Page 33 of Blind Trust
Nic stopped at a red light. He was wondering the same thing. Why wouldn’t Jerry report a threat against his life? Most people had a natural inclination for self-preservation. Fear being a motivating factor. His eyes slid to Lyla. Reality throbbed heavy in his chest as he recognized that part of his own fear was directly related to his feelings for Lyla. Or rather the idea that he could make a mistake with her. He wasn’t worried about preserving his life as much as he was about preservinghers.
What scared her—and then it hit him.
The first time he’d seen fear flicker in those sea-colored eyes of hers was when he mentioned she may have put her family in danger by engaging with Genevieve.
“Family.” He looked over at her. “What was the one thing Genevieve said Jerry would do?”
“Protect his family.” Lyla swiveled in her seat, her hand landing on his arm. “We need to talk to Genevieve, find out what she knows about the trouble Jerry was in and what she was so afraid of and what the article was about on the flash drive. I don’t think she meant to send a virus into our system, Nicolás, but maybe whatever was on there had some sort of a fail-safe to hijack the information she was trying to give me.” He stopped at another light and looked over and saw the alarm in her eyes. Then she continued, “His wife, Tiffany. What if her car accident wasn’t an accident?”
“Lyla, breathe.” He raised a brow at her stubborn countenance until she finally inhaled deeply, which from the curve of her lips he could tell she was doing just to appease him. “We’ll check into all of that...Monday.”
“Monday? No way, Nicolás. We need to head back to the office and contact the warden at Paterson and get access to the surveillance cameras to find out who was with Jerry the morning he died. Talk to his lawyers and—”
“Monday,” he cut in, needing to get ahead of her. “It’s after five, and I’d bet his lawyers don’t work past five on a Friday.”
“Okay, then tomorrow. The warden might be working on a Saturday, and we can at least try to get in touch with Genevieve.” She glanced around as if suddenly realizing he wasn’t on the road back to HQ. “Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you up to your parents’ place like you had planned.” Nic took a left. “You have plans tomorrow, remember?”
A second passed before he heard her sigh. “The drag hunt.” She blew out a frustrated breath. “I can back out of it. Tell my parents it’s work.”
“Are you really thinking about disappointing Elinor?” Nic hoped this was going to work. “You heard Kekoa, she’s read books and magazines in preparation for tomorrow.”
“She can still go. Or we can do it another time. I’ll make it up to her, to all of you.”
“Lyla, Jerry’s dead. If he was killed, then it was because he got into something he shouldn’t have and faced the consequences.” He cringed a little at the similarity this had to how Lyla operated. Had she caught it too? She was facing away from him, so he couldn’t tell. “I know Walsh wants us to find out who’s behind the malware, but you’ve made a commitment to your family to be there tomorrow, and we’re all looking forward to it.”
This turned her to face him. “You are?”
The eagerness in her question squeezed his heart. He was speaking on behalf of the team, but more so for himself. He’d come to enjoy Lyla’s crazy anticsoutsideof work, so long as tight pants and fake mustaches weren’t part of the equation. He was going to miss them—her.
“Sure.” He stretched his arm along the back of the bench, his fingers close enough to brush her hair from her face. He pulled his arm back. “This might be the only time I can win an argument with you.”
Her brows puckered. “What argument?”
“The one that’s about to happen when I tell you that I’ll be crossing that finish line tomorrow before you.”
“Ha!” She lifted her chin defiantly. “You have no idea who you’re challenging.”
He tilted his head. “Oh, I think I do.”
“Fine. I suppose we can wait until Monday.”
“How much did that hurt?”
“This much.” She spread her thumb and forefinger apart by a few centimeters before moving both hands wide apart. “But it’s going to feel really good when I show you up.”
Nic breathed a sigh of relief. Facing off with Lyla on a horseseemed a lot easier than trying to convince her to pause her determined interest in Genevieve and Jerry Miller.
“Are you scared of anything?”
“What?”
The shock in Lyla’s voice made him regret asking. He didn’t want to get into an argument when things were going his way.
“I’m just trying to gauge the best path to a win. If it’s spiders, I know a place I can get a few plastic ones to toss at you tomorrow.”
Lyla gave him a playful punch. “I never took you for a cheat, Nicolás.”
