Chapter Twenty-Four
RHYS
I HATE hospitals. It doesn’t matter which hospital, they all smell like antiseptic and grief.
After my mom got sick, we spent a lot of time doing tests, and then when she got worse, there were a lot of overnight stays.
I’ll never forget our last conversation. She was in hospice, we all knew she didn’t have long, and I was by her bed holding her hand.
She wasn’t even sixty yet, she was just starting to get gray streaks in her black hair, but only on the left side of her face. Before her diagnosis, she looked much younger than she was, and she would always laugh and say that the Garcia women were known for looking younger than they were.
Then she would tease me and say that when I finally gave her grandchildren, she wouldn’t look like a grandma.
Her heart just wasn’t as strong as she was.
That last day, she was telling me goodbye in her own way, telling me she didn’t have any regrets and that I was her pride and joy. She squeezed my hand and laughed when she said, “I even love you more than I love my cello.”
It had become a joke between her and my father that she loved her cello more than him. It wasn’t true, but their little jabs at each other were just a testament to the strength of their marriage.
She closed her eyes for a long time, and I was getting worried, but she opened them again and rolled her head toward me.
“That’s not true, I have one regret, I won’t be able to hold my grandchildren.
” She squeezed my hand again. “But I’ll be there, mijo, even God himself won’t stop me from being there when your children are born. ”
The door opening pulls me out of my thoughts, and they roll Conway into his room. When I got here, the nurse told me they had taken him for some scans, so I sat in his room and waited.
I decided to stop in on my way to work. My morning started earlier than usual when I woke up to Kinley straddling me, her soft lips on my chest and neck. Her sexual appetite is off the charts, and I almost wondered if she’s trying to kill me.
We ended up going two rounds before I even got out of bed, and I missed my workout window. But I got my cardio.
At least Conway is able to open both eyes today. When I saw him a few days ago, one eye was swollen shut.
“Abbot, good to see ya, man.” He says and lifts his chin.
I stand up and wait for the nurses to finish getting him settled before I talk. His bed is surrounded by straps and pulleys for his broken legs and arms, and it takes forever to get him all strapped in.
One of the nurses keeps looking at him and smiling as she bends around him, probably bending a little more than she needs to.
As she walks out the door, she stops and pokes her head around. “Call me if you need anything, hun.”
He winks at her before she disappears around the door, and it closes.
Cocking my brow at him, I huff a laugh. “I see you’re still able to put on the charm, even when you look like a black and blue punching bag.” Conway has always been a ladies’ man and swears as long as he can pull in two or three girls a weekend, he’ll continue to be single.
His eyes slide in my direction, and the fucker smiles the biggest shit-eating grin. “Nah, she just saw the size of my dick when she gave me a sponge bath, and she’s wanting to climb on.”
I don’t even smile. “You’re shittin’ me.”
“I shit you not, my friend.” He looks at the door and lowers his voice.
“Yesterday, I got a hand job. Today, she blew me and swallowed every damn drop, it was fucking heaven, man. As she was getting me situated, she said she might climb on tomorrow. So come back tomorrow afternoon and I’ll let you know. ”
Shaking my head, I pull the chair up next to his bed. “It’s like a fucking high school around here.”
“Except that I won’t be able to hold on to or squeeze those beautiful hips.” His smile gets bigger. “That’s one of the best parts of watching a woman on top.”
“Hm. I took you for a titty man rather than a hip man.”
“Oh, I like ‘em both, but there’s just something about holding and squeezing those hips when a woman’s riding me. Fuck, I’m gettin’ hard just thinking about it.” He turns serious and looks at me. “So? Why are you here?”
Shaking my head, I ignore his comment. “I think I may know who the mole is.”
His eyebrows climb up his forehead, and he steals my words. “You’re shittin me.”
“Not today, brother.” I tell him about Kinley and what happened when Sanders went to her house.
When I finish, he’s staring at the wall. “Motherfucker.”
“That’s what I said.”
“I’ve never seen him around Jessup’s place, so he has to be working with Ghost.”
Jessup is the head of the biggest heroin ring in the state, but getting charges to stick to him has been impossible because he always has someone doing his dirty work for him.
He started his distribution ten years ago when he came up from Mexico.
The state has been trying to break up his ring and get him locked up for years.
Conway had been working undercover with Jessup’s group for the past year and had earned enough trust to be able to work inside Jessup’s inner circle, but I’m pretty sure Sanders fucked that up. If he is the mole.
But Ghost is the guy who just came onto the scene a few years ago with the fentanyl distribution. We don’t even know what he looks like, all our efforts to get an ID on him have failed. So, we’ve just been calling him Ghost.
We’ve been able to pick out some of his runners and handlers, two of which got away the night I saved Kinley’s ass, but they seem to be more scared of facing him than going to jail.
“It would make sense, since every time we think we might be close to figuring out who he is, it’s a dead end.” I kick my legs out in front of me and cross my ankles as I lean back in my chair and lace my fingers behind my head.
“Yeah, I knew something was up when I went with Jessup to meet with Ghost. I just knew I was going to get an ID that day, but he didn’t show up. They jumped me in the middle of the night when I was heading back to my apartment.”
“Who did you tell about the meeting before it happened?”
“I sent an encrypted message to Dunn and Powers.”
Special Agent in Charge Powers is Conway’s boss and my counterpart for the team that’s keeping tabs on Jessup. We’ve been working together a lot more lately because of the many incidents of heroin/fentanyl deaths.
Most of the people who are buying it, and then dying, don’t know the heroin they’re using is laced.
“How do you feel about Powers? Do you think he’s a good guy?”
“To be honest, he’s not my favorite boss. I wouldn’t call him shady. Reserved would be the better word.”
Most of my contact with Powers has been over email. “I’ll have to figure out how we can bring our two teams together more often.”
While I’m thinking through how to fucking do that, Conway says, “So, uh, what’s the deal with this Kinley chick?”
My eyes snap to his. The protector in me wants to hide her, especially since she’s already in danger. “She’s a witness, and I’m her security for now.”
“Nah, man, I can see it in your eyes. She’s more than that.”
I stare at him, not sure I want to voice anything.
His eyes narrow, and he says, “I knew it. How serious is it?”
“This can’t go beyond us.”
“To the grave, man.”
“Serious.”
“Serious until it’s not, or serious-serious?”
Cupping the back of my neck, I scrub the hair on my nape. “Serious-serious.”
“Holy fucking shit, Rhys Abbot has been lassoed. I never thought I’d see the day a woman would come before work.” He laughs, and I know if he could use his arms, he would slap his leg. “So. Tell me about her.”
My eyes lift to the ceiling, and I take a deep breath. “She’s hot as fuck, sassy as all get-out, sharp as a tack, and when she walked away from me when I told her we needed to take a step back, the fucking weight on my chest made me think I’d never breath normal again.”
He stares at me until I look at him. “You fucking love her.”
I’ve never loved a woman before, my mom doesn’t count, so I don’t know how to label it. “I don’t know, man.”
His shit-eating grin is back. “How long did you wait after she walked away before you went to get her?”
Tilting my head, I smile at him. “The next day.”
I had to, my gut was telling me that if I didn’t, I would lose her for good. She let me know she isn’t going to fuck around with someone who won’t give her what she deserves. The thought of someone else stepping in felt like a fucking anvil on my chest.
“Ha! You love her.” He’s laughing like an idiot.
Standing up, I laugh as I walk to the door. “I got shit to do, man.”
“Alright, see ya later, lover boy!”
He’s still laughing when the door shuts behind me.
When I get to the office, I go right to Sanders’ desk.
He’s typing on his laptop and isn’t paying attention to me walking across the room to him.
Coming to a stop next to his desk, his body infinitesimally tenses before he grabs his stress ball, which looks like a globe, from the top of his desk and sits back in his chair. The hinges squeak as he does.
He’s squeezing the fucking ball, passing it from hand to hand as he gives me his usual annoying smile. “What’s up, boss?”
“I need to talk to you.” I tip my head toward the small conference room and walk that way, expecting him to follow me.
He shuts the door behind him and leans against the wall by the window that overlooks the fishbowl of desks and computers.
His body language is guarded, but the shit-eating grin is still there as he tosses the stress ball between his hands.
For the first time, I wonder if everything about him is an act.
The deception, and that I’ve missed it all this time, has my molars clenching.
Sliding my hands in my pockets, I square my shoulders, careful to keep my face neutral. “Why were you at my witness’s house Saturday?”
He shrugs his shoulders and rolls his eyes like it’s the most normal thing in the world to fucking go to a witness’s house and lie about who sent him. “I didn’t know it was a crime to check in on our witness.”
I watch every twitch, every move he makes. I’m trying to keep the questions casual, I can’t let on that I want to snap his fucking head off just for looking in her direction.
“How did you know she was at her house? I hadn’t reported that yet.”
The muscle next to his eye twitches, it’s small, but I saw it.
“It’s in the notes, someone reported it. Probably Swan. Was it supposed to be a secret from the team?”
Ignoring the jab, I ask my next question. “You told her I sent you to check on her.”
He shakes his head slowly as he acts like he’s thinking while he squeezes the ball and moves it back and forth between his hands. “No, that’s not what I said. I told her I was checking on behalf of the team and asked her if there was anything she needed to come in to report.”
“You drove all the way out to Claremore in the off chance that she might have something to report?”
He stops squeezing his ball and holds it mid-pass in front of him, the smile falling from his face. “If I didn’t know any different, boss, I would say these questions are more personal than professional.”
Our dust-up at the jail last week is at the forefront of my mind, I know that he still has that card to play against me, there were plenty of witnesses to back him up. I’m pretty sure his comment is to remind me.
Agent Sanders has never been one of my favorite people, but in light of everything, I’m finding it hard to keep my facade of professionalism around him.
When I don’t say anything, he chuckles and holds his hands up in surrender, the stress ball held against his palm with his thumb. “Look, I get it, you’re into her, and it’s put you in a tight spot.”
I narrow my eyes at him, daring him to continue his thought.
“All I’m saying is that when she went back to her house, I thought she might be fair game. Now I know. It won’t happen again.”
So, he’s going to play it off as him wanting a piece of ass. He’s got to be the slimiest fucker I’ve ever worked with.
My anger is bubbling and threatening to blow the lid off, but I need to control this, so he doesn’t take steps to have me removed or know that I suspect him.
“She’s a witness in protective custody, Sanders, she’s not fair game to anyone.
” I take a step towards him. “She doesn’t appreciate the position she’s in right now and is having trouble staying within her new boundaries, she got angry.
It took quite a bit of smooth talk on my part, but I got her back into custody.
That’s all.” I lift my eyebrows in warning.
“If you ever accuse me of unbecoming behavior again, I will have you demoted and removed from my team.”
The smile is still on his face, but I can see the hard indignation in his eyes. “Sounds kind of like a threat?”
“It’s a fucking promise, Sanders.”
He nods and his eyes drop to my badge on my waist and then my gun in its holster under my arm before he looks back up. The smile is gone from his face. “Yes, sir.”
“Ms. Harlow has requested not to interact with you, so from now on, you have no reason to communicate with her. If you need to know anything, you go through me.”
“Sounds like you’ve got her all tucked away, sir.”
“Sanders.” It’s a warning.
“You got it, sir.”
When he walks out the door, he swings it open hard enough that it hits the stopper in the floor with a ‘thunk’.
Fuck.
Watching him from the conference room doorway, he walks to his desk and tosses the ball down as he grabs his phone before he walks away. Something doesn’t feel right, and I wonder where he’s going.
Sitting at my desk, I pull up the notes from the last few meetings to see how he would have known Kinley went back to the ranch. I’m only ten minutes into reading through the transcripts of the past few days when DA Dunn opens his door.
“Abbot, my office. Now.”