Page 16 of Crosshairs

Ainsley glanced at the card. “I wasn’t aware Natchez had a TV station.”

“It doesn’t, yet. I cover the Natchez area for WTMC in Jackson.” Pride laced her voice. “I’m surprised you haven’t seen one of my reports.”

“She just got into town, Sarah,” Linc said, and then hoping to put Ainsley on alert, added, “And when Sarah wants a story, she goes after it full speed.”

The reporter shot him a look of gratitude. “I’m trying to get a local station started here. So how about it? Could you find time to let me interview you about the investigation?”

Ainsley pocketed the card as the waitress brought her order to the cash register. “Let me think about it. Right now, I have to get this food to my grandmother.” She paid the waitress and grabbed the tall cup of coffee, then nodded goodbye before she hurried to the door.

“She’s got it made,” Sarah muttered when the bell jingled, signaling Ainsley’s departure.

“What do you mean?”

The reporter gave him an I-can’t-believe-you’d-ask-that look. “Got a great job, probably travels all over the country investigating crimes, and men drop everything to help her.”

“Men do what?” He hadn’t a clue what she was talking about.

“That’s right, you didn’t see that guy jump up and open the door for her. Or how all the men in here stopped eating when she walked in.”

“Maybe they were looking at the uniform.” Ainsley was beautiful, but he couldn’t believe Sarah was jealous. Not with her looks. Not only was the willowy blonde very pretty, the camera loved her.

“Whatever.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You still have it bad for her, Lincoln Steele.”

Heat started at the base of his neck, and he concentrated on his breathing to keep the blush from spreading to his face. “What makes you think that?” He wasn’t about to admit to Sarah how he felt about Ainsley.

“I’m not blind. I saw how you looked at her.” She leaned forward. “You might as well move on.”

He didn’t need Sarah to tell him something he already knew.

She placed her hand on top of his. “Linc, there are plenty of other women out there.”

Like her. He didn’t know what he was going to do with Sarah. He didn’t want to hurt her, but neither did he want Blake’s sister harboring ideas that they might get together. That would hurt her even more in the long run. She needed to be looking for someone who could give her what she wanted, and he wasn’t that person. “Sarah,” he said. “We—”

“You’ll help me get an interview, right?” Her whole personality had shifted into the aggressive reporter he saw on TV.

“What?”

“An interview with Ainsley about the teenaged girl who was murdered. My news director has been pushing me to get a really big story, one that might go viral. I think this is it.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said.

“Good. Something like that would really help take my mind off next week.”

His mind blanked. What was happening next week?

“You haven’t forgotten next Wednesday is the second anniversary of Blake’s death, have you?”

Next Wednesday?His lips turned cold as blood drained from his face. How had the date snuck up on him?

“It’s okay if you forgot,” she said, her voice husky. Her eyes said otherwise.

“I didn’t forget.” More like pushed it out of his mind.

“I hope you don’t still blame yourself for his death.”

There would never be a day that Linc didn’t blame himself.

Sarah squeezed his hand. “I don’t blame you. Blake just couldn’t take it any longer, and it was so hard to watch him suffer. He’s in a better place now.”

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