Page 70 of Mistletoe and Malice
Colton deferred to Paul, who shook his head. “No, I just need to talk to Colton for a minute.”
“See you in the morning, then.” With another glance between them, Trevor left through the front door.
Paul gestured for Colton to precede him into Drew’s study and closed the door behind him.
Colton faced his friend and co-worker. “What’s up?”
“Kinda what I’d like to know.”
“Know about what?”
“You and Riley.”
Colton released an impatient sigh and stuck his hands on his hips. “I told you before. There’s nothing between Riley and me. I don’t know why you keep thinking otherwise.”
“Because I knew there was the last time I asked. Now you’re barely speaking. What happened between you?”
“Nothing happened. She’s a principal. I’m treating her no differently than any other.”
“Right.”
Colton stared at him a moment. “Okay, so maybe I got closer to her than usual, but you know Riley. She makes friends of everybody she meets. She asked me to chair Theresa’s board and helped me get started. But that’s it. I need to keep my perspective here, for her own good.”
“Perspective, I get. But you’ve gone back to the brooding we thought you’d finally moved past.”
“I don’t brood.”
“Trust me. You brood. But even she’s quieter. Makes me wonder what you did.”
He’d confided in her. Prayed with her. He’d held her hand. “You know as well as I do if I’d done anything, she wouldn’t just pout. She’d definitely let me know. You’re making too much of it.”
Paul shrugged. “Okay. If you say so. I’m just telling you, Pax and I have picked up on the tension. We were wondering if maybe something had happened. With you staying here and all. That maybe … you know. Something had happened.”
“Nothing happened. Nothing will.”
Chapter Thirty
Another long week. Waiting. Watching. Wondering when the next call might come. When the next message might arrive in her stack of mail.
Sighing in the dark, Riley rolled onto her back and clasped her hands on her stomach. Wednesday’s call still made her skin crawl. The way he’d described what she’d been wearing the day before, down to the cross pendant around her neck, put her on notice that he’d been close. Too close. And they’d had no idea.
This afternoon, another package had arrived, like clockwork, two days after his last with that bone-chilling photo of the line at the donor drive. Today’s missive included a pen from her purse.
After John phoned with that bit of unwelcome news, she’d dumped her bag onto her desk and scoured the contents to determine if anything else was missing. Everything appeared to be accounted for, so, hopefully, those were the only two items he’d picked up during his getaway. Along with his gun, unfortunately.
Shaking off the memory, she instead turned her focus to the progress they’d made on Shane’s case. Precious little, to her frustration.
Her meeting early on with his previous defense team hadn’t helped much. She disagreed with almost every decision they’d made but didn’t argue. Their part was over, but they hadn’t made it easy for her with their sloppy investigation.
Shane and his parents had certainly wasted their money on his former representation. But to keep his family from going further into debt, she’d anonymously paid the balance of his bill.
With another sigh, she threw her legs over the side of the bed, grabbed her Bible, and headed for the door. A cup of hot chocolate and some time spent in the Psalms should be the balm she needed to help her relax.
After making her way through the dark and quiet house, she pushed open the swinging door to the kitchen. It banged into something and popped back at her.
“Ugh.”
Her hand flew to her mouth at the pain-filled grunt. Tentatively, she reached out again and pushed it forward ever so slowly. The overhead light came on, and she blinked in the sudden brightness.
