Dangerous Kiss (The Layton Family 1)

A girl could drown in those slate-blue eyes. Part of her wanted to. She shrugged off the wish, brought her attention back to the matter at hand.

“She didn’t interact very much with the people around her. Whenever I checked on her table, she was either texting or talking on her phone.”

“Phone?” Worry lines carved their way across his forehead. He shuffled through his papers on the bar. “There’s nothing in the initial incident report about a cellphone being recovered. Sheriff Layton never mentioned finding Kendall’s phone to her parents.” He scooted his stool closer to her. “What happened to the phone?”

Claire straightened up so fast she almost fell off the stool. Her mind went into overdrive and adrenaline surged through her.

Phone.

Flash drive.

What time was it? She’d only been down here a moment. Right? She darted a furtive glance at the clock behind the bar.

Twelve-fifteen.

She’d missed the deadline. Her fear spiked. Her breath caught in her throat. The room grew hotter.

Automatically, she patted her dress pocket for her phone, but it wasn’t there. She’d left it in her office.

She’d missed the Voice of Doom. Oh God, what was going to happen now? He’d call back, right? He wouldn’t go straight in for the kill.

“What’s wrong?”

Panic flooded through her body unabated. Her skin itched as if ants were doing the conga down her spine. If anything happened to her family, she’d never be able to forgive herself.

She had to get out of here, but couldn’t bolt for the door.

She forced herself to concentrate on the bar, wiping at an imaginary stain. She couldn’t let anyone suspect something was wrong. The killer had warned not to tell anyone about his call. But how to leave without causing suspicion?

“Hmmm? Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. Why would you think something was wrong?”

She twisted her hair tightly around a finger and avoided looking at Jake. She jiggled her knee and fumbled for a way to get out of here.

“I asked about Kendall’s phone and you went all squirrelly on me. What’s the deal?”

She forced her body to be still. Jake didn’t look as friendly. Now he acted like a dog angling to sneak off with the Thanksgiving turkey.

“Oh, nothing. Just remembered that someone promised to call me. No big deal.” She smiled so tightly her cheeks ached.

“The look on your face says it’s a big deal.”

She chewed on her bottom lip until a sharp pain stopped her. Damn. She’d been doing that so much today. It hurt. “It’s not, um, a big deal…for you, I mean. For me, it’s a, um, very, very big deal.”

She mentally smacked herself upside the head. Man, she sucked at lying. Even Chris looked at her as if she were some crazy lady. “Did you get anything to drink? Suzie here makes a great iced coffee.” Now she babbled.

She glanced at Chris, silently beseeching him for help. He looked at her like she had two heads. Suzie wouldn’t even make eye contact.

“I’m okay. Now, about Kendall’s phone, do you know what happened to it?” His tractor-beam gaze drew her in.

“It’s not here at the restaurant.” Ugh, why couldn’t she just shut up?

“How do you know it’s not at the restaurant? Did you look for it? Why would you do that?”

“Um, curiosity?” There went the nervous leg jiggle again.

He slapped his papers on the bar and leaned away from her. “Really? What was it about the phone that made you so curious?”

Her tongue stuck to the roof of her dry mouth. She couldn’t think of anything that even remotely sounded plausible. No way could she tell Jake about the killer’s threats. She couldn’t risk her family. What could she say? Jake stared her down, making her feel about an inch tall. She wished he’d start talking again.