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I supposed she was right. I was already facing charges that would cost my entire future. Brentwood had made my life hell and threatened everyone I cared about. What else could he do if this was all some big charade? I didn’t know, but I had to think about this baby.
“I need something in writing,” I said. “A guarantee that whatever I tell you right now, you won’t bring any more charges against me.”
Carrera pulled a notarized document on office letterhead from her briefcase. It was already written up, and I couldn’t hide my surprise.
“I was told you don’t trust easily,” she said, “so I came prepared.”
I read over the document, and once I was satisfied, I met her gaze. “Where do you want me to begin?”
“Begin at the part when you came into contact with Brentwood,” she suggested.
“Okay.” I pressed my fingers to my temples while I gathered my thoughts. The truth had been locked up so deep inside me, it didn’t break free easily. I didn’t like to think of the night my whole world had been ripped away. First Ace, then Trouble. I could still see her every time I closed my eyes. Lying there on the concrete, her skull in pieces. I felt responsible for her death. I felt like I should have seen it coming. I never should have gotten out of that car. But I did, and I couldn’t rewind time. I could only tell the story how it happened and hope that by some miracle, Brentwood was really gone.
“Brentwood had been following up on me,” I began. “For quite a while. I don’t know how he knew I was in Vegas, but he’d tracked down my sister and a few other people. He was on my trail for months. I’d always sort of known that it would only be a matter of time before the past caught up with me, so I wasn’t surprised when I heard he was looking for me. There was another man, Joe, who’d found me too.”
“This is the same Joe Crocker they pulled out of the dumpster behind Huck Fallon’s shop?” Carrera asked.
“Yes.” I nodded. “Brentwood wanted to eliminate Huck from my life, so he tried to set him up.”
“When is the first time you came in contact with Brentwood in Vegas?” Carrera asked.
“He saw me at one of the casinos,” I admitted. “When I was looking for a mark. I was supposed to meet him in his room, but something came up, and I ended up bailing instead. I felt like he was familiar, but I couldn’t really understand why until later.”
“Close call.” Carrera raised her brows. “How many times after that did you see him?”
“At one point, I called Joe and asked him to meet me at the Rio. We were supposed to make a deal to exchange the evidence he had against me, but it was a setup. He never showed, and when I left, someone attacked me. I never saw his face, but I’m certain it was Brentwood. He wore the same cologne.”
“You didn’t report it?” Carrera questioned.
“No, but I did go to the hospital. There’s probably a record of that under my assumed name.”
She drummed her fingers against the table, collecting her thoughts before she steered the conversation again. “Tell me how you ended up in California again.”
I fell silent as I thought back on that day. It was the last time I saw Huck. I’d left with a certainty that my actions repulsed him, and my heart hadn’t been right ever since. It still hurt me to think about it. Every time, I wondered what he was doing or if he really missed me the way that Gypsy said. But I couldn’t let those emotions interfere with my story. I just had to tell the truth as I knew it and deal with the fallout later.
“Trouble came to get me,” I said, “because Huck was brought in for questioning after Joe’s body was found. We left Vegas, and I didn’t know where we were going. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, we were here. She’d brought me back because Brentwood had made a deal with her. It was the only way to protect Huck. Neither of us wanted him to go to prison for another crime he didn’t commit, and when Trouble explained the situation, I knew the only choice was to hand myself over and claim responsibility for it. This was my mess, and it wasn’t fair to bring either of them into it.”
Carrera twisted the watch on her wrist, checking the time, and then refocused her attention. “But things didn’t go as planned, I take it?”
“He’d asked us to meet in an empty parking lot. We got out of the car and exchanged a few brief words under the impression he was turning me in. But instead, he shot Trouble and took me.”
