Page 21 of Fatal Conspiracy

“You’re meant to,” she said. “I use humor when I’m uncomfortable, and I’m extremely uncomfortable talking to you about this.”

“Why?” he asked, tipping his head to the side but maintaining eye contact. “What do you think will happen? I’ll stop liking you?”

“If you had grown up the way I did, you would know the answer to that question is absolutely.”

His lips turned down in a frown as he knelt again. “My heart breaks that you’ve had that experience, but that’s not me. The only reason I’ve ever stopped liking someone is because they showed me their true colors. That will never be the case with you. Last night, you showed me your true colors when you picked me up off the road, even though I looked like I had been mauled by a bear. That was all I needed to know about you, Alayah. Everything else has shaped who you are, but isn’t who you are.”

Her brows went up in surprise. “Why did it never occur to me to think of it that way?”

His shrug was lazy, but his gaze never left hers. “Because it’s difficult to separate the two when you’re mired in the pain of it. It takes work to be conscious of the line that separates them.”

“That’s fair. Speaking of fairness, I’m sorry for acting put out in the conference room earlier. Being a jerk is my other self-preservation technique when I feel vulnerable.”

“You were being a jerk?” he asked, feigning surprise. “I didn’t notice.”

Her giggle made him smile, and a little piece of normalcy snapped back into place for her. All the noise inside her head quieted, and she could focus again on the steps that would lead her to find Hugo’s killer and get her back to Secure Inc.

“Honestly, I was embarrassed about using the walker and didn’t want you to see me with it.” That wasn’t easy for her to admit, but she wanted him to understand why she’d behaved that way.

“There’s no reason to be embarrassed about something that helps you, Alayah.”

“Truthfully, any other day I wouldn’t be, but I didn’t want you to see me as weak or incapable of helping to clear your name.”

“I would never think that,” he said with a shake of his head. She could tell he was upset that she thought he would. The idea that she’d insulted him got her right in the heart. “As for the walker, I love the purple glitter. It reminds me a little of your personality when you aren’t being grumpy.” He added with a wink, “I do have one question.”

“Sure,” she said, climbing off the bed and grabbing the walker handles. “Maybe I have an answer.”

“Why do you pull it behind you as you walk instead of pushing it in front of you?”

She shook her head as she walked to the wall to unplug her charger and stow it in a bag. “It’s called a posterior walker. It’s normally used more for children than adults, but with my form of dwarfism, my chest is narrow and my ribs are short. That means leaning over on a walker like this,” she explained, bowing her head, “makes it harder for my lungs to expand. Using the posterior walker ensures my posture stays upright, and I don’t have any breathing issues. That said, I don’t use the walker that much anymore unless I’m injured or sick. Cal and Mina require me to bring it on every remote job, just in case something happens.”

“Like you get dropped from an SUV by some dude looking for the guy you stopped to help.”

“Yep,” she said with a smile. “Just like that. Now, with that out of the way, let’s vacate this room and head to yours so we can set up and get this hunt for a killer underway. I’m sure you’d like to clear your name sooner rather than later and return to your life in…” She waited for him to fill in the blank.

“Minneapolis,” he answered, holding the door for herto walk through so he could grab her rolling suitcase and computer bag. “But I’d be lying if I said I was looking forward to returning to that life. Once I’m cleared of Hugo’s murder, my life changes, and I don’t have a clear picture of what it will look like. I do know it won’t look like it did when I worked for him. When we left Minneapolis a few days ago, I already knew I’d outgrown my time there.”

They walked to the elevator in companionable silence as she thought about what he’d said. Was she happy with her life? Would she want to change anything about it if the opportunity arose? When they stepped onto the elevator and he hit the button for the second floor, the answer was obvious. Derek reminded her that she led a solitary and sometimes lonely life. Would she love to find a partner to share her life with? Yes, but she’d learned a long time ago that the path to love was far too rocky for her to navigate. She’d have to find fulfillment in her work and leave the world of love behind.

Chapter Twelve

Derek stretched and snuck a look at his watch. They’d been working for an hour and a half but hadn’t gotten very far. Mostly because it took forever to set up her equipment, which was copious, but he was grateful she had a full system on-site to work with. When she told him this was her travel system and he should see the one she used at Secure Watch, he couldn’t help but smile. It was easy to picture her in front of four monitors while keeping track of the data on all of them without a problem.

“Do you have somewhere to be?” she asked as she sat on the desk chair that was retrofitted with the booster seat from her SUV. The desk wasn’t low enough for her, so it was the only solution. Besides, it allowed her to prop her leg up and keep ice on the ankle. In an hour, Selina would check on them, and she wanted the swelling to be minimal so she wouldn’t get hauled to the ER. A waste of precious time, if you asked her. He couldn’t blame her. That was the last place he wanted to go. Thankfully, his headache had resolved, and his face no longer pounded with every beat of his heart, so he was on the upswing.

“The only place I have to be is here. Is Cal on his way?”

“They should be here momentarily. Have you heard from the detective this morning?”

“Nope, but I don’t expect it to stay that way, which is another reason to get this sorted as quickly as possible. I could be hauled in at any moment for that formal interview they threatened me with last night.”

“If they had anything on you, they would have done it already,” she said. “Now they know you have a good lawyer, which means they can’t try to use fear against you. They’ll have to do the police work before they can bring you in, which takes time.”

“I hope you’re right,” he said as there was a knock on the door. He walked to it and, after checking the peephole, pulled it open for Cal and Roman. They were formidable men, and he could see why they ran a successful security business. He certainly wouldn’t mess with them and he was never accused of being small himself.

“All set up?” Cal asked as they walked in.

“Ready to go, boss,” Alayah said. “Derek was just about to give me the breakdown on Hugo’s business.”