"Fine." He angled his chair away from the teenagers. "The second time was when she didn't want me to use a condom. I insisted on it. I always insist on it."
Ava smoothed a few strands of hair out of her eyes. "She claims you didn't use any birth control."
"That's a lie!"
"Then how did they find your se**n?"
Briefly closing his eyes, he ran his fingers over his eyebrows. "The condom must've broken or leaked. Or she retrieved it after I threw it in the trash."
He knew from the lines forming on her forehead that the mental images he'd created were as vivid in her mind as they were in his and somehow that bugged him. He didn't want to be sitting here talking so explicitly with a stranger, especially a woman, especially this woman. She'd probably never made a stupid mistake in her life.
"That's going to pretty great lengths on her part, don't you think?" she asked.
"I know it sounds...unlikely, but I'm not playing you. She was egging me on, trying to spice it up far more than I found appealing. She...she stopped me from going into the bathroom when it was all over--she wanted to do something...different. Otherwise, I would've flushed the condom, instead of just tossing it in the bedroom garbage."
"What different thing did she want to do?"
"There's no way in hell I'm going to describe that for you or anyone else. It was gross. She's...depraved."
At the decisiveness in his response, she backed down. "Fine. I get it.
And now she's lying."
"Yes." The teenagers chose a table nearby, so he lowered his voice even more. "But we should be able to prove that I used a condom. And if we can prove she's lying about that, maybe someone wil believe me about the rest of it."
"How do you plan to prove you used a condom?"
"The wrapper had to go somewhere."
"They went through her trash the morning after."
He knew from her manner what was coming next.
"But there was no wrapper," she said.
He dropped his head in his hands. She'd taken the condom and used it, just as he'd thought, and then flushed it.
"You going to be okay?" she asked.
"It doesn't feel like it," he said but raised his head, anyway. "The wrapper was there when I left. So was the condom. She must've gotten rid of both after putting my se**n inside her."
Ava drew circles in the condensation from her glass. "Why? Why would she go to so much trouble to set you up?"
"I don't know. Al I can tell you is that she was angry when I left."
"Over what?"
"She wanted me to stay and I wouldn't."
"That's it?"
"For the most part." He shrugged. "Out of nowhere, she started professing her undying love. It made me really uncomfortable to hear her talk like that. I hadn't made any promises, but she got so clingy. She was acting as if she expected us to spend the rest of our lives together. I tried to extricate myself, to explain that she might've misunderstood, but she refused to hear it. She begged me to stay, kept telling me she'd make me happy if I wouldn't leave her."
He tried to read Ava's reaction, but her face was more shuttered than ever. "It was...awkward, upsetting, odd," he said. "So I insisted on leaving before it could get any worse. But when I began to dress, she went berserk.
She kept saying I'd tricked her into believing I actually cared but that I'd used her the way I use all women."
"So she's in love with you, and you don't feel the same way."
"This isn't about love," he said. "It's about...infatuation, or obsession, or revenge, but it's not about love."
"So what did you tell her when you left?" Ava asked.
"I said I was sorry for the confusion and she could call me later if she wanted to talk about it. Otherwise, I'd see her at work. The next thing I knew, the cops were at my door."
Ava tapped the side of her cup with one slim finger. "What about the pictures she showed me? The ones where she's sporting a black eye and a fat lip?"
The police had shown Luke those photographs, too, hoping to elicit a telling reaction. "I can't explain those. She wasn't injured when I left."
Ava remained silent.
"So what do you think?" he asked.
She smoothed those wayward strands of hair again. "I'm not sure."
"Come on. You believe me now, don't you? You don't want me to be telling the truth, but you think I am."
"I don't know what to believe."
"You know something isn't right with Kalyna. I can tell. That's got to be part of the reason you called me in the first place. I'm guessing you don't meet with every man who's been accused by one of your clients."
"Not every man who's been accused by one of my clients has your track record." She stood and slung her purse over her shoulder. "Thank you for your time, Captain."
"Wait!" He wanted to catch her by the wrist but didn't dare touch her.
Fortunately, she turned. "Wil you be out there, trying to help Kalyna convict me?" He definitely didn't want this woman working against him. She was tenacious, methodical, smart and seemed to be investing a lot more hours in this case than his own attorney was.
"No."
"Because..."
She tossed her nearly full cup in the trash. "I'm going with my gut on this one."
"And your gut tells you I'm innocent."
She located her keys in her purse. "My gut could be wrong."
"Does that mean you won't help me?" he asked.
"You think I'm going to switch sides?" she said with a laugh.
"I'm the one you should be helping."
"You don't need me. Maybe the investigator--Major Ogitani, isn't that her name?--is gung ho right now. From what I've seen, she's hoping to make an example of you. But I doubt the charges wil stick. Anyone who really looks wil find exactly what I found--a woman who's less than credible pointing a finger at a man she desperately wants but can't have. I doubt they can build a strong enough case to go to trial."
He was feeling a lot better. This was the first good news he'd received since before E. Golnick wrinkled her nose at him as if he was slimier than pond scum. "What makes you say Kalyna's not credible?"
"Your defense team should be able to answer that for you."
"They're weeks behind you," he complained.
"But they're good."
"McCreedy told me not to meet with you." Luke flashed her an appreciative grin. "I'm glad I didn't listen."