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Chapter 8
Phoenix
“Come on in,” Ronan said as he opened the door wider for me. I hadn’t seen Seth’s car in the driveway, so I suspected we were alone. Which made sense since Ronan likely didn’t want his husband around when I gave him my first report on Levi Deming.
It had been a week since I’d begun trailing Levi and while I’d given Ronan a couple of brief phone reports over that time period, I hadn’t shared a lot of details with him since I was still in the information-gathering stages of my reconnaissance.
Normally, I had no issue with these kinds of briefings, but nothing about this case was normal. And I wasn’t relishing what I was about to do.
Lie.
No, not about everything.
But there was quite a bit of information about what I’d been up to the last week that I would need to leave out of my report because I just had no explanation for what I’d been thinking.
Starting with the rides I was continuing to give my target.
To work.
From work.
Hell, I was supposed to pick him up this afternoon to take him to St. Anthony’s for our shift tonight.
And I had absolutely no explanation whatsoever for the insanity that had taken over me three mornings ago when I’d been waiting for Levi outside the grocery store. To say he’d been stunned to see me was an understatement. But right after I’d taken in his look of shock, I’d watched his lips pull into a soft smile that had punched right through to my heart. I’d seen Levi smile when he interacted with the soup kitchen guests, but it was nothing compared to the beautiful expression that had stolen across his features that morning.
Or after I’d asked him if he wanted to go to breakfast.
He hadn’t even hesitated to say yes, which had surprised me. He’d been nervous at first as we’d sat down in this little diner just a few blocks from his work, but as we’d started to dig into our food, he’d begun pelting me with question after question about myself.
Questions I’d had to skirt around or answer with half-truths.
Like what kind of work I did that would allow me to be sitting on the curb waiting for him at five o’clock in the morning and spending my evenings volunteering at a soup kitchen.
My response about being a consultant in the security industry seemed to have satisfied him well enough that we’d moved on to other topics. Safe ones like what kind of movies we liked and what we did for fun.
Typical date conversation.
Except it hadn’t been a date.
Not really.
Because I couldn’t be dating a man I was supposed to kill.
“Have a seat,” Ronan said as he motioned to the same chair I’d been sitting in a week earlier when I’d gotten the assignment. I’d been so certain then of what the outcome would be.
But now…
“Daisy ran the name you gave me. One guy fits the bill,” Ronan said as he handed me several pieces of paper. I’d told him about T after Levi had let the name slip a few days ago. I hadn’t been sure the information would be enough to learn anything useful about the man who’d assaulted Levi, but as I reached for the pages, I knew the alias had been enough.
“His name is Hugo Larson. He’s done time for assault, breaking and entering and drug possession. He’s got an older brother named Gunnar who’s doing life at WSP, the same prison Levi did his time at. The brother is in for murder,” Ronan explained.
I nodded as I studied the rap sheet in my hands. I didn’t see anything about T being a pimp, which meant what I’d seen in the alley with Levi hadn’t been about prostitution. The fact that T and Levi shared a connection through T’s brother wasn’t a good sign for Levi.
“So, you didn’t hear anything else when you heard Levi call the guy by his name?” Ronan asked.
My insides tightened at the question. I hadn’t told Ronan about Levi performing oral sex on T or that I’d intervened. I didn’t have a good explanation as to why I’d left that detail out.
“No,” I said as I lifted my eyes and looked directly at Ronan. If I kept my eyes down, he might figure out I was lying.
You just need more time to figure things out, the voice in my head reminded me. It did nothing to ease my guilt, though. This man had given me purpose after I’d lost everything. He’d let me be a part of his family.
Did I really want to risk losing that for Levi? For a man I knew without a shadow of doubt had participated in a brutal crime that he’d never had to pay for?
Ronan drummed his fingers on the desk. “So, all he’s done is go to work, home and this soup kitchen thing?” he asked.
