him talk, get a ‘feel’ for him, in order to make a positive ID. She’s willing to take some limited risks. According to her, it beats living in fear every day of her life.”
“Well, between you accompanying her, and Carrie and I covering your back, we’ll limit the risk to her. And if it turns out you’re right, she’ll certainly take Gil Archer by surprise, which you’ll be able to witness for yourself. We’ll be there right when the gala starts.”
“I’ll see you there, Jase. And thanks.”
As he left SIG, Simon again wondered if he was thinking crazy. Did he truly believe Lana’s father, Gil Archer, a respected community member and a friend of Commander Stevens, was the person behind the homeless murders?
He did. It felt right. In a way that suspecting Hyatt and even Davenport hadn’t.
Besides, it was just a theory, Simon told himself. There was nothing wrong with exploring possibilities. Isn’t that what Commander Stevens had said when he’d suggested Nina might know something about the murders? That a police officer had to remain objective despite personal relationships with others? Despite what he thought he knew about a potential witness or suspect?
Simon was simply taking a page from Stevens’s playbook.
He had some possibilities to explore.
Covertly, he thought.
And given that tonight was the fundraising gala and that Archer was going to be there, it was the perfect opportunity for him to do so.
* * *
“SO WILL YOU GO WITH me, Nina? We both got invitations from Gil Archer to attend this fundraising gala to benefit the mentally ill. I wasn’t going to go by myself, but now that you’re here, it could be fun.”
Nina did her best to ignore the heavy linen and embossed invitation Karen was waving in front of her face. There was no way she was going to that fundraising gala. Simon was going to be there and she didn’t want him to think she was mooning over him, following him around with stars in her eyes when he’d already made it clear he wanted her to stay as far away from him as possible.
Because he wants to protect you, she reminded herself. Because he’s afraid the same thing is going to happen to you that happened to Lana. That you’re going to die on him.
It made perfect sense he’d be worried. But she couldn’t help wondering if it was a convenient excuse because he’d simply grown tired of her. They’d gone to bed a few times, but so what? He’d never once said he wanted anything more from her. Never once said he loved her.
Not the way she’d said she loved him. Even though she’d told him she hadn’t meant it, that it had just been the sex talking, he hadn’t believed her. And she couldn’t lie to herself anymore, either.
She did love him. She loved Simon Granger.
But it didn’t matter. Not with a killer still out there, infecting them with fear time and time again.
In her mind, dead men carved with the letters BD swirled around, clashing into one another. Jarring her reality. Considering it was his job to find the killer, how much more did those images play through Simon’s mind? With that kind of weight on his shoulders, it was a wonder they’d managed to get close at all.
And even once the killer was caught? There was still her career and the massive differences in their life views that would constantly drive a wedge between them.
“Nina. Are you even listening to me?” Karen said.
Focus, Nina, she told herself. What had Karen been saying? Oh, yeah. “You know how much I hate having to make small talk with strangers,” she murmured.
“You could take your cop. Bet he’s good on the dance floor,” Karen teased.
Nina’s heart twisted, and pain shot through her chest. The only dancing she and Simon had done had been in bed, and now she’d probably never feel his naked body stretched over hers again. That thought left her feeling morose.
“He’s not my cop,” she mumbled. “And we’re not dating.”
Dating was where a guy picked a girl up at her house with flowers in hand. Dating was where the guy took the girl to dinner and the movies and hoped for a kiss good-night. Dating was where a guy willingly waded through five or ten dates before getting lucky enough to get it on in the girl’s bed. Dating was not living in the guy’s house because a serial killer was after the girl. Dating was not using sex for distraction.