Free Darker Than Desire by Shiloh Walker

looking away, down, anywhere but at their face. He’d developed the habit of not really looking at people a long time ago, after Abraham had pointed out to him that he looked at people like they just weren’t even there. He tried to focus, made himself see Trinity. A pretty woman, married to a man he didn’t really hate. She still didn’t look entirely comfortable around him, but he didn’t see any reason why she should look comfortable.
    â€œYes, he does.” She blew out a breath and looked away. “We were over there a few days ago, cleaning up. It’s awful, what happened.”
    David didn’t say anything. It was awful. Everybody knew it. No point in him adding his two cents’. Besides, the only thing he could offer was that if he found out who’d killed Miss Mary he would like to kill the son of a bitch himself.
    â€œDo you know where the keys are?”
    Trinity frowned. “Why?”
    â€œBecause Max is going to let me stay there.” He bit back a sigh. This conversation thing was a pain in the ass. Even before he’d taken off, he hadn’t cared for talking to people. When you talked to people, they acted like they had a right to ask you things, know things about you. He hadn’t ever been able to tell people shit for fear of being punished, a lesson he’d learned early on. Now, even though that wasn’t an issue, he just didn’t see the point in … talking. “Can I have the keys?”
    â€œI think I need to check with Noah first.”
    David arched a brow. “Can you do that then?”
    Trinity crossed her arms over her chest, her nails, painted a vivid blue-green color, tapping against her arm. “Anybody ever tell you that you’re not exactly a people person, David?”
    That startled a smile out of him. “I really haven’t ever had a reason to be a people person.” Sighing, he looked away, staring past her shoulder to the narrow slice of river he could see through the gaps in the trees. “I’d just like to get those keys.”
    â€œFine. Just give me a minute.”
    *   *   *
    Noah hadn’t quite made it through Hanover when the call came through.
    He pulled the phone from his ear, frowned a little, then said, “Run that by me again?”
    â€œDavid is here. Caine, David. Whoever he is. He said that Max told him he could have the keys to his house and stay there. Wanted you to give him the keys. Should I?”
    Next to Noah, Layla was chain-smoking, going through the pack of cigarettes she had so fast, it would be a miracle if she had any left by the time they reached Jeffersonville. “Well, yeah. It won’t hurt anything.”
    â€œI just—it seemed weird, to me.”
    â€œWeird to me, too, angel,” he said softly, checking the traffic before pulling through the stoplight. “But David wouldn’t lie about it.”
    Layla’s gaze slid to Noah, then jerked away again.
    â€œOkay.” On the other end of the line, Trinity paused, then asked, “How long you think this will take?”
    â€œI’m not sure.” He wished he could have passed this on to somebody else. Anybody else. He’d looked at Layla, though, and seen a look that was too familiar. She’d finally hit that point. That point he’d hit when he’d woken up in a hospital bed, convinced he’d killed somebody, and he’d been desperate, ready to do anything and everything to crawl out of the hole he’d put himself in. His dad had helped him find the rope he needed. He couldn’t turn away from somebody else looking for a rope. Even if the woman was Layla.
    â€œYou think she’s actually going to see this through?”
    â€œNobody can decide that.” Before she could ask anything else he said, “The keys are in the desk in my office at home.”
    Trinity snorted. “I know that. I am the one who organized that