His head jerked and then swiveled. “How can you say that? I won’t let anyone mess with you. I respect you.”
“Not as a cop. Or you’d let me handle my own problems,” she said.
Seth drove through the gated entrance. “This town is different. I’ve tried to explain that.”
“I know, and it’s just a cop-out. So, you’re all hillbillies. Time to enter the current century,” she muttered.
“Do you want to be with a guy who’d let another guy ram into you? I mean, really?” he muttered right back.
“That’s beside the point.” Why did he have to reduce every single argument to fundamentals? “I’m a cop, and you need to understand that and get out of the way,” she said.
“I’m with the woman, not the cop.Youneed to understand that,” he growled.
There was the rub. No distinction existed between the woman and the cop. “Dinner would be a bad idea,” she finally said.
He chuckled. “Of course, it’d be a bad idea. So, we should go. Come on, Mia. Haven’t you ever done something just for the experience, knowing you’d get bitten but that it might be worth it? Take a chance, darlin’.”
“What are you, sixteen?” She’d lost her interest in bad boys years ago. Of course, if that were true, she probably wouldn’t be so tempted right now. “What does an enforcer do?”
“Nothing interesting.”
More like nothing he would tell her about. “Do you break the law, Seth?”
“Definelaw,” he drawled.
Yeah. Exactly.
“Come on, Mia. You have to eat.” His expression hinted at vulnerability for the briefest of seconds before being quickly blanked.
Why did that draw her? Why did he? Besides, what could dinner hurt? “If we go to dinner, I fully plan on questioning you further about the case.”
“Hmmm.” He rubbed the shadow on his chin. “Let’s make a deal, then. You can question me before and after dinner…but not during. During dinner, we talk about anything except murder and Lost Lake.”
The profiler inside her tilted her head while the woman inside stood at full attention. “Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Okay. Pick me up at seven,” she said.
Chapter17
Mia’s head spun as she tried to figure out what to wear for her date. A date she shouldsonot be going on. She’d tried to convince herself that she’d only accepted because of the case, for the opportunity to question Seth when he let down his formidable guard. But she’d learned years ago not to lie to herself. The case was only half the reason.
The other was pure curiosity. She’d never been intrigued by a man before, and she had to figure out what draw Seth held for her. She’d met plenty of good-looking men, even dangerous ones, but he was unique in a way she couldn’t describe. Instinct had ruled her entire life, something she’d honed through hard work and training. Being caught off guard by anybody was rare for her these days. Maybe she had lost it after the shooting. Perhaps her instincts now stank, and she should find another line of work. Either way, she was taking the opportunity to figure him out.
Mia finally took the time to take Mandy’s diary out of her bag and scan through it as the afternoon crawled by.
She read the last few entries, her heart rate picking up as she paced around her room. Apparently, Mandy had known about Ruby’s pregnancy, and she knew that Erik was the father. Okay. Definite motive for Erik to murder the teenager. Mia flipped a page, her heart sinking. Mandy was out to prove it and had started tailing the younger Volk. What had the kid been thinking?
She kept reading, making notes as she went. Finally, she placed the diary on the top of her dresser. She should call Pete.
Her phone buzzed, and she snatched it off the dresser. Maybe Seth was canceling. “Stone,” she answered.
“Mia? Hello,” Kurt Colbey said, horns blaring in the background.
She paused. “Kurt? What’s going on?” Their breakup had been more gradual than an actual moment. Odd that she’d barely thought about him while in Lost Lake.
“Hi. How are you doing?”
