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“How about I pick you up at eighteen—six-thirty,” he quickly corrected himself.

“Eighteen six-thirty? That’s kind of an odd time.” She teased him gently. There was no snark involved. She was kind. Didn’t she understand what the Kraken did?

“I changed my mind to six-thirty. I’d like more time to get to know you. I can come pick you up.”

“Can we meet at the restaurant? I don’t really know you.”

Mateo smiled and nodded. “Smart.” Luckily, Gideon and Jada—but he was pretty sure it was Jada—had taken this into account. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a fake business card. “This is me. This is where I work. If you call this number and ask for Jada Harlow, she’s my boss, she can give you a reference. Would that work?”

He watched as a smile blossomed across Lainey’s face. “That would be great.”

“So, if I pass muster, you can call me, and I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.” He smiled in return.

He watched as her lips parted and her eyes drooped just a little.

“I’d like to get to know you better, too, Matt. It’s not often I meet a knight in shining armor.”

Mateo tensed and squeezed the back of his neck. “Don’t let me fool you. If I had armor, which I don’t, it would be dirty and dented.”

“That just means you’ve been through the fires. Shiny armor is for those boys who just graduated from the Naval Academy, and they never caught my attention. But let’s meet at the restaurant. I really don’t know you.”

Mateo squeezed his neck harder. He needed to get his shit sorted. He didn’t need her complimenting him, and him beginning to like her. She was a target. Everything pointed to her working for the Kraken. The same people who tried to kill Amber, Lachlan, and baby Iris. He backed away from her car.

“Well, I’ll see you on Saturday,” he promised. “I’ll call you to firm things up on Friday. Don’t forget to get that tire replaced as soon as possible.”

He watched as she frowned. “Is everything okay?”

“I just remembered, I’m Ken’s ride. I need to get back to Home Port.”

She grinned big. “Oh. Well then, I probably owe Ken some cookies too.”

“Nah, he’s already had more sweets than he needs. Don’t forget, I’ll call you on Friday. And be careful on that tire.”

“I will.”

Things had been looking up by the time Friday afternoon rolled around. Janice had left early because of a non-existent dentist’s appointment. The cryptocurrency transfer had been vetted and had gone through without her having to call the Grand Cayman Islands Bank like last time. And, she’d gotten all the ingredients for alfajores. She’d looked up the Argentine layer cookie that had dulce de leche in the middle and were then coated with a layer of chocolate. The only problem was she couldn’t figure out if she should go dark or milk chocolate, but with the sweet caramel center, which was kind of what dulce de leche was, she went dark chocolate. Now all she had to do was a trial run tonight, and hopefully work out the kinks so that tomorrow’s batch would be perfect!

“Lainey?” She looked up and saw Penny knocking on her open office door.

“Hi Penny, what’s up?” Lainey sat back in her chair and motioned for Penny to sit down at Janice’s vacant desk.

Penny shook her head. “I’ve got a problem.” She sat down on the corner of Lainey’s desk.

“How can I help?”

“Your mother is on hold, and it’s the third time she’s called in twenty minutes. This time, she’s being out-and-out ugly. You know the rules: we don’t transfer personal calls through the main switchboard to employees. That’s why we all have direct lines. I told her to call you directly, but she said she lost your number and demanded to be put through. I told her I would take a message. She wanted to talk to my supervisor, but I knew if I got Rita involved, you might get in trouble.”

Lainey wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.

“I think you need to take the call and get a handle on things before they escalate. I know you’ve never talked about your family, and now I see why.” Penny reached down and touched Lainey’s forearm. “After you talk to her, you tell me if there’s anything I can do to help. I know you’ve told me she can be a bit of a pill, but if you need a shoulder to cry on, I’m here. You know that don’t you?”

Lainey nodded. She would have said something, but she didn’t know what to say.

“I’ll go down and put her through to your number, okay?”

“Absolutely. I’m so sorry about this.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. We all have some wack-a-doodles in our family tree. I’ll tell you about my twin cousins sometime.”