AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Melody stuck her nose up in the air and made a little humming noise. “I’m sure that isn’t the case. I’m betting that you have a few more secrets that you aren’t sharing with us.” She had a lot more secrets, too many to tell, and that’s the way she’d keep it too.
She looked back over at Joel as if effectively dismissing Melody and her comments. “So, what’s it going to be, Joel?” she asked. She was still holding her gun at him, pointing it at his chest, but she thought that she’d at least let him believe that he had a choice in the matter. The truth of it was that she wasn’t going to leave the bar without Joel by her side. Those were her orders and she always followed orders to the letter.
“You going to stay here and possibly get all of these people killed or are you going to come with me and help out the CIA?” she asked.
“Do I really have a choice in the matter?” he grumbled. She wanted to tell him that he didn’t, but that would just be like rubbing salt in his wounds. Joel didn’t seem like the type of man who took orders from others well. In fact, she was sure of it with the way that he had worked his way up the ranks to Captain so quickly.
“If I told you yes, you wouldn’t believe me,” she said.
“Probably because it would be another lie,” Joel hissed. “Fine, let’s get this shit show over with. I’ll tell your superiors what I’ve already told you. I can’t just release Dante Gemini. I’m not the person to give that order. You think that I have more power than I actually do, Trista.”
She laughed, “You and I both know that’s just not true, Joel. You have all the power here,” she assured.
“Yet, you’re the one pointing a gun at me,” he accused. He stood and nodded to Melody and Axel. “Thanks for a great night out, guys,” he drawled. “And thanks so much for introducing me to Trista, it’s been a blast.” She nodded for him to walk in front of her so that she could keep her gun pointed at his back.
“Let’s go, Joel,” she said. “We have a long drive ahead of us.” She didn’t bother to look back at either Melody or Axel. She knew that she had burned her bridges with her new friends and there would be no point. All she needed to focus on now was getting Joel back to headquarters in one peace and knowing the Gemini Brothers, that was going to take a freaking miracle.
Joel
“You’re going to drive,”Trista insisted. “You want to take your vehicle or mine?” she asked.
“Mine,” he breathed. At least in his own vehicle, he’d have a fighting chance.
“Stop,” she said, “where are your keys?” she asked.
“Right pocket,” he said. She reached into his pocket and dug around for his keys. “Sure, take your time, sweetheart,” he teased. “Just a little bit to the left and I think that you’ll find it.”
“You’re an ass, you know that right?” she asked.
“So I’ve been told,” he said. “I’d really like to tell you that I’m not enjoying this, but I am.” She smiled and pulled his keys out of his pocket, holding them up to jingle triumphantly in front of his face.
“Got them,” she boasted.
“And here things were just starting to get good,” he teased. He knew that knocking her off of her game might be his way to get her to let her defenses down. Unfortunately for him, Trista didn’t seem to get frazzled very easily.
She handed him the keys and told him to get in, and he did. She kept her gun trained on him as she rounded the front of his car and got into the passenger side. She buckled and nodded at him to do the same. “Safety first,” he mumbled to himself. “You do know how ironic it is that you want me to put on my seatbelt while you’re holding a gun to my side, right?” he asked.
“Whatever, just drive, Joel,” she spat. He turned on the car and chuckled to himself as he buckled his seatbelt and put the car in drive.
“Where to?” he asked.
“Your precinct,” she said. “You’re going to release Dante Gemini, as we discussed, and then, I have orders to get you to a safe house, because the Gemini Brothers are going to be coming for you, Joel, whether you like it or not.”
“Um, not,” Joel said. “And we never discussed me releasing Dante Gemini. You pulled a gun on me and insisted—no discussion.”
“Well, I didn’t think that you’d be very reasonable, and here I was right,” she said. “If I would have walked into that bar and asked you nicely, would you have agreed to my request?” she asked.
“Not in a million fucking years,” he growled. “You have no idea what I had to do to put Dante Gemini away.” He wasted three years of his life tracking down that asshole and to turn around and have to let him out now felt like a giant slap in the face. “Does the CIA actually believe that letting Gemini out is actually a good idea? They are aware of who he is, right?”
“We’re aware,” she assured. “We know how much this must pain you, but we need him out so that he can resume his human trafficking business and our guy on the inside will be able to bring down the whole operation. That’s the way that it should have been from the start, but then your little local precinct got involved and fucked that all up.”
“I’m not following,” he said, “if the CIA was involved in the investigation against the Gemini Brothers from the start, why wasn’t I told to back down? My precinct would have done so, out of respect for your agency.”
“I’m sure that they would,” Trista drawled. “You guys are always so very helpful whenever we call you to help out on a case. You do know that my office did call and tell your precinct to back down, right? I mean, we had a guy on the inside and you charging in to arrest Dante Gemini fucked up years of undercover work.”
“Your office called to tell us to stand down?” he asked.
“Yep, and two days later, you arrested Dante yourself. So, tell me again how we should have just called you guys,” she sassed.
