Because that was better than standing here, going around and around in this conversation with him.
“I’ll get back to work as well.”
“So great to talk to you.” She laced the words with sarcasm, not quite sure why he was bringing this out in her.
Okay, fine. The mix of him not being who she thought he was, or who she wanted him to be, and her trying to live a life where she was something completely different than who she had been before…It was all jumbling together and making her defensive. As if she had to prove to him that she was a good person now.
She turned away.
“Kira.”
She didn’t want to turn back, but she did, because otherwise it would be rude, and she was trying to convince him she was a nice person. “Yes?”
Those dark eyes stared at her. Did the man have to be completely handsome and one hundred percent someone a mother might have approved of? That’s how she knew the world wasn’t built to be fair—because she had no idea what kind of person her mother would’ve been if she’d lived.
And she probably wasn’t ever going to catch a break.
“If you’re here for some nefarious reason, I’m going to figure out what it is.” He took a step toward her and spoke in a low tone. “I don’t know what you did with that flash drive you took from me, and I doubt I ever will unless you tell me. But I sincerely hope you’re not on some kind of mission here in Renegade. Because if you are, you have to know that I’m going to stop you doing whatever it is before someone I care about gets hurt.”
She stared at him, her eyes suddenly burning with unshed tears. She’d worked so hard not to be that person anymore. To do her job trying to save lives and push everything else out so that she could wake up in the morning and go to bed at night feeling good about herself.
The skin around his eyes flexed, and she saw the beginning of a frown. “Kira?—”
“Like I said, I have to get back to work.”
She turned and strode away, ignoring the nurses behind the desk looking at her. Destiny and her husband. Dr. Barnett and anyone else. She ignored them all and rushed to a quiet corner where she could shed a couple of tears.
And then she got back to work.
Six
Luca walked out of the office of the head of security after a meeting that had gone pretty well, considering he was seriously encroaching on the guy’s territory. And also considering it was after midnight. He was still thinking about Kira’s reaction to what he’d said and found himself automatically heading toward the elevator so he could go back down to the emergency department.
Ralph Rousseau should be stable by now—he hoped. Luca had gone by the Rousseau house to talk to him late last night, and Destiny had answered the door flustered because Ralph had collapsed. As the person who had called 911 for them, he would trade on some goodwill to ask the guy a couple of questions if he was awake. Or he’d arrange to swing by tomorrow so they could talk.
He hit the button for the elevator and stepped inside when the doors opened.
It was almost as though she’d thought she was being falsely accused. Which was crazy. She’d reacted like someone brought to tears by the idea that they were being treated like a guilty person. With her too-clean background check, which was suspicious all on its own, he had no idea who she’d been working for back when they first met. Or what her role had been in that refugee camp.
There was no way she was completely innocent.
She was someone. An operative. The kind of person who used her femininity and fake tears to throw a guy like him off.
But even that didn’t seem quite right. He would rather believe she really was innocent, but that didn’t match up with the fact she’d taken the flash drive from his pocket. If he took her word for it, he ran the risk of being deceived.
Luca had far too much at stake to let this go. He just needed to find a way to get her to tell him what she was hiding.
He stepped out into the hallway and immediately heard yelling. A nurse ran from one of the rooms at the end of the hall, close to where the doors to the waiting area were. The entry was controlled by a buzzer so that only people who were authorized to enter were allowed in the emergency department.
The nurse ran back to the room, pushing a heavy cart.
“We’re losing him,” he heard Kira yell.
Luca figured it wasn’t a good idea to disturb her right now if someone’s life hung in the balance, so he kept himself from walking all the way over to see what was going on. She already thought he was entirely too nosy and suspicious of her motives.
But was it such a bad thing to be cautious?
Destiny pushed the curtain back and looked out into the hall. She spotted him. “Oh, hello.”