Page 166 of A Matter of Time

I smiled wide. “Yeah.”

He stared at me a minute before he got up and walked away. When Dylan and Chris returned to the table, I was the only one there.

“Jory, where’s⁠—”

“Gone.” I cut my friend off, smiling at her.

“But—”

“Guys—” I smiled at both of them. “—you’re banned from ever trying to set me up again.”

Chris pointed at his wife. “It was her idea.”

I laughed at how quickly he’d ratted her out.

“Jory.” She laughed as well, reaching for my hand across the table.

“Excuse me.”

My head snapped up, and I found myself looking at Sam Kage.

“I need to speak to you right now.”

“Okay.” I tried to breathe, sliding out of the booth, his presence and not the alcohol making me unsteady.

“C’mere,” he almost growled at me.

“Jory,” Dylan said quickly before I could step away from the table. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, um, this is Detective Kage. Detective, these are my friends, Dylan and Chris Greer.”

He nodded, his brows furrowing, the muscles in his jaw flexing hard. “Hello,” he said quickly, his eyes flicking to mine.

“I’ll be right back,” I assured them before I walked directly out the front door to the street. I turned to face him, and he was closer than I thought he would be. I took another step back to put more space between us.

He stared at me a long minute before he asked me how I was.

“I’m fine. You?”

He nodded. “I’m good.”

I shoved my hands deep into my pockets. “What are you doing here?”

His own hands were buried in the pockets of his wool trench coat. “We have a problem.”

“‘We’ meaning?”

“We meaning the department.”

“Okay.”

“You know that night you saw Brian Minor kill that guy?”

“Of course.” I shivered, partly from cold, partly from the memory.

“Well, do you remember the faces of any of the other guys?”

“Sure.”