“Sylvie.” Carla ran her hand through her curly hair. “What if Watchdog—”
“Don’t even.”
“I’m just…humor me, okay? What would Watchdog have to gain if Frank’s on the Unit over you?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Unless.”
“They arenotall working with a cartel, Carla. They justaren’t. And we don’t have any solid proof that Frank is, either.” She stopped. “What if Frank’s working undercover?”
“Trying to suss out Watchdog?”
“Ugh!” Sylvie growled.
Carla put her hands up and took a step back from Sylvie. “Okay, okay, just covering all the angles. I want to believe as much as you do that the watchdoggies are as clean as they are hot. But you and I both know there’ssomethingthere.” She lowered her voice. “Alex has never mentioned anything like, uh, black ops during a little pillow talk, has he? Because that would be a total out.”
“No.”
“But if he did, you couldn’t tell me, maybe, and I should shut up?”
“Let’s see.” Sylvie counted off on her fingers. “No, and no, and yes.”
Carla’s expression softened. “This is a real pickle you’re in.”
“That it is.” She looked down at the floor tiles again. “And I need to talk to Frank more than ever.”Though if he’s undercover, he can’t tell me anything anyway.
“He’s about the only guy I haven’t seen in here today. You want me with you when you find him?”
“I…no. No, let’s work the angle that you’re still in the dark. You’ll be the secret ace up my sleeve.”
“All right. But let me know immediately what’s happening.” Carla squeezed her arm. “And just at least consider Alex as an ace up your other sleeve now, okay? I can tell you trust him.”
“You can?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Wait. You just spent the last five minutes giving meeveryreason why I shouldn’t trust anyone at Watchdog.”
“Hey, as much as I play devil’s advocate, I’m going offyourgut when it comes to Alex.”
The other ace up my sleeve. Sylvie hoped it was true.
CHAPTERTWENTY
As Alex sat at his kitchen table, he knew he was being a stubborn idiot.
He’d avoided seeing Sylvie the day before, after their fight at breakfast. He’d known right when she’d gotten to the kennels and let herself in thanks to an alert on his phone whenever someone locked or unlocked the door. She’d stayed extra-long—probably waiting for his fool ass to show—before leaving and locking up behind her.
He was both glad and angry at himself for not taking Chewie home with him the night before, thinking it would be better for people to see her going to Watchdog to visit her dog, and not going to, say, his house. He’d remembered thinking he couldn’t wait for the day they could stop hiding their relationship. And maybe that was the root of this stupid, pointless anger.
Maybe he didn’t want to admit that the outside world had a point.
They played by different rules, he and Sylvie. Even though he was not a part of the secret operations side of Watchdog, it was there all the same, and he was sworn to never to talk about it with outsiders. And what did he go and almost do? And with a cop no less?Jesus.
All he’d wanted to do was let Sylvie know that if she wanted, he could work on making her problem go away. This HOA woman had forfeited common decency and crossed the wrong people in her petty bid for power. He was sure Tex could dig up some sort of dirt on Leslie that would make her back down, revoke the bylaw that would drive Sylvie and Chewie out of their home.
But, in Alex’s zeal to protect Sylvie, he’d overstepped. It’s what he seemed to do with the people he loved, starting with Amanda even before she was born. He was ready to step in and protect a baby girl when honestly, it wasn’t his place to do so. She wasn’t his, even if he’d felt the loss as if she were his flesh-and-blood daughter. Like he’d told Sylvie, that didn’t matter to him; even if the blood-ties weren’t there, the love was, and it was strong and real. He was thankful to still be in touch with her as an ‘uncle’ and it had worked out for the best for everyone that way.
