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“Oh, I’ll make sure you rest, darlin’.”
She rolled her eyes.
“What?”
“If you’re playin’ me…”
“Now isn’t the time, but I promise you, I’m going to get to the bottom of what I’ve done to make you think I would.” I cupped her cheek. “Because I wouldn’t, Stella.” I knew she didn’t believe me, but I was determined that, eventually, she would.
13
Stella
It wasn’t anything Buck did or didn’t do. It was Cope, and even then, it wasn’t his fault. Sumner Copeland was a flirt. I’d seen it countless times, and certainly not just with me. That I’d been stupid enough to believe it meant he was attracted to me, wanted some kind of relationship with me, was what kept me from thinking anything serious would ever come of Buck and me. Off-the-chart sex was probably in our future, at least once, until he realized the implications of sleeping with someone so much older.
Buck was likely more accustomed to having sex with younger, more nubile women, whose asses were still high and tight, whose boobs hadn’t yet sagged, and whose stomachs were flat and hard. I doubted he had any idea what happened to a woman’s body when she aged. Well, he probably did, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see one naked. Maybe if we left the lights off the first time, there’d be a second.
But like I’d just told him, I had every intention of going after Kerr and Hennessey. More, I planned to annihilate them the same way they had Barb’s career. If they had anything at all to do with her death, I’d see to it they rotted in prison. To do that, I needed to focus solely on the investigation and nothing else.
There was one more thing I had to do, and that was get Irish to stop treating me like the enemy. I had no doubt he already knew things that would aid my investigation. Given his mandate from Decker had been to find out everything he could about Kerr’s tenure at Interpol, I needed him to willingly share whatever he learned with me.
“Ready to go back in?” Buck asked.
“Before we do, I need to ask you about Irish. What’s his deal with me?”
“I can’t say for certain, but I don’t think it’s you specifically, Stella. You have to remember that for the last few years, there wasn’t anyone the man could trust outside of Cope and Decker, and then, it wasn’t just trusting them; he had to trust them with his life. Plenty of people hated Warrick enough to kill him because they believed he was a traitor to his country. On top of that, there were many others who wanted to kill him because he was getting too close to exposing them.”
Admittedly, I was one of the people who had hated him. Early on, at the beginning of his trial, which I later learned had been staged as part of the overall mission, every time I looked at him, all I saw was a murderer. I had never gotten close enough to him to tell him about my feelings, but if he’d ever seen me look at him, he would’ve known exactly how I felt.
“I need to talk to him alone.”
Buck nodded. “I’ll wait out here.”
“Hey, Deck, can I have a minute with Irish?” I asked when I went back inside.
“I was just getting ready to head out anyway.” He put his laptop in his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“Are you leaving the ranch?”
“As soon as I make sure Rock has the install of the security system under control, I’m headed to Texas.”
I knew Decker’s wife was pregnant, but not exactly when the baby was due. “Give Mila my best.”
Deck walked over and kissed my cheek. “She’ll appreciate that, Stella. I’ll be in touch, but in the meantime, you let these fellas keep you safe.”
“I will.”
When I sat down at the table, Irish looked like there was nowhere he’d rather be less. “Look, Paxon, I owe you an apology, and it’s long past due.”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“I know you’re a good man, and you deserve a lot better than has been doled out to you, including by me. But now, I’m part of the investigation. The same people you’re after either killed my aunt or arranged for someone else to do it. I’m going to take them down, Irish, if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Copy that,” he muttered.
“Can we figure out a way to work together on this?”
