She was wrong.

And being wrong just pissed her off.

She said, “You either trust me or you don’t.”

“I met you four days ago, Kara.”

“And you’ve known Thornton for how long?”

“That’s not the same thing!”

“I’ll tell you one thing. I have used deadly force seven times in my twelve years as a cop. Yes, more than most cops, but most cops don’t work undercover and with the scummiest of the scum. It’s the nature of my job—it’s dangerous and necessary. Every single time, I’ve been cleared. They were all just. Every. Single. One. I already told you that I was forced to take a vacation. Bryce can call it administrative leave all he wants, but it’s my vacation time I’m cashing in. But the reason Lex told me to take a hike was not because of my use of force.”

“Then why?”

She wanted to tell him—not to justify or explain herself, but because losing Soon Chi Chu hurt. Kara didn’t get emotional about her cases—she couldn’t and still do what she did. Lex told her she was getting too close to the young Chinese girl Kara called Sunny, and Kara had dismissed him as being the overprotective father she didn’t want. But he was right. Because he was always right about things like this.

When that bastard David Chen killed Sunny, Kara compartmentalized her murder like she did every other victim she’d ever come across. But it was hard. Too hard. Okay, down right impossible. Sunny gave Kara information because Kara pushed her. Sunny had never wanted to get involved, but Kara was good at getting people to do what was against their best interests.

They were so close—so damn close—to Sunny being free. No human being should ever be in captivity. No human being should suffer slavery. No human should be subjected to the pain and humiliation of being treated worse than cattle in a sweatshop where they made pennies a day.

And then Sunny was dead, and her blood was on Kara’s hands. Literally and figuratively.

“Call me if you need my help on your case, otherwise, goodbye. Show yourself out.”

“Don’t—” Matt said as Kara walked inside.

She kept going.

She would destroy Bryce Thornton as soon as she was back in LA, and he would never see it coming.

36

Liberty Lake
5:00 p.m.

Matt regretted his conversation with Kara. What had he been thinking? He hadn’t. Why had he thought she’d just explain? She was hostile and defensive, and under normal circumstances he’d think that was a sign of guilt, but with Kara, he didn’t think so.

Dammit. He’d fucked up again. He shouldn’t have slept with her in the first place. If he hadn’t, would he have reacted any different? Maybe. Maybe not. He couldn’t put the genie back into the bottle, so he was going to have to suck it up and deal. He’d offended her, and that wasn’t his intention. She’d devoted nearly as many hours as he and his team had—and certainly more than any of the local cops except maybe Andy—to working this case. She’d even come by last night and helped read through the dozens of lawsuits, a tedious and time-consuming chore that he honestly hadn’t expected her to volunteer for. He owed her—and yet he’d pissed her off.