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“He was.” She ran her hand through her hair. “Or maybe he wasn’t. I fell asleep after he left the condo. He might have wanted to ask me to discuss it with you after he came back.”
“Lynch seldom hesitates to give me either good or bad news. Why are you defending him?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m really irritated with him at the moment. It was just a really bad night for both of us and I felt as if I shouldn’t let him take the entire blame.”
“Bad night?” Olivia grimaced. “That will be a disappointment to Tricia. Though I suspected when Harley and I interrupted Lynch’s meeting in the hall that I was going to have to give her bad news of some sort.” She gestured to the couch. “Sit down and tell me why you’re making excuses for Lynch, and if I should prepare to go after him with guns blazing.”
***
“Holy shit,” Olivia said as Kendra finished. “I can see why you didn’t want to tell Tricia any of this before she finished with her training. Not exactly the thing she’d want to have to think about all day.”
“Or any part of her day,” Kendra said. “That was why Griffin’s sending extra agents here to help out Sam. I wanted to reassure her that Lynch said that the Acme building security will be covered and the other buildings are being checked out to make certain they’d be sniper-proof. Lynch is doing everything he can to keep her safe.” She added wryly, “As well as any other potential victims in Milo’s sights. Lynch is going overboard as usual. But in the case of you or my mother, I wouldn’t think of reining him in.”
“Neither would I. I have no objection to him taking a little trouble to keep me alive,” Olivia said. “You probably mean yourself by him going overboard. You feel that because you’ve taken all those lessons in self-defense, you should be able to take care of yourself.” She smiled. “I’ve taken a few myself, but I don’t mind being taken care of by a big, strong detective. We all have our strengths.”
“Yes, we do. I believe that’s what you told Tricia when you first met her. You’ve gotten to know her much better since then. She’s been your shadow except when she’s at school.”
“She likes to work, so do I.” She added, “And she loves my dog.” She was suddenly no longer smiling. “Which makes me furious when I think how that bastard threatened to kill Harley as well as Tricia. Kill a helpless animal because she was good to him? We’ve got to find a way to castrate that son of a bitch.”
“I’ll bet Tricia would be glad to research ways and means to do that.” Kendra bent down to stroke Harley’s head. “She’d have a lot of company, boy.”
He looked up at her with his blue and brown eyes as if he understood. Maybe he did, Kendra thought.
“What do you intend to do today?” Olivia asked. “I’d think you’d want to have a little talk with Griffin about what Milo said about having a cohort at FBI headquarters. I didn’t like that at all.”
“Neither did I,” Kendra said. “But Lynch has mega influence with Griffin, and that means he has a free pass into every department. He’d be able to go forth and conquer.”
She nodded. “I can see Lynch in that role. But I can’t see you letting him do it. I thought that you said you were annoyed at him at the moment.” She frowned. “Which reminds me, didn’t you tell me you’d had a bad night with Lynch? I was going to ask you about that.”
“You’ve just heard it.” She narrowed her eyes. “What did you think I meant?” She remembered something else. “You even said Tricia would be disappointed. What was that about?”
“Probably better to skip it,” Olivia said. “We were on two different tracks. Your story was much more important and to the point.” She changed the subject. “Why don’t I fix us breakfast? Then we’ll talk about how we’re going to break it to Tricia about what happened to you last night.”
“Olivia.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d fall for that. I thought I’d try. Okay. Reverse. While I fix breakfast, I’ll tell you why Tricia decided to spend the night with me.”
“She was upset and depressed.”
“Would you like an omelet or pancakes?”
“Omelet.” She followed her and sat down at the bar. “She wasn’t upset?”
“She was, but that’s her life these days. It doesn’t stop her from thinking about other people. She likes you very much, Kendra. She wants the best for you. She realizes she owes you a good deal and she’s determined to pay you.”
“Where is all this going?”
“She’s very bright and she’s figured out that Lynch is your lover. She approves.”
“What?”
“But she also thought she might be in your way, so she’s trying to be diplomatic.”
“She told you all this?”
“The subject came up. Naturally I didn’t encourage her.”
“But you didn’t discourage her.”
