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Jase took a step away from the hallway toward Mateo and glowered. “Just how have you been with her? Have you taken your eye off the ball?”

“No, I have not. I know what my job is, and I’ve done it. Everything about her screams innocent.”

“Find out about the gold. Find out why she made that transfer. Then we all will be with you,” Kostya said. “Okay, who’s up next?”

Mateo listened to what Linc said he’d found about Frank Sykes’ son Ivan. He tuned out what Brax said about Amanda Melton, and he was just fucking happy when the meeting was over.

He was almost at his truck when Brax grabbed his arm.

“Wait up.”

“I’m busy.”

“Let’s grab a beer,” Brax tried to insist.

“I told you, I’m busy.”

“I believed you. Now let’s go to your place and have a beer. I’ll follow you. It should be easy since you're driving this heap.”

“Brax,” Mateo started again.

“I really don’t want to hear your shit,” Braxton growled. “Get in your fucking truck, drive to your place, let me in, and offer me a goddamn beer.”

Mateo saw something in his friend’s eyes that caused him to nod. “Fine.”

“Geez, you sure are a stubborn asshole.”

“As the saying goes, takes one to know one.”

Brax shook his head and headed for his vehicle. Mateo headed back to his place.

It was the middle of the day, so they were out on Mateo’s patio. The sun was shining, the trees were in bloom. It should have been perfect, and it would have been if his lieutenant and his second-in-command would have just believed him about Lainey.

“Want another one?” Brax asked as he pointed to Mateo’s beer.

“Nah, I might be driving up to Annapolis tonight.”

“I thought you weren’t going to see her again until this weekend.”

“Yeah, that was the plan. But thought maybe I’d ask her to lunch, too. It depends on how much of Janice’s work she has to do.”

“So, you know about her co-workers, huh?”

“That’s the job, isn’t it? I need to know what’s going on at the bank, so I should know about her co-workers. Janice is a bitch and is constantly foisting things onto Lainey. But she doesn’t sound smart enough to be working for the Kraken.”

Braxton started picking the label off of his beer.

“What?” Mateo said.

“What, what?” Braxton asked.

“You’ve got something to say, so say it.”

“You’ve slept with her, haven’t you?”

Mateo said nothing. He watched as a hummingbird buzzed by on its way to a sprig of cherry blossoms.

“Well?”