Too Far Gone by Debra Webb, Regan Black

or something stronger to go with it? There seems to be a good supply of alcohol.”
    He laughed. “Water.” He couldn’t risk the slightest dimming effect of alcohol while on the job.
    As he watched, she moved through the kitchen, a picture of domestic grace that gave him a strange sensation that he’d been missing something in his life. She filled two glasses with water and piled pasta high on a plate. She added the sauce and a scoop of steamed broccoli before passing it to him.
    “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” he said, shaking off the momentary daze.
    “No trouble,” she answered with a small shrug. “It gave me something to do.”
    She made a smaller plate for herself and sat at the other end of the kitchen island. For several minutes he ate, wondering how she’d tweaked the sauce. It never tasted this good when he poured it straight from the jar. He pointed with his fork. “What’d you do to this?”
    “Just added a bit of this and that for a kick,” she said.
    “It’s good.”
    She smiled. “Thank you.”
    They ate in silence for a while. Then he asked, “You and Trinity kept separate bank accounts.”
    “I insisted.”
    “Why?”
    She sighed and her gaze didn’t stray from her pasta. “At the beginning of our relationship it was too good to be true. Girl from Kansas finds her Oz, you know? Every day I was sure he’d wake up and be done with me so I didn’t want to take a chance on joint bank accounts. As my agent, my paychecks went through him anyway. He took his cut and I got the rest. I didn’t think he needed to know what I did with the money.”
    “Seems like you were smart with your money.” He’d been surprised by just how smart. Anyone who thought there weren’t any brains behind all that beauty would be dead wrong.
    Lauren nodded, and then sipped her water. “I grew up poor. Being poor in Kansas is one thing, being poor here is entirely another. I made up my mind early on to save and invest a hefty chunk of my earnings. I sent some back home for my mom, supported a few charities, and lived comfortably on the rest.” She tipped her head, gracing him with a direct look. “In light of recent events, it seems my precautions were prudent.”
    “You can’t access any of it. The police will be keeping an eye out for any financial activity.”
    She set her fork aside. “Which adds yet another layer of urgency to my predicament.”
    “Lauren.” He’d wanted to get her talking, not worry her. “Anything you need, I’ll take care of it. Money is not an issue for you right now.”
    “What I need is to find something that connects Desmond to the killers.” She set her fork aside. “If the police stop looking for suspects, I may never be able to prove what really happened.”
    “When was the last time you caught Trinity with another woman?”
    She raised her eyes, meeting his gaze. “Why does that matter?”
    “I’m trying to get a handle on the man.”
And you
, he kept to himself. She insisted on making it clear that Trinity was only her agent, not her boyfriend, but the two had been cohabitating for six years.
    “I did my best
not
to catch him.” She patted those lush lips with her napkin.
    “By avoiding the office?”
    “At all costs,” she said quietly, pushing her plate away.
    Mike felt a surge of anger over what Trinity had put her through. What she’d allowed the jerk to put her through. “But you knew when he was
involved
elsewhere.”
    “Yes.” She sat stiffly, her hands in her lap. “Two years ago I caught him at the office after hours. It was the only time I saw him in the act of seducing a potential client. He called it business. I called it cheating. We eventually came to an agreement that I wouldn’t leave him and he wouldn’t flaunt his extracurricular activities.”
    “But you went up after hours last night.”
    “Last night, that script...” She rolled her eyes. “It was the last straw for me and long past time to cut ties as his