19. Chapter 19
Connor
“Whatdya have, Captain?” He scowled at me when I dropped into the seat across from his desk and put my feet up. Captain Hoover shoved my feet off the edge, and they hit the ground with a heavy thud. My face twisted as I sat up.
“Don’t whatdya have, Captain me, Murphy.” His chest heaved with frustration he had probably been carrying since the angry voicemail he left me the day before. The one that told me to be here by noon, or he would send a patrol car to pick my ‘pathetic fucking ass’ up instead.
I figured it had been his typical annoyance at my lack of communication. Really, it wasn’t something new—at least, I didn’t think so. “What?” I asked when he continued to glare.
“You know what.” He threw a folder in my direction. It hit the desk, sliding toward me, and enough of the contents slipped from beneath the cover for me to see it was a photo. Of what. I grabbed the folder. “When were you going to tell me you were fucking the little sister?”
As I expected, the folder held pictures.
What I hadn’t expected was for the pictures to be of me—and of Grace.
My arm was around her in one, my lips against her neck in another, and the look on her face in the third had me about ready to run out of the office to find her.
My stomach sank—not with guilt, but because suddenly, I realized I had to worry about her more than I thought.
“It’s not like that,” I said, pushing the folder back to him.
“Oh, this isn’t the two of you coming out of her house?” He threw the third picture back at me.
I shrugged, taking the picture from him. It wrinkled in my grip. “It is,” I said.
“Then what am I not seeing?” Captain Hoover threw his hands in the air, like he’d had a few too many years of putting up with me.
“I’m not just fucking her.” I don’t think I was ever just fucking her. With Grace, somehow, it was always more than that.
He pinched his nose and groaned. With each breath, the silence in the room felt heavier. “Oh, great.” The Captain reached across the desk and plucked the picture from me. “It’s time to pull you. You’re too close to it.”
“I’m not too close to it. Leave me where I am. I can handle this.” I was so close to having everything I needed to put the Cassidys where they belonged—behind bars, at the very least. “You have to trust me.”
I was sure others outside his office could hear the disappointed groan that rolled from his throat. “Trust you? You’re too distracted—more focused on supposedly not fucking your new mob girlfriend. How am I supposed to believe you’re anything but biased at this point?”
“I’m none of those things.” I shook my head, sitting forward in my seat. “Grace has nothing to do with her brothers’ business, and I’m telling you, the Morettis have nothing to do with those drugs.”
He rolled his eyes so hard, his shoulders followed. “Then prove it.”
“I’m working on it,” I said, sliding the chair back and getting up. My heartbeat raced the clock, and it felt like time wouldn’t be able to go any faster. I looked at my watch. I had to get out of here before Grace got caught up in the rotation—one she had no reason to be wrapped up in.