“Thank you,” Jess said.
They headed off. Faith made to follow. She really wanted to hear this conversation, but Ryan stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Let them talk alone,” he said. “It will do Jess good. Besides, we need to talk.”
For a second she thought about arguing, but then she halted and watched as Jess and Roz paused by the reception desk and spoke to the red-haired man, before disappearing through the door behind him.
Faith sighed. Ryan was right and she could only hope Jess would have something new to tell her when they spoke again.
“And I’m going to go find Christian,” Tara said. “Nice to meet you, Faith.” She nodded to Ryan but ignored Ash. Was there something going on between the two of them?
“Let’s go to my place,” Ryan said. “We can talk there.” He turned to Ash. “Haven’t you got something to do?”
“No.”
“So find something,” Ryan snapped.
As Faith followed him to the elevator, she could sense Ash’s gaze on her and the skin on her back prickled. Ryan pressed the button for the fifteenth floor, the doors slid shut, and she relaxed.
“You live here?” she asked.
“Yeah, I got the place with the job. It’s convenient.”
“I bet.” This place was right in the middle of the business district. She didn’t even want to think about how much an apartment would cost to rent here. Faith had a grueling one-hour commute each day from her tiny apartment into Scotland Yard.
Ryan was doing extremely well. While she’d have sworn he wasn’t the type to be swayed by money, maybe everybody had a price and they’d found Ryan’s.
He led her into a spacious living area with huge windows along one wall, which gave a spectacular view of the city of London. “Nice,” she murmured.
“It is. Look, are you really all right?” he asked. “Did they find what was wrong with you that night?”
“I’m having a few tests done, but they think it’s nothing serious.” She hated lying to Ryan, but she hated sympathy more. “Hey, I don’t suppose there’s a chance of a coffee in this posh place.
“Yeah, I’ll go make you one.”
She trailed after him into the luxurious kitchen,
“Wow, they must really like you. This place is…”
“Nice. Yeah, it is. But it was empty.” He shrugged and opened the fridge. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with milk.” He picked up the phone and punched in a number. “Graham, any chance of sending some coffee up to my place. Thanks.”
“Christ, all this and coffee on call. Maybe I can see why you took this job.”
He studied her for a moment, and she knew he was trying to come to a decision. Finally, he shrugged. “They’re still recruiting. I could put in a good word for you.”
His words shocked her. She didn’t know why, but she hadn’t expected it. “Recruiting for what? What is it you do here, Ryan? Your new partner looks like some sort of gang leader.”
Ryan grinned. “Ash has his moments, but he’s basically a good guy.”
“I’ll take your word for it. So…the job, what is it?”
“At the moment, liaison as much as anything. With potential customers. But CR Investigation takes on all sorts of jobs. It could be interesting.”
She’d bet it could. Talk about a whole load of words saying absolutely nothing. “All sorts of jobs” could cover a multitude of sins. Still, even if she had been prepared to leave the force, she was hardly in a position to take a new job right now. She had a time bomb ticking away in her head.
“Maybe once I’ve solved this murder, I’ll think about it.”
“And what if you never solve the murder?”
“I will.” She wished she were so certain.
“You said you had some information for me. What is it and how did you know about Roz being here?”
She’d been planning to tell him everything about the meeting with the colonel. Now, after seeing this setup and meeting his new “partner” she wondered if she should. But Ryan was still the same man and she trusted him. Besides, the colonel hadn’t actually told her not to mention their little talk.
“Come on, Faith, spit it out.”
She took a deep breath. “That wasn’t my first job offer of the day.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No. This morning I was approached by a couple of guys. They said they were working for a government department. They were investigating Christian Roth and—”
“What?” Ryan’s sounded shocked.
She opened her mouth to continue when a hard knock sounded on the door.
“Wait a second,” Ryan said.
She followed him through and waited as he spoke to whoever was on the other side, but she couldn’t hear the words. Finally, he opened the door wider and stood aside.
“You’d better come in.”
Chapter Four
Ash had expected an argument. He’d known Ryan didn’t want him in on this conversation, and he wasn’t sure why he wanted to be here anyway.