Chapter 14 #2
“No one is accusing you of anything.” Kira lifted her hands.
“I’m sure there’s no reason for anyone to call the police about this conversation either.
It was just a friendly chat, right?” She glanced at Luca, then back at Roger.
“Maybe we could all go our separate ways and pretend this never happened.”
Luca wondered if she thought Roger might press charges against him for storming in here. Was she trying to save him from getting into trouble?
“You’re exactly right, Dr. Yassan. This was just a friendly chat.” He motioned to Roger’s cheek. “Although you might want to report whoever punched you to the police. They shouldn’t get away with hurting you.”
“Who cares?” Roger got up and crossed to the door. Not the first time he’d been hit, and maybe Roger thought it wasn’t going to be the last. In fact, he didn’t seem bothered by what’d happened at all.
But Luca had to try. “I’m a private investigator. If you tell me who did this to you, I could go and talk to them. Maybe smooth things out.”
Roger opened the door and held it. “I don’t need your help. Either of you. My father is dead, and that’s the end of it.”
One way or another, Luca needed to get answers still. Whether that was by finding a way to get information about Roger without him knowing, or tracking down the guy’s friends and associates and getting what he needed from them.
Maybe Jamie could hack Roger’s phone. Or his home computer.
She probably drew the line somewhere with illegal activity, but he figured it didn’t hurt to ask. If she didn’t want to do it, he could figure out a way to get enough probable cause that Detective Martinelli would be able to get a warrant for the same thing. Keep it all above board.
But all that did was tip off the bad guys that they were being investigated.
Kira stepped into the hallway first. Luca walked with her downstairs, his hand on the small of her back. She wore heeled boots that came up high enough they disappeared under the hem of the skirt below her knees.
When he glanced back, Roger had moved out of sight.
“Guess he’s not coming down with us to placate his mother.”
She turned to him at the bottom of the stairs, a look on her face he’d never seen before.
Luca shrugged. “What?”
“Are you serious?” She couldn’t even elaborate enough to verbalize the problem. Did he really not know what the issue was? “This is a memorial service. Roger is processing his father’s death. Even if you think he’s in on it, this isn’t the time or the place to talk to him.”
Luca didn’t seem the least bit repentant. Or he had schooled his features enough that she couldn’t tell what he was feeling. “I took the opportunity I was given. Maybe even the one God gave me.”
“And you aren’t the one who hit him in the face?”
Both of them could have been lying to her about that.
She wouldn’t put it past a guy like Roger to go along with what was said.
The charisma of a man like Luca would sweep along a certain type of person in his wake.
He was the kind of guy who drew people to him, whether he liked it or not.
They trusted him, and some even wanted to impress him.
“I didn’t hit him, Kira.”
Not that he wouldn’t. Just that he didn’t this time.
She sighed. “That’s good. Because he could have called the police and had you arrested for it.”
Luca shrugged. “I’m not worried about Roger.
He probably knows more than he’s saying, but he goes along with far too much to make waves.
If he files a police report, they’re going to show up here asking a whole lot of questions.
Digging into his life and his family. So either he wants to protect himself or them.
But whichever it is, the police won’t get called. ”
“It’s only Destiny now. His mother is all he has left, and Roger needs to be down here helping her.”
“You realize the two of them could be behind this entire shadow syndicate?”
She wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of that idea. But the somber occasion and something else stopped her.
In the end, she said nothing. The note of disquiet inside her made her worry that there was something to his suggestion. They genuinely could be behind the Shadow Syndicate. For all she knew, that might be exactly what was going on.
But the idea that Destiny might be the one who’d arranged her own husband’s death or that someone else had taken him out because they were all involved in the syndicate just opened up a whole new can of worms.
“I don’t think she’s part of it.”
Luca said, “Of course you don’t want to think she’s involved in something like this.”
“Okay, but she could be a target of whoever is involved now. If they took out Ralph and tried to take out Jenkins, then maybe they’re going to come after Destiny next?” How were they even supposed to figure out if that was the case? “Did Roger say anything to you before I came in?”
“You mean before you barged in to accuse me of smacking him around?”
And why did he look like he thought that was amusing?
Kira blew out a breath. “You think I should have been completely convinced you’d never do something like that?”
“No, because I have done something like that. Many times.”
She lifted her hands. “Well then, what’s the problem with me asking?”
“Maybe you should tell Destiny you have to go, and we can find somewhere quiet to talk.”
Why did she get the feeling he was going to end things between them when they had barely started? “I probably do need to leave. I’m not in the right frame of mind for this, or for a conversation about ‘us.’”
Maybe it was because Jordan had put all that other stuff in her head. Added to the exhaustion and having her focus split between the foundation, the emergency department, and Francisco’s medical treatment, she got the feeling she wasn’t dealing very well with this.
She said, “I had a quiet life before you came along. Everything was fine, and I wasn’t this mixed around trying to figure it all out.”
He touched her shoulders, a soft smile on his face. “It’s okay to need time to process it. I didn’t tell you I was coming here, and talking to Roger was a surprise to me. I just jumped on the opportunity when I spotted him.”
“I think I need about two months. Does that work for you?”
He squeezed her shoulders gently. “As long as those two months involve coffee dates, movies, and dinner out.”
That didn’t sound like breaking up at all. That sounded like dating the way normal people did, rather than two people thrown together by circumstances and tackling some dangerous situations.
“Before we leave, you should come with me and talk to Destiny.” She lifted her chin. “That way you can get a read on whether or not you think she’s a criminal mastermind.”
“I never said I thought she was. Right now, there are a lot of possibilities,” Luca said.
“Then let’s rule one out.” She shifted and his hands dropped.
Kira grabbed one, not only because she needed to lead him out to the patio where Destiny was, but also because she liked holding his hand. Working this as a team would be a lot more effective than operating separately.
Surprising each other with a sudden appearance.
Getting the wrong impression.
Jordan’s words rolled through her mind again.
Her friend had been the person who stood by her in all kinds of tough times.
Who convinced her to finally cut ties with the world of covert operations.
But Jordan seemed to think that Kira was only in this with Luca to scratch an itch, like she needed to relive the glory days.
She’d even said that Luca wasn’t Kira’s type.
Maybe Jordan just needed to see for herself how well Kira and Luca fit together. But the comment had taken root in Kira’s mind anyway, and when she had seen Luca with Roger, she’d assumed the worst. That he might be everything she’d walked away from.
The kind of person who did whatever it took to get the results, even hurting other people.
She tugged on his hand halfway down the hallway, turned to him, and stopped in one move.
He frowned. “What is it?”
“There isn’t really an easy way to tell you this, so I should probably say it. Maybe I should’ve said it days ago before things got to this point.” She ducked her head, not entirely sure how to explain. “I don’t like it when people hurt others just to get what they want.”
“It’s not okay to jump to conclusions rather than trusting someone you already know you can trust.” Luca touched his warm palm to the side of her neck, his thumb on her cheek.
“But it is okay to apologize for getting the wrong idea, and it’s also okay to be a human being with faults and things that trigger you into acting without thinking. ”
It sounded like he knew what he was talking about, which gave her the courage to explain. “There was a CIA agent who showed up at the refugee camp I was working at. Just after January. It must be nearly four years ago now.”
“Just before you quit and came here?”
She nodded, continuing to speak quietly, hoping no one was listening to them.
“He said a shipment of medicines was coming in and he needed to look inside the crate in order to intercept it. One of the vials was apparently not the medicine but the prototype for a deadly disease that someone was going to use to destroy a lot of people. I think he was stopping it from being sold to dangerous people.”
“Was he legit?”
She nodded. “Yes, but he was also the kind of person who was willing to condemn an entire camp of people with polio to die just so that he could stop one vial from getting through to the bad guys who were buying it.”
“In exchange, he might have saved millions of lives.”
“We don’t know that.” She lifted her chin.
“What we know is that I was facing a massive outbreak and thousands of people were going to die within a few days. But his mission was more important than their lives, and he was going to delay the shipment until he had orders as to where his vial was going next.”
Luca’s expression hardened. “What happened?”
“I refused to let him look in the containers before I took the medicine out so that I could begin distributing it. He didn’t like that, and we fought about it.
In the end, I was on my back and he was strangling me.
” She closed her eyes, still able to see his face above hers.
Those eyes so set on killing her. “I managed to reach a knife, and I stabbed him before he could kill me.”
“He died?”
“I murdered a foreign agent and then completed his mission for him—but it was too late for a lot of the people. Some were saved, but far too many didn’t make it.”
“So you quit and came here?”
She nodded, swallowing against the lump in her throat. “I can’t work with people who are willing to trade others’ lives like that.”
“He would have killed you to complete his mission.”
“And I had to kill him to complete mine.” To do the job she was there to do—as a doctor.
“But in the end, you did both of your jobs.”
Kira nodded.
“He knew what he was getting into. He went there prepared to die and also prepared to kill to get it done. I’m glad it was him and not you.
” Luca winced. “Maybe that makes me a terrible person, but you saved more lives with your actions than he would have. I’m guessing he wasn’t going to listen to an agreement where you both got what you wanted. ”
“I tried.” She shook her head, tears gathering in her eyes. “He didn’t want to listen. He didn’t care about those people at all.”
“So you gave up covert work and started over.”
She said, “I don’t want to start doing it again. But I know it’s what you do.”
“Seems to me like if you work with me for a little while, you’ll realize my tactics are a whole lot different than that guy’s. Not just because this is local investigations and if I break the law, I’ll go to jail. But I’m not going to ask you to do it if you don’t want to.”
She wanted to trust this. To get to know him better so that she had evidence for her belief in him. Not just blind faith. “Maybe I should take a couple of weeks off from the emergency department and do that.”
“If you’re going to take a vacation, we should go somewhere more exciting than wherever I’m working.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “But thank you for telling me.”
She nodded, exhausted from having to relive the memories again. Even if it was only a quick conversation, the whole thing seemed to weigh down her heart all over again. Making her feel heavy in ways she didn’t like. But God had asked her to carry these things.
It wasn’t as if she could just forget them all or watch them get washed away.
“I still think you should meet Destiny.”
Luca said, “We can give her our regards and then go somewhere else. Maybe get some dinner and talk through everything.”
She wasn’t sure she was ready to talk about everything, but she understood what he meant. “Dinner sounds good, as long as we can check on my patient before we go.”
He squeezed her hand, taking it and leading her through the doorway into the expansive dining room filled with people here to remember Ralph Rousseau.
It seemed as if any of them could be a suspect. In fact, everyone involved in the Shadow Syndicate might be here in this house right now.
And she had no idea who they were.
The idea made her want to go home, get under the covers, and hide away from the world until it was all over. When she had become a complete coward, she didn’t know. Or maybe it was a completely normal reaction to the life she’d lived.
Jordan was wrong. Kira wasn’t looking to relive her glory days—unless it involved sneaking into an office and copying files on a computer.
And Luca was exactly her type.