Truth or Lies? by A. Gomez (book club recommendations txt) 📗

me your information so I can get to court. I’m late now.” I exhaled loudly; his impossibly gorgeous face just made me more nervous and didn’t help the situation. He was still staring. What was his problem? Was he trying to give me a heart attack?

“You have the most amazing green eyes I’ve ever seen. And your long, brown hair just makes them more intense.” He inched closer, invading my personal space. I arched my back to get away.

“Thank you,” I whispered, “my mother tells me that all the time. Your info, please.” I could see the bulge in his suit jacket. No doubt that’s where his gun was.

“Oh! Right! My information!” He ran back to his truck to get it. While his back was turned I took pictures of his truck with him in the picture, his license plate and the area we were at. He stalked back to me, breathing heavily.

“Here’s everything and I wrote down my email and cell number for you. Just in case you need to call me... for any reason… any reason at all.” He winked at me.

“Uh, okay, thank you?”

“Seriously, you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen! So hypnotic—I can’t stop staring,” he muttered.

“Um, thank you,” I said as I ran to my car.

Finally, safe and sound in the parking lot of the city court house. My adrenaline must have been coming down because I was starting to feel sluggish. I did my best to speed walk to the courtroom and find Jill, the prosecutor assigned to the case. She was on a bench outside the courtroom. I was breathing heavy from the walk and needed to sit down.

“You’re breathing all over my papers.” She scooted away from me while she was writing.

“Sorry, I thought I was going to be late so I kind of sped-walked from my car.” She looked up at me, expressionless, and just kept writing.

“You know you have grease or oil or something on your blouse and shoes,” she said. “Go clean up quickly while we’re waiting for the FBI agents to get here. I still need your help talking to the victim and her mother one more time.” She kept writing without looking up.

Once in the bathroom I relaxed a bit. It was nice and cool in there and there was a chair for me to sit on so I could clean my shoe and just take a few deep breaths. I tried cleaning my blouse but it just smeared more every time I put water on it or rubbed it. I took a quick look at myself in the mirror. Good enough. It looked as if I was wearing an overpriced mess by some high fashion designer. Jill started calling my cell. I didn’t want to answer since she seemed like she was in a pissy mood. I washed my hands and darted out of the ladies’ room just in time to run into a statue of a man. Running into him would’ve knocked me off my feet if he hadn’t caught me in his arms.

“Whoa! Thanks!” I said breathlessly but he didn’t let go. I pushed a little against his chest but he tightened his grip on me. I could feel him snickering. What the hell? I pushed one last time against his rock-hard chest. “Hm, he’s pretty muscular, can I take him?” I asked myself under my breath. He heard me talking to myself, loosened his hold to look down at me and that was when I jabbed my spiked heel into his foot, shoved him away, kicked his shin and elbowed him in the nose. He covered his nose in pain, bent over, grabbing his shin and let out an agonizing groan. “Yeah!” I celebrated. “That felt great!”

He grunted, cursed a few times and fell onto the bench outside the restroom. I then heard a strained, deep voice say, “Hello, green eyes.”

I knew that voice…that was a familiar-sounding voice. Where had I heard that voice? Another man in a suit headed our way with Jill at his side to see what the commotion was all about. I was smiling from ear to ear at this point, my hands on my hips, standing over the guy I just made bleed.

“Get your shit together, Rockwall! You’re bleeding all over the place.” The other man sounded irked.

“What happened?” Jill asked, confused. “Isabel, is that blood on your sleeve? What’s going on? Is Special Agent Rockwall all right?”

Special Agent Rockwall? Wait, what? I looked at Jill, bewildered.

“I’m fine, she’s fine, we’re fine. She was just helping me with my bloody nose, that’s all.” He paused. “I ran into the ladies’ room door. I wasn’t paying attention on my way to the men’s room and hit the door to the ladies’ room when it swung open.” Agent Rockwall was a good liar.

Shit. Recognition hit me. It was the rear-ender from earlier this morning. I knew I recognized that voice. Jill sighed in exasperation. “I guess you’ve met Agent Rockwall already.” She motioned to the bleeding man I’d just assaulted. “And this is Special Agent Stevens; they’re with the FBI, the special agents in charge of this high-profile case. They will be working with us on this case since the defendant crossed state lines. Everyone, please get cleaned up. Isabel, I’ll meet you in the witness room when you’re finished here, just hurry.” She and the other FBI agent walked back to where they came from.

“Got it,” I replied. Crap! FBI! Why don’t you think before you react, Isabel?

“So, green eyes…it’s Isabel? It suits you—you look like an Isabel. You know, for a skinny little thing, you sure are strong. I don’t know what part of my body hurts more. Remind me never to surprise you again.” He was wincing while holding his nose and wiping the blood. Okay, I was starting to feel a little