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“Me too.” He grabs his phone and types out a text. “I’m telling the guys to take the package with them if it’s cleared by the cops. We’ll meet tomorrow at Redleg to get it from them.”
“Good plan. As curious as I am, I feel like burnt toast.”
“Ah, come on. You’re a soft hoagie roll at worst.” Cal rises and offers his hand. “Do you have any photos of Tony? We could go to Redleg tomorrow and search face rec for him like we did for the guys who took Lettie.”
Nodding, I take his hand, letting him pull me to my feet. “I should be able to pull his DMV photo.”
“Good. That’s the plan. Enough for tonight. Let’s get some rest.”
Once we hit the sheets, he curls his body around me and pulls me to his chest. Everything else fades.
Right before I doze off, I remember all we shared last night and this morning.
I showed him my broken pieces, and he didn’t run or push me away. If anything, he’s holding me closer.
And damn, that pie was delicious.
Chapter45
Gifts for baby raptors
KLEIN
“Hi, Boss. Thanks for coming in. Hope we didn’t pull you away from anything important on this fine Sunday morning.” I punctuate my statement with a waggle of my brows since we all know what he was doing last night.
Or perhaps who.
He glares at me over the rim of his coffee cup, then lifts his middle finger. “At least you guys called me this time.” After sitting in Tomer’s empty chair and rolling it closer to Mia, he gets down to business. “What’s the latest, Red?”
She returns fire with a glare of her own. “That’s as offensive to me assiris to you.”
Smirking, he raises his palms out. “What’s the latest,Mia? Is that better?”
Her cheeky grin returns. “Okay, so we’re 99 percent sure that the man who broke into my house is the same man who’s been dicking up trafficking cases at the FBI. Probably because he’s getting paid off by traffickers like Lenkov. His name is Tony Mattera. Extremely gifted tech guy at the bureau and the only person I know who could hack my system. Twice. He’s based in DC, but we caught him in front of a coffee shop earlier this morning here in town. That can’t be a coincidence. All the evidence is circumstantial, so this isn’t enough for the cops to get involved yet. Klein suggests we send in a four-man team to confront him and force a little chat. Maybe we can get enough out of him to hand him to law enforcement.”
Big Al arches an eyebrow. “A little chat, huh? With a federal agent?”
“One who broke into my house and is in bed with human traffickers.”
For only being here a few weeks, she knows exactly what buttons to press to get Boss on her side. Impressive.
Mia brings Big Al up to speed on her past with Tony and how their task force cases slowly started falling apart. Thankfully, she leaves out the part about her and Tony the fuckhead sleeping together, which does wonders for my blood pressure. She also softens the details about his threat regarding her sister’s assault.
Speaking of which… if she doesn’t stop blaming herself for that sick bastard’s atrocities, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.
No wonder she’s made it her life’s mission to investigate the shit out of everyone around her. The guilt and regret— although undeserved— have been her constant companions.
While Boss bounces questions off her, something hits me square in my chest.
Her guilt.
That’s why she was so eager for me to punish her. I already knew this based on what she said to me that night at her house. But the magnitude of her guilt didn’t click in my mind until now.
It wasn’t only about what she did to me, but about her underlying guilt over everything she’s carried for fifteen years. Her sister’s attack, the falling out with her family, and all the times she invaded someone’s privacy are stacked in her psyche and piling up on her remorse.
Judging by what Shep and Sawyer told me, that isn’t a healthy way to go about ournon-vanillasexual encounters. Just like I shouldn’t punish her out of anger, she shouldn’t want punishments to assuage her shame and guilt.
I wish I could pull her aside and talk to her about this while it’s top of my mind, but this isn’t the time. I’ll need to put this topic in one of the lock boxes in the back of my brain until we’ve got this Tony fucker behind bars.
