on the other side of the doors. When I emerge, she’s still there. She turns as the men’s room door shuts, and our gazes meet.
Damn, one thing I forgot was how beautiful she is. How did I forget that? Probably because Leilani’s like a hurricane and all you remember is how she careened into your life.
“You,” she says, walking across the old linoleum to me. “You’re Leilani’s guy, no?”
What lies has Leilani been spouting?
“No.” I shake my head.
Her hands raise and she squints one eye as she thinks of my name. Finally, her vision lands on my nameplate. “Whelan. Um…”
“Knox.”
She snaps her fingers. “Yes. So are you going to help her?”
“No.”
Her shoulders fall. “Why not? She called me and said she’d probably need bail money.”
“Do you know what she did?”
“She said she didn’t do anything. That it’s all a misunderstanding.”
I laugh. “The desk clerk can help you.” I slide by her to disappear into the back, but before I open the door, I turn around to give the girl some advice. “I wouldn’t bail her out. You’ll never see that money again.”
She tucks her long dark hair behind her ears. She’s wearing yoga pants and a waist-length, tight-fitting sweatshirt that shows off her curves. This woman looks better than good, but she also has another look about her. The one that says, “I’m the savior, the helper, the mother hen of all my friends.”
“She’s innocent. She said she was.”
“I wouldn’t believe her.”
Mac’s head swivels in my direction. “Whelan, I’ve got this.”
I raise my hands. “By all means.” I square my gaze on the waitress one last time. “You might as well take that money and rip it into shreds right here. She’s never going to change.”
Her dark eyes narrow and she glances at Mac before stomping over to me. She pokes her finger into my chest. “What is your problem? Are you always such an asshole?”
I’ll make this easy on both of us. “Yes.”
I open the door and leave her behind like the first time I met her.
Chapter Three
Kamea
Leilani comes out of the police station mid-afternoon and falls into me, wrapping me in a hug. “Thank you so much, Kam. I can’t believe my ex-boyfriend arrested me. I mean seriously, right?”
“Yeah, the guy’s an asshole. I ran into him in the lobby.”
“He’s a different person at work.” She waves off the topic of her ex. “Mind if we grab some food? I’m starved.”
How can she be worried about eating? She was just arrested. “Leilani, what’s happening? Do you need a lawyer?”
I don’t want to be insensitive, but I want to ask her when she plans on paying me back like she said she would during her one phone call. She called me out of the blue two nights ago, asking for a place to stay. Then she showed up with two men in tow. Who knows when their brilliant plan to shoot paintballs at women wearing fur coats while coming out of the country club came to mind. Though the idea probably came from when they met me at the country club on my last day of work before it closed for six months for renovations.
“No. They have no proof. It’s all circumstantial.”
“What about Wade and Paul? Did they get caught too?”
She glances back at the police station and clings to my arm tighter, turning us around the corner. “No, and you can’t tell anyone that we were planning on doing it, okay?”
“I don’t want to be involved in this.” I really should’ve listened to my gut two nights ago when she called. What was I thinking? I was thinking I owed her.
I sure regret that decision now. Especially since things with Leilani always end disastrously. I don’t have enough fingers to count how many times I’ve been uncomfortable with her ideas of fun. She’s a do-good girl fighting for climate control, animal rights, and many causes I hold dear to my heart too, but I don’t point a paintball gun at the people who disagree.
“Did you hear about the guy?” She snickers. “He ended up in the hospital. His balls are like melons.” She leans forward, giggling as if she can hardly contain herself.
And again, I wonder how I got here. How I just spent the money I saved over two years for my T-shirt company on a bulk order to send to the screen-printer. Now it’s in the government’s bank account until she shows up to court for her hearing. And I don’t even have my part time