him. “Okay. First up, date tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up, and we’ll go to dinner. Is six-thirty okay?”
Her top teeth landed on her bottom kiss-swollen lip, capturing his attention. He gave her a little squeeze, and she nodded.
“Yeah, just let me know what I should wear.”
“And you promise that between now and then you’ll do no more investigating, no more checking into things, no more dangerous trips, nothing.”
She nodded again and said, “I promise. Tomorrow I’ll be back at Kilton and have some people in the research department that I’m going to talk to. Honestly, that’ll be boring.”
“Good.”
He wrapped his arm around her, and they walked to the front door. Kissing her deeply, he looked out the window and saw an SUV stop on the road right in front of her townhouse. “That’s Alex.”
Kissing her lightly, he said, “We covered a lot of territory today. But, don’t forget, babe, the most important thing is the start of you and me. Together, a real relationship.”
She gifted him with a smile, one he was not going to take for granted, and it speared him straight through his heart. With a final kiss, he threw open the door and jogged over to the SUV, climbing inside.
They drove in silence for a moment and then Alex finally bit out, “Are you gonna talk or make me wonder what the fuck got into you?”
“It was her. Mystery woman.”
“Figured that out. What I want to know is what the hell she was doing and what the hell you’re gonna do about it.”
“You’re not gonna believe this… she works for fuckin’ Kilton Pharmaceuticals.”
Alex’s head whipped around, and Kyle laughed. It wasn’t often that he could catch his partner off-guard. He spent the rest of the ten-minute drive back to the station explaining everything that Kimberly told him. Her job at Kilton. The new assignment. Her decision to take some of the human-interest stories to the magazine. And her reason for going to the Cardboard Cottages.
Parking, Alex made no move to get out, just shook his head slowly. “Okay, you got me. That’s one crazy-ass story.”
Once inside, they headed straight to their desks, and he opened his laptop. Alex plopped down at the desk directly across from him and said, “By the way, we need to talk to Todd Bartosi.”
Glancing at his partner over the top of his screen, he cocked his head to the side. “The Kilton robbery?”
“Seems like Charlie and Joe’s stories don’t exactly match up.”
Brows lifted, he nodded and dropped his gaze back to his screen. He pulled up the information on the e-magazine, but everything he could see looked legit.
“Bartosi sent over what they had, and I’ve got it up on the board.”
Kyle leaned back, resting his hip against his desk. At the top of the board, he’d written two words. Kilton Pharmaceuticals. Underneath, he had a picture of Beth Washington and Dr. Tiller, with notes out to the side about the drug ring they had been involved in using stolen opioids from KP. To the side, he had placed pictures of Charlie and Joe, observing that Alex’s info from Detective Bartosi about the KP van robbery was now there as well.
“We went and talked to Beth, but I’d like to see if Dr. Tiller is willing to talk more. I’ll wager a few months in prison might have loosened his lips a little.”
“I wonder if he’s got someone protecting him as well.”
“Let’s make the arrangements. If we’re lucky, we can get there tomorrow.”
He waited while Alex made the call and then the two of them headed the few blocks away to headquarters where Bartosi and his partner were stationed. Once on the third floor, they stopped in the open workroom, poured a cup of powerhouse coffee, and found Todd sitting at his desk, staring at his evidence board as well.
His partner walked in, a statuesque brunette with a wide smile and no-nonsense manner. Sticking her hand out, she said, “McBride, Freeman. Nice to meet you. I’m Roberta Manson, known as Birdie.”
Birdie was a looker, no doubt, but Kyle’s mind was filled with a petite honey-blonde. One look to the side toward his partner, it was evident that Alex was more than taken with Todd's partner. Hiding a grin, he walked over to their evidence board. “Talk to me about Charlie and Joe.”
“You were with us when Charlie came in while Joe was still at the hospital. That was to our advantage because they hadn’t had a chance to talk between themselves. Charlie