Lila

Monday morning, still terribly sleep deprived, but kissed so thoroughly her lips were swollen, Lila got off the elevator into the office. She'd wondered if Dane would share her car again like he had last week. It had been a disappointment when she'd gotten in to find herself alone. But it was probably for the best. She'd been struggling to concentrate already, knowing he was close. Being able to smell him in the car probably would have befuddled her for an hour.

​​

She dropped her things in the office, then headed right for the conference room where Grant and Tonya had apparently been at work all weekend. The room was littered with coffee cups and fast-food boxes. And it smelled a little.

Despite obviously being in yesterday's clothes, Tonya looked fresh as a daisy as she circled the table to greet Lila when she entered.

"I'm so glad you're here early," she said.

Lila smiled. "Didn't seem much point staying away. It's not like any of us have been sleeping."

"I know, right," Tonya tipped her head toward Grant in the corner where the only fat chair was pushed against the spot where the window met the wall. He had a plate on his lap with a half-eaten bagel. But his head was tipped back against the chair back, his mouth wide open, and a soft snore erupted every few seconds. "Men," Tonya joked, then led Lila back around the table to her laptop on the conference table. "I know you only just got in, but I was about to show this to Dane. Maybe it's better if you see it first."

She pulled out the chair for Lila to sit down, then clicked a tab on the browser.

BILLIONAIRE CEO UNDER SUSPICION OF KILLING CLIENT.

"Shit," Lila muttered. "Which site?" She scrolled up to see the URL, but Tonya was already explaining.

"It's independent. Doesn't have a huge following. But we've been impressed with their reporting before. They like a good headline, but they do their homework."

Lila looked up at her. "Should I read, or can you tell me?"

"You should read at some point, but the part I'm worried about is where it looks like they've got info we haven't."

"Seriously? What do they say?"

"They say she had bruises—"

"Lila, I need you." His voice was deep and clipped, nothing but professional. But the words had her heart galloping. She turned to find Dane leaning in the door, his face expressionless.

"I'm coming," she said. "But I think you should see this, Dane—"

"Now, Lila," he said, and disappeared into the hallway again.

"I guess I better go," she muttered, getting out of the chair. "Can you email me this? And keep an eye on that site. I want to hear anything else they print as soon as it goes up."

"Already done," Tonya said. "Will we be giving a statement today? These guys tend to be ahead of the curve. If they're saying this now, the others will start hinting at it by Wednesday. Thursday at the latest."

Lila pursed her lips. "Leave it with me."

*****

When she entered his office, Dane was standing, staring out the massive windows, his jaw shadowed by the morning light falling across his face and shoulders. He looked like he'd just walked off the cover a magazine and Lila had to remind herself they were at the office. She couldn't touch him.

Shutting the door behind her she crossed the floor to him. "How are you doing this morning? Did you see—"

"The Coroner's report. We have it," he said quietly, without turning around.

Lila hesitated. "Where is it."

He pointed at his laptop on his desk. "Read it."

She frowned, but took his seat at the desk. It was far too big for her, so she felt a little bit like a child scooting it up to the equally massive desk he used. But there wasn't time for petty concerns like that, so she quickly scrolled through the paperwork on the screen until she got to the written report.

"…bruises at chest, sides, back, and buttocks. Crushing injury at sternum?" Lila swallowed and turned to Dane. "How did they not see this when they found her?" Her voice was too high.

"She was fully clothed when they found her. The theory is that the water washed away all the blood and they didn't remove clothing in case there was forensic evidence. No one at the scene knew."

"They weren't even trying to hide it, then?" Her fingers shook as she tried to scroll further down to skim the read, but instead was faced with photographs worse than a horror movie. In front of her a young woman lay on a table, her skin gray, hair stuck together in clumps. Her fingernails were broken. But her chest…

Unaware of what she'd seen, Dane snorted. "My father doesn't hide his crimes. He just makes them look like they either weren't crimes at all—or he makes them look suspicious so someone else will pay the price for them."

The woman's entire torso was covered in deep, black bruising—except where her chest had been caved in. The skin was white, and broken by jagged cuts, pierced by bone. Lila stopped breathing. Until she realized Dane was waiting for her to speak. "H-how does crushing her like that s-suit him?" Bones cracking. Blood. Lila knew a crushed sternum was a horrible, slow way to die. She'd taken Karate for years, been taught which blows were lethal, and which weren't. Someone with a crushed sternum died in great pain because they actually died of suffocation as their lungs were unable to pull in air because the diaphragm was crushed—but often the lungs filled with blood too. Lila swallowed bile and turned away from the computer.

Dane shrugged. He wouldn't look at her. It made her feel even shakier. "If the specific injury is important, we'll figure that part out later. He'll make sure we do. I doubt that it is, though. I think he just wanted to kill her in a way that wouldn't be immediately obvious for the scene he planned to set up. For whatever reason, he wanted her death reported as a suicide before it was revealed to be a murder. My guess would be that he hoped that would make people think I'm stupid enough to have tried to hide a murder."

Lila rubbed her temples. "Tonya showed me a site this morning that—"

"I've seen it," he said low and hard.

Neither of them spoke for a moment. He stood with his hands in his pockets, his suit jacket pressed back out of the way. She wondered if he had the gun under it again. "Are you okay, Dane?" she asked quietly.

He didn't respond or react at all, at first. Then he turned and locked eyes with her—and his gaze intensified. "Are you?"

She blinked. "Well, of course." But her voice shook.