Page 40 of Quiet Protector
“Hey, don’t blame that shit on me. You suggested your ruse to Phillipa long before you ran it by me. I merely agreed with Phillipa and Harvey that you should continue with your plan, so the guilt you’re trying to place on my shoulders won’t fly, dipshit. I’ve got nothing to answer for here.”
Every word he speaks is true, but it doesn’t make them any easier to swallow.
After scrubbing his hand along his jaw, Grayson tries another angle. “You’ve worked too fucking hard for too fucking long to let a misunderstanding take everything away from you.” He holds out the scheduled wire transfer receipts that prove Isaac is making a significant purchase from the Popov entity before adding, “Give Alex this. Show him you aren’t rogue like he thinks, then walk away. That’s all you have to do.”
Even with honesty being the strongest part of his statement, there’s one part I can’t sidestep. “You really do have tabs on your brother, don’t you?”
I thought he was joking when he underhandedly mentioned it in the past, but his ‘rogue’ comment exposes that’s a lie. I never mentioned Alex accusing me of being one of the bad guys. Although I had no reason to be embarrassed that Alex got one over me, I only told Grayson what I wanted him to know to save face. What man wants to admit they were hit and didn’t retaliate? And let’s not mention how it affected me emotionally. I’ve faced bad bumps in my life, and Alex’s disrespect is now one of them.
I take a seat next to Grayson when he says, “Some murky shit is going on in his department, BJ. I don’t want to believe it’s Alex, but some evidence is hard to ignore.”
“Like what?”
He hooks his ankle onto his opposite knee before twisting his torso to face me. “Do you recall me telling you about Addison and Isla, Dane’s daughters?” When I lift my chin, he discloses, “Alex pretty much covers all their expenses… clothing, roof over their head, schooling.”
“He feels guilty about what happened to Dane, so he’s compensating for it with his daughters.”
An agreeing hum leaves Grayson’s mouth. “The thing is, the girls go to an upscale school. The admission fee alone costs more than what Alex clears in a year.”
“Perhaps Dane’s insurance is paying for it?”
He does a weird shrugging thing. “I had thought the same thing, so I dug a little deeper. Kristin’s claim for insurance wasn’t approved since his death was classified as a suicide.”
Hearing something in his voice I’m unsure he meant to express, I ask, “Don’t you believe Dane committed suicide?”
“I don’t know. It’s just not sitting right with me.” His brows furrow when he lifts his head to peer at the ceiling. “He loved his girls, they were his world, so why would he leave them?”
His eyes drop back to mine when I say, “If your gut is telling you he didn’t kill himself, dig deeper again, Grayson. I knew in my heart Joey didn’t commit suicide, but instead of evaluating what really happened, I kept shifting my focus elsewhere.”
“By elsewhere, you mean to Melody.”
Unashamed, I dip my chin. “She needed me more, and I couldn’t bring Joey back no matter what I did, so I had to pick my battles.”
“You picked right, punk. There will be days you won’t believe it, and times you’ll think you royally fucked up, but you’ll never regret protecting your first love.” When I jerk up my chin, agreeing with him, he curls his arm around my shoulders, pulls me into his chest, then messes up my hair. “Now we just need to work on your shot-to-shit dating skills. My God, dickface, I doubt you’d know a girl was salivating to suck your dick even if she had it in her mouth.”
“Whatever.” I push him off me, faking annoyance. “You give me shit all the time about not dating, but not once have I seen you with anyone. Are you sure there isn’t something you need to tell me, Grayson?”
He scoffs, then scoots off my couch, hating that the focus has been placed on him. He’s happy to dish relationship advice, but he never listens to it.
When he snags the printout off the couch, I ask, “Where are you going?”
“This purchase isn’t just detrimental to Alex’s case. It affects the entire web we’ve been striving to unravel the past decade. I can’t let news of its existence go unnoticed because Alex got a little hotheaded. He’s had a rough year, too, BJ. Perhaps this might get him out of his funk?”
I agree with him, but it won’t stop me from issuing a caution. “If you hand that to Alex, you’ll break cover. No one from Kirill’s team will believe you’re in Ravenshoe scoping new compound locations if you meet with an FBI agent in a shady back alley.”
“It’s not like I’ve got much choice, do I…” His words trail off when I snatch the sheets of paper out of his hand.
The smug expression on his face, loving that he’s forced me to jump to his command like a lap dog, clears away when I snarl. “If he hits me again, I’ll retaliate.”
My brisk strides to the door stop when Grayson shouts, “Wait up.” After snagging his coat off one of the chairs around my dining table, he meets me in the entryway of my apartment. “If you think this will end in a tussle, you’ll need backup.”
His grin turns blinding when I mutter, “You’re not backing me up. You’re just coming to watch the show.”
“Dating rule number one, always buy your date dinner before the entertainment begins…especiallyif there’s a chance there will be an arrest at some stage during the night.”
The ding of the elevator arriving at my floor gobbles up his laugh, not to mention my growl.
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