She ignored it because she wouldn’t give the vulture anything to feed off of, but it struck down in her soul. When they slipped into Eddie’s car, she took note of one reporter, who continued to stand there and watch them.
Arnie Matthews. The guy was always after sensationalist crap to get more views and clicks.
No one else had made that connection. She would definitely be looking into Arnie, because she didn’t need people making the connections right now. It could hinder the investigation.
And just like her partner, she couldn’t wait to find the asshole and lock him in a dark hole.
He watched from the shadows.Rain had started again, but he didn’t care and knew he wouldn’t be noticed. He blended in with these people. Most of them wouldn’t look at him twice.
Eileen said something to the reporter and walked away. He had seen her show up with that man. The bastard thought he had a right to her, but he would soon learn that Eileen wasn’t for him. Why would she want someone who cooked for a living? Not when she could have a man who was helping her career. She was getting attention for the case, and when they realized they had the same killer, she would get more news.
It was only a matter of time before she realized she was meant for him.
Ten
Declan smiled when his sister walked into his restaurant. They weren’t open yet, but he had called her down because he needed help. She had little Mike with her, so that made him happy.
“Come here, big guy,” he said, easily taking his nephew.
“Tell me why I had to run over here on my day off.”
He sighed.
“Tell me you didn’t screw up your date last night.”
“How did you know about that?”
“Really? This family is only outdone in gossiping by the Santinis. Please tell me you didn’t screw up.”
“No,” he said, grabbing a fresh towel to wipe off Mike’s drool. The boy was teething like crazy.
“Okay, why do you need me? And why couldn’t we do this over the phone?”
“First, I feel better talking this over in person. And second, I took BeeBee’s advice and took Eileen food one night. And since I cooked for her last night—” One eyebrow rose, and, at that moment, he saw his mother. He knew that he couldn’t lie to Kaitlin. “But when she had to leave this morning, I couldn’t do more than coffee and avocado toast.”
She blinked. “One date, and you got her to sleep over?”
Something in his sister’s voice had him tilting his head to study her. “Yeah. Why?”
She pressed her lips together as if trying to keep a secret.
“Really? Now? You’re gonna not tell me something I need to know?”
“You might need to know, but I’m trying to remember if it was told to me in confidence or not.”
“For the love of —”
“Okay, here, I can do this.” She drew in a deep breath, and he called on his control not to yell at her. Not because he wouldn’t yell at her. It was because little Mike was watching them. Declan would not lose his temper in front of the little man. “Say I have this friend.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” he muttered. For some reason, Mike found that hilarious. “I don’t want to meet any friend of yours.”
She settled her hands on her hips and stared at him as if he were stupid. Then, it hit him what she was doing. See, that’s the thing. Before his infatuation with Eileen, he would have picked up on it. When Aeden had once told him that love made a man stupid—in good ways and bad—his brother hadn’t been lying.
“Go on.”
“This friend made a comment one night. We were talking about sleeping with a significant other.”
“I don’t want to hear about you and your sleeping partner. Gross.”