Page 23 of The Negotiator

Chapter Seven

Her body still tingled the next day. Once they had sex, they didn’t stop having it. Lauren’s thighs ached in the most delicious way. She hadn’t experienced that feeling—the puffy lips, the sensitive breasts, that sensation of being filled—in so long.

Even before Carl left, he had checked out of their marriage and moved into the extra bedroom. Since she was never quite sure about his commitment to either fidelity or her, she hadn’t fought the move to the extra bedroom. She handled what she needed herself. Tricked her brain and body into thinking that was enough for her. But the truth was she loved being touched and being with someone who appreciated her body and took care of it. She’d missed the sounds a man made when she wrapped her fingers around him. Now, thanks to Garrett, it all came rushing back.

He was as good as she’d known he’d be. Not selfish. Almost worshipping when it came to her nearly thirty-seven-year-old body. She was in good shape, but gravity was gravity and he didn’t seem to notice. She thanked the universe for his failing eyesight or whatever it was that had him kissing and licking her, running his hands over her, as if she was a tight twenty-something.

“Uh, Lauren?”

Lost in her own thoughts, it took a minute for the words to break through. She looked up to see Garrett’s knowing smile and realized he was the one who’d cleared his voice and called her name.

“Sorry.” But she wasn’t. Not for the night before. Not for this morning. Her only regret was agreeing to this meeting.

At just past ten, she sat with Garrett, Jake and Bob around the small table in the corner of her office. She’d pushed the business pamphlets and paperwork to the side to make room for everyone, though Matthias still stood at the door, keeping watch. The man looked ready to pounce, but she was pretty sure that was his usual look. Only Garrett seemed calm. Maybe repeated sex did that to a guy.

Bob leaned across the table, focusing only on her. “What did Carl say to you when he came back into town?”

She’d been asked that question so many times that she started to doubt how innocuous Carl’s stop at her door really was. This time Bob demanded to know, as if he had a right to ask her for anything. She’d been furious with Carl over his screwed-up financial dealings and all the lies. How he actually went to the extra step to falsify documents just to throw her off. Who did that sort of thing?

But the simmering rage for Carl’s antics didn’t compare to what she felt for Bob. She despised Bob, the self-proclaimed financial guy who gave Carl investing and business advice. He pretended to be an innocent victim to Carl’s scams, but she didn’t buy it.

“Carl didn’t say anything. Literally nothing of any interest.” That wasn’t a lie. Other than ticking her off, Carl’s comments had been unremarkable, which was saying something since he’d just risen form the dead.

Bob’s eyes narrowed. “Tell us exactly. Line for line.”

“She walked through this with me and again with Matthias. Another time with the police and Detective Cryer.” Garrett leaned back in his chair. “That’s probably enough of that unless you have a specific question for her about a specific topic.”

Bob’s frown only deepened. “Who are you two again?”

“I’m an interested party,” Matthias broke in and then nodded in Garrett’s direction. “He’s Lauren’s boyfriend.”

She waited for a not exactly or something similar from Garrett, but he stayed quiet. Only Jake shifted in his chair. “Since when?”

“It’s recent,” Garrett said.

Sure, now he piped up. She fought off the urge to roll her eyes.

“Carl came to my house and asked to come in.” She made sure to emphasize the my part. “He wanted to pick up where he left off and wasn’t offering any explanations, even though I asked for them. He was there all of ten minutes before he left.”

“And then came back and was killed.” Bob wore a self-satisfied grin. At forty, his hair had started to recede and his shiny good looks had faded a bit, but he still possessed that successful-and-flaunting-it air that many men of a certain age in the metro area had. The sharp navy suit. The matching unnecessarily expensive watch and sedan. And every now and then he dropped the name of the school he graduated from, as if anyone cared.

“Yes, Bob. We all know what happened.” She kept her voice flat, hoping to telegraph just how done she was with Bob and his prepackaged persona.

“Do we?” Bob’s gaze flipped between Garrett and Lauren. “You guys start going out, the husband comes back and now he’s dead. Seems convenient, or maybe I should say inconvenient for you.”

Garrett shifted just an inch and all the attention at the table flicked to him. “Do you have a question, Bob?”

That low steely voice suggested Bob should rethink this topic. The I-could-kick-your-ass tone had her mind drifting back to Garrett’s comments about killing. He possessed an interesting mix of an easygoing charm and a commanding personality. He clearly was successful but never needed to spell that out for people. She could see it in his sure confidence. In the way he held his body and spoke. But underneath she wondered if maybe there was something a little bit lethal about him.

“It’s suspicious.” Bob opened his mouth as if he was going to say more, but one look at Garrett and he stopped.

Matthias finally pushed away from the wall and stepped toward the table. He didn’t sit down. No, he stood, looming over Bob. “As suspicious as your knowing Carl planned to fake his death so you could collect money from Lauren here and from a top-secret business insurance policy that you, not his wife, benefitted from?”

Bob snorted. “You obviously don’t understand how this works. Business policies are routine.”

So routine that no one bothered to talk to her about it. That fact kept spinning around in Lauren’s head. The more she learned, the more she felt like she let her marriage happen to her rather than being an active participant. She had never been weak but when it came to Carl and their marriage she quickly ran out of energy and enthusiasm. She should have walked early on but stayed because everything she’d ever known about family had been skewed. She’d convinced herself that being with Carl was better than being alone. And she was wrong.

“Do you really want to have an argument with me about how businesses operate?” Matthias leaned in closer to Bob. “Please say yes.”

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