She'd always hoped she was wrong.
"That is a possibility but remember that the indentation in his skull had a specific shape. Unless he fell on a cylindrical object, of course. My gut is telling me that someone hit him in the side of the head."
Shuddering, Mariah's gaze went back to the window. "So you think that Brad climbed out to get away from someone but it didn't work and they hit him in the head with a pipe?"
"It's way too early to be making any sort of theories. At this point, I'm simply gathering possibilities. That's all."
"But your gut has drawn a conclusion?"
He turned to her, his brows raised in question. "Sounds like you don't believe in gut-hunches? My boss caught a serial killer following his gut."
"Wade Bryson." She'd heard the stories as much as everyone else had, the newspaper articles and the news reports on television. It had been big news for weeks. At least until a bigger story came along and knocked it out of the headlines. "And I do believe in listening to my gut. When it talks."
"It will talk more if you listen to it."
"I'll be more attentive. What else is your gut telling you?"
"That I need to eat. I'm starving and I can't concentrate when I'm this hungry. I want to talk to the manager of the bar but they won't be here this early in the morning. I'll have to come back later."
"A good meal can always make the brain work a little better."
He slipped his sunglasses back on. "Then let's go. There's a cafe just down the block."
She knew that, of course. They'd been there before. Together.
"Are you inviting me to eat with you?"
"Yes. I'm planning on apologizing too. So you won't want to miss that."
Considering she'd never heard him apologize to her, she definitely didn't want to miss that. This was an event of monumental proportions. Maybe he had changed, just a little.
"Lead the way."
To her surprise he took her hand, a frisson of electricity running up her arm and straight to her heart. She was so distracted by her inconvenient reaction that she didn't hear or see the speeding car heading straight for them as they were in the crosswalk. It was only when Ryan dragged her to the safety of the sidewalk that she realized what had happened.
"Holy hell, he needs to slow down," she gasped, picking up her purse where it had fallen to the pavement. Ryan was scowling at the road and the car had disappeared. "Thanks for thinking fast."
"That idiot could have killed us both," he ground out, muttering a not so nice word under his breath. "Where could he be going in such a damn hurry?"
"Maybe he had an emergency."
"You always try to think the best of people," Ryan laughed. "I think he was probably just a jerk driving like an asshole."
"Or he might just be a jackass," Mariah agreed. "We'll never know. He's gone anyway, and hopefully he won't run down any more innocent pedestrians."
Ryan gave one last disgusted look in the direction that the car had turned but of course it was long out of sight. To be honest, she hadn't really seen it to begin with.
He reached for her hand again and she braced herself for the contact. As of the last ten years hadn't happened, his mere touch was enough to send tingles to her toes.
This is not good.
Ryan Beck was a dangerous man.
Ryan had ordered bacon, eggs, and toast for himself, and Mariah had ordered a lemon-poppy seed muffin after explaining that she'd already had breakfast with Liza earlier.
"Have you lost your appetite?" he teased. "I've seen you put away two breakfasts many times in the past."
Laughing, she shook her head. "Eating like that isn't a good idea. It's bad enough that all the takeout restaurants within ten miles of my apartment are on a first name basis with me."
"Did you ever learn to cook?"
Mariah's parents had sort of been hippies who had started a health food store chain that had somehow become wildly successful despite them not believing much in capitalism. For her, rebellion had consisted of eating junk food and drinking soda. Her parents had put it down to Mariah expressing herself and they'd assumed she'd grow out of it. Apparently, she hadn't.
"No, but I keep telling myself that someday I will. Mom keeps threatening to try and teach me."
That wasn't a good idea either. Mariah's mother was an amazing woman and Ryan adored her but she couldn't cook.