Page 12 of My Temptation

I tilted my head to the side. “Not even Striker?”

He exhaled heavily. “Maybe Striker. But he judges everyone.”

Laughing, I nodded and pointed my fork at him. “I appreciate your honesty.” When he grinned and lifted a bite of food to his mouth, I continued. “I’m so happy to be working with you again. I know our last assignment together was awful, but I’ve honestly never had a better partner.”

“I agree.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “The only other agent I worked as well with was Cam.”

“Cam Dimarco. That’s right, I forgot Jax and Brody’s brother was in the FBI.” When Nick nodded, I continued. “To be honest, there are a lot of them, so it’s easy to get confused.”

Nick laughed. “Yeah, I get that. It’s a big family with seven boys and one girl.”

“Were you surprised when Cam joined the police force?”

“Nah. He always said after he was done with the case, he wanted to join the force and work with his brother Luke.”

“The Daniel Sullivan case?”

“Yeah.” Nick shook his head. “I can’t believe we’re still dealing with shit from that case.”

Something had bothered me since Beth was assigned to me. “Do you think we’re being too cautious?”

He seemed to consider that before replying. “No, I honestly have a bad feeling that Beth is still a target for Sullivan’s associates.”

“But why?” I shrugged. “What could they hope to get from her now that he’s dead?”

“That’s what we need to figure out.”

We both dropped it, probably lost in our own thoughts about the case. Unfortunately, we’d both seen the underbelly of this town and knew some people wanted nothing more than revenge.

We finished our dinner with more small talk, and Nick walked me to my car. It was a good night. I needed that. Needed time with a friend, someone who knew me from my time with the FBI. Someone who understood the decisions I’d made since coming to Elite, including lying about my sexuality. It was a protective reflex when Striker confronted me, but one I don’t regret. Things had calmed down between us with my admission, and I needed that while I proved I belonged on this team.

I was driving home when my phone rang. Glancing at the screen in my car, I saw Striker’s name and shook my head. I’d bet my paycheck he needed me to come home so he could slink away and keep pretending he didn’t have feelings for Beth.

Grinning, I accepted the call. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“I’m taking her to the hospital.”

A chill ran over my skin from the panic in his tone. “What the hell happened?”

“I think she was poisoned. I need you to go to the apartment and grab the Hawaiian pizza. I didn’t lock the door either, so be careful. And call Brody, tell him what the fuck is going on so he can meet me there.”

“Done,” I replied. “What else do you need?

“Get me that fucking pizza and the delivery kid from Raminos.” He lowered his voice to a growl. “And don’t give him to Brody, Mila. That little fucker is mine.”

When he disconnected, I immediately dialed Brody and relayed Striker's information. He told me what he needed me to do before disconnecting. I swore when I needed to stop at a red light but used that time to call Ramino’s. As soon as I found out the delivery kid was still out, I called Nick, and he agreed to meet me at Ramino’s.

I was at our apartment building in less than five minutes, and after I parked, I sprinted into the building. Residents were in the lobby, and one stopped me to ask what was happening, considering they watched Striker carry Beth out. I explained she’d gotten sick from something she ate, so he took her to the hospital, which seemed to calm them down. The residents in this building usually kept to themselves, so I can only imagine the look on Striker’s face when he ran through the lobby if they were even asking me what was going on.

Careful to take in my surroundings, I made my way to Beth’s apartment, went inside, and did a quick search, but when everything was in place, I grabbed the pizza box still holding almost an entire Hawaiian pizza, locked the door behind me, and began searching the building.

When nothing seemed out of the ordinary around the outside of the building, I took the pizza box to my car, laid it on the front seat, and pulled my phone from my pocket.

With a quick search, I found Cam’s number in the list of contacts Brody had me add to my phone when I first started.

“Mila.”

That was all he said. “Did you hear?”

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