The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) by Derrolyn Anderson Page B

then they were alone.
    Layla followed him down an eerily quiet hallway, past an empty holding cell and into a small office. She scanned his cluttered desk, her mismatched eyes landing on a picture of him posing with a woman by his side. He was holding twin infants, one in each arm, and sporting a proud smile on his face. She realized exactly how little she knew about him.
    He gestured to a chair, “Have a seat.” He pulled out his own chair, removing his holster and placing a set of handcuffs on the table between them.
    Layla’s reaction was immediate. She bolted back with an involuntary gasp, knocking her chair aside. Her heart started hammering, her breath quickened, and when his eyes searched hers, he saw real fear.
    “Hey,” Ramon asked, “Are you okay?”
    She nodded, gasping, and he could see the pulse in her neck throbbing. “Yes,” she squeaked.
    He glanced down at the cuffs and back up to Layla, who swallowed hard and took a deep breath. She rubbed her wrists and forced herself to smile, flooding him with a feeling of reassurance. “I’m perfectly fine.”
    For a minute, he almost questioned what he’d just seen, but there was no doubt about it. The handcuffs had startled her, and there was only one explanation. His heart sank when he realized that she must have had a run-in with the law before. She straightened out her chair and sat down gracefully.
    He watched her fiddle with the single strand of pearls around her neck, wondering. She looked so sweet and innocent, and she sure was cute. Really cute. He’d been hoping there was no truth to his suspicions, but everything he ever found out about her only raised more questions. Any way you sliced it there was something odd going on… With her, with her cousin, with that whole house full of people.
    He opened his desk drawer and slid the cuffs into it, pulling out a pad of paper. “So… do you want to tell me your version of the day’s events?”
    “What do you want to know?”
    “First of all, what were you doing out there today?”
    “We hiked to the ruins of my grandmother’s house. I’m planning to rebuild it.”
    “Why?”
    She looked confused, “What does that have to do with what happened?”
    He cleared his throat. “Let’s start with a timeline.”
    He looked back down at his pad, jotting down her account of the events leading up to the shooting. She answered his questions noncommittally, seemingly unwilling to give him any more information than she possibly had to. Everything about her attitude told him she was hiding something, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t pin her down about anything concrete.
    What Layla didn’t know was that he’d already run an extensive background check on her and her brother, a search that had only led to a series of frustrating dead ends. The most he could find was a trust fund set up by a Professor Theodore Reed, who had become their legal guardian when they were barely toddlers. A great deal of money had been moved in and out of that account, but it had been drained of all funds and inactive for nearly a year.
    Ramon watched her closely, looking for the signs of guilt he’d been trained to detect. She sat up straight with her shoulders squared, and even though she was clearly nervous, she seemed more determined than worried. When their eyes met he had a hard time thinking anything at all.
    Every time Ramon asked Layla a pointed question she somehow managed to sidestep it, leaving him scratching his head and wondering why he couldn’t seem to stay on track. After he had racked his brain for every conceivable thing to ask he finally got around to the one thing he most wanted to know.
    “So, what were you doing with Millie’s grandson?” he asked. “Are you dating him?”
    “I was showing him the site… He’s an architect”
    “So, your relationship isn’t of a personal nature.”
    She looked surprised. “That’s a personal question.”
    “I’m just doing my job ma’am.”
    She looked