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“Oh wow! And what a great time to mention you’re a cop. And more importantly that I would have my entire life turned upside down. You cost me a story, and probably my job. How do I pay rent now? Eat? Once your job is complete, what happens to me, huh?”
Anger bubbles in my chest. I bite down so hard on the inside of my cheek to fight back my tears, I get the taste of metallic on my tongue.
“Addy, just listen—”
I violently shake my head. “I’m done listening. I’m done being your puppet. You and your job can screw off. And if you think I’m backing off now, you have another thing coming. We’re done here. I want to go home. Where’s your buddy? I want to go home!” I shout. My body is starting to shut down. I bow my shoulders and squeeze my eyes closed, wishing this all away. Soon, there will be no strength left in me, and I would prefer to break down in private.
“Addy—”
“Get away from me!” I scream as the door opens and Agent Bishop walks back in.
“We okay in here?”
“Fine,” Logan snaps, backing off.
“I want him out of here. I don’t feel safe around him.”
Logan whips around, taken aback by my words. “You’re fuckin’ kidding me—”
“Broderick, stand down. Go take a minute.”
Logan glares at me for another second, then storms out, slamming the door behind him.
“Miss Finch, we need to talk.”
“I want to go home,” I say, wrapping my arms around myself.
“I’m sure you do, but it gets a little tricky, you see. Now that you’re involved in this case, it would be detrimental to all the work Agent Broderick has done if you suddenly…disappeared.”
I’m not sure where he’s going with this, but I guarantee I’m not going to like it. “What are you getting at, Agent?”
“We’re going to need you to stay on board and work with Logan a bit longer.”
They are out of their ever-loving minds. Go back and continue playing Logan’s precious girlfriend? They are completely mad.
“No way. Count me out.” I cross my arms over my chest, wincing at the pain in my bandaged hand.
“Miss Finch, we wouldn’t voluntarily put you in harm’s way, but you’ve found yourself in the middle of an important case, and it’s vital we see it through.”
Logan walks back in, looking calmer than when he left. He eyes me, but I turn my back to him, giving him the cold shoulder.
“So, you’re gonna ignore me now?” My silence answers for me. “Fine, I’ll do the talking. We need to talk about what happened with Chino and Francesca Vaughn.” It’s impossible to hide the shudder that travels through me. The image of her dead eyes and all the blood.
“Can you talk about it?” Agent Bishop asks in a softer manner.
“That I got somebody shot? No thanks.”
Logan comes closer, and I scoot my chair farther away. “Addy, that’s not on you. She had a target on her head before you came into the picture.”
“Then someone should have warned her!”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Oh, and how does it work? My childish brain would like to know.”
“Would you knock it off!”
“No!” I yell.
“Please, you two—” Agent Bishop tries to intervene, but Logan cuts him off.
“Whether you like it or not, we need to talk about it. You need to tell me what Chino said to you. What do you think he knows?”
I refuse to answer him and look at Agent Bishop. “He said he knows I stole the invitation. He’s on to us and knows I’m not Logan’s real girlfriend.”
“Did he say anything or give you any indication of how he knows that?” Logan asks.
While still looking at the other agent, I reply, “He said it was out of character for Logan. That night at the gala, when he walked up to us, Logan seemed off.”
“Fuck,” he growls. “What did you say?”
I throw my hands up and finally look at Logan “I didn’t say anything. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about. He insisted I knew who Francesca was, and when I insisted I didn’t, he shot her right in front of me. He didn’t get a chance to get the truth out of me because I ran.”
“What happened next?”
“Well, let’s see, he tried to rape me, so I stabbed him in the side with a shard of glass and got the heck out of there. Did you want exact details of me begging for my life on the floor, or does that suffice?”
“Jesus, Addy—”
“Oh, don’t give me your sympathy bull crap!”
“It’s not bullshit!” he yells back. “You can choose not to believe me and be pissed at me. Fine. I’ll accept that. I’ll own up to the shit I did. But you keep this up, and we’re both as good as dead. Or, you can work with me for the next forty-eight hours—your choice. You claim to want to put a stop to Vincent and help those girls, then prove it.”
