The kid looked guilty. And confused. He stared at Knox. "I uh . . . what? I was just . . ." He pivoted to Allie. "I just . . . Jason said you hurt your leg tonight. Are you okay?"
"Yes. Just a couple of cuts. I'm fine, thanks." She gave him a sweet, everything-is-fine smile. Then she turned to Knox, one eyebrow raised, with a look that promised he would regret yelling at Rowan.
Jason tossed the soggy napkins in the trash. "Everything okay, Rowan?"
The kid studied his keyboard. "Yeah, it didn't touch anything. Sorry about that. But he—" He pointed at Knox.
"I what?"
"Knox," Jason interrupted. "We need to talk to Drakos about the breakfast meeting with Kendall."
"Now?"
"It's getting late, but yeah." He turned to Rowan. "Thanks, man. Good work tonight. Go get some rest. We'll need you to monitor the meeting tomorrow."
To his credit, the kid knew he was being dismissed. "Um, yeah. Okay." He pointed to his computer. "I'm going to leave all this up and running. In case I need to jump on."
"Good thinking," Jason said.
Rowan nodded, grabbed his phone from the desk, and walked to the door. "Okay. Night."
After the door shut behind him Allie and Jason both turned on Knox.
Knox studied Jason's expression. "I can't tell if you're mad or if you thought that was funny."
"Both." Jason glared at him, but there was an almost-smile on his lips. "Seriously, though. Don't yell at the kid like that."
"I thought we weren't supposed to call him a kid?"
"Well, not in front of him." Jason turned to Allie. "Sorry. I know he was staring. He didn't mean anything by it. I'll talk to him."
"No," she said. "It's okay. Really. Actually, I should talk to him. I can explain the bullet wound. No more than he needs to know, though."
Knox spun to face her. "You don't have to do that. You—"
She threw her hands up. "I know." Her irritation disappeared. "Knox, it's okay." The gentleness in her voice knocked the anger out of him. Was she really okay? That quickly? She wasn't okay about her bullet wound less than an hour ago when he walked into her room.
He was confused. And he wanted to ask her about it. But not in front of Jason.
Knox scratched the back of his head and looked at his best friend. "We really need to talk to Drakos right now?"
"I need to let him know about the connection between Kendall, Rafael, and the bomber. But I'll just give him a call. I want him to have all the facts before that meeting tomorrow morning. But no, we don't need to drag him out of bed tonight. I was just trying to get you to shut up."
"Fine," Knox said. "I'm going to get some sleep." He glanced at Allie, wondering if she would walk out with him.
Her eyes lingered on him like she wanted to say something. "I um . . . could I talk to you for a minute?"
Jason shooed them away with both hands. "I think that's agreatidea. You two go talk."
Allie nodded. "We will. But Jason, please tell Tayla I hope she's okay. I enjoyed meeting her today. We discussed going out for coffee. Tomorrow might get busy, but tell her I definitely want to get together with her soon."
That elicited a genuine goofy smile on Jason's face. "I'll tell her. I'm glad you two hit it off so well."
"Me too." She took a step toward the door with a small wave. "Goodnight, Jason." She glanced at Knox. Time to go.
Knox threw Jason a chin lift and followed Allie out the door.
He was a little nervous about what she wanted to say. She didn't have an almost-smile on her face like Jason a minute ago. Her agitation with him had been solitary. He prayed he hadn't screwed things up.
