Deeper Than Need (25 page)

As she was reaching to get her purse from the drawer, the front door opened.

Her belly sank. The detective, with those cold blue eyes and his grim face. She didn’t like that man. Not one bit. The day had been so chaotic, she’d forgotten about him. Glancing at the clock, she said, “I was just getting ready to leave. I’d half-forgotten you were coming by.”

“I’m running a little behind,” he said, shutting the door behind him. The professional smile on his face did nothing to reassure her.

Dread curdled in her gut as she put her purse back down. She might need to speak with him for whatever reasons, but she definitely didn’t
want
to. The man seemed determined to dislike her.

He crossed the floor, glancing around the small office. “This shouldn’t take…” He paused, his gaze landing on something across the room. His eyes narrowed. Sharpened. “Where did you get that?”

She blinked and looked at the desk, uncertain as to what he was talking about. “Get what?”

“Do you realize that’s evidence in an open investigation?”

Trinity shook her head. “No. I
don’t
realize it, because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think you need to come to the station, Ms. Ewing. You can call Ali from there to come get your son,” Jeb said, dropping one hand to his waist.

“I will not come to the station,” Trinity snapped, shoving back and planting her hands on the desk. “You haven’t even said what in the hell you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about—”

The door to the back swung open and Noah came through.

Silence fell, heavy and weighted, as he paused there, looking from her to Jeb and then back to her. A sigh drifted from Noah and he hung his tool belt on a nearby hook. A grimace twisted his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest. Somehow, that simple motion made him look bigger, and he stared at Jeb for a long moment, a muscle pulsing in his cheek. Then he shifted his attention to her, his gaze softening a fraction. “Everything okay?”

“Oh, it’s just peachy,” Trinity bit off, her belly tightening into knots. She was so damn
tired
of all of this. So tired. “Except this clown seems to think he can haul me down to the police station for no reason.”

Tension, heavy and static, rippled among the three of them. One second ticked away, then another. Jeb said softly, “Ms. Ewing, there’s no reason to make this any more difficult than you have to. Now come with me. I’m sure Noah won’t mind watching your son—”

“Actually, I think before you do anything, you should explain just why you’re hassling her,” Noah said, his voice soft, almost gentle. But the look on his face was icy and his gaze cut into Jeb like glass. Noah took one step toward Jeb.

“I’m not hassling her.” Jeb didn’t even look at Noah. “I’m doing my job, Noah. Please let me do it.”

Trinity glared at him. “I’m not going
anywhere
until you tell me just
what
we’re supposed to clear up.”

“That.” He lifted a hand and pointed.

Trinity followed the direction of his hand and still confused, still
fuming,
stared at the phone Noah had left on the corner of his desk that morning. She stared at it a full minute without even realizing what she was staring at. Then, abruptly, she dropped back into the chair and started to laugh. “You want to question somebody over the phone?”

“This isn’t a laughing matter, Ms. Ewing.” He gave Noah an unreadable look. “Come with me now or I’ll have to arrest you.”

“On what grounds?” She stopped laughing abruptly. Propping her elbow on the arm of the chair, she met his gaze dead-on. “You’d have to have a warrant, and if you think about it for five seconds you’d realize you probably don’t even have probable cause. This isn’t
my
business. I don’t own this place and I don’t work over there. This is my work area. Now if you saw that phone in my possession, you’d have more of an argument, but you’ll have a harder time with this.” She gave him a narrow smile. “I’ll have a lawyer here, a damn good one, who’ll have you twisting in so many directions, you can’t even see straight. When I’m done, I’ll look into a harassment suit against
you.
It may not go anywhere, but it will sure as hell cost the city time and money. I can afford it.”
Well … my father can.
She was feeling pissy enough to do it, too. “Does the city really want to go to that trouble? All over a
phone
somebody else brought into a place where I work?”

“You’re pushing just a little too far, Ms. Ewing,” he said, his voice low and full of warning. “Somebody else brought it, huh? That’s fine. You call your fancy lawyer and we’ll clear it up at the station.”

Noah took a step forward. “I really don’t know what the problem is here, Jeb, but she says one thing, clear as day, and you don’t hear it.
She
didn’t bring it here.
I
did.”

*   *   *

“
You
brought the phone in here?” Disbelief colored his words as Jeb shifted his attention to Noah.

“Yeah.” He crossed his arms over his chest and pointed out, “You might have missed it, but the sign on the door says:
Benningfield and Son.
This is my place. Not hers. That desk over there? That’s where I do
my
work. She doesn’t sit there. She wasn’t sitting there when you came in, either.” He took a few steps forward and watched Jeb rock back on his heels. “Matter of fact, you know that’s where
I
tend to work because you’re in here often enough. No reason for my office assistant to be messing with work plans, really.”

“Well.” Jeb nodded. “That changes things.”

Noah watched as everything about Jeb’s demeanor underwent a slow, subtle change. Two seconds ago, he’d stood there, one hand resting on his gun, his eyes hard and unyielding, and everything about him had said,
Stay the hell out of my way.

He almost looked like a different man now.

No wonder she became so tense whenever Jeb was mentioned. The cop seemed to have it out for her. The very thought was enough to fill Noah with disgust. Narrowing his eyes, he watched as the tension surrounding Jeb continued to drain away.

Completely unaware of the direction of Noah’s thoughts, Jeb reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked to be a plastic bag. He gingerly slid the phone inside. “I’m going to have to take it with me. It was Lee Brevard’s, I do believe. Can you tell me why you have it, Noah?”

Just like that. Jeb wanted to make Trinity go to the police station but was just fine asking Noah about it here.

Let it go,
that small, quiet voice of reason advised.

Let it go? Nah. I don’t think so.

“Shouldn’t we go to the station?” Noah asked, baring his teeth in a sharp-edged grin. It had been a long, long time since he’d tangled with a cop, but Noah hadn’t forgotten this particular dance.

Maybe it wasn’t a good thing, and he knew that. Losing his temper never led to good things, but he was walking a razor’s edge already and giving in to that particular demon would feel so sweet right about now.

Every once in a while, it just felt
good
to lose his temper, and he hadn’t done it in a long, long while.

Jeb, not entirely realizing how dangerous Noah’s mood had gotten, sealed the bag and tucked it into a pocket. “That won’t be necessary. I don’t guess you went and stole Lee’s phone.”

“But you think
I
might have?” Trinity said, her voice silky.

Noah slid her a look, saw the echoes of his own temper dancing in her eyes. She looked about as angry as he felt.

“Now, I didn’t say that,” Jeb said. “We would have cleared all of this up at the station, Ms. Ewing. No reason to get upset.”

“If we can clear it all up at the station, then let’s go,” Noah said, jerking a thumb at the door. “I’m no different from her, right?”

Something flickered in Jeb’s eyes. He studied Noah’s face.

“Are we going or not?” Noah demanded.

“There’s no reason—”

“Why not?” Noah took one step forward. “You didn’t so much as ask her, give her a chance to explain. It wasn’t even on her damn desk, but you just assumed and decided you’d make her go to the station and when she wanted to know what in the
hell
your problem was you threatened to arrest her. So come on … do the same with me.”

Trinity’s voice, soft and steady, came to him from the side. “Noah—”

He shook his head at Trinity, still staring at Jeb. “It seems to me you were determined to take her down there, for some reason. Now that you know
I
am the one who found the phone, everything changed. Why is that?”

A muscle pulsed in Jeb’s cheek. “You probably don’t want to discuss this here.”

“Oh, I’m just fine discussing it here.”

Jeb jabbed a finger in Trinity’s direction. “Yeah, but does
she
want me discussing it?” He shot her a scathing look and then looked back over at Noah. “You’re free to hire who you like. Your personal life is your business, but you really ought to know more about the people you invest time and money in. The people you might invest in … emotionally. You obviously don’t know anything about her or you wouldn’t have hired her.”

From the corner of his eye he saw Trinity go white, her eyes dark and turbulent in the pale oval of her face.

In that moment, he wanted to hit Jeb. He wouldn’t. But the only thing that stopped him was the fact that Trinity
was
there. So was her son, happily watching TV, just a few feet away.

“We found the phone on a bench in town. Trinity and I were together at the time. Hank had just been there, but I didn’t think it was his. Kept it with me, just to check. I’d been talking to him right before we saw it. He later told me he found it on the sidewalk and he was pretty sure it was Lee’s. I was going to turn it in later today, but I hadn’t had time. That’s pretty much all I know about it.”

Jeb opened his mouth and Noah felt himself teetering on that edge, his balance all but gone. He shot out a hand and caught Jeb’s shirt.

Jeb reached for his weapon. “Now just a fucking minute, Noah,” he snarled.

“Get. Out.” Noah spaced each word out, slowly and carefully. “The next time you come in here, it had better be on official business. Otherwise, you’re not welcome.”

He let go and backed away before he did something he’d regret. Jeb gaped at him, something akin to shock rolling across his face as he realized what Noah had just said. “Noah, look, I realize this might be coming off the wrong way, but I…”

“I said,
get out,
” Noah snapped. “If you have official business, you can come through that door. If it’s personal or if you’re looking for a repair job, you’re not welcome here. Find another contractor or somebody else to listen to whatever trash you have to spew, because I’m done.”

Jeb stared at him, his eyes slowly going blank. “Is that so?”

“Your ears always worked well. Now, unless you need to ask me questions about that damn phone, you need to get gone. If you do have questions, you’d better be prepared to do it at the station, because you are
not
going to upset Trinity any more than you already have.”

“Mama?”

Noah tensed at the sound of that small voice.

“Micah, go back in the playroom for a minute, please,” Trinity said, her voice soft, but the thread of steel under it was undeniable.

Micah hesitated, flicking a look back at Jeb. “Why is the policeman mad at you? Is it about Dad? I heard you talking about people stealing. It wasn’t Dad.” Micah’s eyes were big and sad as he looked over at Jeb. “Dad can’t steal anymore. My mama made sure of it. She helped send him to jail. She had to go to court and everything.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Well.

This was awkward.

Cradling a glass of wine in her hands, Trinity sat across from Noah and tried to pretend she was
anything
but nervous. Anything but scared.

Anything but ashamed.

That shame was always there, a nasty little twist in her stomach, a smear on her heart, and even though
she
hadn’t had a damn thing to do with Anton’s actions, she still felt the backlash.

Incredible,
she thought. She had been innocent of what he’d done, but he still loved to play the victim.

How could you do this to me? Do you know what they did to me
this
time?
His weekly calls about the abuse he’d suffered in jail, all of it.

He’d embezzled more than a million dollars from her father’s clients, and who did Anton blame? Who had everybody eyed during the trial?

Who was getting the side eye, even now?

Pushing the guilt and shame aside, she took a sip of her wine and then put it down, studying Noah from under her lashes. He had a faint smile on his lips, watching Micah as he played in the back of the restaurant in the kids’ area.

Micah was back there with Ali’s two boys and the three of them sounded like they were having a ball. For Micah, the darkness of the day had never happened.

For her, it seemed to hover over her, a cartoonlike rain cloud.

If only a few toys and a few friends could take away all the bad from
her
life, she’d be okay.

She’d attempted to gracefully bow out of the dinner, but once Noah had kicked Jeb out of the office, he’d just given her a grim look. “Come on. We’ve earned that pizza.”

When she’d tried to dance around it, he’d pretended not to understand, and just seeing how Noah had put such a light in Micah’s eyes, even
mentioning
the word
pizza,
she hadn’t had the energy to fight both her son’s disappointment and Noah’s … whatever he had.

Persistence? Determination? Positive outlook? She didn’t know. Maybe it was a preacher thing. Maybe it was just him. Although she suspected she wouldn’t be seeing a repeat of the heat, the interest, she’d glimpsed in Noah’s eyes. Not now.

The weight of the words Micah had innocently dropped hung between her and Noah, heavy as an anvil, toxic and ugly.