“I—“ She of course knew that, but didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry?”
He smiled, leaned back and sipped his wine. “I don’t hold it against him. Elliott had the support of the outgoing D.A., Sandra Cullen. She brought over most of the judges. And Elliott isn’t a bad D.A.”
“But?” she pushed. She shouldn’t. She should drop this subject, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to know what Travis Hart thought about the race. Wasn’t it that race where Matt noted his ties to Sergei Rykov?
“We do things differently. You must know him.”
“Sure. I know a lot of the prosecutors and judges, through my dad. I testified on a couple of his cases. In fact, I think I might have testified in one of yours years ago, when I was still in uniform.”
“I would have remembered you.” But he looked at her again. “Maybe—you look different with your hair down.”
“I also went through a blond phase. Lightened my hair repeatedly until it was practically white. Big mistake. Cut it real short for a few years to let the mess grow out and swore off hair dye. Except ... I saw a gray hair the other day.”
“I have many.” He nodded. “You were the responding officer in a domestic violence incident. But there was a twist—it was the wife who took a tire iron to her husband for cheating on him.”
“Hell hath no fury, they say.”
“I tried to get her to plead, but she wanted to tell her story to a jury. Convicted, aggravated assault. Five years, though I think she got probation after three. She could have been charged with attempted murder.”
“You felt sorry for her?”
He shrugged. “Not particularly, but people sometimes do the wrong thing for the right reason.”
“Have you?”
“I suppose—though I don’t know that I’d admit to doing something wrong, per se. Sometimes, it’s a matter of perspective.”
“Very true,” she agreed.
“I have a strict no dating policy in my office because of a mistake I made years ago,” he said. He gave her a half-smile. “Otherwise, I would ask you out on a real date. Of course, you can decline the job and then I would absolutely ask you out.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. “You’re just enamored because I saved your life.”
Hart said, “Perhaps.” He paused. “Early in my career at the D.A.’s office I was head over heels in love with my law clerk. Talk about completely inappropriate, but I was a new lawyer and a bit arrogant.” He laughed. “I know what you’re going to say, I still am.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Sharon was beautiful and smart and had a wicked sense of humor. I didn’t know she was dating one of my colleagues, otherwise I would never have encroached on another man’s woman. She said she was seeing someone, but it wasn’t serious, so I pushed, confident that I would win. And I did. Only, I didn’t know that she broke it off with Matt Elliott to be with me.”
Alex’s heart skipped a beat, but she didn’t say anything.
“Several people asked why I ran against Elliott when he had the support of the former D.A. I gave the line of needing a change, that my conviction rate was higher, that I had a vision, but there was another reason. Sharon.”
She was surprised she could even speak. She didn’t want to talk about Matt with Hart, and she didn’t want to know about his past loves. She’d dated men before Jim Perry; she was pretty certain Matt Elliott had plenty of girlfriends. And it wasn’t even like they were serious. They were simply attracted to each other.
Except, there was nothing simple about her feelings.
“Love triangles are complicated,” she said.
“True,” Hart said. “But this was .... different.”
He hesitated, and she didn’t push. It was better that she didn’t know.