Operation Notorious. Justine Davis
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met his gaze. “They might be new, but they can’t be any worse than the ones I’ve already asked myself.”
Self-blame, Gavin guessed. It was common. People always thought there was something they could have or should have done to prevent the tragedy that in fact had nothing to do with them.
“Let’s get you a ride home, then, and we’ll start fresh tomorrow,” Quinn said as he handed her the business card he’d picked up in the office. “Since it’s Sunday, maybe a later start? Ten or so?”
“Fine,” Katie said, although Gavin had the feeling if Quinn had said 5:00 a.m. she would have been there.
Cutter trotted past them toward the door, as if he’d understood that Katie was leaving and he was a well-trained doorman. Gavin found himself smiling. The smile widened when the dog raised up and grabbed a set of keys from the table just inside the door and trotted back.
“Now he’s your parking valet?” he said, half joking and half astonished that the dog had understood.
“I’d say he’s more your valet at the moment.” Quinn laughed as Cutter came to a halt directly in front of Gavin and sat. Only then did he see that the keys the dog had brought were indeed the ones to his rental car. The animal stared at him intently, clearly waiting for him to do the obvious. He reached for the keys rather gingerly, but Cutter released them without protest.
“I guess you’re doing the honors, then,” Hayley said, and Gavin didn’t quite understand the undertone in her voice. Not quite amusement, but he couldn’t put a finger on what it was.
“You don’t need to,” Katie said. “It’s only a block and a half, I can walk.”
Hayley shook her head. “It’s dark, and it’s pouring rain. You’ll end up twice as wet as you were when you got here.” Cutter barked, short and sharp this time, as if to hurry them up. “You might as well give in now, save the energy,” Hayley said cheerfully. “He’s obviously decided.”
As silly as it seemed to acquiesce to their dog, there didn’t seem to be anything to do but give in. Hayley handed him an umbrella—with the standard joke about it marking him as a tourist, since practically nobody who lived here used one. But at least it would save Katie from being drenched anew even on the short walk to his rental car parked in the driveway. He would have preferred to give it to her and just take his chances, but when he realized that was because he didn’t want to be as close to her, he mentally rolled his eyes at his own childishness and ordered himself to snap out of it.
“That dog,” he muttered when they were inside the car and he had the umbrella tossed in the back. “Apparently his word is law around here.”
“I didn’t come looking for help, just my phone,” she said, and he realized she had taken his words as complaint.
“That statement had nothing to do with you,” he said as he started the car. “I’m just a bit...bemused at Quinn, who’s one of the most grounded, practical guys I know, taking his lead from a dog. An amazing dog, I’ll grant you, but a dog.”
“I think it’s sweet.”
Gavin doubted the word sweet had ever been applied to the adult Quinn, at least not before he’d met Hayley.
He followed her directions and made a turn into a narrow driveway. In the dark and the deluge he couldn’t see much of the yard, other than what appeared to be lots of trees and smaller plants. He grabbed the umbrella and walked around to her side of the car, then sheltered her under it up to her front door. She thanked him rather more than he thought necessary, and ended it with a smile on her upturned face that made his pulse jump oddly. For a moment they just stood there, uncomfortably and deliciously close. The sound of the rain falling on her porch roof seemed to amplify both the chill around them and the body heat between them.
If she hadn’t moved first he wasn’t sure what would have happened. But she did, hastily, thanking him once more, opening her front door and escaping inside.
Escaping. What a word to come to mind, he thought as the door closed. He shut the umbrella despite the good fifteen feet between him and the car. And when he got back inside it, already good and wet, he turned off the heater. As he drove the short distance back, he had to admit none of it helped, the chill of the rain or the lack of the heater’s output. He was still a hell of a lot warmer than he should be, and had been ever since she’d looked up at him with that smile.
And he’d wanted to kiss her.
Katie closed her door and leaned back against it, all her focus inward, on the odd hammering of her heart and the strange way her house, even at its normal temperature, felt chilly compared to standing outside in the rain.
With Gavin de Marco.
Even thinking the name seemed absurd. As did her reaction to him. She felt foolish; she should have known that that man would have “it,” that elusive quality that drew attention even from those who didn’t know who he was. Charisma, appeal, magnetism, whatever name you gave it, that man had it in abundance.
And apparently it worked on her just fine. She’d been hyperaware of him from the moment he’d opened the door.
She fought for calm. She began to move, busied herself with mundane things, like locking the back door she’d left unsecured when Cutter had so unexpectedly grabbed her phone and she’d given chase. She put away the bowl she’d gotten out, planning to reheat the leftover chili from last night; she had no appetite for it now, not after reliving her worst and persistent nightmare yet again.
But at least it had been for good reason this time, and intentional. Not like the way it so often snuck up on her and left her paralyzed with grief and horror. She’d reached an equilibrium here, but she knew it didn’t take much to upset it. Like pouring out the ugly story to strangers, one of them Gavin de Marco...
Gavin de Marco. How impossible was that?
She went back to the living room and grabbed her phone. And once more she hit the speed dial for her father. She hadn’t spoken to him since this morning, when he’d reassured her everything would be all right because he was innocent. He was cooperating with the police, of course, he’d told her. She’d suggested a lawyer then, but he’d said that he didn’t need one and that he couldn’t afford one anyway.
So how would you like the most famous defense lawyer in the country for nothing, Dad?
When he answered, he sounded different than he had this morning. Not quite so unruffled, but still confident.
“It will be fine, honey. I think they’re grasping at straws because they have nothing else.” He laughed, and there was only the slightest touch of strain in it. “They even gave me the ‘don’t leave town’ speech. As if I would.”
She cut to the chase. “You need a lawyer, Dad.”
“We’ve talked about that, Katie.”
She hesitated, but there was no way she would do this behind his back, so she plunged ahead. “I found you one. Or rather he found me. Sort of. Actually it was the dog, I think.”
There was a moment’s silence before he asked, “Dog? Katie, you’re sounding a bit confused.”
She laughed then, and it eased the tightness in her chest a little. Then as concisely as she could she told him the story. She was honest enough to admit that she savored the moment when she dropped the name Gavin de Marco.
“Wow. He was big-league. But I thought he quit?”
“He did, but he’s working for them now.”
“Doesn’t matter. No way on earth I can afford Gavin de Marco.”
“That’s just it, Dad. You don’t have to.” She explained about the Foxworth Foundation, and how