Page 8 of Blind Trust
If that was supposed to make Nic feel better—it didn’t. It was the very thing causing him to question his place with the agency.
“You’re a valuable asset, Nic.” Walsh looked at his watch, and Nic knew this impromptu visit was done. “I meant it when I made DeAntona promise me he wouldn’t try to poach you.”
“I appreciate that, sir.” He held up the folder. “I’ll look through this and have an answer to you ASAP.”
Nic exited the car and waited until Walsh drove out of the parking lot. Inside his truck, he started the engine to let it warm up and opened the file. Nic looked at the report date. Six weeks. He glanced out the windshield to the city he’d grown familiar with, and a strange ache filled his middle. Was he ready to leave this? Was he ready to leave...her?
3
Chunks of mashed banana splattered Lyla in the face. “Eww, gross, Kekoa!”
Lyla watched Kekoa Young’s dark curls bounce across his forehead as he let out a hearty laugh. “Sorry, sis.”
She reached across the counter and grabbed a towel to wipe her face. “You don’t look sorry.”
“What can I say?” Kekoa flexed his tattooed biceps, causing the banana mess in his hands to drip on the floor. “These tanks are too strong for banana guns.”
Rolling her eyes, she used the towel to scoop up the mess on the floor of the SNAP Agency kitchen. She didn’t need Walsh or Jack or, heaven forbid, Nicolás commenting on the mess. “You wanted me to teach you what I did, so you’re going to have to”—she rose, eyeing Kekoa’s large hands—“learn how to control your strength, at least while we’re using bananas.”
The mechanical sound of the lock disengaging turned their attention to Jack as he walked in the door. He stopped, looked at them, and then glanced around. “What?”
“Nothing.” Lyla dropped the towel in the sink, ignoring the disappointment that it wasn’t Nicolás who had walked through the door. She grabbed another towel from the drawer and handed it to Kekoa.
Jack’s brow lifted. “How come it feels like I caught you guys doing something you’re not supposed to be doing?”
Kekoa held up his hands. “Lyla’s teaching me the move she pulled on Castillo to disarm him.”
“We’re using bananas.” She pointed to the remaining piece of fruit sitting on the island. “It’s safer.”
“As long as no one steps on one, right?” Jack took off his jacket and gave each of them a pointed look. “Come on. A banana on the floor? Slips...” He pressed his lips together. “Never mind.”
Kekoa winked at Lyla before they both started laughing.
“Don’t quit your day job, brah.” Kekoa picked up the last banana and looked at Lyla. “Okay, last time.”
“Or maybe”—Lyla took the banana from Kekoa’s meaty grip—“we save that for Nicolás’s midmorning smoothie. You know he gets cranky without his salad-in-a-cup energy drink.” She glanced over Jack’s shoulder to the closed door. “Isn’t today your, um, Bible meeting club?”
Jack hung his coat on the rack before turning his attention to her with that ever-annoying I-know-what-you’re-asking-but-aren’t-asking look on his face.
“Yep.”
Ugh. He was going to make her ask. Like an annoying brother holding something over her head, just out of reach, making her jump for it. Well, she wouldn’t. Her cute leather-heeled booties weren’t meant for jumping.Besides, she thought with a smile,two can play at this game.
“How’s that coffee at Denny’s?” Lyla walked to her Miele 6800 espresso machine. Her finger glided across the screen, bringing it to life. “Kekoa’s dad just sent me a package of premium Kona coffee beans. Aren’t those your favorite?”
“Brah,” Kekoa half whispered, “she knows your weakness. Just give her the information and nobody’s gonna get hurt.”
Jack pushed up the sleeves of his sweater like he was ready to square off with her, and Kekoa whistled the tune fromThe Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Jack raised an eyebrow. “If you want to know where Garcia is, all you have to do is ask.”
Lyla wasn’t going to be intimidated. “I wasn’t asking.”
Oh, but the heat flashing across her cheeks would tell them she was lying. She began making Jack’s Americano. What did it matter if she wanted to know where Nicolás was? She’d ask where either one of the men standing behind her were too. Her curiosity was grounded in concern. That’s all.
No, that isn’t all. Eyes fixed on the machine, she replayed the strain of the last eight days over in her mind. Since the Castillo assignment, her easygoing relationship with Nicolás had shifted to uneasy, unsure, and uncomfortable.
The atmosphere wasn’t outright hostile, but it also wasn’t the amiable, relaxed, sometimes flirtatious—at least on her part—work environment that she loved. In its place was forced conversations that never veered off work-related subjects, and she hated it.
“Garcia seemed a little tense this morning.” Jack’s brotherly tone echoed behind her, and she clenched her jaw. “Have you two talked about what happened on the Castillo assignment?”
