Page 14 of Girl, Haunted

‘Call me Runner, or Big R, or just… Road.’ He broke the shake and turned back to Ella. ‘Saw you on the news this morning. You looked in your element in that courtroom. Very proper.’

'Well, thank you. Not sure anyone's described me as proper before.'

‘You clean up well. Beats the hell out of how you used to look pulling all-nighters down here.’

‘Those were the days.’ It was a line, but looking back, Ella still had a fondness for this place. It was hard to hate your roots. ‘What’s happening down here?’

‘Same old. Working on a terrorist cell over in Georgia.’

‘The same one from last year?’

‘The very same. I forgot you were here when that was going on.’

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. ‘Roady, you haven’t seen my cell, have you?’

Roadrunner swung back around to his desktop. ‘Can’t say I have, Ells. When’d you last have it?’

‘God knows. Last week. At this desk.’

‘I wasn’t here. Had a big convention in Texas.’

‘It’s gone… Ells,’ Luca said.

Ella sighed. ‘Yup, guess so. Right, see you later, Roady.’

The large man looked between Ella and Luca and gave them a wave. 'Take care, lovebirds. Oh, and Hawkins, look after that girl, would you?'

Luca stayed silent for a minute. ‘Will do. Road.’

Ella grabbed Luca by the hand and led him out of the office. They had a plane to catch.

CHAPTER FIVE

The airplane chased the sun westward. Ella sat across from Luca with a splay of paperwork between them. Funny how life threw curveballs at you; first time flying with a boyfriend and you think you’re headed to Paris or Rome, somewhere where the wine flows and the streets ooze romance. Instead, you’re bound for Yamhill, Oregon. A place where, according to her quick research, had more bears than residents.

Ella caught Luca staring at her while he chewed the end of a pen. ‘What? Do I have crap on my face?’

‘Not this time. I’ve just never heard anyone call you Ells before.’

‘Seriously? We’re still on that?’

Luca threw his hands up. ‘I’m just saying.’

‘You jealous, Hawkins?’

‘Yeah.’

Ella stifled a laugh. ‘Thank you for the honesty, and no, Roadrunner’s like the oversized brother I never had.’

'He seems nice. It's just weird seeing it in the flesh. Your past. I don't know. Stop me if I'm talking garbage.' Luca threw his pen down, then looked out of the window at the rooftops, slowly fading from view. 'There she goes.'

This wasn't Ella's usual territory, but if she wanted to make this relationship work, she had to do the wifely thing now and again. 'Hawkins, if I could reach across this table I'd put my hand on my knee and tell you to stop fretting. The past is the past for a reason. You've got one too.'

He turned back to her. ‘I’ve always been a one-woman man, thank you.’

‘Same.’ Ella plucked out the top page from her pile. ‘But we’ve got more important things to worry about. What do you make of this whole thing?’

Luca scrambled for his pen again then began rifling through his casefile. ‘So, two victims. The first was Gregory Van Allen, forty-two, killed two nights ago. Second victim was Natasha Langston, twenty-eight, killed last night.’

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