“Coffee?” Alistair asked.
“Yes, please,” Joe said.
Once the waitress had taken their order, Alistair turned to them. “I think you’d better keep the camera for the time being.”
“Why?” Kaden asked.
“In case someone wonders why you walked out of here without it.”
Kaden shot Joe a look. Yes, Joe got it. They might have been followed. He’d not thought to check.
“There’s no rush to return it. I know you’re still worried about what you did but you don’t need to be.”
“And you’re not worried about being seen with us?” Kaden asked.
“I chose this seat carefully. I’m not in view from the window. You weren’t followed here. Well, actually you were but not byanyone I don’t know. Having said that, I can’t be sure someone else doesn’t have you under surveillance.”
“You had us followed?” Kaden whispered.
“We wanted to be certain Blake wasn’t suspicious of you, or that anyone who might be watching him became more interested in you than they should be.”
Kaden tugged at his jaw. “Do I actually need to write the article?”
“Yes, and send it to your editor. Tick all boxes.”
“Okay.”
Alistair pushed to his feet. “Thank you. Enjoy your coffee. It’s paid for.”
Elsie whined as he tugged her away, then they were out of the door and gone.
“He had us followed?” Kaden whispered. “Why did we even have to come and meet him if he didn’t want to take the camera?”
“Maybe it was to see if anyone else was following us.”
Kaden’s shoulders fell. “I wish…”
Joe could guess what he was thinking. “Why didn’t you say no to him? You never wanted to do it.”
Kaden’s mouth tightened. “It had to be done.”
There was something in Kaden’s tone… “What did he promise you?”
“Nothing.”
“Look at me and tell me that.”
Kaden gave a heavy sigh. “That you’d definitely be able to stay if I said yes, and if I’d said no, that you’d have had to leave.”
Fury surged and Joe beat it down. He felt guilty because of the risk Kaden had taken. He wanted to tell Kaden he was an idiot, but all he said was, “Thank you.” The rest could remain unsaid.
“We need to go and do something fun to make that the focus of today,” Kaden said.
“We don’t need to gooutto do something fun.”
Kaden chuckled. “Well, no, but… How about the cinema? Bowling? Or a museum?”
“And then can we have fun at the flat?”
