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“We were all having a good time, then you got quiet. Like you were a million miles away.”
She didn’t say anything at first. “You never told me that Thornton went up in front of OPR. Which I guess is the FBI’s version of Internal Affairs?”
“Similar. I thought you knew.”
“How would I know? I wasn’t asked to tell the panel what an asshole he is.”
“It’s a bureaucratic process, but it usually works.”
“He’s still a fed.”
“He was suspended without pay for two weeks.”
“That’s what you told Tim.”
“So I did do something that upset you.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t really have anything to do with me.”
“Yes, it does. He violated regulations, including opening an investigation into your actions when there was no federal interest to do so. He misled the AUSA regarding your investigation of Chen. In addition to his suspension, he was placed on a one-year probation. It was serious and he was reprimanded. Getting him fired would have been a lot harder, and there wasn’t enough evidence against him.” He paused, added, “I didn’t have any support from the local office, though they agreed that his personal animosity toward you was problematic.”
She shrugged and didn’t look at him. What was she really thinking? Hadn’t they been through enough that she was comfortable sharing her thoughts and feelings?
“Kara, what is really bothering you?” Matt asked quietly.
Finally, she said, “I was thinking about Colton.”
“Your partner.”
“I know Thornton outed both of us. I’m alive, Colton is dead.”
“I looked hard at that, but there was no evidence that he leaked information to the media. I swear to God, Kara, if I found even a hint that he’d talked to the press, I would have had his head.”
“I believe you. And I get it—no one could prove it, so he gets away with it.”
“It could have been someone else.”
“There’s no one who hates me that much.”
“Chen’s people.”
“Maybe,” she said, but she obviously didn’t believe it.
“You miss him?”
She shrugged. “Don’t be jealous. My relationship with Colton was not traditional.”
He wasn’t jealous; he’d known that she’d been involved, on and off, with her partner. She called it “friends with benefits”—which was what she was trying to make their relationship, but Matt was more traditional than Kara. And he knew there was something more between them than she was willing to recognize—for now.
“I’m not jealous. But answer me honestly. If he hadn’t been killed, would you be with me?”
“And I hadn’t been forced to leave LA? I don’t know.”
At least she was being honest. She was always honest.
Then she continued and said something that surprised him. “Before everything blew up in LA, I was thinking you and I would probably get together down the road. Like I told you when I left Washington, if we both had vacations at the same time, it might be fun to go away and have hot monkey sex for a few days on the beach.”
He grinned. “We’re not on the beach, but the sex has been amazing.”
