It was only a casual Mexican restaurant, but he still was going to take a wild guess that Reese was the only one who had terry cloth on her feet. Yet she looked adorable, strolling around wearing a tank top and his jeans. They kept sliding low on her hips, exposing her midriff, and she had rolled the bottoms up above her ankles so she wasn’t walking on them.
Derek was starting to get a bad feeling. That he was forgetting to think of Reese as temporary. Fun while it lasted.
He was enjoying her company too much and was having trouble concentrating on anything other than making her go weak with pleasure in his arms. He needed to regain control, drag himself back into reality and remember what exactly was at stake here.
His career.
Long after Reese trotted back off to New York and resumed her life, he had to live here in Chicago, working for the Bureau for the next twenty years. He had no interest in spending that time pushing papers or taking an involuntary transfer to Podunk, Nowhere.
That case had to work out. Delco needed to be indicted.
“So, tell me again exactly what your plans are for the next few weeks?” He bit a tortilla chip and forced himself to relax back into the booth.
“You know there’s a giant maraca over your head?” Reese was looking above him as she sipped her enormous margarita that was the most horrifying blue color he’d ever seen.
Nothing could make him drink something that looked like toilet bowl cleaner.
As he tilted his head back to check out the hot pink and tan maraca swaying behind him, he realized she had effectively distracted him again.
“Reese. Forget the maraca. Tell me your plans.”
“Well, you know, Knight, sometimes we need to just go with the flow, you know? Well, that’s what I’m doing.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means I quit my job with theNewark Newsand I’m planning on staying here until the Delco story breaks.”
Of course. What had he been thinking? “Working for Ashton Chatterton?”
“Yes.”
He needed a beer. Flagging the waiter over, he said to Reese, “What happens when Chatterton figures out you’re not the bride’s cousin? If he looks into your background, you could jeopardize this case.”
“Oh, give me a flipping break. If Chatterton figures me out, then why in the world would he connect a reporter from theNewark News,small-time East Coast rag, with the FBI investigating Delco for international price-fixing?”
She had a point. But the whole thing still made him nervous.
After ordering the beer, he said, “Yeah, but you can’t be involved in the investigation, so why bother? If you want to stillstick around for the story to break and you need money, you can be a server or something.”
Given the narrowing of her eyes, he suspected she wasn’t pleased with his suggestion.
“I don’t want to be a server because there would be no point in that! And why can’t I help you in this investigation? I could speed things up, I know I could. Or at the very least conduct my own independent journalistic investigation. ”
“You could screw things up, is what you could do.”
“You trust that guy, Markson, but not me?” Her voice rose and he panicked.
“Christ, keep it down. You’re yelling out the name of a CW in a public place!”
She snorted. “No one gives a crap. They’re all stuffing their faces with burritos after a miserable Monday back at work. There are no corporate spies lingering around the guacamole at Amigo’s.”
“This is why you cannot be involved in this case. You have no sense of discretion.”
“Uhh!” She gasped and set her margarita down, sending the blue liquid sloshing over the sides. “I am so goddamn discreet, I’m practically invisible. And don’t you dare take that patronizing tone with me. You can’t forbid me to work for Chatterton.”
Not at the moment. But Derek was sure if he thought about it hard enough, he could figure out a way to do that. But did he really want to make an enemy out of Reese? God only knew what she was capable of doing when she was angry. And she knew a lot about the Delco case, thanks to Markson’s rental car goof.
“Look, don’t get so upset. I’m not forbidding you to work for Chatterton.”