Page 13 of Playing With Love

Yeah, quite the conundrum for my girl.

“I read the reports, Lizzy.”

I let that hang, knowing I didn’t need to elaborate. There were three dead bodies, no arrests, and a cache of ghost guns loosely tied to Nu Dawn stashed in the house of one of the dead men. Liza needed the ‘loosely’ taken out of that sentence. And now that she had a witness claiming there were drugs on the compound, her case would start to tighten.

But she still needed a way in.

“I must ask again, how’d you get internal ATF reports?”

“I already told you, I’m not answering that.”

“You think I’d turn you in?”

At this juncture, I figured she’d do anything to get out of having to work with me. If that meant turning me into the powers that be and have me—or actually Dylan Welsh—arrested to get Triple Canopy off the case, yes, she’d report the breach to her boss.

“Agent Liza Monroe, yes. My Lizzy, no.”

I watched a cloud of the reminder of who she once was pass through her. Even if it had never been official, she’d always been mine. She could play it off now, try and deny it, but from the very beginning there’d been something between us. A bond that had to change when she’d been married, a bond I’d mourned thinking I’d lost it. Now that I had another shot, I wasn’t going to fuck around and waste it.

The time had come to make it official.

I would’ve said that time had been a few years ago but her skipping out on me said otherwise. The only reason I wasn’t pissed she’d left me hanging was I figured she needed time to find herself again after her husband had cheated on her. Time I wished she’d allowed me to help her navigate. But that story wasn’t ours; this was, and I’d play as dirty as I needed to, to make her remember who she was to me and what we had. I’d even go as far as forcing her hand and inserting myself into her case.

“Tucker—”

“I’m not telling you how I stumbled upon your files,” I interrupted her. “What’s important is Jessica reached out to TC. We facilitated a meeting, using our police contacts. Obviously, your team was alerted, my boss has since been in contact with yours.”

Unfortunately I had to stop speaking when the server brought out our food. This gave my smart girl enough time to think about what I’d said. She didn’t delay in sharing her thoughts.

“And I suppose you had a hand in alerting my team.”

“You’d be correct,” I confirmed.

The moment our IT guy and resident hacker Dylan had dug into Nu Dawn, he’d found an active investigation. A few keystrokes—or maybe it was a few hours later—he had the case file. As soon as I saw Liza’s name I had a word with my bosses, Nick Clark and Jason Walker. They agreed our best play was to reach out to the ATF and tell them we had intel, and not only that but an insider.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what, having dinner with a friend?” I lifted a brow daring her to deny our friendship. When she didn’t I went on, “Or why did I come here to talk to you—so we can clear the air so when we go under as husband and wife, we don’t blow our cover in the first five minutes because you can’t look at me without scowling?”

“The second,” she spat. “Why are you insisting to get involved?”

Because I can’t continue living without you.

“Jessica contacted⁠—”

“So, that’s how you’re gonna play it?” She tossed my words back at me.

Damn right.

I didn’t bother answering Liza, instead I asked my own question, “Are we gonna clear the air or are we going under as a couple with marital problems?”

As soon as the words left my mouth I regretted them.

“I’ve had my fill of marital problems,” she mumbled.

“Damn, Lizzy, I didn’t think before I said that.”

She waved away my concern like she was swatting a gnat away from her face. With her gaze firmly on her chicken fingers she asked, “Did you know?”