“Because they can’t work as quietly as I can and they don’t have the same stake in this.”
“Oh, so the people with stakes in a case should be the ones working it? Excellent. I’ll be going to Florida with you then,” she explained, her mouth in a stubborn line.
“Absolutely not.” He didn’t want her on the same continent with Evans much less the same city. “Eve, be reasonable. It’s probably nothing. I’ll go to the club, check it out for a couple of days, and report back.”
But something told him this lead wasn’t nothing. Every instinct in his body told him that this was the lead he’d been waiting for and Evans was close. He just needed to get into the right place to lay in wait. Adam could bury faked records so Alex could pass any background checks. He would change his hair color and wear colored contacts. Most of the time, he would hide behind sunglasses. He was older now and his body bigger than it used to be. He spent more time in the weight room now than he used to. He could pass for long enough to get in the same room with Evans and after that, it wouldn’t matter if the fucker recognized him.
“Would it change anything if I asked you not to go?” Eve asked in a perfectly calm voice, as though the outcome didn’t mean a thing to her.
He pulled up to a stoplight. “Why would you do that?”
“Because we can’t move on if you keep bringing Evans in between us.”
“What?”
She smoothed down her skirt even though it didn’t have a wrinkle on it. “He’s always there.”
“Because you can’t forget,” Alex replied, his voice low and sympathetic. “I understand that, angel. You’ll be able to sleep at night if I can take him out.”
She laughed, a deeply bitter sound. “I’m not the one obsessed with Michael Evans.”
He felt his jaw clench, his fists tightening on the steering wheel as he eased the truck forward and turned onto the freeway. Downtown was in front of him, the Omni hotel blinking its symphony of lights as day began to turn to evening. They were surrounded by concrete and facades and lights. He glanced at the sidewalks with their small patches of perfectly kept grass in neat little boxes. The late-afternoon commuters hustled to get to their train stops or parking lots. They were moving, but Alex felt like he was stopped. He and Eve hadn’t really moved in years. They were still having the same old argument. “He’s kept us apart for five years. If that’s not obsession, I don’t know what is.”
“I admit that I was hurt in the beginning,” Eve began. “But he isn’t the one who kept us apart. We both had a hand in it, and until we acknowledge what we’ve both done wrong, we can’t even think about being together again.”
She was dangling the only bait that might be able to lure him away, but he had to be strong. They hadn’t been able to make it with Evans between them. The only way to move forward was to end Evans permanently. “You’re trying to stop me from going after him. That’s the only reason why you’re saying any of this.”
Her fingers tightened on the handles of her purse. “I don’t want you to investigate him. Let it lie, Alex.”
“I can’t. He’ll come after you again.” He saw it every night in his nightmares. Evans would come after her, and she would be alone and vulnerable.
“No. He won’t,” Eve replied, her voice tight. “He has no reason to. He’s moved on to bigger and better things. You’re the one who’s still playing the game. Give the information to Warren.”
“No.” He couldn’t trust anyone else to handle it. Kristen was right. This required a small, very quiet team on the inside. Warren couldn’t put that together in time.
“Then we’re done, Alex. Drop this or we’re done completely.”
His stomach turned over. “We’ve been done for a long time, Eve.”
She went silent. The only sound in the truck was the smooth running of wheels on concrete and the muted sound of traffic beyond the closed up windows. And it struck Alex that this might be the last time they were alone together.
“What did you really want to talk to me about tonight?” Alex asked. The office was straight ahead. He only had another few minutes with her, and he thought seriously about just taking off. Just driving away, away from the office and the case and Evans and both of their lonely apartments.
But he couldn’t drive away from their problems. They were always with them, an anchor dragging them down.
“I wanted to discuss the dissolution of our contract. It’s cruel for me to keep using you like I have been.” She was stiff in her seat, her eyes on the office, her hands folded together.
“That wasn’t what Liam made it sound like.” Liam had sounded hopeful.
“Would it change your mind if I said I wanted to try again?”
She was trying to keep him out of harm’s way. That was all. “No. If you want to try again, you’ll wait for me.”