Chapter Twenty-Two
JJ had exactly two cards left to play.
The first was the obvious one. The card she knew she would most likely play in the end.
Josiah Teller was her brother. She had found him all thanks to the earring her mother must have left with him before she passed.
JJ didn’t need any more proof. She didn’t need to see him again, to talk to him.
She had been lucky enough to already share a few conversations with him during the week he had been in the hospital.
She also took to heart the fact that without meaning to, she had already saved her brother when she had found him in the field. Everything after had been bonus.
It also made her heart soften a little more to realize that the man seemed to have had a happy life before trouble had found him. She had been through his house—though maybe not as thoroughly as she would have liked—and seen a life well-lived through the years.
Pictures of people smiling, hugging and celebrating.
He had hobbies. Art supplies had filled his guest bedroom, something that now made JJ smile.
It would have tickled their mother to know that despite her lack of patience with arts and crafts, her son seemed to thrive at it.
He also seemed to be a fan of reading, something their father had been avid at.
She hadn’t been able to search all the books, but it looked like he tended to gravitate toward science fiction.
Something that JJ actually loved herself.
It was a small thing, but it felt like a lot at the same time.
Josiah was a little bit of all of them, even if he didn’t know.
JJ took that solace with her to play that first card.
Like Riker before her, she would try to make a deal with a Cole to keep the people she loved out of harm’s way. Winnie, to be exact. Price by extension.
No one would ever need to know that Elle and Able Ortiz had had two children. Once JJ gave herself up, that was it.
Price wouldn’t be happy but she was confident that, no matter what, he would keep Josiah a secret too. He would look out for him as well. Maybe that was why JJ had told Winnie the story of the earrings. She wanted to leave a breadcrumb or two so Price would find his way to her brother.
He’s going to be so mad at you, JJ thought.
But JJ had already decided to play the second card, and once she did, there was no turning back.
JJ walked up to the Colt Bar and Grill’s front door. They weren’t open yet but the sign on the door said they would be in two months. There was a grand opening party being planned too.
JJ took a quick look around the building and parking lot.
It wasn’t remote but the establishments closest to them was a gas station and a Subway that faced the opposite direction.
Two cars were in the lot. She had snuck out of her house with a bike she’d kept in the back.
That bike she looked at once more before she knocked on the tinted door.
It wasn’t long before that door opened.
A man she had never seen before gruffly told her that they were closed.
She sighed.
“I need to talk to Lawson Cole,” she said. “If he’s here, let him know that JJ Shaw has some information.”
The burly man wasn’t a talker. He also didn’t need her to keep prying. He disappeared behind the door for a minute or two before opening back up. This time, he stepped aside to let her in.
The building was surprisingly open for what it was.
JJ wasn’t a pro at renovations, but she had to believe no progress had been made to the structure in years.
The bones of a restaurant were there but everything was worn, covered in dust and in obvious disuse.
She was surprised this was where Lawson was holed up.
Though, when the burly man took her down a hallway and into a room at the back, she admitted to herself that this fit him in a way.
Potential on the outside but rotted on the inside.
At least the storage room seemed to have been dusted.
It was also set up to look more like a lounge.
There were still shelving with boxes and plastic tubs close to the back wall, but the rest of the space had tables and chairs, two couches, and an area that looked like it had been used to make simple meals.
There were two other doors at the end of the room, but both were closed.
JJ didn’t have the time or the mental bandwidth to wonder about what was behind them.
Her attention went right to the man sitting at the table in the center of everything.
Lawson Cole had his head tilted a little in smug curiosity. Like the cat had been delivered his mouse. It was only icing on the cake that the mouse had delivered itself. He leaned forward. He was wearing a suit.
She wasn’t a fan.
“JJ Shaw, I almost didn’t recognize you without you bouncing around an elevator.” He looked to the burly guy behind her but addressed her still. “Should I be expecting our Deputy Collins and the sheriff department soon, or are they already lurking around outside?”
Based on the lack of fear in him, JJ assumed he had an exit strategy just in case. Or maybe he had more people hidden in the building, waiting for his word. Either way, he was too calm for her liking.
Though, maybe that was his ego.
If someone thought they were untouchable long enough, they probably couldn’t help but believe they were.
“It’s just me,” JJ assured him. “No one even knows I’m here, especially not Deputy Collins.”
The burly man must have shown that she was, it appeared, alone.
Lawson smiled. It was all snake.
“Then, I have to ask a few questions, first—”
JJ raised her hands and turned around to face the burly man.
“Check me,” she ordered. “No weapons, no phone, no wire. No anything.”
The man really was a simple guy. He did as she said without comment. Lawson had stopped though. His eyebrow was high. JJ’s patience was low. When his lackey was done and gave the thumbs-up, JJ walked over and took the seat opposite Lawson at the table. It put them only a few feet apart.
The closer proximity made her feel sick with disgust.
She cut to the chase.
“You’re going to ask how I found you next and then why I’m here, I’m sure,” she started.
“So let me answer.” JJ held up her index finger.
“The man who attacked me in the woods wasn’t identified but I figured someone from your group had to have confirmed his death to give you the whole life for a life excuse and escalation for Deputy Collins and his daughter.
So I hacked into the hospital’s security system and, in what I can only say is a disappointing lack of self-awareness on his part, found a man sneaking into the morgue in the basement.
I took a leap of faith and tracked him to the parking lot where I was able to find out that he had taken a cab, of all things, here.
I’m not sure what you’re paying these guys, but may I suggest in the future going the extra mile for a vehicle that isn’t as easy to track. ”
She held up a second finger and continued to back talk the man as much as she could.
“Which brings me to say I want to make a deal and I want to make it fast before someone else figures out you’re here.”
Lawson’s smile had dropped a little. He was irritated.
“A deal?” he asked. “Let me guess. You want me to back off your dear deputy and his daughter? What could you even offer me to make that remotely enticing?”
There was no reason to beat around the bush.
JJ dove right in.
“I’m offering you me.” She held up her hand to stop his, no doubt, snarky remark. “And before you turn that down, I should let you know that I know you’re looking for Able Ortiz’s son.”
It was a complete and utter change.
Lawson really had had no clue that JJ was involved.
No more snake smile.
“But, I have to say, you got one thing wrong about this entire thing,” she added before he could cut in. JJ touched her chest. “Your father not only kept it a secret, he kept me a secret. I’m the daughter you’re looking for. Able and Elle Ortiz never produced a son.”
His eyes widened.
“Their daughter died in the car accident,” he said. “The mother survived with an unborn child.”
“That’s what you’ve heard, but have you ever seen proof? Or do you think it was something your father said to try and cover for me one last time before he died?”
That’s when JJ finally knew what she suspected all this time to be true.
Lawson Cole truly had no proof that her mother had survived and had a child. It had been a rumor, a rumor that had been the truth, but nothing he could have verified.
So JJ’s plan was going to work.
She could cover up the existence of Josiah once and for all right here. She leaned into it to make sure the job was done well.
“I came back here to live a nice life in a place my mother used to love and then, one day, I see you bouncing around here and suddenly men who would have been the same age as that unborn child—with adoption stories to boot—start getting into trouble.” She shook her head.
“I guess I’m like my dad. I couldn’t just let that sit.
I thought I could finish what he started. ”
She sighed. It wasn’t an act.
“But then you put me in a tough spot and went for an innocent girl. I realized that I wasn’t willing to bet her life on the fact that I could win against you. If only for the logistics.”
Lawson’s voice was tight.
“Logistics?” he repeated.
JJ nodded.
“You have more people than me. Plain and simple. So, I’m here to take the loss instead of dragging anyone else through this mess. So, let’s end this now.”
To his credit, Lawson seemed to be taking the news in stride.
He recovered faster than she thought he would.
“If all of this is true, what kind of deal are you offering? Your life for the deputy’s daughter’s?”
This was the part that would lead to her end.
If there was more time, if she had been more sure of his numbers and what information he did and didn’t have, JJ might not have given in as easily.
But she believed she had finally hit a dead end she couldn’t come back from.
JJ thought about her mother, all alone before she died.
She thought about her father, dedicating his entire life to helping others.
She thought about Riker, giving up his everything to keep her safe and loved and happy.
She thought of Josiah, happy that their family would live on no matter what happened to her.
She thought of Winnie, holding her mother’s earrings.
She thought of Price, holding her hand in the middle of bubbles.
JJ smiled.
Lawson leaned in just a little more. He was all ears.
Which was good. She needed him to really believe her. So she told her last lies, her last truths and the last deal she would ever make.
“I am the evidence against your group. I am the only one in existence that knows enough about you to destroy you. So, once you deal with me, there’s no reason for you to ever come back here again.
There’s no reason for you to hurt or harass anyone else here, because all it will end up doing is putting a brand-new target on your back.
And, if you really want to be the new boss calling all the shots, getting all that new attention would only make your cousin seem all the stronger.
Dealing with me? That will cement your spot against him. And isn’t that what you really want?”
That was it.
JJ closed her mouth.
The deed was done.
And, by the look on Lawson’s face, he had already made his decision well before he said it out loud.
“I guess it’s only fair to accept,” he said. “A life for a life, after all.”