Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Max carried Lana into the infirmary and closed the door.
“What do you need? How can I help?”
He knew that Devon was seeing to Aurora. They had to figure out what the hell had happened, and who this bastard was who’d gone after them.
But all of that would wait. First, he had to make sure that Lana was all right. He didn’t know exactly what had gone down, just that someone—he assumed Lana’s stalker—had been following the two women in their car.
It had probably been a frightening experience, and Lana was no doubt jacked up on adrenaline right now. Any moment she would crash, and he wanted to be there to catch her.
Suddenly, Lana lurched away from him and into the bathroom. Vomit splashed into the toilet.
He started to follow, but she held up her hand, palm out. “Just wait.”
He backed up, leaving the bathroom.
The water ran. Finally, she emerged. Max sat down on the infirmary bed, and Lana crawled into his arms. Her eyelids were heavy, her lashes damp.
“I’m okay. I just need a minute.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t go anywhere? Stay here with me?”
“You’ve got it. Wild horses… You know how the saying goes.”
She put her face against his chest, muttering something. But he didn’t catch it. “What was that?”
She didn’t repeat it.
Max rubbed circles into her back. Soon, she was sitting up and extricating herself from his grip. “Thanks. I’m better. Where’s Aurora?”
“Devon’s got her.”
She covered her eyes with her hand. “I was so scared, Max. If she’d gotten hurt because of me…”
His heart was swelling painfully in his chest. “Aurora is just fine. You brought our girl back safe, L. You did great.”
She nodded wearily.
He tried to hug her again, but she shook her head.
They went upstairs to the main level. Sylvie ushered them into a conference room, where Devon sat with his arm around Aurora. She got up and rushed over to Lana. They hugged.
Lana was fighting tears and sniffling. Max thought about reaching for her again, but he figured that she wouldn’t want him to do that.
“Who needs what?” Max asked. “Tea? Soda? Water?”
He called their orders down to the reception desk. Then they all sat down. Lana took a seat on the opposite side from Max.
Aurora had her face hidden against Devon’s shoulder. This had to be rough for her, considering what she’d been through in the past.
Max wanted to know who’d done this to Lana and his sister. Who was he going to have to destroy?
“I already contacted my friend Chase Collins in the police department,” Devon said. “He’s going to send a detective over so that Lana and Aurora can make a statement.”
Max nodded his approval. It was exactly what he would’ve told Devon to do, and he felt gratified that the man had anticipated him. “Lana, if you’d rather, we can wait until the detective gets here so you only have to say this once. But if you feel up to it, we’d like to hear what happened.”
Lana sipped her mint tea, which had just arrived. Her gaze remained downcast on the wooden surface of the table.
“We were having lunch, and the waiter brought over a couple of drinks that we hadn’t ordered.
He said they came from some guy at the bar.
But when I went to check, the guy had disappeared.
I knew something wasn’t right.” She took a breath.
“So, we went to leave, but when we were driving out of the parking lot, I saw this car pull in behind us. And I just knew it was him. The guy who’s been calling me. ”
Devon leaned forward. “How did you know? Did you recognize him?”
She shook her head. “The bartender said he was wearing a hat and sunglasses, and so was this guy driving the car behind us. But I guess I didn’t really know for sure until he rear-ended us.”
“Fuck,” Max muttered. He hadn’t even noticed the damage on the car. Not that a car mattered, of course. Only Lana and Aurora.
“I drove as fast as I could and took some turns, hoping to lose him. And I’m pretty sure I did. We headed straight here. That was Aurora’s idea. She really thought fast.”
“But you maneuvered like a race car driver to get us out of there.”
Lana had gone pale while she was talking. She hardly seemed to register Aurora’s statement.
“Lana already knows this,” Max said, “but just so Aurora and Devon are aware, we tried to trace the call that Lana received at her house a couple of weeks ago, as well as calls she previously received at her office. They all lead to the same burner phone. So far, we haven’t had luck trying to locate the signal or tie the serial number to any known individuals. ”
“I’m still working on that,” Sylvie added. “Lana, do you have any ideas about who this man could be? A disgruntled defendant, maybe?”
“Not really. He didn’t look like Paxton Wayfair, the lawyer who’s against me in the trial that starts tomorrow.
Paxton has a beard, and this guy didn’t.
But aside from that, he looked really generic.
He had on a jacket, which I guess concealed his frame.
And he was driving, so I couldn’t see most of his body.
” She gave them a description of the car.
Sedan, domestic manufacturer, dark in color.
Max rubbed a hand over his chin. It was natural to think that someone related to one of Lana’s cases would be doing this. Any prosecutor would make some enemies.
“We need a list of potential suspects. People you think were particularly angry at how their trials or their plea deals came out. Lawyers who might hold a grudge. Do you think you could do that, L?”
“Sure. I’ll go over my old notes and calendar when I can. My trial prep comes first. But it’s hard to imagine who would want to go to these lengths. I don’t know if he wanted to scare us to death, or if he intended to make us crash.”
She closed her eyes and stilled, like she was trying not to cry.
Aurora exchanged a glance with Devon, who tightened his arm around her. It was a relief, knowing that someone with training like Devon had his sister’s back.
“Lana, I just thought of something.” Aurora was biting her lip. “You prosecuted people from the Silverlake Syndicate recently.”
The Syndicate was a criminal organization from Los Angeles that had been making inroads into West Oaks.
Aurora had gotten mixed up, by no fault of her own, in an internal dispute within the Syndicate.
She was out of danger now, but a few people associated with the Syndicate had been prosecuted by Lana’s office.
But neither Lana nor any other law enforcement agency had been able to take down the entire organization.
The Syndicate was ruthless and well-funded enough to send someone after Lana like this.
Max nodded at Sylvie. “Can you look into it?”
She agreed, already typing on her phone.
“It’s worth a shot,” Lana said. “But I finished those cases before any of these phone calls started.”
“They could want payback,” Aurora pointed out.
“Maybe. But it must be connected with the Hearst case, somehow. It can’t be a coincidence that the trial starts tomorrow, and somebody nearly runs me off the road.”
Max stood, unable to contain his surge of anxious energy.
“You’re absolutely right. That’s the most logical explanation, given the timing.
So, it seems to me that you have no choice but to ask Judge Vaughn for a continuance.
It’s just too dangerous for you to proceed right now, given what’s happened. ”
Lana shot up like someone had zapped her with a taser. “Delay the trial? You have got to be kidding. That is absolutely out of the question.”
Max circled the table, walking toward her. “Why not? The case has waited this long. The murder took place over two decades ago. We’re talking about your safety here. That has to be the priority.”
“But I just spoke to Claire Barnes this morning. The victim’s sister.
I promised her, yet again, that we would do everything possible to nail Ryan Hearst to the wall.
This is not an easy case, Max. Gathering the evidence, finding the necessary witnesses after so much time has passed…
I’ve been working my ass off to get it ready.
And there is no way in hell I’m going to ask Claire to keep waiting, as if every single day isn’t agony for her.
As if twenty long years isn’t fucking enough. ”
Max and Lana had squared off against one another, each of them holding their fists at their sides. Everyone else in the room was staring.
“All right, here’s what we’re going to do.” Max put steel into his voice because he wasn’t going to back down. Not if it meant her safety. “The trial can go forward. But an escort, either Devon or I, will drive you to the courthouse and back every day.”
“Oh, the trial can go forward? You’ll allow that? How generous of you.”
“And you’re going to stay upstairs in my apartment, with me, where I can be sure you’re safe.” He didn’t trust anyone else to watch over her.
Lana’s eyes flared with indignation. “Do you know how arrogant you sound?”
Max shrugged, digging his hands in his pockets. “You’re just now figuring that out? I thought we’d known each other long enough that my character was obvious.”
Sylvie cleared her throat. “Awkward,” she said quietly.
“No kidding,” Aurora whispered back.
Max didn’t take his eyes off Lana’s. He waited for her to keep arguing. After all, that was what she did best. She’d built her career on it.
But miraculously, she didn’t.
“Fine. I’ll stay here, but only because that man today not only terrorized me, but someone I love.
If I’d reported those phone calls from the beginning—taken it all more seriously—then maybe we’d have caught him by now.
” She pressed her lips together. “I’m not too proud to admit I need help.
But I’m only staying for as long as the trial lasts, or until we figure out who this asshole stalker is.
Because I don’t intend to be trapped here with you for a second longer than I have to be. ”