the library. I resisted the urge to sneer. Everything about him looked greasy, from his oily smile to his too-tight suit jacket and his squeaky leather shoes on the marble floor.
His face looked lined and tired—far more so than it should have at our age—and his cheeks had that ruddy glow that comes more from sustained alcohol exposure than sun. What remained of his thin hair lay limp across his head, but he still carried himself like he was the homecoming king, swaggering through the halls of our high school with a crowd of sycophants.
“Jesus, you don’t have anything better to do than skulk in the shadows?” I said, arching an eyebrow. I refused to let him think he’d startled me. Scott opened his mouth to speak, but I forestalled him. “No, wait. Of course you don’t. Skulking is what you do best.”
“Connor, Connor. Why so angry?” Scott pushed away from the column and walked across the lobby. “I’m just here with my girls to pick up some books.” He gave me a smug smile. “Though they do say a suspicious mind is a sign of a criminal mentality, so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Right. And the fact that Tom called a meeting here today has nothing to do with anything. What are you really doing here, Scott? Spying? I thought you usually sent someone else to do your dirty work. I suppose it’s too much to hope that you’ve realized you’re going to lose and you’ve come here to concede the point.”
“Oh, Connor.” Scott’s smile spread across his face like an oil spill. “I’d have to care to spy on you. Your little team doesn’t represent enough of a threat to be worth my notice.”
“Notice us or not, we’ve got the data we need to prove the beach needs to be protected. I hope you weren’t too attached to your development plans—and that you didn’t promise your cronies more than you could deliver.”
“Beach.” Scott scoffed. “It’s an empty stretch of dirt that’s more tin cans and rusted engines than sand. It’s practically a Superfund site. Development would be an improvement.”
“Funny how the pollution only started after Lyles & Blackstone set their sights on it, and you conned your way into public office.”
Scott took another step toward me. “Careful. Making those kinds of accusations could be dangerous.”
I snorted. “Please. You didn’t scare me in high school, and a cheap suit and a beer gut don’t make you any more intimidating now.”
“High school. You sure made a name for yourself then, didn’t you?” Scott lowered his voice, his smile turning even nastier. “No one’s missed you, Connor. And if you keep making those kinds of insinuations, you’ll wish that what happened in high school was the worst thing you had to deal with.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked, smiling right back.
“Just a friendly word of warning.” Scott patted my arm and I fought the urge to shudder. It was one thing for Tom to do that, but I felt gross just breathing the same air as Scott. I did not need him touching me. “I’m friends with some powerful people. People who don’t take too kindly to that sort of talk. I’d hate for anyone to decide you needed to be taken care of.”
That was Scott Nash to a T—always so convinced that he was untouchable, that his money and connections made him safe. I itched to wipe that smile off his face with my fist, but I made myself laugh instead.
“What, you gonna send Joey Leeds after me with a shovel, instead of just a poor turtle’s nest?”
If I hadn’t been watching closely, I might have missed it—the flare of Scott’s nostrils, his eyebrows flicking up in surprise before he drew his face carefully back to neutral.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, but I could hear the sharp edge underneath his oil-slick voice now.
“Keep practicing that line.” I let my own smile turn a shade predatory. “Maybe someday it’ll even convince a judge.”
Scott shook his finger in my face. “Now you listen here, you disgusting—”
“Daddy! Daddy! Can we go read a story?” asked a little girl who flew across the lobby and attached herself to Scott’s leg before I got a chance to hear his slur-of-the-day.
Scott smiled down at his daughter, running a hand across her blonde, braided head. “Daddy will be right there, sweetheart. He just has to finish talking to…a friend.”
“What do you want, Scott?” I asked after his daughter was out of earshot.