“Sometimes I get itright.”
“Sometimes? Are you blind? These arebeautiful.”
“Thanks.”
She followed him back out to the living room and sat on the sofa, more tension melting away. Being here ought to have felt awkward. She barely knew Joaquin, after all. But she felt more relaxed now than she’d been allday.
“Want something to drink? I’ve got beer and soda and, well … beer andsoda.”
“Can I have a glass of water with ice?” Her gaze moved over the books on the coffee table, stopping when she saw his name. “You published yourphotos.”
Sothat’show he’d been able to afford thisplace.
“I’ve got a couple of photography books and a textbook.” He walked over to the sofa, handed her a glass of water. “After my Pulitzer, the paper published that. It’s a ‘Best of’ book with photos dating back to its first edition in 1890. That gave me the idea to write an instructional book about news photography. It got picked up by Columbia as a textbook. I released a book of Colorado nature photos about six monthsago.”
Mia picked up the book, turned through its pages. The photographs of Denver as a cowboy town were fun. There was the state capitol, newly built and festooned with ribbons and banners. There was Pearl Street—nothing but mud and wooden walkways. “Are the photos that won you the Pulitzer inhere?”
He bent down, flipped toward the back. “Here.”
The photographs told a story. Armed men in body armor fast-roping onto the balcony of a building. A man doing CPR on another man who appeared to be dead, a woman with dark hair leaning over him in tears, dead bodies on the floor around them. “This is it, isn’t it—that shootout with thecartel?”
“Yeah.”
Mia stared, transfixed, at the next page. It was Julian Darcangelo, but he was badly wounded. Another man sat behind him, holding him and applying direct pressure to a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Mia didn’t have to know anything about the two guys to know they were close friends, closer than brothers. The pain and exhaustion on Julian’s face and the worry and love—yes, love—on the other man’s face told the entire story of that moment in a way that words never couldhave.
“Powerful.”
“You’re going to meet him in a minute.” Joaquin tapped his finger on the other man’s face. “That’s MarcHunter.”
Mia’s stomach knotted. She closed the book, set it aside. “I saw what I saw tonight. I hope your friends don’t think I’moverreacting.”
He sat on the corner of the coffee table, looked into her eyes. “Trust me, Mia. Theywon’t.”
* * *
Joaquin stoodoff to the side, listening while Mia told Darcangelo and Hunter what had happened tonight. Darcangelo asked most of the questions. The man had once worked as a deep cover agent for the FBI, tracking down sex traffickers and freeing their victims. He had a lot of experience working with terrified, brutalizedwomen.
Not that Mia seemed terrified. She was calm, composed, almost business-like in her responses. He had no difficulty imagining her in a uniform. Still, he could tell from the shadows in her blue eyes that she was afraid. Not for the first time, he wished he’d been there tonight. He’d have gone after thebastard.
“I left the restaurant and walked down to that nightclub—IgneousIntrusion.”
Darcangelo nodded. “I know theplace.”
“I went there because there’s a security camera on the corner. I got a Coke, sat at a table away from the dance floor, and tried to figure out what I should donext.”
“What do you mean?” Hunterasked.
“I didn’t know whether I should go home, go to a hotel, or call someone. I’m tired of having a cloud of suspicion over my head. I had nothing to do with Andy’s disappearance or Jason’smurder.”
Hunter nodded. “Gotit.”
“I’d been there for maybe ten minutes when I got the feeling I was being watched. I tried to be casual about looking around. I moved to the other side of the table. The music ended, and something made me look up. A man was standing on the balcony, watching me. He didn’t have a drink in his hand. He wasn’t dancing. He was just standing there, watching me. The moment he saw me looking at him, he stepped back into the crowd. That’s when I calledJoaquin.”
“Did you get a look at hisface?”
“No, sir. It was dark, and he was wearing a black hoodie that shadowed hisface.”
Darcangelo and Hunter exchanged aglance.