“Certainly not. But I’ve just become aware of a number of things, some of which concern the attack on you, and that’s why I wanted this chat. To clear the air.”
Keira waved her hand. “Go right ahead.”
Smiling, Medina took a sip of iced tea. “Nox Woodson brought in Phelan as a client, so I gave him leeway. My trust was misplaced.”
“You had to know Woodson was a convicted drug dealer and suspected of a multiple homicide,” I pointed out, keeping my voice down. Luckily the kids on the deck were drowning us out.
“I was aware, yes. My bodyguards need a range of skills.”
Keira snorted. But Medina just kept smiling.
“A range of skills,” he repeated, “like your boyfriend has.”
I held his stare when he glanced at me. Okay, so he knewthatpart of my past. Given his likely connections within the higher levels of the military and government, it wasn’t that surprising.
The server brought a couple trays of appetizers, and then Medina went on.
“Overnight, I spoke with some of the lower-levelCrosshairs employees working under Woodson. They confessed the whole plot to me.”
“Spoketo them?” Keira interrupted. “And they just decided to come clean?”
“I’m very persuasive.”
Yeah, we all knew Medina had probably used more hands-on methods.
He shrugged. “Apparently, Woodson was running a side hustle of his own. Prostitution, drugs. He operated out of a—” He cleared his throat, casting a look at the families enjoying lunch. “Strip club.”
“They laundered the money through Phelan’s Real Man Formula business?” I asked.
“Indeed. I had no knowledge. No part of it.”
That would explain the odd shipments going to and from Phelan’s home. And it explained why Woodson would kill to keep the truth quiet. Keira had seen Woodson at Phelan’s house and potentially overheard something incriminating, so he’d tried to run us off the road that afternoon. Then yesterday, he’d killed Phelan to keep him from talking.
Woodson had feared the policeandMedina finding out,
But Medina hadn’t even gotten to Ryan Garrett’s part in this yet. Did he know?
“The reason I’ve contactedyou, Deputy Marsh, is that I understand Nox Woodson and a close friend of his targeted you as well. It’s a…regretable situation.”
That nonchalant tone of his set me off. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I hissed. “They put on demon masks to terrify her, broke into her home, and meant to kill her.”
Medina’s bodyguards at the nearby table shifted.
“Calm down, Mr. Reynolds. You don’t want to draw attention.” Medina took a bite of a French fry. “I hear the staff at Last Refuge can be sensitive about such things.”
Gah, I did not like this guy. Keira squeezed my handunder the table, and I commanded my heart rate to drop back down.
“Do you know where Ryan Garrett is?” Keira asked.
“So you already know his name.”
“Phelan mentioned Garrett yesterday before he died. But I knew that name before.”
Keira had told me last night: she’d known Ryan Garrett’s name because his sister was Hadley, the woman Keira had saved. Ryan’s buddies had nearly beaten Hadley to death after she reported her brother to the police. Keira found her and brought her to Last Refuge. But Keira never knew what Hadley’s brother looked like.
She was trembling. “Somehow, Garrett knew that I’d once helped his sister escape him. He must’ve recognized me when he saw me at the bar the night of the shooting. Garrett wanted revenge on me. This was personal.”
“You have my sympathies.”
