He wanted to stay. And Kate had a feeling she knew why. She didn’t budge from the entry. “I’m sorry. I’m not really in the mood for conversation.”
He reached out and took hold of her hand. “I came for another reason, Kate. I was hoping—now that we’ve had some time apart—you’ve realized what a good thing we had. I know I have. As I said, I’ve missed you. I came here hoping I could convince you that we should start seeing each other again.”
Kate almost laughed. “That isn’t going to happen, Andrew. We’re over. I’ve moved on. I thought you had, too.”
He looked surprised. “So you’re seeing someone else?”
Before she had time to answer, the intercom buzzed again.
“Busy night,” Andrew said grimly, clearly unhappy with his plans being interrupted.
Kate hit the intercom button. “Yes, Gordy?”
“Ms. Gallagher, there’s a Jason Maddox here to see you. He isn’t on your approved visitor list, but he says you’re expecting him. Is it all right to send him up?”
She looked at Andrew and caught his irritated expression. He’d been so sure she would take him back. He’d been certain she’d been pining for him for the last six months. He probably needed a bedmate, at least until he found someone new.
She thought of Maddox and the look on Andrew’s face when Jason walked into the apartment.
“Send him up,” she said.
Jase stepped out of the elevator on the tenth floor of the condo building nicknamed the Glass Menagerie because it was mostly glass. He reached up to knock on Kate’s door, but it swung open before he had the chance.
“Jason! Come on in.”
He was surprised at the friendly greeting. He hadn’t called first because he thought she might not want to see him again so soon. She didn’t want to get involved on a personal level. Jase didn’t blame her. They’d probably both be better off if she stayed the hell away from him.
Kate smiled at him a little too warmly, and he noticed there was someone else in the room. He caught the look on her face as she turned to the black-haired man in the expensive pin-striped suit, and Jase had a feeling he understood.
“Jason, this is Andrew Bradley. He’s an old...friend.”Once, maybe, Jase thought,not anymore. “We haven’t seen each other for a while. He dropped by to pay his respects on the death of my sister.” When Kate took Jase’s arm and led him farther into the living room, he knew he had read the situation correctly.
“Andrew, this is Jason Maddox.” She didn’t move away or drop her hold on his arm. “We’re working together to find my sister’s killer.”
The guy’s black eyebrows shot up. “Killer? Your sister was murdered?”
“That’s right,” Kate said. “Jason is helping me find out who did it.”
Andrew turned to Jase and drilled him with a glare. “What are you? Some kind of private detective?”
Jase just smiled. “Close enough. Mostly I’m a bounty hunter. Kate wants to find her sister’s killer. Finding people is what I do.”
Andrew looked like he was going to choke on his own saliva. “You can’t be serious, Kate. If your sister was murdered, you need to let the police handle it, not some muscled-up cowboy who hunts people down and drags them out of their houses in the middle of the night.”
Jase glanced down at his cowboy boots, and Kate’s eyebrows went up. He wondered if she thought he was going to go for good ol’ Andrew’s throat.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” he drawled, letting his gaze drift intimately over Kate just to irritate the guy a little more. “Since Kate and I were already...acquainted, it was only logical she come to me for help.”
Andrew’s face turned beet red. “I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it,” Jase said, moving even closer to Kate.
“We need to talk, Kate,” Andrew said. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Kate made no reply, just walked over and opened the door. “Thanks for stopping by, Andrew.”
He stepped out into the hall, and Kate closed the door behind him. As she returned to Jase, the corners of her mouth tipped up. “Thank you for that.”
“Old boyfriend, I take it.”
