A car pulled away from the curb and Max pulled his car into the spot. He opened her door and waited for her to explain her evaluation of him, but she just smiled as she stepped onto the sidewalk and headed toward the awning over the restaurant’s front door. He couldn’t help but notice how her hips moved as she walked away from him.
He caught up with her. “Rugged, huh?”
“Not exactly rugged,” she said. “There’s just something about you…”
“Yeah? What if I told you I grew up in Los Angeles?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
He laughed. “You’re nuts. You know that?”
“Oh? Did you grow up in Los Angeles?”
“No, but-”
“Of course you didn’t. The people there are much more laidback.”
“Ellie, these sweeping statements of yours…”
They entered the restaurant, and he muttered, “I hate crowds.” He took her arm and led her to the podium, where an elegantly dressed woman stood with a reservation book in front of her.
“Your table will be ready momentarily, Mr. Daniels,” she said with a gracious smile. “If you’d like to wait in the bar, I’ll call you.”
Max rounded the corner and saw that the bar area was packed as well. He spotted one empty stool at the end of the bar and had just put his hand on the small of her back to guide her toward it when a large man with a jovial face called to Ellie from across the room. After threading his way around the tables to get to them, the man threw his massive arms around Ellie and kissed her on both cheeks.
The owner of the Trellis, Tommy Greco, was a former boxer whose nose had been broken more than once. Word had it that he was ruthless in the ring, but outside he was a gentle man, kind and soft-spoken. Nothing much ever riled him, except maybe putting too much garlic in his famous chicken spiedini.
He released Ellie from his grip and said, “Your boyfriend has a gun.”
“It goes with the badge,” she replied.
She stepped back and quickly introduced the two men.
“I heard about that shooting,” he said to Max. Turning to Ellie, he added, “And I heard you operated on the agent who took the bullet.”
“Tommy, how did you know I did the surgery?” she asked. She knew the shooting had been on the news, of course, and in the papers, but the surgeon’s name wasn’t mentioned.
“Come on, kid, you know I hear everything that happens in this town.”
He led them to a table secluded from the others in a quiet niche. “You two get the executive table tonight,” he said. Wiggling his eyebrows, he added, “Lots of privacy.”
He unfolded her napkin and dropped it into her lap. “It was nice meeting you, Agent Daniels. You take good care of my girl, you hear me. Has she told you how we met?”
“No,” Max answered.
“Make her tell you about the golfer who came in with his friends a while back. It happened just after I opened the restaurant.” Tommy suddenly spotted someone else he knew across the room and was off with his arms spread wide to greet them.
Alone again, Ellie was intent on asking Max why he had asked her out, but a waiter appeared to take their drink order. When he walked away, she turned back to Max.
Before she could get her question out, he said, “Butte.”
“Pardon me?”
“Butte, Montana. That’s where I was born and where I grew up.”
She slapped the tabletop. “Ah, of course. Now you make sense.”
“Now you don’t make any sense,” he countered.
How could she explain it so that he understood? Not possible, she decided. He did make sense to her now, though. There was an unbridled energy about him, and to her he seemed a maverick and a little on the wild side. Yes, that was it. As wild and untamed as the Montana landscape.
Max was looking at her as if she’d lost her mind, and Ellie realized she needed to curb her imagination. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t ask me out so that I’d show you a nice restaurant. What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Let’s have dinner first. What sounds good to you?”
“Uh-oh. You’re avoiding the subject, which means it’s bad.”
He was as good at switching topics as she was. “How come Tommy calls you ‘kid’?”
“He introduced me to some of his father’s friends who all happened to be in their eighties, and to them I was a kid, I guess. He called me the kid doctor, which, by the way, I didn’t like. I told him so, and he stopped. So don’t you try it.”
He laughed. “I won’t. And for the record, I don’t think of you as a kid. I barely glanced at you when we first met. All I saw were shorts and a ponytail.” And legs, he admitted to himself, long, perfect legs. “When I look at you now,” he said, his eyes looking deeply into hers, “the last thing I see is a kid.”
Ellie could feel the blood rushing to her head and her heart pounding again. She quickly picked up a menu and pretended to study it. When she glimpsed at him a few seconds later, he was still staring at her, but this time there was a concerned look on his face.
“It’s time you told me why we’re here,” she said, laying the menu on the table.
“You’re right,” he admitted. He leaned forward. “This isn’t something I would normally do…”
Seeing his hesitation, Ellie became anxious. “Just tell me,” she insisted.
“This stays between you and me, okay?”
“Yes, okay,” she said.
“Don’t change your story,” he said finally.
“What story?”
“Your account of the shooting,” he explained. “Don’t change any of it.”
“Why would I change it?” she asked, perplexed.
“As this investigation progresses, you might be questioned again, either by the police or by the FBI, especially Agent Hughes. He may try to lead you or even coerce you to remember details you couldn’t recall before. Don’t tell him or anyone else more than you told Ben and me, that you didn’t see the couple well enough to recognize them.”
Max had become so serious and his tone so persistent, Ellie wondered why he was telling her this. Her thoughts went back to the conversations they’d had in her apartment.
“You haven’t told me much about this case or the people you’ve been chasing. You said their name was Landry, right?”
“That’s right.”
“And you said you’ve been trying to catch them for a long time.”
“When the Landrys moved to Honolulu and started doing business there, Ben and I were brought in. They were arrested, and the case was solid. We had three witnesses, but as I already mentioned, the case never made it to court.”
“You didn’t tell me why it didn’t make it to court.”
“Two of the witnesses disappeared. We’re still looking for them, but no luck so far.”
“What about the third witness?”
“Killed in a hit-and-run.”
Ellie felt a shiver run down her arms.
Max let her absorb the information before continuing. “We need eyewitnesses who will testify against them, people who can positively connect them to a crime. But if those eyewitnesses come forward, we’ll have to guarantee their safety. And that’s why, if you have enough information to testify, you’ll probably end up in witness protection.”
“Oh no, I won’t,” she replied.
“I know how your life was turned upside down by Evan Patterson. You had to leave your home and your family for all those years. If you have to go into witness protection…”
“No, I would never allow that to happen. Max, I’ve spent half my life in hiding,” she whispered. “I think I’ve reached my breaking point. Lately, I’ve felt frozen. I can’t seem to make decisions as to where I want to live, and the idea of signing a contract, even for one year, scares me.”
“You’re waiting to find out where Patterson is, aren’t you?”
Time to admit the truth, she decided. “Yes, I am. Even now he’s controlling my life. I hate that. And now you’re suggesting I might have to hide from the Landrys. Enough,” she snapped. “I’ve really had enough. I told you and Ben that I don’t think I can identify either one of the Landrys. Shouldn’t that keep me safe from them?”