Page 18 of Ace of Spades
“Shot you down, did he?” Taylor said, her eyes glittering with amusement when Nate returned to his desk.
Shot down faster than he could have drawn his gun. “If you’re going to gloat, go do it somewhere else.” Since Rothmire was going to sanction Taylor going undercover, Nate would go to plan B. Catch the sonofabitch before Taylor had a chance to play hooker.
Her lips curled into a pleased-with-herself-smile as she stood, slipping her purse strap over her shoulder. She leaned her mouth next to his ear. “Don’t pout too long. I’m hungry.” With that said, she trailed her fingers across the back of his neck. “I’ll wait for you downstairs.”
Nate pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re killing me, woman,” he muttered. His neck tingled where she’d touched him and even her lemony scent lingered, as if she’d intentionally left it behind simply to torture him.
“Who’s killing you?”
“Just talking to myself.” Nate leaned back in his chair, glancing at Rand Stevens. “Want to go to lunch?” Wouldn’t hurt to have Rand with them. It would keep him from getting into an argument with Taylor.
“I was coming to ask you the same thing.” He looked around. “Where’s Taylor? Maybe she’d like to join us.”
“Downstairs, waiting on me.”
“There’s a new deli I want to try,” Rand said as they headed to the elevator. “Supposed to have kickass hot-pastrami-on-rye sandwiches.”
“Works for me.” And Taylor loved matzo-ball soup.
“When are you planning on talking to Linda Harding’s daughters?” Rand asked Taylor after their food was served.
She lifted her spoon to her mouth and blew on the hot soup. “This afternoon. I doubt they can tell us much, but maybe they noticed something useful.”
“Want me to go with you?” Nate said.
“No, but thanks. I think I can get more out of them if it’s just me questioning them.” She pointed her spoon at him. “You can be intimidating.”
“Do I intimidate you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Not even.”
“Too bad.” Maybe if he did, he could intimidate her right out of her harebrained idea.
“I know you’re adamantly against me going undercover.” She pushed her empty soup bowl away. “Let me ask you a question. If it wasn’t me but a different female agent, would you be taking the same stand?”
Would he? He wanted to tell her yes, but if there was one thing he hated, whether from him or someone else, it was lying. “I don’t know.” That was the most honest answer he could give her.
“You’re going undercover? I hadn’t heard that,” Rand said.
“I am. And before you go all protective alpha wolf on me like Nate’s trying to do, Rothmire signed off on it. So if you don’t like the idea, keep it to yourself. I don’t want to hear it.”
Nate barely managed to suppress a growl.
Rand glanced between them. “What am I missing here?”
“Not a thing.” He grabbed the check their waitress had set on the table before Rand or Taylor could. “Ready to go?” Her earlier question was bugging him. Was he treating her differently than he would another female agent? If so, that wasn’t fair to her.
As he followed Taylor and Rand out of the deli, he decided that he wouldn’t like putting any female in the sights of a serial killer, but he especially didn’t like that it would be Taylor. Since he couldn’t stop her, he’d just have to make sure she stayed safe.
Taylor had asked Nate to drop her off at her apartment after lunch so she could pick up her car and go question Linda Harding’s daughters. As she pulled into a parking space back at the office after talking to them, she debated turning around and going to Rosie’s. The interview with Mellie and Becky had left her depressed, and the best medicine when she was down was spending time with Rosie and the girls. She turned off the ignition, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes.
Lost girls always broke her heart. No one knew better than she did what it was like to lose a mother, even one who was a prostitute. When the girls had cried, she’d cried right along with them.
Someone tapped on the window, and she opened her eyes to see Nate staring down at her. “Stay there,” he said, then jogged around the hood.
She unlocked the door, and he slid onto the passenger seat. “Something happen while I was gone?”
“No. I saw you sitting out here and knew you were taking a little time to be sad.”
