Chapter 43

"Ella get home safe?" Hope looked up as Colin came into her office.

"Yep. I even mailed her mother's birthday gift for her." He pulled out some cash and tried to hand it over.

"Keep it." Hope waved him away. "I'm grateful you could go with her."

He cleared his throat. "Talking of mail…" Colin pulled an envelope out of his suit pocket, placed it on the desk in front of her.

She recognized Leech's neat handwriting, his expensive stationery with his initials, an elegant gold scroll, stamped in the corner—which he must pay the prison warden for the privilege of using.

She didn't want to read it, but Frazer wasn't here, and neither was Aaron. She needed to check if Leech had written anything that might point to a planned escape or to a place where he might hide. She could ask Colin or Hunt Kincaid who stood at the door to read the letter, but she didn't want to appear scared of Leech. She refused to let him affect her.

She checked her cell for a text from Aaron but there was nothing. Had they discovered anything at Fairchild's house? They'd been gone for hours.

Because her communications were being monitored, she could hardly call and ask him if he was okay or tell him Ryan Sullivan knew where he'd spent some of last night.

Or ask him if he wanted to do it again tonight.

She sighed.

She didn't like the way she kept looking for the HRT operator whenever she heard a door bang or footsteps approach. She didn't appreciate the way he snuck into her thoughts when she was supposed to be concentrating on something important.

She pulled out her wooden letter opener that was shaped like a fish. She'd bought it from a market in Malawi during a trip she and Danny had made one summer while undergrads. Her fingers shook as she sliced through the top of the letter but not because of Leech.

It was because she was thinking of the man she'd loved, whose life Leech had extinguished without a second thought. A man she would love until the day she died. But something about her grief had shifted recently. She silently acknowledged the fact without delving into the why.

She felt Colin watching her with interest and glanced up. She didn't want a witness to this act. "Did the lab ever get back to you about the fibers from the Dutton case?"

Collin's brows beetled. "I thought I sent you that?"

She shook her head. "I didn't receive anything."

"Fibers were a match between the apartment and the ones found on the body, but the carpet is cheap and commonplace."

"Still—"

Colin gave her a wide smile and held up a hand. "However, the pet hair was also a solid match."

She grinned back. "Yes! We're gonna nail that bastard to the wall. Can you resend the report?"

He checked his watch. "Of course."

It was almost six. "Do you have plans? It can wait until tomorrow given it's the weekend."

Colin looked surprised, and she couldn't blame him. She usually wanted things done immediately, but she was being reminded this week that other people had lives.

She thought about staring deep into Aaron's eyes when he'd been buried inside her. Maybe that included her. Scary thought.

"Only cramming for the bar. I'll send it before I head out." He nodded and backed away, obviously disappointed she hadn't opened the letter and read it in front of him.

Some things were private though, and she guarded what she could. Not the content, but how it affected her. She wasn't a lab specimen. She wasn't open to being analyzed.

She heard footsteps coming down the hall and Kincaid turned away from whatever Colin was saying to him and nodded in acknowledgment.

It was Aaron. She knew from the rhythm of his footsteps and the way Kincaid straightened.

The little dance her heart did inside her chest made her fingers curl.

It was lust. And the novelty of something new and shiny and bright.

That was all.

She would let go of the guilt and enjoy it for the few short days it would last. No harm. No foul. Simply pleasure.

Aaron opened the door and smiled. Her breath caught at his perfect masculine beauty. The man was stunning, and her mouth went dry at the thought of another night together.

His eyes shone darkly. "What?"

She shook her head.

His gaze drifted to what she held in her hands. He stepped forward. Jerked his chin. "What's that?"

Hope pulled a face. "Leech's letter from prison."

"Gimme." He came around the desk, his thigh brushing her arm as he leaned closer and plucked the note from her fingers. He began to ease it out of the envelope, then his expression changed.

"Hey, Kincaid!"

The other operator rushed inside, closely followed by Colin.

"You have an evidence bag on you?"

Kincaid shook his head. "In the SUV. Why? What is it?"

"I have one." Hope stepped over to the drawer of the other desk. She didn't remember why she had these in her office, but they'd been there for years, taking up space. She grabbed one and opened it wide.

Kincaid took the bag from her and opened it for Aaron to slip the letter inside.

"What?" she demanded. "What is it?"

"Looked like a printout of a screenshot of you outside this office on Tuesday night."

"But…" Ice filled her and her bones rattled but not from cold. "But he wasn't in prison then."

"Correct." His eyes were almost black. "And there appears to be bloody fingerprints on the back."

Her legs wobbled and she lowered herself to the chair. "Could he have printed it out at Sylvie's house? But that envelope… it's his personal stationery—the same he used in prison. How can that be?"

"He somehow got hold of his stationery after he escaped. Is that enough to get us a search warrant for his mansion on Beacon Street, do you think?" Aaron asked.

Hope nodded, her skin crawling because Leech was so fixated on her that he'd written her a letter while covered in the blood of two innocent people. "It should be. Let me call the DA."

Aaron's lips were pressed tight together. "I'll call Frazer. We can drop this at the crime lab on the way back to your apartment."

She shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her thighs as her stomach dropped. "I'm sick of this guy playing his mind games with me. What did you find at Eloisa Fairchild's home?"

Aaron's eyes burned with emotion. He indicated Colin leave and closed the door on her curious intern.

"What?" Her heart sank. "What did you discover?"

He took a few steps toward her and stopped. "She admitted she gave him a car and some money. We went to the location where she left it and searched nearby for whatever getaway vehicle Leech had been using up until that moment." He dragged a hand through his dark hair. "We found the body of a young man we believe Leech crossed paths with shortly after he escaped."

He killed again.

Hope's hands shook as she tried to make sense of how anyone could do such terrible things. "Why would she help him?"

At least she could do something about that. Aiding and abetting. The wealthy were not immune to justice.

Aaron sat on the edge of her desk. "Turns out she had Leech's baby and kept it a secret all these years. Passed the kid off as the housekeeper's son."

Hope sat in shock at the revelation. Julius Leech had a child? A child? Her eyes smarted at the unfairness of it all. Leech had a child but had stolen hers away from her. The blow felt like a sucker punch to the heart.

Aaron's eyes filled with silent understanding.

She forced back the devastation scorching her. "Does Leech know?"

He shook his head.

Somehow that made it a little easier to bear. "All Leech ever wanted was a family. He said so on the stand."

Aaron nodded.

The implications hit her anew. "He can't know about this boy or that Eloisa lied to him. Not until he's safely back inside a prison cage." Or preferably never. "I'll talk to the DA."

"Frazer already spoke with him."

A sharp stab of hurt lanced her. Why had no one thought to tell her? Hearing it in person from Aaron made it a little easier to cope with, and maybe that was why. Frazer always saw more than people wanted him to.

Aaron's lips pressed together. "We're going to catch this sonofabitch, Hope."

She didn't think so. Not anymore. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

"I never do. I never do."