15. Char
CHAR
“Sorry, did you say dirty cop?” I asked.
Nielson nodded his head. “Keep flipping through those pages. You’ll see what I mean.”
I bellied up to that goddamn table so quickly that I could’ve knocked it over. I turned over pages and pages’ worth of bank statements and pictures of this man. Testimony he gave in court appearances as well as back-alley photographs of him shaking hands of people I didn’t recognize.
It was a whole lotta nothing in my eyes.
“You want to know what I think?” he asked.
I nodded as I continued flipping. “Please, don’t take my silence as a need for you to be silent.”
His chair creaked with his movements. “I think this woman ended up in town because Doc was her mark.”
“How do you figure?” I asked without looking up.
The man sure had a lot of money in a lot of bank accounts for being a federal agent. They didn’t get paid that much money, did they?
“I couldn’t make any other calls to D.C. without throwing flags, of course,” Sheriff Nielson said, “and I’m not gonna lie, part of me still isn’t completely sure what I’m looking at. But I do believe that this woman was originally in town because she was chasing him.”
“Which led her to the guys,” I whispered.
“Exactly. She was probably chasing him and trying to find proof that he was dirty in the first place. That’s usually how things like this are handled on that sort of a level.”
However, when I flipped to one of the last pages in the file, I noticed a picture of Doc on a witness stand.
He was all smiles, relaxed and laughing in that signature all-black suit of his.
The judge looked as if he was entranced with whatever the man said.
The bailiff was actually smiling. However, it was someone in the jury who caught my eye.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“What?” the sheriff asked.
I flipped the picture toward him and pointed at the face in the corner. “Do you see that? Please tell me you see it.”
His jaw dropped. “Oh my fucking god.”
I scooped everything up and shoved it back into the folder. “The guys need this folder. Can you make me a copy?”
He quickly stood to his feet. “I figured they’d want it, but they said that this was a crew thing, so I didn’t bother them with it. I’ll get the copies myself, you sit here.”
I nodded as I paced the room. “All right, yeah, yeah. Just be quick, okay? And don’t let anyone else see that.”
“Trust me,” he said as he whipped the door open, “I won’t.”
I struggled to catch my breath as the door closed behind him.
My head fell back as a groan escaped from my lips, and all I could do was stand there.
Dear God, that’s how this bitch got into town.
She got here through Doc. Through chasing one of the guys’ clients.
That didn’t bode well for them at all, especially if they were caught up in the actual investigation.
This went down bad no matter which way we swung it, and it made me briefly wonder if I needed a lawyer.
If we had a lawyer, could we bring this bitch up on charges for Bait? That man deserved justice. My men deserved the justice that they sought for their friend. But every step we took, it only came with more questions and not enough answers.
I had so much to fill the guys in on, but the sheriff returning to the room ripped me out of my head.
“Thank you so much,” I said as I whipped around and held out my hand.
He dropped the warm, freshly copied file into my palm. “Be careful with that, okay? I don’t know if the ink is fully dry yet.”
I held it gingerly against my stomach. “Thank you.”
He took a step toward me. “Are you okay, Miss Char?”
I lobbed my head toward the clock and stared at it.
Something still didn’t feel right about all of this.
This woman was too… something. I don’t know, I didn’t have the word for it.
But things still didn’t fit. Things still didn’t feel right.
We still didn’t have the whole picture, and it infuriated me that we didn’t.
And while I knew this wasn’t about me, that I was just one gigantic coincidence in it all, I still couldn’t help but feel responsible.
However, I did have confirmation on one major thing.
I had confirmation on the fact that I was nothing but a coincidence in this scenario.
It was the guys who were targeted all along.
“You think she’s coming after Doc because he’s a dirty cop?” I asked.
Sheriff Nielson nodded. “In D.C., they have lots of agencies that investigate this sort of thing. Wouldn’t shock me if she works for one of them.”
I nodded mindlessly. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“Do you have another theory?”
“No.”
“So what’s bugging you?”
I shook my head in frustration. God, I wished Deac were at my side. He’d know what to do, or what to say, or how to interpret all of this. I was still an outsider. Just a little girl looking in at the big, bad, hunky guys and wondering how much I wanted to be part of their world.
When did I go from wanting to beat them to wanting to be with them?
“Miss Char? Can I get you anything?”
I cleared my throat as I forcibly pulled myself out of my thoughts. “Just give me some time to process things.”
He nodded as he backed toward the door. “Sounds like a coffee run is in order. I’ll be back in a few.”
“Thanks,” I murmured as I continued staring at the clock.
He thumbed over his shoulder from my peripheral. “There’s a deputy out here if you need anything before I get back.”
I nodded, but I didn’t have the energy to make any other sounds, and it wasn’t until the sheriff closed the door behind him that I drew in a shaking breath.
I allowed a tear to slip down my cheek.
The worst is yet to come, I feel it.
It only made me more determined to get that file folder back to my guys. They had to know what I just learned.
Because they were all in more danger than they realized.