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EIGHT
Chandler pulled into Eden’s driveway just as she was getting home from work. He got out of his car and waited while she got her stuff, then walked with her up to the front door, feeling a tad nervous, his work clothes feeling more constricting than usual—especially the tie that had started to feel like a noose around his neck. He ran a finger under it to loosen it as he waited by her side. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she said, fiddling with her keys to unlock the door. “Sorry. I had a late client tonight. Still trying to catch up after being gone from the accident.”
“No problem.” He followed her inside and waited while she flipped on the lights and set her things aside. He took a moment to shrug off his jacket and hang it on a hook by the door before following her into her kitchen. He’d learned in the SEALs that when you had a problem to deal with, it was best to just get it out there in the open as soon as possible, so that was what he did. “Uh, so we have an issue with your family. Adam overheard part of our phone conversation. Luckily, he only caught the end—just enough to realize I was talking to you and planning to come over. I had to make something up on the fly to keep him from finding out about our investigation, so I told him you and I were dating. Had been for a couple of months. The accident made you forget, but you figured it out thanks to old text messages on your phone, and now we’re back together again.”
For a moment, she just stared at him from where she stood and Chandler managed to hide his wince, barely. Eden had every right to be totally pissed off at him. Except, instead of yelling at him, after a moment she just shrugged and went back to getting stuff out of the cabinets. “Eh, it’s not a big deal.”
To say he was surprised would be the understatement of the century. Eyebrows raised, he blinked at her. “Really?”
“Yeah.” She grabbed the empty coffeepot and filled it with water. “I mean, we both know Adam can get very overprotective. Since the accident, it’s been even worse. He wasn’t going to let you get away without giving him some kind of explanation, and this one keeps him from finding out about the investigation. So, yeah. I can only see the upside here.” She made coffee and he absolutely did not notice how her position thrust out her boobs or how her clothes clung to her slight curves just right. Nope. Not at all. If Eden noticed him checking her out, she didn’t mention it, thank goodness. Just went on talking about her brother. “If Adam thinks we’re together and that you’re looking out for me, maybe he’ll back off. That can only be good for our situation. And a relationship will serve as a good cover if anyone sees us spending time together.”
“Oh.” Maybe his on-the-fly cover story wasn’t such a disaster after all. And maybe, just maybe, he secretly liked the fact that she wasn’t completely opposed to pretending to be a couple with him.
Because maybe she secretly likes me too…
Uh, no. Stop right there, man.
Chandler shook that off and pulled out his phone. He’d tried making printouts of the pictures from Ross’s file, but the image quality hadn’t been great, so he’d decided it would be best if he just downloaded them to his phone. He scowled down at his screen while Eden got mugs and sugar out. “Right. Good. So I ran a background check on Jeff Ross. I also snagged a couple of pictures from the files in hopes they might help you remember something. Looks like he’s got a couple of tattoos. Maybe one of those will ring a bell.”
Eden walked over to take a look and he handed her his phone, ignoring the scent of floral shampoo and fabric softener surrounding him as she leaned near. Her warmth sent tingles of awareness down his side before he tamped them down firmly.
He followed her as she walked into the living room, sitting down on the couch, and giving the phone her full attention. He sat down next to her, watching her as she squinted at the photos, scrolling through them slowly, zooming in on some and turning the phone this way and that. Finally, she sighed. “No. Sorry. I got nothing.”
“Okay.” He took the phone back, careful not to let their fingers brush. “What about these? They’re from the crime scene.”
“Hmm.” Eden took his phone again, staring hard at the screen. “No. Nothing from these either. Well, except this kind of déjà vu feeling of being at the gas station. But that probably won’t help anything. I’ve been at that gas station plenty of times. Of course it seems familiar.”
The coffee maker beeped, and she headed back to the kitchen again, while Chandler moved on from the pictures to the actual background files themselves. “It’s okay. Don’t worry. More will come eventually, I’m sure.” He scrolled through the long list of crimes on Jeff Ross’s rap sheet, reading them off to Eden as he went. “I mean, they’re mostly robberies, so the gas station thing isn’t out of the blue at all. There are a couple of breaking and entering things there too, from the time he was a kid all the way up to the present.” Chandler sighed. “He seems pretty isolated. I wasn’t able to find any family for him. Parents died when he was little, and he went into foster care. There was a brother, but it doesn’t seem like they were placed together.”
“You want coffee?” Eden asked.
“No, thanks. Too late in the day for me. I’ll take a bottled water if you have it.”
“Sure thing.” Eden headed back into the kitchen and returned a few moments later with a tray. On it was her coffee and his water and a bag of chips closed with a clip. She set it all on the coffee table in front of them, snuggling into the opposite corner of the sofa from him with her mug and chips. She opened the bag and offered him some.
“Oh, I’m not hungry. Thanks anyway.” He grabbed his water off the tray and opened it, taking a long swig before sitting back into the overstuffed beige cushions. The house was nice. Neat and contemporary and a little bit quirky, just like Eden.
She ate some chips and sipped her coffee, then wrinkled her nose and held the mug out away from her. “Huh. This tastes weird. Can coffee go bad? I can’t really remember when I bought this bag of coffee beans, but I didn’t think they would have spoiled.”
Chandler frowned, staring at the tray. “Maybe it’s the milk you put in it? Dairy spoils fast.”
“I don’t use milk. Just sugar.” she said, frowning at him over the top of the mug. Eden went back into the kitchen and poured the contents of her mug down the drain. “Yuck. Well, I won’t be drinking anymore of that.”
When she came back, her face looked a bit paler than before, and her steps were a bit slower. She sank down onto the sofa again, holding her stomach.
“Everything all right?” Chandler asked, his concern deepening by the second. “You don’t look so good.”
“I don’t feel so good,” she said, swiping the back of her hand across her forehead before gripping the edge of the sofa tight. “My head hurts, and I’m dizzy again.”
“Is it from the accident? Maybe a problem with your concussion?” He got up to help her lay down on the sofa. “Do you need to throw up?”
Her eyes were half-closed now and she was ghostly white, her dark hair standing out sharply against her clammy skin. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. “No,” Eden said, closing her eyes completely, her voice thready and weak. “I’m super tired. Just going to take a little nap, I think…”
Her words trailed off and Chandler’s instincts went on high alert. He’d seen concussions—they didn’t look anything like this. She hadn’t even looked this bad when he and Adam had driven her home from the hospital after four days in a coma. Besides, no one went from alert and talkative to practically asleep that fast unless they were drugged. He checked the chips first, but found nothing odd about them, just grease and salt. Next, he rushed to the kitchen to check the coffee. Eden had been fine until she’d had it, so… The minute he smelled the liquid in the pot, he noticed the smell of bitter almonds. It had to be cyanide.
Fuck.
