Deadly Charade - By Virna Depaul Page 0,4

once loved to distraction. So much so that she’d stayed with him far longer than she should have.

Linda cursed softly and swiftly shook her head as if doing so would actually keep thoughts of Tony at bay. It had been difficult to keep him from her mind on his birthday last month. It was even more impossible now.

Mark Guapo, the drug lord Tony had informed on two years ago, the same drug lord whose men had almost beaten Linda to death six months later, had recently been released from prison. The reversal wasn’t based on anything that had happened at trial, but on a faulty search warrant. Guapo could still be retried for his crimes, but the tainted evidence would have to be excluded. Linda had already spent the past few days trying to determine if they had enough for a retrial, but understandably, she’d also been plagued with concerns about her own safety.

And that of Tony.

Despite Linda’s best attempts to protect Tony, Guapo had still managed to figure out that Tony was the CI who’d helped put him away. They’d gone after not just Tony, but Tony’s family, too. Now, Tony, his sister Mattie and his niece Jordan were in hiding in the Witness Security Program; Guapo wouldn’t be able to find them.

As for her? Recently free, Guapo would likely be on his best behavior, so chances were she was probably safe, too. Safe but still furious. She’d worked so hard to get Guapo behind bars. And Tony had risked his life, given up so much of it. It seemed the height of unfairness that Guapo had managed to play the system and was now walking the streets as a free man.

Not for long, she thought. Not if she had any say in it.

She paused at the courtroom doors, pushing away thoughts of the past and lost second chances. She’d almost gotten used to lugging around the heavy banker’s box filled with files, but opening doors was always tricky. She balanced the box on her hip and reached for the outer courtroom door just as a male hand reached over her shoulder to pull it open.

It was Neil Christoffersen, one of her fellow deputies.

“Good morning,” he said with a smile, before taking the box from her. He immediately handed her a cup of coffee. It was the way he normally approached her. He’d proffer her coffee and they’d end up talking about work or debating some legal issue or two. Then he’d try to make things a bit more...personal.

Linda took the cup, wrapped her cold fingers around it and closed her eyes at the heady aromatic smell. The box was heavy and she could use a little treat. No harm done, right?

Well, so long as she discounted the subtle flutter in her stomach. A slight flutter that evidenced her growing attraction to him. She was just thankful the attraction was slight and nothing more. She wasn’t open to starting another relationship again. Not when she still dreamed about Tony. Not when she so often second-guessed her decision to break up with him, as well as her failure to reverse that decision even after he’d informed on Guapo, putting his life at risk to do the right thing. She’d been tempted, so tempted, of course. She’d almost convinced herself that she’d been wrong about his inability to change. But then Guapo’s men had attacked her and she’d woken in the hospital only to find Tony and his family gone.

He’d left her. For very good reasons, as he’d explained in a goodbye letter, but he’d still left her.

Just like she’d previously left him.

“Good morning,” she replied to Neil as she walked deeper into the courtroom.

“So what did you wear?” he asked.

Linda frowned. “Excuse me?”

“To your friend’s party. It was the reason you couldn’t go out to dinner with me last week, remember?”

His grin and the twinkle in his eyes told her he knew it had been just another excuse to decline his dinner invitation.

He didn’t know the half of it. Guilt and shame quivered through her, but she reminded herself that while she’d lied about going to a friend’s party, she hadn’t done anything worse than that. She’d gone dancing. At a perfectly respectable club. By herself. That wasn’t anyone’s business, nor was the fact that she liked to go dancing so she could remember how she and Tony used to fit so well together—on the dance floor and off it.

She was entitled to a social life. Dancing at nightclubs wasn’t