Page 62 of After The Storm
Roman took a seat next to her, taking the laptop and her phone from her hold. “Might as well.”
Kate turned toward him and took his hands in hers. When she looked up at him, he saw real regret in her eyes.
“I am so sorry, Roman. I didn’t think when I called Eve. It was so stupid, but I never meant to ruin everything.”
He stopped her with a kiss and then whispered against her lips, “No more talk about that. We’re here together. That’s all we need.”
“Even though it’s nothing as nice as your friend’s house?” she asked sheepishly.
That was an understatement. One glance around the tiny, rundown room showed that. He couldn’t hold her mistake against her forever, though.
Kissing her, he pulled her close into his arms. “It’s okay, Kate. As long as the people after us didn’t find out where we went, we should be fine.”
Kate looked up at him and shook her head. “You said that wrong, Roman. They’re not after you. They’re only after me. I know you think this is your job to protect me, but you’ve already done so much. I would understand if you didn’t want to do anything more. I mean, I was just about to leave. No one would blame you.”
The truth of it was it didn’t matter if he didn’t want to do anything more to help her. He had to, and not just because he worked for Project Artemis. He couldn’t just let her go out there where someone could hurt her.
“I’m not going anywhere, so stop trying to push me away because it won’t work.”
With a chuckle, she said, “Says the man who has pushing people away down to a science.”
“Exactly, so I should know. Now let’s get to work and see if we can figure something out where to turn next.”
“Where should we start?” she asked as she sat down on the bed on her side.
“I think we need to figure out how the governor is involved. Your boss felt sure it went all the way up to the top, so that’s where we have to look,” Roman said, sitting down next to her.
“We could head up to Baton Rouge,” she suggested.
It sounded like a long shot to him. “We can’t just walk into the Governor’s Mansion and ask him.”
Kate’s face lit up. “No, but we can go to one of his campaign offices.”
“Why would we find anything there?”
“I don’t know, but if I can get a look on one of the office computers, maybe I’ll find something.”
“How? I can’t imagine they’re not password protected,” Roman said, still skeptical.
She kissed him and smiled. “New Orleans is a very small place when it comes down to it. I just a need a way to call someone, so I’ll be needing my phone back.”
Roman shook his head. “No way. Remember it getting traced? Burner phones only from here on out, and I want to know every last detail about who you’re thinking of calling because I can’t imagine this is something I’m going to agree to.”
“Then get me a burner phone so I can make my call.”
“Who are you going to call?”
“You’ll see,” she teased. “You get me that phone and I’ll get us to someone who might be able to help.”
He shook his head. “We’re in this together, Kate. I need to know everything if I’m going to be able to protect you.”
She smiled sweetly and nodded. “Okay. I want to call someone named Jasper Carrollton. He’s someone I’ve known for years. If anyone can help us, it’s Jasper. He travels in circles up and down the social ladder of this city. I’ve known him forever. I would trust him with my life.”
Roman didn’t know how he felt about this Jasper person. Bringing anyone else into what they were already involved in didn’t sound like the best plan. Then again, they needed something to make some headway on this case.
“Okay,” he said as he moved to leave. “Give me a few minutes to go buy a burner phone.”
Kate reached out and tugged his hand to bring him back to the bed. “But first, maybe you should stay here for a little while.”