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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Adam
At dawn the next morning, I kissed Faith on the head and slipped out to meet Mateo, an impending sense of doom shrouding my entire being. On the way over, all I could think of was the intensity of the night before... holding Faith while she sobbed in the bathtub until she’d given in to her exhaustion and let me carry her to bed. I couldn’t sleep then. I’d just held her in my arms, memorizing how she felt there, knowing it would all disappear soon. This time together had been too good to be true. More than I’d hoped for honestly. Never in a million years would I have expected her to let me into her heart, but in true Faith fashion, she’d done it anyway. And in the process, she’d healed mine.
In the darkened lot behind the diner, I slid into Mateo’s car.
He looked me over with his serious dark gaze. “You good, man?”
I ignored that question as I informed him of Pittman’s direct threats against his life.
“I’m not worried about it,” he said, waving it off. “That bastard is going down.” He handed me an envelope of money. “Ten grand,” he said, letting go of a long breath. “Just give him this and keep doing what you’re doing, but know you’ve got eyes on you, watching every move from here on out until this is done.”
“And when will that be?”
“If all goes well, by this time tomorrow.”
This time tomorrow.
I tucked the money away under my jacket as my heart began to trip double time.
Mateo quickly explained the plan and my part in it. Simple, though it felt anything but because I knew this was the beginning of the end.
We parted ways and I went over his plan again and again in my head, looking for any loopholes or ways it could go bad. For any potential danger to Faith or even to her family. It looked like he’d found a way for me to carry all the risk, and I was grateful for that. My only regret was not finding out who’d hurt her first. But there was still time...
A couple hours later, I rolled up to meet Agent Goforth and delivered Cyrus’s package as instructed. He was a sleepy-eyed DEA agent, with indistinguishable, boring features that probably served him well in his position. It made me smile inside to know a surveillance team of police officers was snapping his picture at the very moment his greedy fingers grasped Pittman’s hush money, and that his career was about to go down in flames.
I tipped my head at him and rode back to Redemption with a heavy heart, but a driving need to get this over with. I’d texted Cyrus that I had more of the reverend’s money for him, and he told me to meet him at one of his office buildings.
I glanced around at the industrial site as I arrived and realized how remote it was as I rolled to a stop. With its high concrete walls and wide-open spaces that allowed for a view of all incoming visitors, it was the perfect spot for shady business deals. The perfect spot for ending up dead, too, if I wasn’t careful.
I strode inside and a guard pointed me toward an open office where I found Cyrus bent over a pile of documents, a cup of coffee in hand.
He glanced up at my entrance. “Ah, Adam. I trust everything went well with Agent Goforth?”
“No problems.” I approached and pulled the envelope from inside my jacket, laying it on the desk in front of him. “Here’s ten grand. I’ll keep looking if there’s more. Might help if you tell me exactly how much I’m looking for.”
He flipped through the cash, then placed it in a drawer. “About ten times this amount.”
“A hundred grand?” I choked out. “Jesus.”
“Well...” He sat back with a smirk. “That I’m certain of. I have a feeling there’s more. The good reverend was a wily one.”
I lifted a brow, making a silent comparison.
He laughed out loud, the sound wheezy.
I glanced around. “So... what happened to Bastien?”
Cyrus sobered immediately. “Another wily beast, though not nearly as smart. Thought he could get away with stealing product for his own recreational use.” He tsked under his breath. “Had an unfortunate accident and is no longer with the organization.”
“I see.”
He sat forward, clasping his fingers as he eyed me closely. “Have you decided on my offer?”
I shoved down every piece of me that felt like a fraud and focused on the bigger picture. It was game time.
“Yes. I’ll do it.”
