope from coming under any more scrutiny.
“All right, I’ll finish up the interview with Franklin,” Grace said, starting for the door. “Just an FYI—unless he confesses, I’ll have to let him go. I don’t have enough evidence to make an arrest.”
Livvy knew that. Heck, they didn’t have enough to hold Anthony on murder charges even though Grace could charge him with obstruction and a few other crimes. Since Anthony didn’t have a record, he’d likely be out on bail within an hour or two.
Grace walked out, closing the door behind herself. Livvy looked at Ethan, ready to assure him that she was all right so he wouldn’t worry. But he stopped anything she was about to say by brushing his mouth over hers.
It was barely a kiss. Or rather it would have been had it come from anyone else, but coming from Ethan, it was still amazing. Still hot enough to push aside some of that dread that had taken over her body.
“You’re a good person,” he said, his voice a low, soothing murmur. “And you were a good person when you were a kid. I want you to remember that because I know bone deep that whatever happened with that knife, you did what you had to do. Not out of maliciousness or evil but out of survival. Or because you were protecting someone,” he added.
That last part hadn’t occurred to Livvy. But yes, it could be that. Had she been trying to protect the woman with her on the stairs? Maybe. If so, how had she ended up dead in that bathtub?
“I need to know why I was at New Hope,” Livvy said on a sigh.
Ethan nodded and took the laptop from Grace’s desk. He froze for a second when his attention landed on something. On the sketch, she realized.
Livvy looked at the drawing again now, trying to study it with an objective eye. Hard to do since there was so much emotion involved in this, but she compared it to the memory flash she’d had.
“Yes, I’m certain this is the woman who was on the stairs with me,” she managed to say.
“And maybe that woman will be on the list Eden put together,” Ethan reminded her. He sat back down beside her, opening the master list.
Obviously, some research had already been done since there were now notes by some of the names. The first one, Heather Donnelly, for instance had died from cancer a year earlier. Another one, who’d been a nurse at New Hope, was in her eighties and had dementia.
“Look through the list,” Ethan instructed, “and see if anything rings a bell.”
She did. Livvy looked at every name, hoping there would be some sliver of recognition. But there wasn’t, and her frustrated sigh must have conveyed that to Ethan.
“It’s all right,” he assured her. “It was a long shot. There are no doubt plenty of other surrogates, clients and employees who aren’t even on this list.” He paused a moment. “There’s also the possibility that the woman used an alias.”
That was true, and it brought on another wave of frustration. Frustration that Ethan obviously picked up on.
“This list is just a start,” he insisted. “More names will be added as the interviews are conducted.”
Again, he was right. “Thank you,” she said, making the mistake of looking at him again.
Whenever emotions were running this high, defenses were down, which meant she didn’t hide her feelings for him. She thought it would cause him to take a mental step back.
It didn’t.
Ethan leaned in and kissed her again. And he made this one count even more than the last one. His mouth moved over hers as he knew exactly how to fire up every inch of her body.
Part of Livvy, the part that was guarding her heart, warned her not to dive right in. To hold back and protect herself.
That didn’t happen.
Livvy slid her hand around the back of his neck, pulling him even closer to her and deepening the kiss.
Ethan made a rough sound that came from deep within his throat, and without breaking the mouth-to-mouth contact, he put the laptop back on Grace’s desk. In the same motion, he snapped Livvy to him until her breasts were pressed against his chest.
It was an amazing feeling, as if all her senses had been heightened, and she suddenly wanted him even more than that night when they’d landed in bed.
Not good.
