LITMIR.BIZ

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broad shoulders, which, as far as Deana was concerned, was a very good thing. Standing there, seeing the curious stares from passing lawyers was bad enough.

      Josh leaned on the desk and turned back to Deana. His eyebrows lowered. “What’s wrong with you?”

      Deana noticed his smile faded the second the flirting with the other woman stopped. “Is there anyone you don’t know?”

      “I’ve worked in law enforcement for a lot of years.”

      “In Kauai, not here, and not as an attorney.”

      “People like me.”

      “I find that hard to believe,” Deana muttered under her breath.

      “You did hire me for my expertise and connections, remember?”

      The last thing she needed was a lecture. “I brought you on board with the hope you would be neutral.”

      Josh tapped his pen end-over-end against the desk. “And walking into this office somehow shows I’m not?”

      “Your friendliness with the very people who prosecuted Ryan is a bit disconcerting.”

      Josh continued to throw her a blank stare. “Your point?”

      So much for hoping he’d understand without a diagram. “There isn’t a person in this building who believes Ryan is innocent.”

      “I hate to tell you this, but there aren’t many people in Hawaii who think Ryan is innocent.”

      “That’s not true.”

      “No one but you, your mother, and Ryan think he got a raw deal. Most think the life sentence was a gift or a result of his family’s wealth.”

      “He’s only sixteen.” Funny how everyone forgot that little fact in their bloodlust to crucify him.

      “All that proves is that there’s no age minimum on stupid when it comes to killing.”

      “Thanks for keeping an open mind on this. I really appreciate it.” She glanced around and was hit with awful flashbacks of her last trip here.

      And then there was the Mary problem. Recognition finally dawned on the older woman’s face at the mention of Ryan’s name. Her eyes shot open and her mouth snapped shut on what could only be called a look of distaste.

      Deana waited for Mary to say something. Anything.

      “Deana.” The sound of Josh using her first name stunned Deana for a second. He stepped away from the counter and crowded closer, pitching his voice low. “Talking to the prosecutor is part of my process.”

      “But—”

      Josh’s forehead hovered only a few inches from hers. “And you know what? You’re not going to be in the room when I do it.”

      Now there was a wrong assumption. Ten minutes with the prosecutor, hearing his skewed view of the case, and Josh would walk away from the case. “I’ll remind you that I’m the one paying the money.”

      Josh straightened up, putting space between them again. “If that’s your argument, I can leave right now and never come back.”

      Okay, so the money angle was the wrong way to go. Josh made it clear he hated being reminded about checks, cash, or any other form of payment. She found his sensitivity ridiculous. Talk about being touchy for no reason. There was nothing wrong with being paid a good wage for work. Surely he was smart enough to see that.

      She tried a different tack. “I have a vested interest in the outcome of what you find out here today.”

      Josh pointed to the green couch behind her. “You can vest out here in the waiting area.”

      Mary did not even try to hide her laughter.

      Whatever Deana might have said died on her lips when Eric Kimura, the Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, appeared behind Josh’s left shoulder.

      She could not possibly be this unlucky. No woman could.

      Eric shook his head as if he wasn’t expecting to see her, either. “Deana?”

      The air sucked right out of the room. She would have screamed except the security guys stationed right next to the door probably would have shot her. She wasn’t exactly in friendly territory at the moment.

      “Hello, Eric.” She skipped the part about it being nice to see him again, because it wasn’t.

      “Hey, man.” Josh’s welcoming smile disappeared as he looked between Deana and Eric. “Do you two know each other?”

      Eric finally broke eye contact with Deana. “You could say that.”

      Deana fought to keep her world from tilting. If the dizziness shaking her from head to toe were any indication, that wasn’t going to be an easy task.

      “Oahu is not a big place,” she said, totally ignoring Josh’s question. “And we can’t really stay and talk to Eric because we have a meeting to get to.”

      Josh’s eyebrow lifted in question. “I don’t know about you, but my meeting is with Eric.”

      “Should I leave you two alone to straighten this out?” Eric asked.

      Josh shot the other man a warning glance. “Don’t even think of moving.”

      She struggled to understand what was happening. “Eric wasn’t the prosecutor on Ryan’s case, Josh.”

      “I know.”

      “Then what’s going on?” She asked because she needed a straight answer before the pounding in her head ratcheted up and drowned out everything else.

      Josh’s eyes narrowed “I’m conducting the investigation as promised.”

      “Think of another way to get it done,” Deana said.

      The air around Josh crackled with awareness. He acted as if she had overstepped. As if he was somehow above being questioned.

      Boy, did he have a surprise coming. The one thing Eric taught her was to not back down when you believed in something. He never intended to deliver that lesson, but she picked it up just fine when they were dating.

      “Not that this isn’t interesting, because it is, but I have work to do.” Eric signaled to Mary. “When is my next appointment?”

      “Hold it.” Josh held up a hand as if to emphasize his order. “Clearly there’s something I don’t know here. Someone care to fill me in on the problem?”

      “There’s not a problem,” Deana said.

      Eric turned his gaze to the floor, doing his damnedest to prove her a liar on that point. Typical. Never step up and take a hit to the reputation when you can let someone else do all the nasty work. That was Eric.

      He was tall and handsome in his perfectly pressed dark gray suit and short black hair. A driven, only child of parents who came to Hawaii straight from Japan. They poured everything into him, and Eric returned their hard work with a swift rise in the Office of the Prosecutor and a possible future as the Prosecuting Attorney of Oahu, if the voters saw fit. He was the same man she once believed was perfect for her…until he proved he absolutely wasn’t.

      Rather than bore Josh and the eavesdropping receptionist with the details, Deana went for the brief version. “Eric and I know each other.”

      “Yeah, I got that much,” Josh said.

      The receptionist snorted, then bowed her head and pretended to read something on her desk.

      Deana toyed with telling the other woman off but turned to Josh instead. “Is any of this really relevant?”

      Josh hesitated for a second. “I’m thinking it might be. This reaction isn’t a good thing. Might get in the way of the investigation, which is why I need details before I take one more step.”

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