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“Mr. LeBlanc!” Lynn’s sharp voice. “How did you even get access to this room?”
Avalon looked over at the female detective. The second bit of screeching had been Lynn’s chair shoving back as she leapt to her feet. Both detectives were clearly not pleased to have Beau present. Meanwhile, the tightness had finally eased from Avalon’s chest.
Knew he would come.
“Seriously?” Beau shook his head. “How did I get access? I opened the door and walked inside. It was easy.” Beau’s hand fell to his side. “I do know my way around this station pretty damn well.”
Because he’d been arrested again, not too long ago, on a different murder charge and booked in this exact station. But he’d been released fairly quickly that time. Cleared.
He is always cleared. Beau has never been convicted of any murder. Though he’d been suspected more than a few times.
He winked at her. “Stop looking like you’ve seen a ghost, sweetheart.”
Ghost wasn’t quite the right word she’d use for him.
“Walk back out the door! Get out of this room!” Campbell snapped. “We were in the middle of questioning a crime victim!”
Beau crossed his arms over his chest. “You need more sleep.” Words aimed at Avalon, just as his decisive nod was directed at her. “You can’t run on empty. And did you even have time for breakfast this morning?”
“I grabbed a croissant.”
“Chocolate?”
“Uh, yes, the nice manager, Percy, had them waiting for me.”
“Bonus for Percy.”
“Stop this! Out!” Campbell barked. “He needs to get out of here, now!”
Beau shook his head. “You just can’t make people happy in this world. Half the time, the cops are yelling at me for not cooperating.” His gaze slid carefully over Avalon’s face. Appeared to note every detail. “But the one time I come in, trying to help out and do my civic duty, they are eager to toss me out on the street. Seems wrong, doesn’t it?”
“We’re not tossing you anywhere!” Lynn declared. Her tone was far more controlled than her partner’s. “We simply want you to wait in another interrogation room until we are finished with Avalon.”
“Why?” Beau grabbed the chair that Campbell had discarded. The legs didn’t screech because he lifted the chair up and then put it down again right next to Avalon. When he sat in the chair, his shoulder brushed hers. “Talk to us together and you can get this question-and-answer session done in half the time. Way more efficient. Then Avalon can go back to her hotel and get some much needed rest.”
He was obsessing over her rest. “I’m fine.” Low.
“Bullshit.” Not low. Definitely annoyed.
“Avalon,” Campbell began. “We will take him to a holding area?—”
“I want him here.” Her words held hard determination. “Don’t take Beau anywhere.”
Beau sent her a wide smile. The one that made him look extra sexy. And dangerous. “So happy to be wanted,” he murmured. “Especially by you.”
Campbell’s face had turned an unnatural red.
“Breathe,” Beau advised as he glanced the other man’s way. “Because it looks like you might be in danger of passing out, my friend.”
“I am not your friend!” Campbell slapped his hands down on the table. “You’re trying to kill her!”
Beau’s head turned toward Avalon. “Is that what you believe? That I want to kill you?”
“The arsonist who set the fires long ago in New Orleans was never caught. Three people died in those fires.” Angry, brittle words from Campbell. “You lived in New Orleans at the time of those fires, didn’t you, Beau?”
Beau kept staring at Avalon. “I should have arrived sooner.”
Yes.
