Chapter Thirty-six – The Cards I’ve Been Dealt
Chapter Thirty-six
Cooper
THE CARDS I’VE BEEN DEALT
Performed by Warren Zeiders
My priority had to be getting Andie to safety.
Because if her dad had seen the article, the FBI would have too, and someone in the agency wasn’t to be trusted.
Someone there had turned on her. I hadn’t talked with her brother yet—just one more thing in a long list of items I hadn’t taken care of in the last few days.
Instead, I’d lost myself in her like the greenhorn detective I’d once been when I’d been protecting Eden from her stalker.
My insides shredded at the thought, but Andie had to leave.
It didn’t have to be forever. But it had to happen until I found and cuffed the bitch responsible for what had happened to her.
I captured Andie’s hands, settling them over the ache inside my chest. “Eden blew your cover. We have to get you out of here before the FBI shows up.”
She shook her head, and when I started to growl in protest, she placed a finger on my lips.
“No. I’m not leaving. I’m tired of running and hiding.
I don’t want to give up this life…you,” her voice cracked.
“Other than concealing the gun, I didn’t do anything wrong the day Eddie was murdered.
I had a deal on the table with the FBI and the tribal leaders to help them catch Eddie.
I’m hoping they’ll still honor that if we can hand over whoever he was working with. ”
The thought of her going to prison made my stomach revolt. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about the new charges they could throw at her. The least of which was hindering an investigation.
“We don’t know if we can trust any of them,” I reminded her. “Someone inside the FBI was either working with Eddie, could even have been his partner, or they leaked the details of your deal to them.”
She held her breath before letting it out slowly. “Whoever was working with Eddie is already here. So whichever agent shows up now, they shouldn’t be the one I’m afraid of, right? Besides, I have this to give them now.”
She ran a hand over the box.
“What is it?” I demanded, reaching for it and flipping the lid. I stared at the gun, more surprise welling through me. “What the hell?”
“Dad brought it with him. He’s had it this whole time.”
I listened as she told me what had happened with her father, a guttural growl tearing from me at his disparaging words, the kind of sound I couldn’t stop even if I tried.
I wished I’d been there to put him in his place.
But as she went on, pride swelled in my chest. She hadn’t needed me, or anyone else, to stand up for her.
But the anger surged back when she admitted the memories his visit had dragged up—of the beating Eddie had given her. I kissed her forehead, trying to fit the new pieces into place. When the puzzle finally formed, what lingered was a dark suspicion I couldn’t shake.
“Your father took the cash.”
She stared at me. “It did cross my mind too, but it’s equally as likely that whoever shot Eddie did.”
“Then Dick has been using this gun to blackmail whoever shot Eddie.”
“It’s possible, but he also could have taken the gun out of some twisted sense of fatherly obligation or, more likely, to protect his campaign.”
Years of police work and an instinct that was rarely wrong told me her dad had taken the cash and was using the gun as an insurance policy against Eddie’s shooter. If her father recovered from the crash, I’d know the truth as soon as I asked him the question.
“The fact you saw Marla at the house that day is important too.”
“I saw shoes that looked like hers. I’m sure a good lawyer would make mincemeat out of a lying, cheating, runaway criminal such as me identifying a pair of shoes.”
I needed to find Marla. Why hadn’t I already put out feelers for her? Why had I waited so long to take action? The case with Randy and Sookie’s murder were legitimate but poor excuses when the woman I loved and our life together were on the line.
“If I can find her, I’ll get the truth out of her. Either she saw who did it, or she pulled the trigger herself.”
Andie shook her head again. “No. There’s no way she was Eddie’s partner. You don’t understand. Eddie was terrified of whomever he’d gotten the money from, but with Marla…he hardly even thought about her. And when he did, it was to call her a stupid, lazy Blubbo.”
“Maybe that’s why she killed him. Maybe years of mental abuse and seeing him hurt you made her snap.”
“But why come at me at the hospital, then?”
“To try and clear her own name. Shift blame onto you.” I could see Andie didn’t buy it, but it was a very plausible scenario. Still, I was missing something. A piece not on the board yet.
“I don’t know, Cooper. Even after she told Eddie I tried to get her to leave… Even knowing she kicked me… I just can’t see the meek Marla I knew doing any of this. As much as he abused her, she loved him. Fervently. As if he was her hero rather than her tormentor.”
She pushed away from me, flipped the lid on the gun box closed, and then started straightening the papers on her desk. She was rattled. More rattled than she’d shown her staff.
“Besides, if she shot Eddie,” Andie said, “Dad couldn’t have been blackmailing her. She had no money. And she definitely isn’t the person calling me—not with her damaged throat.”
“People use voice-altering devices,” I pushed. Whatever Andie believed, Marla had been at the scene and lied about it. She’d tried to pin the murder on Andie. “What about Eddie and Marla’s mom? Where is she?”
Andie looked at me, a frown between her brows. “She died before their dad did. Years before. After the accident that took their dad, they went to live with an aunt.”
“What kind of accident was it?”
“Eddie never said.”
One more thing for me to investigate, unless Dawson had already gone through their history. He needed to be my first call. I’d place it on my way back to the accident site.
But what did I do with Andie? She couldn’t stay here.
She was at risk, not only from whoever had sent the note and wouldn’t be happy a photo of the two of us kissing had made its way to the internet, but from the feds.
I needed to be with her if and when they showed up to make sure everything stayed on the up and up.
I wasn’t going to let some power-hungry agent make her his stepping stone or, worse, allow a dirty agent to kill her for the money she didn’t have.
“I can’t stay,” I told her, chest squeezing tighter and tighter with each word. “I need to get to the accident scene to collect whatever evidence we can before the storm washes it away, and then I need to get back to Sandy. We found the drug lab.”
She inhaled another long, slow breath, but her hand shook when she put down the pile of papers she’d gathered. “You found the lab? That’s really good news.”
It was, and yet I wished it had happened on any other day but this one.
“I want you to come with me.” I didn’t know what the hell I’d do with her, but I couldn’t walk away. I couldn’t just leave her here.
Her eyes softened, and she came around the desk to join me again.
“You know I can’t come with you to a crime scene.”
She wasn’t wrong. Bringing her would jeopardize the entire case, especially if she were found guilty of any of the crimes the feds would try to pin on her. So what the fuck did I do now?
“I can’t leave you.” The words tore out of me. “All I could think on the drive over here was how I’d left you when you needed me. How I’d walked out this morning without ever telling you I love you.”
Those beautiful gray eyes filled with unshed tears, and her throat bobbed.
“You said the words last night,” I said softly. “I heard you, and I didn’t say them back. It was stupid. Because I love you, Andie. I love you, and I can’t think of anything better than spending the rest of my life at your side.”
She rose on her toes and kissed me. Feverishly. Furiously. As if it might be the last time we did, and I couldn’t let her believe that was true. So I returned the embrace with a force that claimed the permanence of us.
She was the one to break the kiss, hand running along the scruff I hadn’t shaved in my hurry out the door this morning.
“No matter what happens, Cooper, the love you’ve given me will get me through. I’ll always have it to hold close.”
“Nothing is happening to you.” I grabbed her hand and kissed the palm. “Nothing. If you won’t come with me, can I ask you to go to my parents’? Right now. Get in the car and go. I’ll feel better if you’re with my dad.”
She looked at the pile of work she’d set aside.
“Andie, nothing on that desk is worth your life.”
“You’re right. And all I can do here is put others in danger.”
Thank God, she agreed with me.
She picked up her phone, sent off a few messages, and then shoved her laptop and the papers inside a briefcase.
I grabbed the metal box from her desk and followed her to the door, where she pulled my jacket from a hook and slid into it. I shoved the box under my arm, pushing her hands aside to zip up the jacket myself.
She watched while I did it, and when she raised her eyes to meet mine, emotions swam in them before her gaze settled on the cash box.
“What if everyone thinks I had it all along?”
“They can’t if the ranch security cameras show your dad arriving with it.”
“Right…” she said, and something like fear darted over her face again. Fear and guilt.
I twined her hand with mine and led her out the door. When we got to the parking lot, I waited while she tossed her bag into the back seat of her SUV and then stopped her before she could climb into the front.
The photo Eden had taken of us was almost in this exact spot, except it had been next to my sheriff rig.
It was risky to kiss her again out in the open, but I needed the touch.
Needed to feel the heat of her. Needed to feel the love that had grown between us.
So I simply placed my mouth on hers and tried to infuse every ounce of love and affection and caring I had into the kiss.