“Sounds good.” He paused as the waitress set down their food and then released Brigid to dig in.

The man certainly took food seriously. She dumped the dressing onto her Cobb salad. “Do you cook?”

“Yep. Every chance I get. I’ll make you something while we date,” he said, nudging her plate toward her. “Eat up. We have to go for a walk and learn to hold hands after this.”

Her stomach flip-flopped. It was so silly. Holding hands didn’t mean anything, and yet, she felt like she was fifteen years old again with her first crush. Why? What was it about him? “When was the last time you dated somebody?” she asked, taking a bite.

He chewed thoughtfully. “Seriously dated? Probably about three years ago before we started working on the mob case. Her name was Louise, and she was a veterinarian. Nice woman, but we kind of frittered away.”

Frittered? Brigid hadn’t heard that term in way too long. Her phone buzzed, and she read the face. “Finished a deeper background check on Jonny P and Josh the Bear. Jonny has a pretty good rap sheet, but even I couldn’t find a hint of Josh before he met up with Jonny.” She pursed her lips. It was rare, very, for somebody to be that anonymous. “I’ll keep looking.”

Raider finished his burger. “Good luck. Even HDD can’t find a history for him.”

Brigid ate her salad and started to relax at having the hard-bodied Fed next to her. She was almost sorry when he paid the check and escorted her outside to the vacant sidewalk. A slight rain had begun to fall, and dark clouds rolled across the sky.

Raider ushered her to his truck. “Guess our walk will have to wait.”

She jumped inside and waited for him to start the engine and drive toward their apartment building. Even though she knew better, this felt like a date. How far would he take it? As if in answer, he reached across the seat and took her hand when he drove away from the curb.

His palm was warm and calloused. Raider Tanaka hadn’t spent his life behind a desk, now had he? She cleared her throat. “With all the intrigue and going undercover, how do you keep your life straight? I mean, how do you ever trust anybody?” She tried to keep her tone emotionless, but it wasn’t easy. Sometimes it was difficult to know what the truth was when dealing with people. Computer code never lied.

His hold tightened. “You have to know who you trust. There has to be somebody you give all the truth to, or you’ll go nuts. For this case, it’s you and me. No lies.” The rain splattered the windshield harder, and he flicked on the wipers.

She couldn’t do this. Not really. But she couldn’t tell him that. “I don’t really trust well.”