Page 19 of Honor ’N’ Duty

“I didn’t say it was.” He held out a bottle of ketchup to her.

She shook her head. “No, thank you. I eat my burgers plain.” The statement came out sounding like a reprimand. Probably because he knew her daughter’s culinary preferences, and he didn’t know a thing about hers.

“No need to bite my head off.” He squirted a blob of ketchup onto his own burger.

Oh, crap. The man had taken them in, and she was coming off like a b-i-t-c-h. “Sorry, it’s just that there’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Including how awful her marriage had been, not that she was about to bring that up.

God, when would her life stop being a series of big, fat regrets? The only thing she didn’t regret in her life was Rosa.

As they sat there eating dinner like a family, Laia couldn’t prevent her mind from wandering into the land of make believe. In another lifetime—if things had gone differently—would this have been the way her life would have turned out?

Timing is everything.

And time had never been on her and Kade’s side.

With Josh gone, she couldn’t begin to guess at the direction life would take her next, but she was determined not to make the same mistakes again.

This time, she’d listen to her gut.

Chapter Five

Kade turned onto Frelinghuysen Avenue, checking the rearview mirror before turning into the Homeland Security Investigations parking lot. If Colon’s people were following Laia and staking out Rosa’s daycare, the situation could go from merely bad to the mother of all clusterfucks before anyone saw it coming.

Last night, he’d made a few calls and arranged for Laia to look at every mugshot in the HSI database that was associated with the Colon Drug Cartel. Specifically, he’d called the lead investigator on the Fernando Colon case, Special Agent Emanuel Dominguez. Unfortunately, Manny hadn’t been available until later in the day, so now it was nearly four p.m.

For most of the day, Laia had been in his home office, glued to his computer and working on her vet school application. Between all the calls he’d made to the Asbury Park PD, the DHS, and his own chief to notify him of what was happening, he’d barely seen Laia all day.

“How’d you sleep last night?” He glanced at her in the passenger seat.

She yawned. “Very well, thanks.”

Yeah, right.

Long, shiny dark hair cascaded perfectly down her back and shoulders, and she looked beyond pretty in a fire-engine red sundress, matching red sandals, and long, dangly yellow starfish earrings. But between the yawns and dark circles under her eyes, she appeared about as rested as he felt, which was totally not.

Her wardrobe may have gone from conservative banker-chic to bold and sexy, but she still wore the same delicate honeysuckle-pear fragrance. Yeah, he remembered that, too. Even now, her sweet scent filled the SUV and every breath he took.

Knowing that she’d been sleeping right down the hall—in his bed, no less—had him tossing and turning for hours before sleep had finally kicked in.

Although when he’d finally drifted off, it had been to images of one of her silky, satiny lingerie sliding over her bare skin.

“We’re here.” And thank God because he really needed some air that wasn’t infused with her tantalizing scent.

He turned into the lot, then stopped at the gate and stuck his ID card into the card reader. The gate lifted and he drove through. Being Sunday, the lot was fairly empty, and he snagged a spot close to the building’s front entrance and next to three other SUVs, all with Colorado tags.

“Ready?” he asked, shutting off the engine.

Laia began unclipping her seat belt. “As I’ll ever be.”

“Hey.” He rested a hand on hers. “Rosa will be fine with Ashley. I promise. And Smoke is with them. He won’t let anything happen to her, either. If you haven’t noticed, Rosa and Smoke are pretty tight.”

“I noticed.” She blinked down at their hands for a long moment, then tugged hers away. “Let’s go in and get this over with.”

Before he could stop her, she’d finished unclipping her seat belt, then was out of the SUV and beelining for the building faster than an Olympic speed-walker.

Dammit. Kade yanked off his seat belt and raced to catch up to her. He shouldn’t have touched her. For her sake and his.

As he passed the other three SUVs, he noted two of them had their engines running. Through one of the side windows, he glimpsed two pointed ears. Colorado tags? K-9 Interceptors?