Boudreaux 01.5 Easy With You (3 page)

“Asher,” he says, interrupting her, earning a look of surprise from his partner.

“My lieutenant,” she adds. “We would like to ask you a few questions, Ms. Bailey.”

I frown, still watching Asher, whose dark eyes haven’t left my face. “I’m happy to answer any questions you have. Can you tell me how Leslie is?”

“No,” Asher answers, his eyes narrowing just a bit. “Mr. Wilson, may we speak with Ms. Bailey alone, please?”

“Are you okay?” Rick asks me softly.

“Of course.” I nod and smile reassuringly while my insides quake.
No, I’m not okay! The man I had the most incredible one-night stand with in my life just walked through my door!

“If you’ll be in your office, we will stop in and speak with you when we’re done here,” Asher says.

“No problem.” Rick turns back to me. “Call me if you need me.”

Asher shuts the door behind Rick and takes a seat across from me while Jordan paces behind him.

“Obviously you know that young women are being murdered on campus,” Jordan says.

“Yes.” He’s looking at me like I’m a stranger. Maybe he doesn’t remember me. I mean, it was only one night. One fantastic, incredible night, but still. And we’d been drinking.

And why am I obsessing over this when young women are being killed at the university where I work? What kind of a horrible person am I?

“They’re all students in your US Women’s History class.” Asher leans forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “And in your weekly study group.”

“Yes, they were students who were in the study group. We meet twice a week.”

“Do you lead the study group personally, or do you assign an aid to do it?” Jordan asks.

“I lead it,” I reply.

“Why?” she asks.

“I like working with the students. I like to be able to help them.” I shrug as I think about my group of lively, funny students, and my heart hurts all over again. “Is there any news on Leslie?”

“We can’t tell you that,” Jordan replies softly. “I’m sorry. I know it must be hard.”

“Do you know your students well?” Asher asks.

“Not all of them.” I tap my finger on the desk. “But I do get to know the ones in the study group fairly well because it’s such a small group. They’re good kids.”

“Kids who are failing your class,” Asher adds.

“Not all of them.” I frown. “Some of them just need the extra help. And just because they struggle doesn’t mean they deserve what’s happening to them.”

“Of course not,” Jordan agrees. “What do you know about what’s happening, Lila?”

“I’ve seen the news reports, of course, and heard rumors.”

“Okay, what do you think you know?”

“That the girls have been raped and beaten to death, in the evening, after study group.” I swallow hard and fight to keep tears at bay. “I wish I knew if Leslie was okay.”

“She’s not,” Asher replies abruptly. “I’m sorry. She passed away during the night.”

“Oh.” Now I can’t stop the tears. “Oh, she was just a kid.”

“They’re all kids,” Jordan says and walks around the desk to pat my shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Lila,” Asher says, leaning forward again. “I need you to think back over the past few months and try to remember if you’ve seen or heard anything unusual. A person or people hanging around after your study group that shouldn’t be there. Have the students mentioned anything?”

I’m shaking my head no as I try to think back. “There’s been nothing suspicious,” I reply. “We meet in the library, so there are always different people coming and going, but I haven’t noticed anything off.”

“We’d like for you to cancel the study group for the rest of the semester,” Jordan says.

“No way,” I reply immediately. “These kids need the help. Without it, they could fail, and I don’t want that for them.”

They’re such good kids. Beautiful, smart, with their whole lives ahead of them. They deserve everything wonderful in the world. They should be dating and eating pizza and stressing over finals.

They shouldn’t be lying in the damn morgue.

“People are being killed,” Asher says, looking at me like I’m being stupid. “Canceling the group makes sense.”

“We don’t know for sure that he’s targeting the kids in
my
group,” I insist. I can hear the ridiculousness in my own ears. “Do we?”

“No,” Jordan replies. “We don’t have evidence of that.”

“Well then, unless you do, I’m not canceling.” I hold Asher’s narrowed gaze with my own. “You can’t make me.”

“Oh, yes. I can.” He sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “But I won’t. For now. But come on, Lila. Be reasonable. Change the time or the place of the group.”

I sigh in relief as he pulls a card out of his pocket and passes it to me. “Okay,” I concede. “I’ll change the days of the week that we meet. And I’ll make sure they come and go in groups.”

Asher nods. “I’ll be in touch. But I want you to call if
anything
trips a red flag. I’m serious, Lila. Anything.”

“I will,” I promise.

“You look good,” Asher says softly and offers me half a smile. I raise a brow in surprise.

“I didn’t think you recognized me.”

“Of course I did.”

“You know each other?” Jordan asks with a jolt.

“It’s been about a year,” I reply.

“Nine months,” Asher corrects me.

“You’ve only lived here for six,” Jordan says to Asher, who just shrugs.

He moved to New Orleans?

“I’d like a list of everyone in your group,” Asher says, ignoring Jordan.

“It changes a lot, depending on who needs help and when. But I can get you a list of the regulars.”

“Good.” He stands and follows Jordan to the door, then turns back and smiles at me. “It’s good to see you, Lila.”

I nod, but before I can answer, he’s gone.

I immediately reach for my phone and call my best friend, Kate.

“If you’re canceling lunch today, I will punch you in the neck the next time I see you.”

“You know, hanging out with all those Boudreaux boys has made you really violent.” I smile as I lean back in my chair, thinking of my best friend and her new family. Kate hit the mother lode when she found her Eli and his family. “And I’m not canceling, I just needed to tell you something and it won’t wait for lunch.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“First of all, there’s been another murder, Kate. Another girl from my class.”

“Oh no. Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” At the sound of my friend’s voice, I’m sad all over again. I didn’t know Leslie well, but she was a happy, sweet girl.

“Me too.”

“What else is going on?”

“Asher just left my office.”

Silence.

“Kate?”

“Asher, of the hottest sex in the history of the world, Asher?”

You have no fucking idea, sister.

“Yes, that Asher.”

“How did he find you?”

“He’s the lieutenant assigned to the case. He was here to ask me questions.”

“I didn’t think he lived here.” I can hear the frown in her voice, and the sound of her pen slapping against her desk.

“It seems he moved here about six months ago.”

“Please, for the love of God, tell me you got his number.”

I grin. “He gave me his card, yes.”

Kate squeals on the other end of the phone, making me laugh. “Right on!”

Not that I’ll ever get the guts up to call him.

Unless I get drunk again.

Maybe I should drink more often.

“It was weird. At first I didn’t think he recognized me, but then toward the end he said it was good to see me.”

“I like him.”

“You don’t know him,” I reply and roll my eyes.

“He’s hot. Sorry, babe,” she says to Eli, who must be in the room with her, “and he has a good job. You could do worse.”

“Gee, thanks.” I chuckle and glance at the time. “Okay, I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Oh, I can’t.”

“What? Throat punch, Kate.”

“I was actually going to cancel. I’m sorry. I had a meeting come up.”

“And by
meeting
do you mean hot office sex with your ridiculously sexy billionaire boyfriend?” I ask dryly and try like mad to shove away the jealousy that spears through me.

But, come on, Eli is
hot.
And rich. And so in love with Kate it’s disgusting.

“Well, there could be some of that, yes,” Kate confirms with a laugh.

“You’re ditching me for sex. What ever happened to
sisters before misters
?”

“Do you need me?” she asks soberly. “Because I can cancel the office sex, I mean, meeting, and still meet you.”

“No.” I laugh, so happy that I live close to my best friend again. “I’m okay. A little sad, but okay.”

“Let’s reschedule for beignets tomorrow morning,” she suggests.

“Will you get out of bed early enough for that, or will Eli talk you into a meeting then too?”

“Well, I can’t make any promises,” she replies with a smile in her voice.

“You’re disgusting. Enjoy your meeting. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I hang up, and suddenly all of the events from that night nine months ago come flooding back and I have to bite my lip and cross my legs at the sudden burst of pure lust that shoots through me, even making my fingertips tingle. That one night with Asher was better than all of the other nights I’ve had with other men combined.

The man knows his way around a woman’s body.

And he lives in New Orleans now.

Chapter Two

~Asher~

“So, that was interesting,” Jordan says as we jog down the steps of Lila’s building on the Tulane University campus toward the parking lot.

“We didn’t really find out anything we don’t already know,” I reply, deliberately misunderstanding her.

“Right. That’s what I meant.” She rolls her eyes, making my lips twitch. “For someone who’s supposed to play the
bad cop,
you were sucking at it. And that’s not like you. You play
bad cop
really well.”

I’m not about to tell her that it took everything in me to not stalk around that desk and pull Lila into my arms and kiss the fuck out of her. Or that all I could think about while looking at her was the way she moved beneath me, the sounds she made, the way she smelled while I was deep inside her, losing my ever-loving mind.

Seeing her again was a punch in the gut. I’m surprised I was able to speak at all.

And now that I know that
my
Lila is this maniac’s focus, all I can think about is tucking her away and making sure she’s safe.

There’s no way in hell I’m telling my partner that. I’ll never live it down.

“I didn’t need to play bad cop,” I reply and slip my Ray-Bans on my face. “She’s not a suspect.”

“Not right now.”

I glance down at Jordan then shake my head as we climb in my car.

“And what was up with you telling her about Leslie dying?”

“It’ll be all over the news in about twenty minutes,” I reply softly. “There’s no reason to not tell her.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t tell her about the notes left on the scene too.”

I scowl and throw the car out of gear before pulling out of the parking space and turning to Jordan.

“Do you have something to say?”

She sighs and shakes her head. “God, I sound like a jealous girlfriend. It’s just that the sexual tension in that room was off the charts, Ash. I’ve never seen you like that.”

“We’ve been partners for six months, not years. There’s plenty you haven’t seen.”

She nods and then grins at me. “Whatever happened between you two must have been off the hook.”

You have no fucking idea.

“Does your husband know that you have such a raging crush on me?” I put the car back in gear and pull out of the parking lot.

“Whatever. Don’t flatter yourself. I have a hot man at home.”

“If you say so.” I turn toward the precinct and toss her a glance.

“Are you saying my husband
isn’t
hot?” she asks as though she’s offended.

“I’m a dude. I’ll never say that another dude is hot.”

“Well, I’m a woman, and I’m telling you he is.”

“Right.” I laugh and shake my head. “Back to Lila.”

“Yes, back to Lila.” She clears her throat, and I can tell she wants to ask questions, but instead, she just clears her throat again. “I guess you’ll be stuck to her like glue.”

“In light of those notes left on the scenes, yes.” Rage fills me at the thought of anyone wanting to hurt Lila. And with the rage is a new emotion now that I know she’s the same sweet woman that I spent one unforgettable night with last summer: Fear.

“We don’t know for sure that the threats are pointed at her,” Jordan says reasonably. “Her name isn’t mentioned. He could mean another teacher.”

I shake my head, hoping she’s right, but knowing in my gut that she’s not. “I don’t think so. Each of the victims is from her study group. If they were just in one of her classes, I could agree that it might be a crazy coincidence. But this is too focused. All three were studying in that group minutes before they were attacked. And all three of the notes are angry. Very angry. He’s making her pay for something.”

“I agree,” she says with a sigh. “I’ve seen murders before, Asher. This is New Orleans, after all. But I’ve never seen anything quite this…
evil
.”

I nod.

“Have you?” she asks.

I nod again, slowly. “Once.”

“In Seattle?”

“Yes. We had a serial killer there about four years ago.”
And the motherfucker destroyed my life.
“He killed eight women before we caught him.”

“What’s up with the serial killers in Seattle? Is it all the rain that sends people over the edge?” She bites her thumbnail and looks out the passenger window.

“There are no more killers in Seattle than other parts of the country.”

“Hello. Green River Killer. He killed, like, eight hundred women. That counts for a lot.”

“Good point,” I mutter and think back on the man four years ago who made the Green River Killer look like a Boy Scout troop leader.

There is no way in hell that anything like that will touch Lila.