“I will go with you,” she said firmly.
“I’m sorry—you’ll go with me where?”
“I will go with you to go talk to this CEO man. I will find out if he was involved in doing these terrible things to David and his father.” And then, without a hint of irony or self-consciousness, she added, “I am very good at getting men to talk to me.”
I thought about stupid Spencer inside the sheriff’s office getting all the information that I had, and about how he’d probably have the story online in a couple of hours. If I had any hope of getting a scoop, I’d have to look into the leads he didn’t have. That meant two things: Arthur’s complicated love life and Invigor8. I looked at Ridley again, in all her six-foot-goddess glory, and thought, Maybe she’s just the edge you need? I made the decision in an instant. It was time, for once, for me to reap the benefits of Ridley’s particular brand of magic.
CHAPTER 24
On the drive over to Invigor8, I gave Ridley strict instructions that I was to do all the talking once we got there.
“We will be like Thelma and Louise,” she gushed.
“No. We will not. They died in a fiery crash after committing serious crimes. We are only going there to ask some questions and find out the nature of his relationship with Arthur Davenport, okay? I don’t want you bringing up David or, heaven forbid, making any kind of accusation about him being involved in murder or poisoning or anything like that, okay?”
I had visions of an angry Brandon Laytner calling the newspaper to complain about the baseless accusations from “the beautiful reporter and her shorter, plainer sidekick.” Kay Jackson would fire me faster than a jackrabbit on roller skates.
“I understand,” Ridley agreed. “I am there only to, uh, grease the wheels?”
As painful as it was, I had to give Ridley credit for unapologetically owning her beauty and being willing to exploit her sex appeal for the greater good. It seemed, at least in that moment, terribly modern to me.
“So . . .” I said, after a few silent minutes in the car. “I hear we’re going to be neighbors.”
“Yes,” she said, and at first I couldn’t tell if she thought that was a good or a bad thing. “We’ll see. Ryan thinks we will live all together as a family, but I’m not sure this is best.”
I knew it was probably crossing some sort of line, but my curiosity got the better of me. “How come?”
“He has made it clear that he isn’t in love with me.” She sounded both regretful and resolved at the same time, and I felt a little sorry for her for the first time since I’d met her. “He loves the baby, of course, and he wants to be close to us both.”
It was none of my business, and the right thing to do was to change the subject. I didn’t do the right thing. “But what do you want?”
She answered without pause. “To be happy, of course. I’d like us to be together—Ryan and the baby and me—but,” she shrugged, “I won’t sit around waiting for someone who is in love with someone else.”
My eyes were on the road, but I could feel Ridley looking at me. Was she talking about me? Was she seriously telling me that Ryan was still in love with me and that was the reason they couldn’t be together as a family? My stomach suddenly felt like it was churning cement. I didn’t say anything, hoping that would be the end of it.
It wasn’t.
“Riley,” Ridley said. “I can see this makes you uncomfortable, but I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”
My cheeks felt like they were on fire. “Listen, Ryan probably just wants what he can’t have. He—”
“No,” she said, firmly but without any rancor. “Even in Colorado when he and I were dating, he loved you. I knew it then, and I should have stayed away. But what’s the expression? The heart wants what the heart wants.”
“Ridley—”
“It is okay,” she said evenly. “I know the truth. I am okay with it. I was a good distraction for Ryan while he was trying to get himself together, but his heart was always here with you.” She swirled her hands around her baby bump. “But now things are complicated.”
“They certainly are,” I said under my breath. Thankfully, at that exact moment we pulled up in front of the Invigor8 offices.
When we walked inside unannounced and without an appointment, the receptionist tried to turn us away. But Ridley would not be denied, and after several minutes of going back and forth with the receptionist at an increasing volume, Brandon Laytner himself came out of his office to see what the issue was. He took one look at Ridley and ushered us right into his office. I’m not even sure he heard me say I was with the Times. Or honestly, if he even knew I was there.
Brandon Laytner was true to his picture—large, bald, and extremely scary looking. His office was comically manly, right down to all the framed photos on the walls of him with his various kills. Brandon and a dead bear, Brandon and a dead elk, Brandon and two other dudes holding up a very large, very dead fish. He was like the living embodiment of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast—at least six-foot-four and looked like he was made
