Page 27 of K-9 Confidential

“I already have, Granger.” A softness he wasn’t accustomed to seeing bled into Ivy’s eyes. As though she’d expected a fight and was relieved they hadn’t crossed that line. “The minute we realizedSangre por Sangrewas a threat the Pentagon couldn’t ignore, he chose the greater good over a future with me. And I let him. Because I knew a lot of innocent people would die if I didn’t.”

Socorro’s founder walked away.

CHAPTER TEN

She could still taste him on her lips.

That perfect combination of peppermint toothpaste and something she could only describe as Granger. Citrus and earth battling for dominance and grounding. Her mouth tingled from the aftereffects, and Charlie couldn’t help but press her fingers to the sensitive skin to hold onto that feeling a little bit longer.

Stinging pain erupted instead. She memorized the bruising shapes and scrapes along the backs of her hands, knowing where every single laceration and injury had originated. Her abductor felt as close to her in this room as he had in those woods despite her isolation, and Charlie knew deep down the scar of her survival would stay with her forever.

It’d been like that after the Alamo pipeline explosion. Her guilt, the physical pain, the grief of losing Sage had stuck with her until it’d gotten hard to breathe at times. But now she had something to help her fight back, to keep her grounded in the here and now. She hadn’t even let herself cry for Erin yet. There just…hadn’t been time.

The hospital room door swung open, centering Granger beneath the frame. Where he’d charged in earlier to be with her, he seemed sunken now. In his slow approach, in the way he didn’t meet her gaze.

Tension bled into her shoulders. “Something happened. What is it?”

She wasn’t sure she could handle anymore. All she’d wanted to do was figure out exactly what’d happened to Erin, and they were nowhere closer to attaining that answer. Instead, she’d uncovered a plot on the state capitol, the involvement of a drug cartel and suffered through an abduction. Then again, if she’d learned one thing from her childhood, it would be that anything worthwhile was worth standing your ground for. And giving Erin justice was worthwhile.

“We have your father in custody,” Granger said. “Along with three cartel members.”

Air caught in her throat. Very few things could surprise her anymore, and yet Granger stood there as though the arrest of Henry Acker didn’t call for some kind of celebration. This was what they’d wanted, what they’d worked for. Understanding bled through the haze of pain and ibuprofen. Though was a private military contractor allowed to arrest terrorists? Or did they have to call in the feds to take over? Either way, Henry Acker wouldn’t talk. Not until it benefited him at least. “I take it from the fact you’re not saying that with a smile that he’s made conditions Socorro isn’t willing to meet.”

He rounded the end of the bed, keeping his distance, and collapsed into a chair on the other side of the room. Mere minutes ago, he’d brought the past back with a single kiss. Now it felt as though he wasn’t allowing himself to come close. What had changed since then? “We’re private military contractors. We have no authority to arrest him. Even if we did, we don’t have any physical evidence linking him to what happened to you, your sister’s death or any attacks he’s suspected of carrying out.”

“You have me.” Didn’t he understand that? A sliver of panic worked to get the best of her, to undermine every second she’d stood up to her father. Henry Acker wasn’t the kind of man to take an arrest lightly. Socorro would be added to his list of grievances and would be a continuous target of Acker’s Army from here on out, and now he knew of her involvement with them. What did that mean for her? Erin had been held against her will all these years, never able to leave for fear their father would make her pay. What punishment awaited for the daughter who’d managed to escape? “My account of that night. My testimony or statement or whatever you want to call it. I wrote it all down.”

“You ran, Charlie. You convinced the US government you died in that attack. Anything you say now against Henry Acker won’t be considered in court, and I don’t work for Homeland Security anymore to back you up.” An invisible hand seemed to choke his voice. “Everything that happened the night of the Alamo pipeline ten years ago can’t be used against him. No prosecutor will touch the case if you’re involved, and we have nothing to hand over to the local authorities.”

No. That wasn’t how this was supposed to work. They’d had a plan. They were going to make her father pay for what he’d done. For the death of her oldest sister and the innocent lives of those four other bystanders. But she’d run. She’d given into her fear that no matter which path she took—to return to Vaughn or return to Granger—she’d be the one to suffer. And so she’d made her own choice. She’d wasted so much time being scared, and now Henry Acker would never answer for the nightmares that haunted her each night.

Acceptance never came easy. Not for her. But she had to fix this. She had to make this right. “Socorro wants to know about the deal my father made withSangre por Sangreand what the cartel is planning to do. My guess is he isn’t talking. What are his conditions?”

Granger leaned forward, bracing his elbows against his knees. “He’ll only talk to you.”

“Right.” She didn’t know what to say to that, what to think. Confronting her father face-to-face—without the threat of his soldiers or her sisters as a buffer, without an escape plan in mind—went against everything she believed. Henry Acker was a dangerous man to many. But more specifically to the people he claimed to care about. “Where is he being held?”

“In one of our interrogation rooms on the first floor.” Granger shoved to stand despite the injuries he’d sustained fighting for their lives. Warmth skirted up her arm as he secured his hand in hers. “I asked you to get intel on your father and his organization once, and it was a mistake. I made you believe all I cared about was bringing him down, that I was sleeping with you only because you could help me secure an arrest. I can’t ask you to go through that again.”

“You mean sleep with you? I mean, it wasn’t all that bad. There were a couple times I had to fake it, but who doesn’t when they’re focused on impressing a handsome federal agent instead of the actual experience?” Her attempt to lighten the mood pulled one corner of his mouth upward. Charlie squeezed his hand, taking in the battered skin over his knuckles and the blisters along his forearm. Blisters like the ones that’d left scars on her forearms.

Her stomach dropped at the realization she’d come close to losing the only person who’d ever given her permission to be herself. Not the soldier her father had reared. Not a fugitive on the run. Just…her. “Granger, the whole reason I agreed to be your CI was to stop my father from doing something terrible. I still believe in that cause. I just lost sight of it for a while, but these past couple days have reminded me of what’s at stake if I keep running. And I don’t want to keep being the kind of person who had a chance to save lives and chose to look the other way.”

“You’re not that person.” Granger crouched beside the bed, leveling his gaze with hers.

“I was. All those years of hiding, of pretending I was dead. I could’ve done something. Maybe then those families would’ve gotten the closure they deserve instead of being constantly reminded their loved ones aren’t there to celebrate birthdays, and Christmases and anniversaries with them.” Charlie pulled her hand from his and threw back the covers. The sight of her bruised legs gave her pause, but she’d reached the tipping point. The victims of her father’s attacks deserved better than monthly cash payments as a sorry excuse for an apology. They deserved justice, and she was going to give it to them. No matter what it cost her. Because living with this feeling of corruption and defectiveness wasn’t a way to live. And she couldn’t take the weight of surviving anymore. “They’re still wondering what happened. Because of me.”

“What are you doing?” Granger shot from his crouch by the bed and rounded to the other side. Strong hands held onto her as she tried setting her weight on her own two feet. A headache reared its ugly head while the bullet graze in her calf threatened to rip her balance from her, but she held onto him. “You’re in no shape to talk to him now.”

“We don’t have a choice.” She braced herself against him with one hand and grabbed for a pair of scrubs Dr. Piel had left for her to change into from the side table. “IfSangre por Sangreis planning something with my father’s help, we need that information now. Not after it’s too late.”

She raised her gaze to his, a ridiculous amount of height between the two of them, but while Granger was trained and honed for the single purpose of accomplishing his mission, he didn’t intimidate her. Quite the opposite. He was the anchor to keep her from getting lost in the storm. Charlie fought the bone-deep pain in her side, raising one hand to his face. The coarse hair along his jaw pricked at her skin and elicited a reaction from her nervous system. The bruising along his temple had darkened significantly, but there didn’t seem to be any permanent damage. She could do this. She could do anything with him as her partner. Hadn’t they already proven that? They were always better together. “I know how to make my father talk. I need you to trust me.”

A hint of acceptance softened the corners of his eyes. “All right. What do you need from me?”

“Can you just…hold me up while I try to get dressed?” She leaned into him—physically, mentally, emotionally—as they worked together to replace the hospital gown with a fresh set of scrubs. Charlie tried to brush her hair out of her face, suddenly conscious of the fact she hadn’t undressed in front of a man for ten years. “Was that as painful for you as it was for me?”

His laugh escaped as a short bark. “You have no idea.”

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