“Hey. Just heard about a bomb scare downtown on the news.” Paul Schaffer, a fellow ADA stuck his head into Scarlett’s office. Another late-night worker.
“Really? Where?” Leigh asked, rising as did Scarlett so they could follow Paul back to the conference room, where there was a large-screen television bolted to the wall.
Scarlett stepped into the room, immediately catching sight of the reporter on the scene. But it was the location of the bomb scare that had her freezing in her tracks.
“Club TEN29.” She pulled on Leigh’s hand. “It’s Tanner’s club. I have to go.”
Chapter Six
By the time Scarlett and Leigh arrived on scene – they’d had to get dropped off far from the site and show credentials to get past barricades—the club had been emptied out and the police were talking to as many people as they could to see if anyone had seen anything of interest.
She looked around, wanting to see Tanner. Although she knew there’d been no blast, the entire incident had frightened her and she needed to see for herself that he was okay.
“I see someone I know. I’m going to try to find out what’s going on,” Leigh said, placing a hand on Scarlett’s arm. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m going to look for Tanner.”
“Okay, I have my cell. Text me and I’ll do the same.” Leigh pulled her in for a reassuring hug before heading over to a woman Scarlett had never seen before.
Blowing out a deep breath, Scarlett walked around, searching for Tanner or one of his partners, coming up empty.
“Scarlett!”
She turned at the sound of her name. An officer she recognized from some of the crime scenes she worked called her over and she headed his way. “Hi, Frank. What’s going on here?”
Officer Frank Rhodes scowled as he turned toward the club. “Apparently more than we knew about. They’ve been having some vandalism issues they didn’t report. Now a bomb scare.”
She blinked in surprise. Clearly the police weren’t the only ones Tanner hadn’t told of his business issues. He’d never mentioned to her that there were problems at the club. “Was the scare legitimate? Did they find anything?”
“Not so far,” he said with a shake of his head. “Doesn’t appear to be a credible threat. Just one aimed at hurting their business. Asshole owners thought they could handle it themselves.” He jerked his head and Scarlett glanced in that direction.
Tanner stood with his partners in an alley beside the club, all three men looking pissed off. He caught her gaze, his eyes opening wide at the sight of her, then warming as he reassured her with a wink.
“Thank God,” she murmured under her breath.
“You involved with him?” Frank, who Scarlett knew from work and past crime scenes, not as a friend, asked.
She stiffened at the sound of his judgmental tone. “Who?”
“Grayson.”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” She pulled her suit jacket around her and met his gaze.
“Whoa.” Frank held up his hands. “Just trying to do you a favor. You seem like a classy woman who can do better than a lowlife like him.”
Scarlett narrowed her gaze. “Just what do you think you know about Tanner?”
He let out a rough laugh. “Grew up in the same neighborhood. The guy likes to use his fists. Got himself tossed out of his fancy college and eventually ended up behind bars for assault. Then his partner’s rich cousin bailed him out, pulled some strings, and got his record expunged.”
She stilled, taking in the information. “He what?” she asked, but she’d heard. Oh, she had heard.
The man she was falling for had been arrested for beating someone up and had gotten himself off. Just like her brother’s killers.
“I gotta go talk to more club patrons. Just be careful.” Frank walked away, leaving her off-kilter. Clearly Frank had some sort of grudge with Tanner, but his information, if true, was disturbing.
Scarlett wasn’t the type of person to judge someone by facts she’d been told secondhand, but she didn’t like hearing that anyone had gotten away with something thanks to favors pulled—any more than a person walking on a technicality. Which was how her brother’s killers had gone free.
She swallowed hard, needing to process what she’d heard. Decide how she felt about it. Whether it changed her burgeoning feelings for Tanner.
She looked his way but he and his partners had disappeared. She ran her tongue over her lips, knowing they needed to talk. But it wouldn’t be happening tonight.
Time to get an Uber, she thought. She opened her phone and texted Leigh, who said she’d meet her at the curb. She was about to head there when she had the distinct sense of being watched.
She glanced up into a pair of glittering eyes, staring at her and taking her in, the man’s leering gaze trailing over her from head to toe. A slick smile crossed his face and he drew a line across his throat.