She looked at her notes again. Talking to Colton helped, but she didn’t like knowing that Thornton was driving this train. That bastard had it out for her; always had, it seemed. Even before she popped him in the face. Earned her a seven-day unpaid suspension, but the applause of every cop on the force who’d had to put up with Thornton’s bullshit since he’d arrived in LA.

Dammit, she’d built a good, solid case against Chen and his associates, and the DA himself had been thrilled when she turned it over to him. She was always great on the stand and had experience winning juries over when there was a complex case like this one. She’d had to take the mandatory three days because of the fatal shooting, but it was justified. Even IA, after she’d given her official statement, turned off the recorder and told her it was a no-brainer, knife thrown from less than twenty feet she should be lucky she’d survived. She had a fucking inch-long scar on her back to prove it.

The human trafficking angle might be federal on the surface, but the sweatshops were under LAPD purview, and Dyson had prosecuted two high-profile cases over the years just like this one, one of which Kara had been instrumental in tying up.

But she had to get this case to trial first, to put Chen behind bars for life, and the FBI was going to screw everything up if they took the case from LAPD and cut Chen a deal.

Frustrated because she was stuck here in Spokane for another week, she grabbed a beer and sat back down at the kitchen table.

Emily walked in and sat down across from her. Her grandmother smelled like she had just been smoking weed. Kara couldn’t get too angry with her—she was seventy and had chronic arthritis. And it was legal—now. It hadn’t been legal fifteen years ago when Kara moved in with her.

“You look so sad,” Em said.

Kara wasn’t going to talk to her stoned grandmother about her messed-up case in Los Angeles.

“I’m good.”

“Who were you just talking to? I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you told him to be safe. Another cop?”

“A friend. Colton. You met him a couple years ago.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“No. A friend and colleague.” Though her grandmother was very hip about most everything, she really didn’t want to get in a conversation about her and Colton and how they occasionally had fun in bed but it didn’t mean anything more than they needed to let off steam and they trusted each other. As much as two undercover cops could trust. Besides, if there was something serious going on between her and Colton, she certainly wouldn’t have slipped between the sheets with Matt Costa. She was no saint, but she didn’t two-time her lovers.

“You sounded worried.”

“I can’t really talk about it.”

Em frowned.

“He’s working undercover. It’s a sticky situation.”

“You work undercover.”

How did she know that? Kara painstakingly avoided talking about work. She would have to be more careful around Em.