Page 31 of Taking Care of the Target

Cassie closed the book in her hands. “I don’t know how much help I could be, considering I don’t even remember the accident. Did you guys find out something new?”

Vince jerked his head toward her. She waved it off, trying to tell him everything was okay, even though something in Tom’s voice gave her pause.

“No, not really,” Tom said.

“What does ‘not really’ mean?”

Tom sighed. “I was hoping we could meet and chat. Completely casual, no need to worry. Just one friend to another. Are you free for lunch tomorrow?”

Cassie rolled her eyes to the ceiling, working to recall her work schedule. “I could do lunch. There’s this cute little deli by where I work if you’d like to meet there.”

They finalized the details, and when she hung up, she glanced at Vince. The deadly expression on his face made her swallow hard, and her heart forgot how to properly beat for a second.

“Who was that?” he asked, sitting down next to her.

“Officer Tom Duffy. He’s the cop who came to see me when I was in the hospital. We’re going to meet up for lunch tomorrow. Just one friend to another,” she added, using Tom’s words to try to soothe the angry muscle tightening Vince’s jaw. When that didn’t work, she smoothed her finger over it, a thrill going through her stomach at the brush of rough whiskers. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous.”

“Maybe you know me better than you think,” he said. His voice came out all hot and growly, too, which shouldn’t cause her pulse to rapidly accelerate, but it did anyway.

“It’s just lunch so he can check up on me. He’s a really nice guy, and he helped me get settled when I didn’t know how to pick up the pieces of my life, even though it wasn’t part of his job.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.” Vince grinned, but the gritted teeth made it a big-bad-wolf-type grin. “So now you’re going to meet up with the pig at the local deli and have a nice little chat? That’s just great.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Be nice.”

“What?” he asked, his voice all false innocence. “Sometimes cops are called pigs—maybe you don’t remember, but I assure you, it’s true. Lots of people call them that.”

“Oh, I’m aware, but I don’t think that’s whattheyprefer to be called, so again, benice.”

He grunted, and she decided to take that as it was currently under consideration. He looked at the textbooks littering the couch and coffee table and picked one up. “What’s all this?”

“I’m trying to learn everything in these books real fast so I don’t have to start over on my education. If I don’t hurry, I’m going to be the oldest person there besides the professors. Maybe I’ll just tell everyone I’m law or pre-med so it makes more sense.”

“Law? Like criminal law?”

Cassie straightened, putting on her best serious expression. She couldn’t tell if he was shocked or intrigued. “What? Don’t I look like a lawyer?”

“Hottest lawyer I’ve ever seen.”

Cassie shook her head but couldn’t help smiling. “And you’ve seen a lot?”

“I plead the fifth,” he said, nudging her with his elbow.

“Hey, I already know that one without even going to school. I’m halfway there.” Cassie picked up the economics book she’d skimmed through and tossed it aside—no thank you to that course.“I can’t see myself being a lawyer. I’d like to think I could be a hardcore prosecutor, but that’s not really me, and I could never defend criminals.”

She knew there were several types of lawyers, but no interest sparked when she thought about it. She pulled the heavy Accounting Information Systems textbook onto her lap. “Ever since I was young, my dad always talked about how important it was to get an education and set yourself up in a good career field. He was an accountant—good with numbers, not so much people. I’ve thought about following in his footsteps, and I’m not the best with people either, so—”

“Are you kidding me? People love you. When you…” Vince’s mouth hung open for a moment, almost like he forgot what he was going to say. “I’ve only seen glimpses of you waitressing, but your customers’ eyes light up when you talk to them.”

He’d come in a few times for dinner or dessert just before closing, so she supposed he had seen her in action. She did like how many different types she got to talk to in a day. She could do without the complainers or the snappers, but for the most part, she served happy, interesting people, and without that, she’d probably never push herself to interact with others.

“The truth is, I don’t mind waitressing most days,” she said. “But I need a career, preferably in a field with more room for advancement.” She ran her hand over the blue accounting book, trying to get excited about digging into its contents. “What about you? You said you were looking into another position. Did you find a new job?”

“I’ve been doing some security work on the side, and I’m looking into transitioning into it fulltime. But sometimes I think it’d be fun to start my own restaurant. Build a place from scratch and make a go of it.”

“Well, one, that means I was kind of right about the bodyguard thing, and two, if you start your own restaurant, I’d totally come work for you.” She lowered her eyebrows. “Unless you think that’d get weird?”

Now she was getting ahead of herself again, already working at his hypothetical restaurant.

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