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“Pete gave me a taste last night. I came back for more.”
“Looking for dinner?”
“Later. I want to savor the pint first.”
After Damon put it in front of her, she sipped with great pleasure. “Perfect. Where’s Pete?”
“Home. There was a family issue he had to deal with.”
“Oh? Everyone okay?”
“Yeah—just...” He glanced around, then lowered his voice. “I shouldn’t talk about it, Pete made it clear my opinion wasn’t wanted, but basically Pete found out that Ashley was dating a kid he doesn’t approve of. Pete’s kind of overprotective and superconservative when it comes to his daughters. I told him he needs to give them room, they’re great kids.”
“I thought so.”
“Pete found out that Ashley was sneaking out of the house to see this kid, and then the kid was interviewed by you guys this afternoon.”
“Bobby Martin.”
“Yeah. So right there that’s two strikes against him: sneaking around and trouble with cops.”
“I can’t talk about the case, but Bobby Martin isn’t a suspect.”
“But his brother is, right?”
“As I said, I can’t talk about the case.”
“It’s common sense. Craig and his girlfriend vandalized West End last year, and now two bombs?” Damon shook his head. “It’s awful. But Bobby is a good kid.”
“You knew about their relationship.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I figured it out before Pete but decided to keep it to myself. I don’t want to cause problems, I love Pete like a brother, you know? He worshipped my sister, and the girls and Pete are my only family left. I’m not going to cause trouble.”
“Smart.”
Damon nodded toward the server, the bubbly girl Rena who’d served them last night and now wanted him to fill an order, and said to Kara, “When you want food or another pint, wave me down.”
“When this is almost empty, pour me another and put in an order for the fish and chips.”
He winked and walked away.
She kind of wished Pete Dunlap was there, but then she’d flirt with him and she couldn’t exactly follow up on the flirting, so it wasn’t fair—to him or her.
She was frustrated because she didn’t know what was going on with Matt. After Tucson, they had an unspoken agreement that they were in a relationship. But defining that relationship wasn’t something that Kara wanted to do right now. Because part of their unspoken agreement was that when they were working, they were hands off. So last night, in the kitchen, when he clearly wanted to take her to bed, threw her for a loop. Sure, she played along to a point—and if she hadn’t been angry with him about siding with Catherine, she might have gone through with it. Because he sure as hell wasn’t acting like he was trying to keep their sexual relationship a secret.
To be honest, she didn’t care. Kara was no prude; she didn’t care who knew who she was sleeping with. But she also didn’t talk about it because it was no one else’s business. She’d told Matt when they first had sex that she didn’t kiss and tell. That was true. But she also didn’t lie about it.
Kara didn’t like emotional ups and downs. She needed clear rules of engagement with Agent Mathias Costa.
She liked him quite a bit. Honestly, more than she wanted to. Matt was smart. Sexy as anything. Great in bed. And focused. She really liked that he was as dedicated to his career as she was to hers, and that he appreciated her skill set.
Until last night.
It was really bugging her. It had been all night, all day, and she couldn’t shake it. If he trusted her, he needed to fully trust her. And if Matt was now listening to Catherine more than her, he clearly didn’t trust her judgment. She didn’t want every single one of her plans to have to run through a fucking bureaucracy to determine what her course of action was. How could anyone run an investigation like that?
Normally, she didn’t care. If a guy was good in bed and not a jerk out of bed, that’s all that mattered. But Kara had already let this relationship get beyond physical, and that was probably her biggest mistake. And she didn’t know how to put that genie back into the bottle.
Maybe it was impossible.
