"I won't tell anyone. You can trust me."
"I know that, Kara," he said, the look they exchanged going far deeper than the words. "Anyway, Reza and I are working on something that may come in handy later."
"That sounds interesting. You're not going to tell me what that is, are you?"
"Not right now."
"Okay, fine. I'll wait. We should turn our phones back on." She got out of bed, grabbed the beautiful robe from the floor, and pulled it around her before walking back out to the living room to get her phone from her bag. She had a couple of messages from her team, the most important one being a joint task force meeting with Damon's team at 26 Fed scheduled for ten. She texted back that she'd be there.
As she did that, Max came into the room, wearing briefs, his phone in his hand, a puzzled look in his gaze. "Caroline Rowe wants me to meet her this morning. She doesn't say why. Just says it's important."
"Where does she want to meet?"
"Garden Court at the Fritz Collection."
"A museum? That's strange. Maybe you should just call her back."
"I tried. She didn't answer."
"I don't think you should go, Max. Look what happened the last time a woman sent you an urgent text message needing to talk to you."
He frowned at the reminder of Samantha's text. "Fair point. But it's a big public venue, with security, certainly a different scene than the café."
"It's also a well-known museum in the city that someone might want to blow up."
"I need to hear what she has to say. I'm going to have to take that risk."
"What time?"
"Ten."
"See if you can change it to eleven thirty or twelve. There's a joint task force meeting at ten that I need to be at. But I want to go with you to meet her."
He sent a text and then waited. "She's writing back." A moment later, he looked up and shook his head. "She said it has to be ten."
"That's even more concerning."
"If she can't change the time, change the location. Meet her in the park." At his frown, she added, "I'm just worried, Max."
"It's a good idea. I'll have her meet me at Bryant Park."
"I hate us splitting up."
"Me too, but I doubt I'll be allowed into a joint task force meeting, and maybe Caroline has important information."
"Do you think it's about Dominic?"
"Probably. I suspect she wants me to talk him into bailing on the summit tomorrow."
"I hope it's more than that."
"I'll find out." He walked forward and took her hand in his. "Next time we spend the night together, we're going to spend the morning in bed."
"I like the sound of that." She let go of his hand. "I need to take a shower."
"Hang on."
She turned in surprise. "What?"
