Touch of Red (Tracers #12)(69)

“He was never charged,” Ric said.

“Yeah, but still.”

“We’ll look into it. Do you think any of them saw you in there?”

“I had a corner booth in the back. None of them noticed me.” She looked at Sean. “Neither did Brooke.”

Sean got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. “What do you mean?”

“She was in there, too. Showed up right after the judge.”

“There she is now,” Ric said.

Sean grabbed the binoculars to see for himself. And there was Brooke exiting the restaurant wearing a baseball cap, shades, and an oversize brown jacket. She glanced around before heading north down the sidewalk. Then she stopped at a meter and hopped into a black Toyota 4Runner. Some guy was behind the wheel, but Sean didn’t have a good view of him.

“What the hell is she doing?” Sean looked at Callie.

“I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell us.”





CHAPTER 20


Brooke was stepping out of a steamy shower when the doorbell rang. She hurried into her bedroom and threw on some clothes before grabbing her wallet on the way to the door. The delivery guy was early.

But it wasn’t the delivery guy on her doorstep.

“Hi,” she said, letting Sean inside. He wore dark slacks and a tie, and she started to ask where he’d come from, but the expression on his face stopped her cold. “What’s wrong?”

“Sit down. I need to talk to you.”

She narrowed her gaze at him.

“Please,” he added, but his voice was terse.

She closed the door and took a seat on her sofa. He sat on the chair beside her and rested his elbows on his knees for a long moment as he stared at the floor. Then his gaze met hers, and the stormy look in his eyes had her heart racing.

“Where is it?” he asked.

“Where is what?”

“The drinking glass. And don’t lie to me.”

She pulled back. “What the hell? Don’t accuse me of lying to you.”

“Where is it?”

“At the lab.”

He closed his eyes, and the muscle at the side of his jaw twitched. “God damn it, Brooke.”

“What?”

He started to say something, then shook his head. Suddenly he stood up. “I need to go.”

“Wait, that’s it?” She looked up at him and laughed. “Discussion over?”

“If I open my mouth right now, I’m going to yell at you.”

She got to her feet and plunked her hands on her hips. “Yell all you want. I won’t break.”

He shook his head and looked away.

“Obviously, you’re ticked off. I can understand, but—”

“Ticked off? That doesn’t even begin to describe what I am right now, Brooke. I’m fucking furious—” He stepped back and held his hands up. “You know what? I’m not doing this. I need to go. I almost didn’t come over here in the first place because I’m so goddamn mad at you right now.”

Anger swelled in her chest at the idea that he’d avoid her because he thought she couldn’t handle a conflict.

“Be mad, Sean. Go ahead. Yell all you want.”

He shook his head and wouldn’t look at her.

“Yell, Sean. Say what’s on your mind!”

His gaze snapped to hers. “Fine! I can’t fucking believe you did this!”

“What, exactly?”

He sneered. “You should stick to lab work, Brooke, because you are not a detective and you suck at undercover.”

“Who said anything about undercover?” she demanded. “I’m not hiding anything.”

“Oh, yeah? So, you weren’t trying to be all stealth about it? So, you don’t care if a brutal murderer knows you’re tailing him around and collecting his DNA?”

She rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t know that.”

“No?” Sean stepped closer. “I talked to that waiter, Brooke, and it took me all of thirty seconds to figure out what you did. If I can do it, so can Mahoney.”

“He didn’t even see me there.”

Sean tipped his head back. “Jesus Christ. How can you say that?” He gaped at her. “I saw you there. My whole team saw you there. The entire staff of that restaurant saw you there. How could you be so damn reckless? You could have gotten hurt. You could still get hurt!”

The bell rang. She tore her gaze away from Sean to look at the door.

“That’s my dinner.” She grabbed her wallet from where she’d dropped it on the couch and hurried to the door. After taking the warm paper bag of Thai food, she tipped the delivery guy and sent him on his way with a phony smile.

Brooke closed and locked the door, barely glancing at Sean as she strode into the kitchen. He followed her. She set the bag on the counter and started unpacking the cartons, not bothering to hide her emotions as she slapped everything out on the counter.

“You know, I thought you might be annoyed, but I also thought you might be a tad bit grateful.”

“Grateful.” He folded his arms over his chest.

Again she wondered about the tie. “Yes, grateful. Appreciative. Thankful that I put a rush on some tests for you so you’ll know whether you’re focused on the right suspect.”