Page 4 of Matt

“Well, now that he’s been promoted you’re going to have to do it soon or the guys are going to get suspicious.”

“I know.” I closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair. “Just…not yet.”

“Okay.” He paused. “Griffin, is there something I need to know?”

“I don’t think so,” I lied. “I’ll get my report sent over.”

He disconnected and I tossed my cell onto the desk with a groan. There was no way the director could know how I felt about Matt. I was too careful. In my reports, in my calls…everything was sterile and tidy.

It had to be. Because if the bureau knew I was falling for my asset they’d burn him. Or, more likely, replace me with someone less likely to risk fucking up a ten year investigation.

I wasn’t sure Matt would survive either one of those options.

This whole thing had been orchestrated by the powers that be, but they’d never take the blame if it all went to hell. Which it was in danger of doing.

By design, I was Matt’s lifeline. His only tether to the law enforcement world he’d been forced to walk away from in order to do his job the best way possible. Which put me in a terrible position. And him as well.

Because when he found out who I really was, where I was, he was going to hate me. Was going to hate the bureau, the police department, and every badge who’d left him alone in the streets for all these years.

I just hoped he’d understand that everything I’d done had been for the greater good.

Just like him.

We both had a job to do. And Matt was right.

We were soldiers. And that’s what good soldiers do.

Chapter Three

~Matt~

“There he is, the new Knight of Detroit!” Eddie spread his arms out wide, and I walked into them, allowing him to hug me and accepting the firm pats on my back before we parted again. “How’s your chest?”

“Five by five, boss,” I assured him, rubbing my palm over the still throbbing brand beneath my t-shirt.

“Yeah?” Eddie raised an eyebrow at me. “Speedball come by to patch you up last night?”

“Did you send him?” I asked, a little surprised that the man would have cared enough to send someone to check on me.

“Nah. I’ve just known that kid for a long time. Know how he thinks. You’re his brother and he worries.”

“We’re all his brothers,” I said firmly.

“True enough.” Eddie grinned at me, then motioned with his head for me to follow as he turned and walked across the warehouse toward a group of men that were loitering near a wall covered in maps.

“You know I’ve been pushing for you to become my Knight for a few months. Ever since George got his ass arrested for boosting cars, I’ve needed a second in command out here to help me,” Eddie said, dropping into a chair as he spoke. “The Prince wasn’t so sure about you, but after you got that shipment of seized heroin back from DPD…well, there wasn’t any question you were the one.”

I forced myself to stand still and gave him just the barest of nods. I’d never been boastful to the cartel about my wins, so no one thought it was strange when I’d quietly delivered them twenty kilos of heroin from a shipment that had been confiscated by the Detroit Police Department a year earlier.

Honestly, they could have asked how I did it, and I could have been mostly truthful. Because I actually had broken into the evidence locker and stolen it. It was just the why of how I knew exactly how to do it that would have been a little harder to explain.

I mean, it wasn’t exactly like I had help from the inside or anything. At this point, I wasn’t sure anyone in the department even remembered me, I’d been so deep undercover for so long. For all I knew, I’d been considered long dead. Or drafted onto the Fed payroll. I’d really have to ask about that. I knew my paycheck still hit my offshore account every month, but that was about all I knew.

I lived and breathed the GSD. Except for a few phone calls a month with Griffin. And those calls were the only things that kept me going sometimes.

All I’d ever wanted to be was a cop. But every day that passed made me feel more and more like a criminal. Sometimes I wondered how I was ever going to make it out of this situation with my morals in tact.

“I’m going to be running some stuff to Chicago this week,” Eddie continued. “So you’re in charge.”

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