When I Found You. Kate James

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ nice to see you, too, Captain,” Ariana said with a forced smile and syrupy-sweet voice. “Are you here to deliver the safety tip of the evening?”

      “No.” He’d followed her on impulse and was glad he had. “Did you...” He trailed off, ignoring the curious expression on her face. There was no point enlightening her about what had happened. He was starting to think logically again. Being around Ariana seemed to frazzle his brain. She wasn’t careless. She’d arrived late, after him. The bar and the parking lot were both already full when he got there. She’d probably taken the only spot available.

      “Did I what?” she prompted.

      “Uh...” He recalled the reason he had followed her out. “Will you have dinner or a drink with me?”

      She laughed. Light and airy. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard her laugh, but it appealed to him in a way he couldn’t explain.

      She gestured toward the building. “I just had a drink, and, Captain...” she put distinct emphasis on his title “...one drink is my limit if I’m driving.”

      It was his turn to chuckle. He rested a hand on her window frame. “I didn’t mean right now.”

      An odd expression flitted across her face. “Of course not. Is there a new development I should be aware of?”

      Logan didn’t know if she was being coy or had forgotten about their discussion. He never had this much trouble asking a woman out on a date. Despite her laugh, she seemed reserved and, well, standoffish. He had no idea what had changed. He’d thought they’d hit it off the night they’d gone to Buster’s. “No. Not for business. Just a chance to spend some time together...get to know each other better,” he clarified.

      Her eyes darkened and a vertical line formed between her brows. She swung her gaze toward the entrance to The Runway before meeting his again. “I think you have enough company to keep you entertained, Captain.”

      He wasn’t sure what she meant, but this time her use of his title sounded derogatory.

      “C’mon. Have dinner with me.” He offered his best smile. “There’re always the policies to discuss.”

      “Thanks, but I’m busy.”

      “I haven’t suggested a night yet.”

      “Right. Well, that night that you’d be suggesting, I have plans.”

      He had to draw his hand away quickly as she raised the window. If he hadn’t taken a step back, she might’ve run over his foot, too, as she pulled away and out of the lot.

      Logan heard a hearty laugh and turned toward its source.

      Cal stood some twenty feet away, his arm around his wife. Jessica was grinning ear-to-ear.

      “Crash and burn! I don’t think I’ve seen you strike out before, Jagger,” Cal remarked.

      Logan knew the reputation he had at the division. He didn’t know how he’d earned it. He was no more a player than most single cops. Although he avoided romantic entanglements, he tried to never hurt a woman he was seeing. That was more than could be said for some of the others. Having a witness to his strikeout with Ariana was mildly embarrassing, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. “It’s not the first time, nor do I expect it’ll be the last,” he said pleasantly. Waving good-night to Cal and Jess, he headed to his own vehicle.

      It irked him more than he cared to admit that the beautiful security executive had brushed him off. There was no denying his attraction to her. When they’d ended their evening at Buster’s, she wouldn’t commit to dinner but he was certain the appeal hadn’t been one-sided.

      Logan shrugged. Probably for the best if it didn’t go anywhere. At least until he either finished training Shannon or hired a replacement for Brody.

      And of course, there was the whole reason why he avoided getting serious with women and why he’d procrastinated calling Ariana. Despite how happy his close friends were in their relationships, he’d seen up close, with his mother, what being married to a cop could do to a person.

      His attraction to Ariana was unlike anything he could remember experiencing before, and he wasn’t prepared to risk thinking long term.

CHAPTER FIVE

      MONDAY MORNING IN the terminal building, on her way to her office, Ariana grabbed a coffee—strong with a splash of milk. She placed the cup on her desk, her bag beside it. Sitting down, she turned to slide her laptop into its docking station and stared in surprise at the plain white envelope propped up against her monitor. It hadn’t been there when she’d left Friday night. Few people had access to her office: a cleaner, her duty supervisor, Max, Cyn and herself.

      A quick scan of her office revealed nothing else was out of place. She nearly reached in her drawer to pull out a pair of blue latex gloves, to put them on before she handled the envelope.

      She chuckled at herself. It was undoubtedly a corporate memo that had been delivered to her door and the cleaning lady had brought it in. Overreacting was an occupational hazard in her field, always expecting the unexpected from simple situations. As the saying went, you planned for the worst and hoped for the best. Ariana slit the envelope open, pulled out the single sheet of paper and unfolded it.

      Reading the typed message, she felt a rush of adrenaline.

      She snatched up the phone, began dialing, then stopped. It was before seven in the morning, and Cyn wouldn’t be in for an hour. She called her duty supervisor instead. “Get me the video footage for the hall outside my office, would you please, Trevor?”

      “Of course. What time frame would you like?”

      Ariana gave him the duration between when she’d left the office Friday evening and when she’d arrived just now.

      “Anything you want me to check for?”

      She considered his offer and decided that, under the circumstances, she wanted to do it herself. “No, thanks. Just get me the file as soon as you can.”

      “Right away, boss.”

      She quickly composed and sent out an incident notification. The message would reach the appropriate parties at all the devices they had registered in the system. She added Logan to the distribution list, because he wasn’t registered in the system as one of the normal recipients. After hitting Send, she tried FSD Stewart’s cell number. When it went straight to voice mail, she didn’t bother leaving a message. The emergency notification system would already have done that.

      Ariana’s next call was to the San Diego Police Department and Logan. Last Friday morning she’d been thinking about him, and contemplating calling him to take him up on his suggestion about dinner. What a difference a couple of days made. More accurately, what a difference it made learning about his reputation and witnessing firsthand how he’d earned it.

      She assumed it would be Logan, working in collaboration with the federal authorities, who’d be looking into the letter she was holding. He was the key contact regarding the investigation of the two women on the Barbados-bound flight; it made sense he’d be assigned for this latest development, too. The officers stationed at the airport would be supporting СКАЧАТЬ