Page 85 of Fortune's Control
“Lilah is there? Hold on, let me turn on a light.” A yawn came through the speaker. “Do you need me to come over?”
He offered to come over before hearing the request. Emma would do the same for me. I’m unused to depending on other people besides her, and still navigating the newness of it. I squeezed Shane’s hand. His presence made it easy. “I don’t think so. How would we find out about an older crime?”
“An older crime? Like, how old are we talking about?”
“A year?” I guessed.
“Can Alex find out if we give you a few parameters?” Shane asked
He looked at me and nodded. “A young woman who wears glasses,” I said.
“That’s a broad description,” Dean said.
I opened my mouth to apologize, but Shane cut me off. “Is it possible?”
“Oh, hell. I’m a game warden. I prefer animals to homicide. Let me talk to Alex and see.” Dean ended the call.
“Who’s Alex?” I asked.
“He grew up here in Fortune’s Creek, with us. He moved away for college, with big plans of joining the FBI.”
“What happened?”
“His dreams shrank. Alex comes home every so often, so you might meet him one day.”
Was this Lainey’s Alex? “I’ve heard that name before.” One day implied an event far into the future. I gulped, trying and failing to summon the needed courage to point that out. “I guess we’re amateur detectives now.”
“What do you want to do if we’re right about this?” Shane asked. He shut the laptop, signaling the end of our evening’s detective work.
I wouldn’t pretend anymore, no matter what Dean found. “If we’re right, call Wilson Skane’s defense attorney. He wasn’t interested before, but maybe this would change it.”
“I think that’s a wise idea.”
“I should have done this before now.”
“No, absolutely not,” Shane said. I almost believed his matter-of-fact declaration. “You were frightened and a victim, too. No one should expect perfect recall or decision-making after that.”
“I ran away.”
“He threatened you, Lilah. Saving other people means that sometimes you save yourself first. That’s what they teach you before every flight, isn’t it? Do not feel guilty.”
Saying and doing don’t always match up, and Shane’s insistence didn’t match my reality. “Maybe.”
“We’ll figure it out together.”
I drew my hand into a fist to cover my mouth. “I’m not used to asking for help.”
The admittance was galling. Shane grew up in a town that revered him, was raised by parents who loved him, and was looked after by friends who cared. I had Emma. If you can only lean on one person, you learn to ration your requests. She stepped up every time, but she also had her own life, with family challenges and personal struggles.
Sometimes, learning is hard.
“I’m not helping you, Lilah. I’m working beside you because that’s what partners do.”
I wish he’d used a different word. It wasn’t jealousy I felt toward Shane, not even close, because I couldn’t blame the people around him, not when I loved him, too.
“You stumbled on a woman who needed gas station rules explained to her, and now you might face down a killer.”
Shane dropped the laptop on the floor and leaned back against the headboard. “Come here.” He beckoned me close, dragging my hips until I sat astride him. “I never stumbled on you. That wasn’t a coincidence.”
