I push my phone close to my ear, certain what I’m hearing is wrong. “What? You said we could trust her, Hugo.”
Hunter ran the reports I requested months ago. Although they didn’t yield many results, Hugo planted some traps to test Isabelle’s loyalty to Isaac. She passed every test with flying colors. We thought she was one of the good guys. Clearly, we fucked up.
“I thought we could trust her.Fuck. I don’t know. Something’s off with this, Regan.” Hugo thrashes the motor on Isaac’s town car as he weaves through the populated streets of Ravenshoe. “Isaac had me sit with Izzy last night—”
“Because he was worried Vladimir would arrive for their meeting?”
“Yeah,” Hugo agrees before he honks at a motorist not cooperating with his desire to get to the police station Isaac has been hauled to. “Did he?”
Even though Hugo can’t see me, I shake my head. “Vladimir rarely leaves Vegas, but Hunter had a mark on him just in case.” I gather my coat and keys from my desk. “This is my fault, Hugo. I guarantee it.”
“You don’t know that.” I wish his voice reflected the confidence of his statement. “Just because Vladimir’s men said the premise was secure doesn’t mean it was.”
I wish what he was saying was true, but a niggle in my gut cautions me not to be stupid. This is Alex; I’m certain of it. That’s why he left a message on my voicemail last night. If he thinks giving me a heads up that he’s arresting my client will make up for all the wrongs he’s done, he’s shit out of luck.
“If you see Isaac before me, tell him to keep his mouth shut.” My brisk charge out of my office jolts my words.
A smile crosses my face when the revs of Hugo’s car slow. “You better have found a genie in a bottle, because even with Ravenshoe’s traffic at its worst, there is no chance in hell you’ll beat me to Ravenshoe PD.”
I throw open my car door and slide into the warm leather seats before fastening my seatbelt. “Scared to boss Isaac around, Hugo?”
He laughs to hide the honesty in his tone when he says, “More like, I’m not stupid enough to fall for another one of your tricks, Ms. Prim and Proper.”
His playful comment has the effect he was aiming for, diminishing the weight on my shoulders by reminding me that Isaac has the best group of people surrounding him. We’re a unit. You can’t take one of us down without taking us all down.
Alex is about to discover that the hard way.
Sixteen
Alex
I’ve handled many arrogant men in my time, but Isaac takes the cake. He didn’t even look at the evidence I presented to him. His confidence is so fucking high, he’d rather face jail time than answer a few simple questions.
Although I’m certain some of his pigheadedness resides from his naturally arrogant nature, a part of me is wondering if he recognized me. The instant his eyes landed on mine when I joined him in the interrogation room at Ravenshoe PD, the conceitedness beaming out of him tripled. He dropped a line about only men with something to hide needing a lawyer. He could have been referencing anyone, but all my ears heard was Regan’s name in place of the lawyer’s.
Even bringing Isabelle into the interview room didn’t make his arrogance falter in the slightest. If anything, it made him more egotistical. When he stood to put on his jacket, I was five seconds from cuffing him to the table. The only reason I didn’t was the fastest glance at a face I’d never forget.
Regan was standing outside the interrogation room door, peering my way. Her eyes were narrowed, and her face was as red with anger as mine, but she was still the most beautiful woman I ever laid my eyes on.
Before my brain clicked back into gear, Isaac was halfway out the door, leaving me in the interrogation room with a rogue agent and evidence Regan would have thrown out of court in under ten seconds. I may have witnessed Isaac dining with a high-up member of the Russian Mafia, but without any evidence of what their meeting pertained to, I’m left without a case.
That’s why I’m here, in my office at 4 AM, seeking answers.
I’m also doing everything in my power to stop me from reaching out to Regan again. She hasn’t returned the call I made yesterday, and in all honesty, I haven’t had a chance to process anything not pertaining to Isaac’s case.
In my heart, I want to believe it was Regan’s sister, Raquel, who was a patient at Westminster Family Clinic all those months ago, but I’ve never been fond of coincidences. The appointment was paid with Isaac’s company credit card almost two months after Regan and I slept together numerous times without protection. Those are either a shit ton of flukes, or Regan isn’t the woman I thought she was.
There is an easy solution for my confusion, but since it requires prying into Regan’s private life, I’m hesitant to do it. I pledged to myself over a year ago that I would keep my relationship with Regan separate from my job. I can’t do that if I conduct a search on her and her sister in the births, deaths and marriages register.
My eyes lift from a stack of paperwork when a firm voice growls, “You’re a real piece of work. If it isn’t bad enough you arrested a man with no evidence that he committed a crime, you trashed his home.”
Regan saunters into my office, freeing my eyes to scan the entrance she walked through without setting off my intruder alarm.
“Looking for this?” She flicks a gold bell into my chest, the firmness of her throw revealing she arrived ready to maim. “You should rethink your security measures after sleeping with the enemy.”
I have no reply. This isn’t the first time she’s sided with a criminal, but it is the first time she’s admitted it.
When her eyes drop to the folders on my desk, I flip them over. She laughs, amused by my attempts to conceal confidential documents. It isn’t the husky, ball-clenching laugh I grew to love in an extremely short period of time, but a laugh filled with angst.
