Chapter 21: Nothing Personal

Duncan's POV

I stood on the landing above the office on Elm Street at two minutes to eight.

I was holding a bottle of wine, and I had forgotten how to hold it.

I knocked once.

She opened the door in a dark green dress, with her hair down and her feet bare.

I lost the first thing I'd planned to say.

"You're early," Laurel said.

"I was parked outside for twenty minutes."

"I know. I watched you from the window."

She let me in.

The flat was one room with a bed in the corner and a table set for two.

She had put out a candle she clearly didn't know how to light.

A plastic pen lay next to the salt shaker.

"You kept it," I said.

"I've been practicing my signature."

We ate. I have no memory of the food.

I remember that she laughed at something I said about parking violations.

She laughed with her whole throat, and I wanted to put my mouth where it started.

When the plates were empty, she stood and came around the table.

She stopped in front of my chair and held out her right hand for a handshake.

"I'm told I walked past this once," she said.

I took it.

I turned it over and kissed the scar across her palm.

Then I kissed the inside of her wrist, where her pulse was going fast.

"Terms," I said. My voice was rough. "Nothing personal."

"My case is dismissed."

She leaned down until her hair fell around my face.

"Nothing personal, Mr. McGowan, is over."

I stood up so quickly the chair went back.

She kissed me first.

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