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I texted Easton the moment I was given the chance.
Moving so I was off to the side of the road, practically in the grass between his SUV and my truck, I pulled it out and got right to it.
Me: So, I was pulled over, and every bit of my cargo is being searched because there was a ‘tip’ of contraband in my cargo.
Easton replied within seconds.
Easton: I’ll look into it. Do you have the DPS officer’s information?
I walked around the back of his car and got the number off the back hatch and texted it back to him.
Easton: Got it. I’ll look into it.
It took all of twenty seconds before I heard a livid curse.
Thirty seconds after that, I got a text but didn’t dare look at it.
That’s when the officer crawled out of the back of my truck, looking pissed as hell, with his phone to his ear.
“No, sir,” the officer said, crossing his arms over his chest in a confrontational gesture. “I’ll allow her to go now.”
He hung up his phone and gestured to my truck. “You’re free to go.”
He sounded mad as hell that he had to say that.
“Thank you,” I said as I walked to the doors to close them.
He shoulder-checked me, and I nearly fell onto the ground.
I looked up at him in disbelief, and then I looked at my dashcam, which also happened to record the back of my trailer, too, to see if it was aimed at me.
It was.
There was no way I was going to let a shoulder-check go when I hadn’t done anything wrong.
The officer’s phone rang a half a breath later when I was still staring at the officer in disbelief at what he’d just done.
“Hello?” the officer growled.
There was a long moment of silence and then, “Yes, sir. Right away, sir.”
Then the officer was apologizing for the shoulder-check, for stopping me, and then helping me close the doors with a completely different attitude.
I was in my truck when Easton called to say, “I hacked into your dashcam.”
I would’ve rolled my eyes had I not been so shaken by the incident.
“I can’t believe he did that,” I admitted. “I’ve never done anything to that man. How is he just going to blindly follow Sareen?”
“Don’t know that it was Sareen,” he admitted. “But I’m looking into it. It was an anonymous tip, according to him. But if she’s connected, my guys will find it.”
That didn’t make me feel any better.
“I guess I’ll finish my run,” I grumbled, buckling in. “He made me stop on a hill, too. Cars were flying up and over it, only inches away from us.”
Easton said something under his breath as he said, “I’ll get him figured out on my own. Don’t worry about that guy.”
I had no doubt, by the time I got home, he would.
• • •
EASTON
“She’s right,” I said to the guy that would be working on this particular project for me. “Sareen’s behind this. Find it.”
Ashton looked a bit green around the gills. “This is a cop, sir.”
My brows rose. “When you signed on at this company, you knew you were working on corruption. You knew that this might come up. I told you straight up it might. Did you think that I was lying?”
Ashton swallowed, and I knew that I had a decision to make with him.
He’d done his job, for the most part, but he’d also been fucking dragging his feet.
I knew that he had ‘morals’ but that didn’t mean that his morals superseded his job duties.
“Find anything you can on him,” I said. “And while you’re at it, look more into her. There’s something we’re missing.”
Ashton gave a short, annoyed nod, and then started to type on his computer.
I walked out of his office and headed straight into Donnelly’s.
He didn’t even glance up as I closed the door then took the seat across from his desk.
He typed away, and I let him finish whatever it was that he was doing before I spoke.
Which happened to take him a full five minutes.
In that time, I admired his new painting.
It looked expensive.
It was of a sunset that sank into a dark ocean. In that ocean, you could see eyes of creatures that you couldn’t quite make out.
“What’s up?” I heard the typing stop.
“I want you to look into Ashton,” I said. “He’s too hesitant. He’s not a good fit for here.”
“You want me to find something on him so you can fire him?” he guessed.
“Yes,” I said. “Texas is a right-to-work state and all, but I’m going to find something on him that’ll make him unhireable by our competitors. He’s good, but he’s not going to fit in well here.”
“Done.” Donnelly paused as he typed a few words into his computer. “What’s he looking into right now? He looks to be on Google researching an officer’s name.”
