He tossed the diced celery into a salad bowl. “Heard of Carlo Spinetti?”
“No.” She hopped down and held up the head of romaine lettuce. “Washed?”
“No. Spinetti’s at a minimum-security camp in Western Maryland for Internet fraud. I helped the Bureau put him there.”
“Nice,” she replied, while rinsing the lettuce.
“I’m convinced he’s responsible for the breach at my company.”
She studied him for a beat. “Oh, boy. What did you do?”
He shot her a smile. “What makes you think—”
“Oh, no, did you visit him?” She tore lettuce leaves and began dropping them into the bowl.
“I drove west and ended up in Cumberland.”
Though she shook her head at him, she couldn’t wipe the smirk. “How’d it go?”
“He’s claiming to be a legit businessman and accused me of planting evidence on his computer that got him arrested.” Stryker grew silent while sipping the wine, then he offered her his glass.
After sipping, she said, “Getting me drunk won’t stop me from lecturing you.”
“Sounds like something a girlfriend or wife would do.”
“Being that I’m neither, I’m putting on my LEO hat.”
“Here we go with the zodiac signs again.”
“I’m serious. You’re making this worse for yourself.”
“The hit on my company was orchestrated by Spinetti.”
“I get your need for control, but you gotta let the feds do their job.”
He stopped slicing cucumber and shifted his gaze to her. The coldness in his eyes sent a shudder through her.
“But you aren’t going to leave this alone, are you?” she asked.
“People get away with things every day,” he replied. “Might be a lie. Or it could be something like killing April Peters or Doug Easton.”
That got her full attention.
“You told me about your brother, but not because you trust me. You knew I’d do more than offer you sympathy. You wanted help.”
She stilled. She was chastising him for protecting his business, even though she was willing to circumvent the rules in order to get justice for Doug.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re right.”
“I get that you’re doing your job, but sometimes it takes more than following the letter of the law to make things right,” he said before moving on to slice up a red bell pepper. “As I see it, the bad guys are winning.”
“My hands are tied.” She dropped a handful of cherry tomatoes into the salad. “I’ve got to follow the law.”
“Well, I don’t.” He lifted the tray of steaks. “Time to grill these bad boys.” With a wink, he walked onto his screened porch while his words echoed in her head.
He was right. His desire for justice was no different from hers.Would I exact revenge if I found the person who killed Doug?She stood there mired in thought. Would she trust the system to bring that person to justice, or right the scales herself? A shiver ran up her spine, the hairs at the back of her neck stood on end. For the first time in her life, the answer wasn’t clear to her.
She walked through the spacious porch and onto his deck, where she found him grilling. Their eyes met. He placed his hand on her back over her tat and caressed her skin. His touch affected her like no other. She inhaled a deep, calming breath and let it go.
