Page 30 of Trust No One

“See anything?” Dev asked after several minutes, glancing over at her from the driver’s seat.

“Not a thing,” she replied. “He’d be a fool if he used that same silver sedan today. And he’s not a fool, or he wouldn’t have gotten away with his nasty business for this long.”

“I’ll do a few maneuvers. See if anyone behind us acts suspiciously.”

Dev changed lanes abruptly, but no one followed him. When he turned down a side street, they were able to make two more turns with no one behind them. Finally, Dev turned onto the busy street again when he was satisfied they were alone.

When they reached the massive Martin Luther King Public Library building, Dev found a parking spot in the small lot. They stood at one of the side doors that wasn’t visible from the busiest street and waited for the library to open.

Mel’s head never stopped moving as she leaned against one of the huge plates of glass that made up the building. No one gave her a second look, so apparently it was normal for people to wait outside for the library to open.

“I expected Kingsley to be watching the library,” she said.

Dev shifted from scanning the surrounding area to look at her. “How come? Why would he think we’d go to the library?”

“He knows that if we have our own computers, we’d have to use them where it wouldn’t be easy to find us. Someplace huge, like this library.” She frowned. “Unless you have to live in the district to be able to use the library’s WiFi.”

“This is a tourist city,” Dev said. “I’ll bet anyone can use the WiFi here for a small fee. I’m betting we can get access to their WiFi network with some cash and an ID.”

Mel sighed, but she didn’t stop searching for signs of Kingsley. “I hope you’re right.” She shot him a quick glance. “And you usually are about this kind of stuff.”

“Wow,” Dev said. “Praise from you? Let me write that down.”

Mel frowned at him. “What the hell are you talking about? I praise you all the time. You do lots of things very well. Including this…” She waved her hand between them. “This kind of thing. Ops stuff. This is your specialty, not mine.”

He shrugged. “I thought you believed you were the brains and I was the brawn, at least where Blackhawk Security was concerned.”

She reared back as if he’d struck her. “I never thought any such thing, Dev. We had different roles, but your expertise was just as valuable as mine. In a lot of cases, more important than mine. You know that.”

He shrugged, his head still moving side to side, scanning for threats. “Not the way I interpreted it. And if that were true, it wouldn’t have been so easy for you to fire my ass.”

The door clicked open behind them, and Mel grabbed the handle, jerking the door open. She stepped inside, yanked him in behind her, then pushed the door shut with her hip.

Then she turned to face him. Grabbed his shirt to keep him in place. “You were as important as I was to Blackhawk Security. Maybe more important. You were the one who trained all our recruits. Taught them what they needed to know about surveillance. About guarding someone. About hand-to-hand combat.”

She took a deep breath but didn’t let go of Dev’s shirt. “Me? I took the phone calls and matched our people to our customers.”

“If it’s so hard to replace me, then why did you fire me?” he said, crowding into her.

She let him go and stepped back, putting space between them. “You know why, Dev,” she said, her voice low. “My reasons were personal. They had nothing to do with the way you did your job.” Mel sucked in a deep breath as her chest tightened. “Finding someone to replace you is going to be hell. I don’t even know where to start.”

She shoved him hard enough that he bounced against the door. “And don’t pretend you don’t know that. I made it very clear why I was buying you out. The way you did your job was spectacular, and I’m going to miss you when you’re gone.”

“I’m going to miss you, too, Mel,” he said quietly. “I wish it could be different.”

“I do, too. But it can’t be. You are who you are, and I won’t ask you to change.”

He held her gaze for a moment, and she saw regret. Pain. Need.

“What if I volunteered to change?” He held her gaze, and her heart slammed against her chest.

She managed to shake her head. “First of all, I wouldn’t expectanyoneto change who they are for me. Especially you. It wouldn’t be fair or right, and you’d just end up resenting me.”

“And you don’t think I could, anyway, do you?”

She studied him for a long moment. “I think you could do anything you set your mind to doing, Dev,” she finally said. “But who you are is why I fell in love with you.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, determined to keep this civil. And cool. She wasn’t about to let him see her cry. “How could I expect you to change such an elemental part of your personality?”

“I don’t want to lose you, either, Mel.” He shoved his left hand into his jeans pocket, then removed it a few seconds later.

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