Page 71 of Tequila & Lace
“All right, let’s get down to business. It’s my understanding this Martinez guy wants a plea.” I nodded. “Are we certain we can trust him? Are your leads good?”
I stared at him for a moment, trying to remember codes and procedures in my head as I came up with a plan on the fly. This was my brother. I still had that instinct to protect him. I knew once everything was said and done, he would go to jail—probably for a long time, but if I was able to do anything to help him, I was going to try.
“Joss?”
I shook my head as if I had cobwebs in it. “Sorry.” I flicked my gaze to Agent Reigles and then back to Agent Green. They were both about to know me a whole lot better. “Eric, you’ve known me for how long?” He shook his head as though he couldn’t remember.
“Three… four years?” I asked.
“About that.”
“There’s something you need to know about me. Please let me finish before you stop me because I have a plan.”
“Okay.” He nodded.
“Agent Reigles, this may sound familiar, but please let me finish.” She nodded as well.
I took a deep breath, took a sip of coffee, and then another deep breath before I began. “When I was seventeen, my mother sold my virginity…” My gaze flicked to Agent Reigles as she gasped.
I proceeded to tell them the entire story up until Bryce wanted the plea deal. “There’s no one more determined than I am to bring this asshole Tony down. To answer your question, we can trust him. He’s my brother, but I didn’t find out until the day I arrested him. I didn’t even know it was him until I arrested him.” They stared at me as I continued talking. “I was thinking that the only way for this to really work is to partner me up this time. Send me with someone I can trust. But not with a female. We need a male.”
“A male?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, I want you to bring in someone for a special unit. Seth McKenna is a detective with the DCPD. I trust him with my life. I want him as my partner.”
“We can provide you with a partner, Joss,” Agent Reigles stated.
“I know, but he also knows Bryce. If you want this case to be solved, it’s in your best interest to put the two people on it who would want it solved the most.”
Eric thought for a few seconds. I knew that the FBI partnered other agencies with different tasks forces all the time. It wasn’t unheard of to bring in outside help. Seth had the credentials to have been able to become FBI before I did. He just liked solving murders and working the streets. I knew going undercover and helping me with Bryce wouldn’t be a hesitation.
“All right. Let’s get him out here.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Paul
She’d left and walked out the door with my heart.
I knew I’d been a complete asshole the moment I woke up on the couch, my head pounding and the tequila bottle staring me in the face. I’d tried calling her over and over and over, but she never picked up the phone.
Rolling off the couch, I stood and walked down the hall to her empty room. I half expected her to be in there, but she wasn’t. I’d seriously fucked up. If it weren’t for my fucking mouth, she’d be sleeping inourbed and I’d be making us breakfast. So what if her name was Joselyn and not Andi—at least Joselyn’s a girl’s name. A gorgeous name; as gorgeous as she was. And she worked for the FBI. Well, If she didn’t, we would have never met. I was a fucking idiot. I’d let the best thing that had ever happen to me walk out the door. And worst of all, I had no one to talk to about it.
I kept trying her cell over and over, but she never picked up. I just wanted to tell her I was sorry. We’d had a fight. People fight. We’d had a fucked up, crazy day and we needed to be with each other—I needed her.
She never answered. Instead, like she’d said, a moving company came and took her stuff. They packed up her room as if none of it mattered. As ifwehadn’t matter.
Well, fuck that shit.
If what she’d said was true andeverythingwe had together was real, then she wasn’t getting away that easy. I refused to love for this reason, and now that I’d opened my heart to love again, I wasn’t going to lose it—again.
I wanted what Gabe and Autumn had. I wanted to feel what I saw on their faces—the love they felt when everything around them didn’t matter because they had each other. I wanted to know what it felt like to have the family I’d always wanted. To have the child I’d once lost.
We all had our flaws, and I didn’t care about Joselyn’s. I knew she worried that I cared about her past, but I still loved her. Her past didn’t define her future. It was how she’d overcome it that made her who she was now.
I just had to prove it.
As the moving truck pulled away, I followed it. Joselyn said she was staying undercover. I didn’t know if that meant in Vegas, but I had an idea. It also involved me quitting S&R and stat.
