“No,” Melinda insisted. “We’ve got to do more legwork first or we could blow the whole case and make whoever is doing this suspicious of Davis.”
Kane clamped his mouth shut over the argument he wanted to make. He was dying to get back in the field, put on a new persona like a new pair of clothes. Get away from Melinda’s scrutiny. But he knew she was right.
He’d have to wait to jump into the action and the danger he craved, the chance to go out in a hail of bullets like his old partner—Pembrook’s only daughter—had done. The chance to die doing something worthwhile. The way he should have done years ago, beside her.
DAVIS HAD BEEN undercover at Leila’s company for a day and a half. To Leila, it felt like he’d been there for a week.
She was overanxious, having to watch every word around him, resist sending him suspicious glances that her employees might notice. Most of them would likely just attribute it to her overprotectiveness of the company and everyone and everything inside it. But Uncle Neal or Eric would have probably known something was off. She was amazed they hadn’t realized it already.
Then again, she never lied to either of them.
She and Eric had once shared a bond she thought would never break. He’d been the friend who’d pulled her out of a deep depression three years after she lost her mom. The first boyfriend she’d ever had a year after that. Once their relationship had ended, they’d eventually returned to friendship. It would never be the same as when they were kids, but Leila couldn’t forget what he’d done for her or how much he’d meant to her family.
She and her uncle were close. They didn’t do much together outside of the office, but mostly that was because they were both so busy with work—and in her uncle’s case, with the women he seemed to attract with a single smile. It was a skill she’d never mastered with the opposite sex and, after the way Eric had broken things off with her, had never really wanted to.
The thought made her glance sideways at Davis as he walked alongside her out to her car. Eric was on her other side, making too-fast small talk about his latest sale that told her one thing he had noticed: her attraction to Davis.
Eric knew her too well. He’d probably spotted that she glanced at Davis a little too much. Eric wouldn’t know only part of that was attraction and the rest was worry because of why Davis was here. All he’d see was that Davis intrigued her.
Eric was jealous. Frustration nipped at her, and with it, a little bit of anger. He’d given up his right to be jealous a long time ago, when he’d broken her heart.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Leila sighed as they reached her car in the lot. The front right tire was completely flat. “Damn construction. That was my spare tire.”
Davis leaned closer to the wheel, frowning. “I don’t suppose you have another? If you do, I can change this for you, no problem.”
“Yeah,” Leila said. “So could I, but I don’t have a second spare. I probably ran over another nail.”
She ignored the little voice in the back of her head suggesting one of her employees had done it. She knew quite a few of them weren’t happy she’d assumed the role of CEO when her father retired. But they had to be expecting it. Since the day she’d started at the company five years ago, she’d put in more hours than anyone besides her dad. This had started out as a family business, and the board of directors had seen the benefits of keeping it that way. No one could begrudge her that. Especially not with something this juvenile.
“I’ll drive you home,” Eric said, putting a hand on her arm.
“Not a problem. I can do it.” The curiosity on Davis’s face told her he hadn’t missed Eric’s jealousy either.
Before Leila could tell them she’d just call for a car, Davis added, “I am her assistant, after all. Might be a good time for us to talk about how I can help Petrov Armor.”
“It’s your job to support Leila on the job,” Eric said. “Not—”
“That’s a good idea,” Leila cut him off. “Thank you.” She told Eric a quick good-night, then pivoted to follow Davis to his vehicle.
She swore she could feel Eric’s unhappy gaze on her as she climbed into Davis’s black SUV, but she didn’t look back. Instead, she sank into the surprisingly comfortable bucket seat of what she assumed was his FBI vehicle and closed her eyes. The past two days had been stressful, the past three weeks some of the worst of her life.
No matter how hard she threw herself into work, how much she tried not to think about her dad, he was all around her. Not only had he built the business up from nothing, but he’d also been involved in every decision when they’d moved into their building. He’d picked the furniture and artwork in the lobby, designated the office right next to his for her. When he’d retired, they’d changed the label on his door from CEO to Founder, but he’d kept the office since he was there so often, consulting. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to go inside since his death.
Thinking about that terrible moment when she’d gotten the call, the back of Leila’s throat stung and she knew tears weren’t far behind. Swallowing the pain, she opened her eyes and blinked back the moisture. Realizing Davis had already left the parking lot and was navigating the streets of Old City, she forced her attention back to the one thing she could still control: her father’s legacy. “So, what have you found?”
Her heart pounded faster as she waited for his answer, both hoping for and dreading the news. True, she didn’t
