Page 34 of After The Storm

“You did great back there, Kate,” he said, gently pressing her against him. “Even better, you didn’t fight me.”

The elevator dinged to let them know they’d reached the second floor, and the doors opened. They stood there for a moment, neither of them moving, until Kate pulled away from him and walked out into the hallway.

Roman was left wishing that moment never had to end, but now that it had, he needed to focus on the case. Kate was depending on him to protect her, and to do that, he needed to know what Jonas Flynn kept on that laptop.

Chapter Eleven

Kate jumped ontothe bed and opened the laptop, eager to delve into what Jonas had been investigating. Roman closed the door behind him and took his spot in the chair near the window. Whatever that had been between them in the elevator made her not want to look up as Jonas’s laptop warmed up, but she felt her partner’s stare on her as she avoided his gaze.

Partner. For the first time, she actually felt like they were partners in this mess. Not that she thought they were equal partners. She knew better than to fool herself. Roman brought far more to the table than she did, but maybe if she found something useful to give them a clue to follow she could prove to him that she wasn’t simply a woman caught up in a disastrous mess.

And even more, she could show him that she wasn’t just some crazy woman who believed the cops were out to get her, or worse, a murderer he should turn in the next chance he got.

“Find anything yet?” Roman asked with a lilt to his voice that told her he’d caught her daydreaming.

She turned her head and leveled her gaze on his face. “Patience, grasshopper. This laptop has been through hell tonight. For God’s sake, I landed on it full force back there. Give it a chance.”

A slow smile lit up his face. “Just checking. You looked a little lost for a minute. I’m not a computer genius, but I can help if you need me to.”

Pretending to be offended, Kate screwed her face into a scowl. “I don’t need help getting into a laptop, and certainly not my boss’s laptop. I’m not a complete idiot, you know, Roman.”

The smile didn’t leave his face as he held his hands up in fake surrender. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just trying to help.”

As the welcome screen came up on the laptop, she smiled and blew on the tips of her fingers before rubbing her hands together. “No worries. I got this. Now to make some magic.”

Roman chuckled. “Kate’s going to make magic. Everyone step back.”

She ignored his attempt at being cute, even though she couldn’t deny that she liked when he acted like that. Seeing him smile and acting almost silly made her feel like he might be okay with her. After being so difficult and injuring him, she hoped this change meant things were improving between them.

That was other than what just happened in the elevator, which she didn’t want to think too much about or her emotions would start running away with her.

Focus, Kate. Stop thinking like an oversexed teenage girl and get down to business.

Tapping on the keys, she began reading through the names Jonas had given his files. Ever the eccentric, he chose old TV show names, but Kate had no problem deciphering his secret code.

She hovered over the first yellow file and mumbled the name. “Barney Miller.”

“What?” Roman asked, obviously listening carefully to what she was doing.

Kate looked up and shook her head. “Nothing. Just a file name.”

He repeated his question. “What?”

“Nothing. Just Jonas’s way of hiding things. Now give me a few minutes to see if I can find anything.”

Roman’s dark eyebrows came in toward his nose, and his eyes narrowed to squints. “Fine. If you need me, I’ll be watching TV.”

Before she could apologize for being so short with him, he turned away and pointed the remote at the TV, effectively shutting down their conversation. Not that she wanted to continue talking since she had to start figuring out her boss’s notes, but she hadn’t wanted him to think she was brushing him off.

He flipped through a few channels before settling on some old movie, so Kate returned her focus to Jonas’s file named Barney Miller. Clicking on it and expecting something to do with the New Orleans Police Department, she saw it contained a single document with the name Fish.

“Fish?” she said out loud, unsure why anything in this folder would have that name.

Maybe Roman would know.

“Any idea why Jonas would call a file in the Barney Miller folder Fish?” she asked, interrupting his movie.

He turned his head to look at her for a moment before he turned back to look at the TV. “One of the characters was named Fish. The old guy who sounded like a human version of Eeyore.”

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