"Well, it took me five years to catch him the first time, so who knows how long it will take this time."
"Did the agency try to get you to stay?"
"They wanted to reassign me, but I was done. Logically, I know that intelligence works better with embedded assets, but there are some people too evil to be turned, and I knew all along that no matter what he said, he would never work with us. They said it was a calculated risk. I don't think they calculated a damn thing." He picked up his coffee mug and took a drink.
"When did you decide to work with Dominic?" she asked.
He suddenly smiled. "I already answered your question. You don't get another one."
"Fine. I have to get back to work. Let's get the check." She'd no sooner finished speaking when the server dropped off their bill.
"I've got this," he said. "My turn."
She shrugged as he put down cash, and then they walked out of the diner together.
It was a wintry afternoon with a gray sky threatening rain or possibly snow. She zipped up her jacket. "Did you drive?"
He nodded. "I'm parked that way. Kara?—"
"What?" she asked warily, not liking the look in his gaze.
"What you did at the NYPD took a lot of guts. I'm impressed."
His words warmed her soul. "Thanks."
"I think your choice to leave an agency that you couldn't believe in anymore was also brave."
"Some would say I threw my entire career away."
"Well, maybe you did. But I reinvented myself, and it looks like you're doing the same." She paused. "Although I have to say there's still something about your one and only job with Dominic that doesn't ring quite true to me."
"You're a very suspicious person."
"And I suspect," she said, playing on his word, "that you have secrets."
"Everyone has secrets."
"That's true. I just want to believe that those secrets aren't part of a hidden agenda that's going to prevent me from finding out what really happened to Samantha."
"I want to find out what happened to her, too."
"What if the truth becomes a problem for your old friend, Dominic?"
"I don't think that will happen."
Before she could ask him what he would do if it did, her phone buzzed. She took it out to read a message from her team.
"Is that about Samantha?" Max asked.
"Yes. My team pulled security footage from Bistro Verde, and it looks like the man who threatened Samantha is Vincent Castellano, a mechanic at a Jersey automotive shop owned by the Petroysan Group." She looked up at Max. "Tyler is headed to his apartment now. It looks like this is about Samantha's current case."
"Do you have the address? Should we meet him there?"
"I don't think we need to do anything," she countered.
"I just got you the lead. Don't cut me out."
Before she could respond, the earth rocked beneath her feet with a massive blast. She stumbled forward, Max's hand catching her arm to steady her. Ears ringing, heart pounding, she turned her head to see people running down the street toward them, screaming as shards of debris fell from the sky and thick black smoke rose into the sky from only a few blocks away.
