Page 24 of Obsession

“If your coffee is as good as it used to be, I’ll take that.”

“If you like it strong, we brew some of the best coffee in Natchez,” Norma Jean said and turned to Sam.

“What she’s having sounds good to me.” He handed the waitress the menus back. “But make mine the large-size order of fish.”

The waitress stopped at Corey’s table as he laid his phone down and glanced up at her. Sam couldn’t hear him, but from the way she laughed, he must have said something funny. He did see the wink the attorney gave her. Maybe he was wrong, and Corey wasn’t interested in Emma. Maybe that was just his way.

Sam looked back at Emma. “How’s your hand?”

“Throbbing, but not as bad since I took the Tylenol.” She leaned back as the waitress set two cups of coffee on the table.

“Thank you,” Sam said, then turned his attention back to Emma. “You’re not going to try to work tomorrow, are you?”

“No trying to it. I’ll be there at eight, like always. I want to see what’s buried.”

“And just how do you propose to get there?”

“I’m taking you up on your offer to pick me up,” she said, grinning. “You did offer, didn’t you?”

“So I did.” His heart thudded in his chest when she caught his gaze and held it. A strand of hair had come loose from the ponytail, and he wanted to brush it behind her ear. His thoughtsmust have shown on his face because she quickly looked away. “There’s something else we need to do,” he said softly.

Wariness crept into her face.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, so we need to talk about the past and deal with it.”

Before she could answer, Corey walked to their table. “Why didn’t you tell me the project was on hold?” he asked. “And that someone took shots at you last night?”

Emma gaped at him. “How did you find out?”

“You know better than to ask me that,” he said, still not smiling. “Is it true?”

Irritation flashed across Emma’s face. “Which part? Oh, never mind. Yes, I was shot at last night, and no, the project isn’t on hold. I’ll still be mapping out everything as soon as we settle the issue of what was buried in the slave cemetery in the last few years.”

“I understand you found a body?”

“Where did you hear that?” Sam asked. The only people who knew something might be buried there knew to keep it under wraps.

“You know Natchez. Word travels pretty quick.”

“There’s been no body found,” Emma said.

“Then what have you discovered?”

“We don’t know,” she said before Sam could intervene. “And if I did, I couldn’t tell you.”

Even though she said the words with a smile, her voice brooked no argument. He should’ve known Emma could handle the attorney.

“But you are digging around in the slave cemetery?”

“Like you can’t tell me who your client is, I can’t talk about this,” Emma said, raising an eyebrow. “I can tell you it’s out of my hands. If you have any questions, ask my district supervisor or Sheriff Rawlings.”

“Really? So, you did find a body.”

“Didn’t say that,” she replied. “The GPR machine didn’t give us an indication of what was in the ground. Could be buried treasure.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Sam said. He could just see the site being overrun with treasure hunters.

Emma winced. “Sorry.” She turned to Corey. “Please don’t repeat that.”

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