I hush her as I open the door.
“Detective Esposito,” I say with a smile.
“Miss Wade. May I come in?”
I move to the side to let him in. Esposito’s cologne enters the instant he does, filling up my nostrils, making me nostalgic for the day we met before I knew I was hunted.
Esposito pauses when he sees Mia. From her expression, it’s obvious she’s loving the sudden emergence of hot men in my apartment. Esposito’s expression, on the other hand, is completely unreadable.
Once again, introductions are in order. “Detective Esposito, my friend, Mia Jones.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Jones,” Esposito says, shaking Mia’s hand.
“The pleasure is all mine, Detective.”
She means it, too. She moves behind Esposito’s back to make a face that pretty much means wow. Goddammit, she’s so distracting and I need to focus.
“You must be wondering why I’m here,” Esposito says.
“Why are you here?”
“I’ll go do something… in the kitchen,” Mia says. I’m sure that will go down well with Tanner. At least, she’s giving us privacy.
“I’m not happy with the way I acted last time we met,” Esposito says. “I overstepped, big time.”
“It really doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve moved on. We’re cool.” I don’t need an apology, what I need is for him to leave.
He nods absentmindedly. “So how have you been?”
Great, small talk. “Trying to adjust to the life of unemployment,” I say casually.
“Any insights on the case of Madison Starr’s murder?”
“No,” I say, doing my best to sound sincere. “What about you? Have you made any progress?”
“Not really, no,” he says, sitting on the couch. “All leads take me to dead ends. I was hoping you or Mr. Cole might have something to share.”
Does he suspect Jaxson and I might actually have all the answers he needs? Why would he? Unless he knows more than he’s letting on, like maybe the fact Madison’s death was a mob hit gone wrong.
“Why would we know anything?”
He shrugs. “You like to play detective. Has anything out of the ordinary happened lately? Every little odd piece of information might help.”
Out of the ordinary, that’s one way of putting it. “No, I’m sorry. Life has been its usual boring self lately.”
“You know you can trust me, right, Ella?”
“Of course,” I say, in complete awe of my new ability to deceive. Maybe I picked it up in the air at HQ. “I just have plans with Mia, you know.”
“Oh, right, yes, I’m sorry to be taking up your time.”
I walk him to the door and he’s almost out when he changes his mind and takes a step back inside.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” he says. “Promise me you won’t hesitate to come to me if you feel something’s wrong.”
His intensity is alarming. “I promise,” I say quietly to get him out of the door. “But you don’t need to worry about me, Rick.”
He stares at me. “It’s become a habit,” he says before he goes.
The door shuts and I rub my temples. He knows things he’s not saying. Everything is connected to everything. Mia is probably a secret assassin as well. Not really. Oh, shit. Mia! And poor Tanner!
The big gunman might be trained for all eventualities, but he’s totally unprepared for Mia. I hurry to the kitchen still wondering what kind of game Rick Esposito is playing.
—eleven—
Ella
Two days without word from Jaxson. No, that’s not true. A second text arrived the night he was supposed to come to the apartment, saying the negotiations took longer than originally planned and he didn’t know when he’d be done. My calls go straight to voice mail. Something isn’t right.
Tanner isn’t exactly thrilled with my plan to go to HQ. He’s very suspicious of the whole business with the Bronson meeting but I can’t sit still any longer waiting for news to arrive. I need to talk to someone and my hope is I will find Carter or Elaine or maybe Lucius himself there.
At the HQ gate they have us wait in the car while getting approval to let us in. I feel stupid for being so mad at Carter that I never even bothered to ask for his phone number.
Tanner yawns for so long I think his jaw might pop. “I’m sorry.” I say. “This must be quite boring for someone like you. You must be used to action.”
Tanner looks at me as if to make sure I’m for real. “I like boring,” he says. “Action is overrated.”
He has a point. Minutes go by without a sign from the gate. “What was your last assignment?” I ask Tanner just to kill time.