Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Carol Ericson (beginner reading books for adults .txt) 📗

closed, Kyra returned to the office to turn off the lights. During her session with Evan, her next client had canceled, which gave Kyra a chance to get to Quinn’s place earlier.

She perched on the edge of the desk and called him.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong.” The lie sounded thin. “Just a few things I want to run past you. Do you want me to pick up dinner?”

“No need. Rose across the channel dropped off a lasagna. I can’t eat the whole thing myself.”

“Perfect.” She smiled into the phone. “Rose, huh? Didn’t she just lose her husband the movie producer last year?”

“She did, but don’t get any ideas.” He coughed. “And you’d better be prepared to tell me what’s wrong when you get here. You’re an expert at keeping secrets, but not from me.”

“I have no intention of keeping any secrets from you, and I also don’t need to worry you over the phone.”

She heard a sharp intake of breath. “Do I need to worry?”

“See what I mean?” She hopped off the desk. “Heat up that lasagna. You got stuff for salad?”

“Yes, hurry up.”

Kyra ended the call and sucked in her bottom lip. She didn’t want Quinn to be concerned about her, but she wanted to bounce this off him before she went to Jake—and she had to go to Jake.

She locked up the office and made the short drive from Santa Monica to Venice—short in distance. The traffic made the journey crawl.

By the time she knocked on Quinn’s door, the sun had set and her stomach was grumbling. She reached for the door handle in case Quinn wasn’t up to the trek across his living room floor.

He flung it open before she could tell if it was locked or not. He’d slicked back his gray hair and even trimmed his wild eyebrows.

She kissed his worn cheek. “You look nice. Did you make an effort for Rose?”

“Stop.” He waved his hand. “Tell me what’s going on before you scurry off to the kitchen. The food can wait.”

She sniffed the garlic-scented air. “Apparently not.”

She followed him to his chair and sat across from him on the love seat. She pulled the queen of diamonds from her purse. “Found this by my car this afternoon, on the ground.”

“And put your prints all over it.” He snapped his fingers, and she placed the card on his outstretched palm.

“There won’t be any prints.”

“And how do you know that? People make mistakes.” He turned the card over.

“Because that’s not the first one I found, and the queen of hearts didn’t have prints.” She held her breath and watched the lines on his craggy face deepen, a needle of guilt pricking the back of her neck.

“Where and when did you find the other card?”

“On the ground, near the dumpster behind my apartment building—queen of hearts that time.” She raised her finger. “I did scoop that one up and had the fingerprint tech at the Northeast Division test it. You remember Clive? He’s still there.”

“So, you turned it in to McAllister and the task force.” He sank back in his chair, tapping the edge of the card on his knee.

“Not exactly.”

“Keeping secrets again, Kyra? You don’t belong on the task force if you’re keeping secrets. That could put someone’s life in danger. They need every clue right now, and this is a clue. They both are.”

“I know that now after finding the second card.” She spread her hands. “I thought the one at my apartment was a coincidence.”

“You know what I told you about coincidences in investigations.”

She repeated with him. “There are no coincidences in law enforcement.”

She brushed a hand across her slacks. “I didn’t want to raise any alarms with that first card. Clive didn’t find any prints on it and there are no cameras at my place, so I figured it didn’t matter.”

A spark lit Quinn’s faded blue eyes as his gaze drilled into her.

She rose from the love seat and circled around it. “Then when I found the second card, I knew it had meaning. But what? This copycat killer can’t know who I am.”

“Who says the copycat killer left the cards?”

She linked her hands in front of her and twisted her fingers. “You mean it could be someone else taking advantage of the situation to torture me?”

“Anyone come to mind?” He snapped the card on the coffee table.

Kyra folded her arms and dug her fingers into her biceps. “You’re not talking about Matt, are you?”

“Just throwing it out there. He saw the news and thought he’d poke at you. You know he’s capable.”

“I know Matt is capable of just about anything, but he’d also like nothing more than for me to reach out to him to find out if he’s playing tricks.” She whipped her head back and forth. “I’m not going to do that.”

“And you shouldn’t.” Quinn prodded the card with his finger. “Where’s the other one? You said there were two cards.”

“Jake has the other one.” She shoved one hand in the pocket of her slacks in a nonchalant pose.

“I thought you said he didn’t know about the cards.”

“The queen of hearts fell out of my purse when we were at lunch, so I had to tell him about it.”

Quinn grimaced with one side of his mouth. “That must’ve gone over well.”

“He wasn’t happy, if that’s what you mean.” Kyra marched into the kitchen. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving and that lasagna smells good.”

“He accused you of keeping it from him, being deceptive.”

Kyra bent forward and peered at the lasagna heating up on the middle rack, the heat from the oven warming her face. “Of course, he did, but I explained that I brought it in for prints and that I believed it was just a coincidence. I did believe that.”

“You don’t toy with a man like McAllister. I’m sure you heard about his run-in with that therapist. You must’ve heard about it. You were working with her.”

“Not on that, I wasn’t. I never would’ve tried to get a