Chapter 45
Harper they decide if there’s probable cause to ask the question in open court. That’s a low bar. It is not a verdict.”
David’s mouth twisted.
“The DA,” he said. “You mean Reid.”
Her pulse kicked once, sharp and unwelcome.
She didn’t let it show.
“He’s the one who took it in,” David said. “He’s the one who asked them.”
His eyes locked on hers.
“You and him still… whatever this is?”
The room went very still.
“David—”
“Don’t,” he snapped. “Don’t give me lawyer talk. They’re sayin’ your name with his all over town. Those women on that damn podcast are sittin’ there talkin’ like you’re crawlin’ into Reid Calloway’s bed at night and walkin’ into my house in the mornin’ pretendin’ you’re still on my side.”
Margaret flinched. Danny looked away.
The words hit like a slap.
Not because they weren’t ugly.
Because some small, shameful part of her knew exactly why people believed them.
Reid’s mouth on hers in the dark. His hands at her waist. The way she’d left his house Sunday morning, already half in love with him and half terrified of what that meant.
She shoved it all down.
Eleanor held his gaze.
“I am your lawyer,” she said evenly. “Not his. I do not discuss your case with Reid. I will not discuss your case with Reid. And if I believed for one second I could not represent you fully and fiercely, I would have withdrawn already.”
David stared at her for a long moment.
“Can you?”
“Yes,” she said.
But even as the word left her mouth, something cold slid in behind it.
Riverbend.
Within days, the photos would be in her inbox. The ground. The fabric. The bones.
Reid had already seen them.
He’d sat in his office and studied that scene—every angle—before he ever called her.
Before he ever kissed her goodnight.
Her stomach tightened.
For the first time, the distance between them didn’t feel like a line they were choosing not to cross.
It felt like something real.