Her Scream in the Silence (Carly Moore #2) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,39

asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t know enough about you, but I wouldn’t say it’s to pass your empire down to your son or daughter since you don’t seem to have one.”

“So you have been askin’ about me?”

It was a lucky guess that had thankfully struck home. “I think it’s good to learn everything I can about the important people around me.” I shifted my weight. “So does that factor into your plans for the future?”

“Kids?” He couldn’t have observed me any closer if he’d had a microscope.

“Why are you askin’ if I want kids?” Then his eyes lit up. “You just broke up with Wyatt Drummond, the son of a powerful man, and now you’re sniffin’ around here askin’ if I want kids?” His arms dropped to his sides. “Got a thing for bad boys, Ms. Moore?”

“What?” I asked in shock. “No, you fool.”

“You came in here talking about the two of us workin’ together as a team and me being such a powerful man. Everything you’ve said suggests you’re interested in me, and you decided to make the first move.”

Oh. God. “No,” I said as calmly as possible in case he took my horrified reaction the wrong way. “That is not it.” Dammit. I needed to cut to the chase. “Why were you watching Lula like a hawk last night?”

The confusion on his face was almost laughable. “What?”

“You were watching her, and she was nervous as all get-out. Why?”

His confusion quickly faded to anger. “That’s none of your damn business.”

“It is given she’s missing, and she was scared to death of you.”

Surprise flickered in his eyes. “Lula took off again.” As was usually the case with Bingham, anger quickly took center stage. “Damn that bitch.”

“You didn’t have anything to do with her disappearance?”

“What?” he practically shouted. “Hell, no. That girl takes off at the drop of a dime, only she left town quicker than usual this time.” He shook his head and released a string of curses.

“Sounds like she has something you want,” I said.

He had turned away from me a little, as if he didn’t want me to see his face, but he swiveled his head to look at me. “Why the interest in Lula? From what I heard, you just met her yesterday.”

“Let’s just say we hit it off, and I feel the need to protect her.”

“From me,” he said dryly.

“From anyone who aims to hurt her.”

“Sounds like she took care of that on her own by takin’ off again,” Bingham said.

“No,” I said. “I’m sure she was taken. I don’t believe she went willingly.”

“And where’s your proof?” he asked.

That was it. I didn’t really have any. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that someone had dropped by, asked her if she wanted a ride somewhere, and taken her of her own free will. But that didn’t seem to fit with the talk we’d had last night. “That’s not for you to worry about.”

He smirked, and it was obvious he didn’t think I had any. “Why don’t you get the sheriff involved?” He gestured to Marco’s SUV. “And I’m not talkin’ about your off-duty escort there.”

Marco had his gaze pinned on the both of us.

“Because you and I both know they won’t do a damn thing about it.”

“That’s because there’s nothin’ to be done,” he said. “She ran off. End of story.”

“Why is she scared of you?”

“Hell if I know,” he said with a shrug. “I treated her damn fine when we were together, but then her mother found out and told her to end it. So she did.”

So their tryst hadn’t been a one-time thing. I wasn’t surprised to hear her mother had influenced her to end it. It sounded like she ran Lula’s life from behind bars. “Do you know how often Lula goes to see her?”

“Her mother? Never. She kept in touch with letters and the occasional phone call she accepted at Max’s.”

Obviously Lula hadn’t shared much with Bingham, making me wonder how close they actually were. “How long were you together?”

“What is this, twenty questions?” he asked, sounding irritated, but I could see a hint of concern in his eyes. “Three months, but it was on-again, off-again the entire time. We broke up this summer. I wanted to keep it quiet and Lula had no problem with it.”

“Why’d you keep it a secret?” I asked.

“To protect her. I already knew that people looked down on her, and this would only add fuel to the fire. Besides, it was nothin’ serious.”