“Just be glad I took Dash up on his offer to get us drinks, or he’d have heard it all, too.”
Looking mean, Pepper stood to face Rowdy. “Doesn’t matter. He was there at the cottage when I got my revenge on Logan.”
“Trust me, kiddo, no way did Dash feel sorry for him. For you, that was a lousy idea.” He turned to Alice. “But for you—I say, go for it. Reese will spill his guts with a smile on his face.”
There was that plain speaking Alice had admired. Now, though, in the middle of a police station with Pepper listening in, it wasn’t quite so appreciated.
Luckily, Dash came back with four frosty cans of Coke, so nothing more was said on the subject. That didn’t stop her from thinking about it, though, and forming some solid plans.
* * *
“HOW?” REESE DEMANDED. “How could anyone have known if Alice didn’t say anything?”
Peterson took a chair at the long table. “You’re sure she didn’t?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She said she didn’t, so she didn’t. She wouldn’t lie about that.” But damn it, she’d killed a man and hadn’t seen fit to tell him.
“Then I’d say someone has eyes everywhere.”
“Which means,” Logan said, pointing out the obvious, “he’s someone with power.”
“Yeah.”
“Not that we’re talking about this,” Peterson pointed out. She tapped her nails on the conference table, then added, “Supposedly a certain senator ordered the gag.”
A senator.
“My orders came from the captain.” More tapping. “And he was quite clear on it all.”
Logan sank into his own seat. “Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way. Could be the vigilante is more like a secret op or something.”
“Maybe,” Reese conceded. But damn it, he needed to know, whether Alice felt like sharing or not. “I trust her.”
Logan lifted his brows. “Come again?”
“Alice.” He paced the small confines of the conference room. “I trust her. She wouldn’t be protecting the guy if he was hurting anyone other than the creeps who need it.”
“Who needs it,” Peterson pointed out, “is up to the judicial system.”
“Maybe,” Reese said again.
When Peterson and Logan both stared at him, he pulled up a chair of his own and leaned over the table toward them. “How many times has a ruthless murderer slipped through the cracks? How many times has evidence gotten botched and some ass**le gets loose, only to kill again?”
Peterson rolled her eyes. “Not that we’re discussing this.”
“No, we’re not.” Reese made up his mind. He’d find out what he needed to know, but he’d trust Alice enough to keep others out of it. In his heart—damn, when had his heart gotten tangled up in this?—he knew she was one of the most moral, honest, caring women he’d ever met.
How could he betray her? He couldn’t.
“Let’s get this over with.” He left the room to fetch Alice and Rowdy. He found them with Dash and Pepper, drinking Cokes and joking around. “Alice?”
Her gaze met his, and she turned bright red.
What the hell was that about? Rowdy grinned, saluted him with his Coke and asked, “Can we common folk join the discussion now? I gotta tell you, being surrounded by the boys in blue makes me itchy.”
Several cops glanced at Rowdy, but overall they ignored him.
Reese ignored him, too. “Dash, can you stay with Pepper? We won’t be long.”
“Sure. No problem.”
Pepper started to object, and Reese said, “Alice?” He held out his hand. “Come on, honey. We’re ready for you.”
He hoped Alice understood his acceptance, but in case she didn’t, as soon as she got close, he said low, “I’m sorry.”
Blinking big brown eyes up at him, she asked, “For what?”
“For thinking, even for a second, that you’d somehow alerted Trace.”
“You believe me that I didn’t?”
Pausing outside the door to the conference room, Reese gave one sharp nod. “No more secrets between us. Right?”
“Um...” Like a deer caught in the headlights, she froze. “Okay?”
Reese smiled. It was an agreement, albeit uncertain, maybe even unwilling. “Good.” He held her shoulders. “You ready to do this?”
“Of course.”
So stubbornly independent. “It doesn’t bother you, does it?” He caressed her, fought the urge to kiss her. “Being here?”
Maybe having the same thought, Alice leaned into him, her face tipped back, her eyes warm on his mouth. “I thought it would.” She put a hand on his chest, stroked up and over his shoulder. “But I got so involved chatting with Pepper that I forgot all about it.”
Every time she chatted with Pepper, he worried. Not that he didn’t like Pepper, because he did. But at all times, she was like a small, sexy explosion waiting to happen. The last thing he wanted was for her to influence Alice.
“The meeting is in here, Detective.”
At Peterson’s forceful tone, Reese gave Alice an encouraging smile and steered her into the room.
For the next forty-five minutes he sat back and let Logan and Peterson ask questions of Rowdy and Alice. It worked better to let someone fresh, someone uninvolved, get the info from them.