Cole nodded, and Joey shook her head in response.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I need to catch Flint before I leave anyway.”
“Okay. We’ll talk tomorrow.” Her refusal made sense, but he didn’t have to like it. He’d much rather spend another few minutes with her, though he didn’t want to examine why.
Joey nodded and opened the door to the lobby of BTS with the touch of a button.
“Good night.”
Cole climbed into his car and sat silently on the way home. Lost in thought. Thoughts about his company. The threat. Joey.
He needed to get a hold of himself. Joey Rodriguez might be beautiful, intelligent, and insightful, but he couldn’t entertain any thoughts beyond her completion of the job he’d hired her for. His purpose was to serve at Zia and finally deliver a blow to the disease that had destroyed his family. Everything else had always been secondary. There were a dozen reasons he needed to stay focused–the least of which was the fact that she seemed to despise him, which meant it didn’t matter anyway.
“Cole?”
He blinked then met Jared’s eyes, full of laughter, in the mirror. “Everything okay?”
He realized Jared must have tried to get his attention several times. “What? Sorry. Just a lot on my mind.” He looked back out the window, barely seeing the lights of Alexandria going past.
Jared nodded. “You take on too much, Cole.”
Cole looked back at his friend and driver. “I don’t have a choice. You know that.”
Jared shook his head. “I know you think that, but it’s not true.”
Cole sighed. They’d had this argument too many times before to rehash it again. “I’ll just go home now.”
Jared pressed his lips into a firm line and nodded. Cole didn’t have the energy to wonder or worry about what his best friend was thinking right now. He probably didn’t want to know. It wasn’t like Jared had room to judge. There was a reason he was working for Cole. Mistakes in his past that made his life more difficult now. Jared might be a convicted felon, but Cole meant what he said to Joey.
He trusted Jared with his life.
Which sometimes meant being confronted with his opinions of it.
Even if Cole didn’t always like it.
CHAPTERSIX
Joey stayed up too late,staring at the ceiling and trying to wrap her mind around everything she’d learned from Mr. Kensington.
Cole.
The fact that Jared was a criminal was the biggest surprise. Aggravated assault though? She wouldn’t have expected it. The guy seemed pretty decent. Maybe that was the Mountain Dew talking.
It shouldn’t have surprised her though. If Cole Kensington was a member of the Syndicate, why wouldn’t his personal bodyguard and driver have a criminal record? That was exactly the kind of muscle someone in the Syndicate would use.
Then again, she’d listened to Cole talk about his research and vision for Zia, and it was hard to believe it was all an act. He seemed so passionate about the possibilities. Was it really all for money in the end? Or power? Just imagining the kind of influence the person who cured Alzheimer’s would have was mind-boggling. He might get the Nobel Prize. Probably end up as an advisor for the White House or something. That kind of achievement opened up more than bank accounts.
Cole Kensington was a big player. But he wasn’t a household name. But he would be. Maybe Syndicate members were hoping to get him elected at some point. He’d be a good politician. Handsome. Smooth. Smart.
He certainly appeared altruistic. She’d done some digging into his finances. The man was rich. Loaded, actually. But not as much as he could be. His salary as CEO was generous, but his charitable giving was excessive by most measures. And not just to his own foundation. The man basically dropped money toward every hospice and special needs foundation in Virginia and New York.
But what was Cole putting money into the trust for? And who was it paying out to? She hadn’t gotten to follow those leads down tonight.
She rolled over and punched the pillow, trying to make it more comfortable. She had to avoid the very real temptation to like him. In her office, she’d come dangerously close to spilling her secrets. That was the total opposite of the goal.
Goal number one: protect Black Tower.
Goal number two: unmask and take down the Syndicate.