If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

Reilly.”
    “Law,” he said again.
    Ezra glanced past him again, toward the café, then met Law’s gaze. “Ah … Nia, can you give me a second?”
    She shrugged.
    Law scowled as Ezra grabbed his shoulder and all but dragged him about fifteen feet away. “Get back to the café and keep Lena in there.”
    Law glared at him. “Excuse me?”
    “Damn it, would you just
do
it? I’ll explain later.”
    Curling his lip at him, Law jerked his arm away. “What’s the matter, you getting bored with marriage already?”
    “What … are you nuts?” Ezra stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
    Law wasn’t so sure he hadn’t. But he had a very hard time thinking clearly around Nia—something he’d demonstrated the one time he’d been around her before now. Rubbing his temple, he shook his head and glanced back at the café, then at Nia. “What’s the deal, Ezra?”
    “Would you stop being so fucking obvious and just get to the café?” Ezra asked. “Please? I’ll explain—shit.”
    Nia was sauntering toward them.
    That look in her eyes—a glint of trouble, sparking there like an ember. She glanced from Law to Ezra, then down the street. A grim smile curled her lips and she walked right past them—straight toward the café.
    “Shit,” Ezra muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. Then he shot Law a glare. “Could you have been a little
more
obvious?”
    “What?”
    Ezra just shook his head and muttered under his breath as he started along behind Nia.
    “Damn it, what in the hell is going on?”
    Ezra shot him a narrow glance and then stopped. “Nia’s cousin.”
    “What about her?”
    Ezra glanced up as Nia started across the street. “She looks enough like Lena that they could have been twins. I’d hoped … well. Hell. Doesn’t matter now.”
    The second she stepped foot inside the café, Nia knew why the sheriff hadn’t wanted her in there. The woman sat along the back wall, a pair of black glasses shielding her face.
    From across the room, the similarity was eerie—the same deep, gleaming hair, although this woman’s might have a little more red. The same clear, milk-pale skin. The shape of the face, the mouth.
    So much like Joely.
    Nia stared at her, hard, fast. Part of her wanted to hope, to pray … wanted to think maybe it
was
Joely, even though she knew better.
    But it was easier, for that moment, to just pretend.
    Look at me …
    If the woman would look at her, then maybe Nia could quit pretending. Maybe. She’d have to face reality, have to take that stab to the heart, accept it, and move on. But she continued to chat with her friend, some blond lady, totally oblivious of Nia standing there, with her heart lodged in her throat, and her heart aching, breaking …
    Just then the bell over the door jangled. And the dog lying by the redhead’s feet sat up. Until that moment, Nia hadn’t even seen the dog. Now it was staring at the door, tail waving back and forth.
    Apparently, something about it caught his owner’s attention, too, because now the woman’s face was turned toward them.
    That was when Nia realized Lena King couldn’t see her.
    “Your wife’s blind,” she said as Ezra came to stand beside her.
    “Yeah, I think somebody mentioned that to me somewhere. Look, Nia, you don’t need to do this to yourself.”
    She swallowed. “You know, if I’d seen her on the street, it would have been harder.”
    “Not very likely. You don’t live around here,” Reilly muttered.
    She glanced at him, then at Ezra. No. She didn’t live around here. But she wasn’t leaving, either. Not until she found out something—more of that indefinable, insubstantial closure. Which meant the likelihood of her running into Lena King on the streets was higher than they thought.
    But they didn’t need to know that. Yet.
    Slipping back outside, she started to walk. Blindly. She didn’t know exactly where she was going; she just needed to get away from there. Ideally, she’d like to be very, very far away, but there was no way she could leave. Even if she was willing, and she wasn’t, she couldn’t very well ride just then.
    The tears blinded her so that she wouldn’t even be able to see the road.
    “Why do I get the feeling she’s not leaving town?” Ezra muttered to himself as he watched Nia stalk out of the café.
    Then he glanced toward Lena. She was gazing his way expectantly—Roz had pointed him out after Puck had noticed him, catching Lena’s attention. “I’m