AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And then he was dead.
And now he wasn’t.
She felt Matt’s heart slow under her hand. Heard his even breathing and knew he was asleep, his arm still holding her close.
Matt was different from everyone who came before. He was honest and honorable. At first, it was just mutual attraction. Lust. But her lust hadn’t been satiated after a night in bed. For months, she tried to convince herself that they weren’t anything special, that one or both of them would realize it wasn’t going to work, even though they both played hard and worked hard.
She was a street cop, rough around the edges, a lot of baggage she sometimes dealt with by drinking too much, a chip on her shoulder that was sometimes pretty darn big. She was hardly girlfriend material. And Matt could be so rigid about some things. Too damn traditional. He had a temper that he worked hard to control. He was a federal agent, not someone she was inclined to trust or even like.
Look where her trust had gotten her in the past. Parents. Elena. Lex. Colton. All lied to her. Betrayed her. Tried to convince her their deceit was necessary for her own good. For the greater good.
Deep down, she knew that Matt would never hurt her like that. She didn’t hurt easily, to be honest, because she never expected people to live up to her expectations. They never did.
But so far, Matt had.
You’ve known Lex and Elena for twelve years. You’ve known Colton for more than a decade. Give Matt time; he’ll disappoint you.
The thing was...he had done some things that hurt, but he hadn’t done them on purpose. And when he realized how she felt, his apology was sincere. He never made her feel like she was to blame for his mistakes. She certainly wasn’t perfect—she’d had to do her own amount of groveling when she screwed something up.
Kara liked things the way they were. She didn’t want to mess this up.
She probably would. She didn’t understand how relationships were supposed to work.
But for now...now she could lie against this man and accept that he was one of the good guys. That he truly cared about her, he cared about justice, and he would do what it took to honor his commitments. She didn’t know what he saw in her, other than they were good in bed. But with him, she liked herself more.
She feared, deep down, that it wouldn’t last because nothing lasted with her. That she would do something Matt couldn’t forgive or forget—or that he would realize he wanted more than she could give him. That he wanted a forever commitment, kids, a house and picket fence and minivan.
A wife.
The thought terrified her. But she pushed that aside as he shifted in his sleep, his arm tightening around her before relaxing.
She drifted off.
Thursday, October 10
37
Matt walked into FBI headquarters at seven o’clock Thursday morning, greeted by both Brian Granderson and Sloane Wagner.
Brian had pulled the plug on their undercover investigation even though Sloane had only found part of what they had been looking for. But in light of Thornton’s murder and Chavez’s suspicious behavior, he wanted to now be straightforward with his internal review. After Sloane uncovered evidence that Rebecca Chavez’s computer had accessed the LAPD portal the night before the raid on Chen’s factory, Granderson’s approach was best.
While they didn’t have solid proof that Chavez had been the one to leak info about the raid, they had enough to question her. Coupled with the information about her son, Jonathan Avila, and his grant program being under investigation by the DA’s office, they would push hard and hope something shook loose. In the meantime, she would likely be suspended while they looked into her actions.
Brian led Matt and Sloane to a secure room where a video conference was set up. To keep leaks and gossip to a minimum, only Vik Mehta from IT was in the room to handle the equipment. Vik looked a little nervous, but Sloane gave him a warm smile and thanked him for coming in so early.
Brian said, “We appreciate your diligence and confidence in this matter.”
“Yeah, of course, anything you need, Mr. Granderson, sir.” He cleared his throat. “I have Assistant Director Greer, Special Agent Heller, and FBI Analyst Ryder Kim on a video call.”
“Bring them on, thank you.”
Once they had realized there was a possible white-collar crime and public corruption case at the root of Craig Dyson’s murder, Matt had brought in Zack Heller. Zack was a genius when it came to tracing money and uncovering financial crimes. While Matt found him annoying and difficult to work with, there was no doubt of his brilliance.
A moment later, the large wall screen was split between the three men on their respective computers.
“I’ve read your report, Matt, and I talked to Brian this morning,” Tony said without preamble. “What approach have you decided with ASAC Rebecca Chavez?”
“She’ll be brought directly to my office when she arrives this morning,” Brian said, “and Matt and I will interview her. Unless she makes a startling confession, I intend to suspend her with pay and refer the matter to OPR.”
