She took comfort for about four ragged, sobbing breaths, then roughly shoved him away. “But you knew hewasdoing it, and you didn’t tell me!”
“Yeah.” He wanted to explain, but he was worried it would sound too much like making excuses, and he didn’t want to do that. “I wish I could have told you. I’m sorry.”
She turned away, staring out the window of her office onto the bright, sunny street. “I had to find out from Wade fucking Granger.”
“Wade told you?”
“Oh, not in so many words,” she said bitterly. “But he knew what he was doing. I tried to get in the way of him getting what he wanted, so he had to hurt me. Had to punish me, right?”
Jesus, Jericho hoped that wasn’t true. Wade was lot of things, but Jericho wouldn’t have said he was deliberately cruel. “What’d he say, exactly?”
“He—” Her voice wavered, and she took a deep breath, shook her head impatiently, then exhaled. She took a new breath and sounded calmer, at least on the surface. “When I walked him out, I asked him why he came to the office instead of your apartment. I accused him of advertising, putting on a show. And he said from what he heard, he had an audience wherever he went, so why shouldn’t he play to the bigger crowd? He knew the feds were tailing him, and he wanted me to wonderhowhe knew.”
“But I could have told him about the feds tailing him. I didn’t, but I could have.”
“That’s what I thought had happened. I got mad at him for corrupting you, said that you telling him that showed that he was dragging you down. And that’s when he said you hadn’t told him. So I asked him how he knew, and he just smiled that fuckingevilsmile of his and said, ‘I heard it from the sheriff, Sheriff.’ It took me a while to figure out what he meant, to be honest.” She smiled as if in fond memory of the more naïve woman she’d been earlier in the day. “I came up here and tried to forget about it, then I thought maybe I should have my office swept for bugs or something, and then a few minutes ago it hit me. The feds shutting me out—” She spun toward Jericho, fierce and almost wild. “They know, don’t they? That’s why they stopped trusting me with information. They knew I’d talk to my dad about it, and he’d pass it along to— Jesus, Jay, who was he talking to? Only Wade? Andwhy? Formoney? Or just because he doesn’t like the feds and wanted to screw them over? Why the hell would he do this to me, Jay?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s not really about you, you know? I mean, I hope it isn’t. Maybe he hasn’t thought it through, hasn’t realized that what he’s doing could hurt you.”
“How could he not realize that?”
“I guess he thinks he won’t get caught. I mean, criminals—” He caught himself. Maybe that wasn’t the word he should be using to refer to Kayla’s dad. But the damage had already been done, so he continued. “They never think they’re going to get caught, right? So if he never gets caught, then you’ll never get in trouble and he’s not hurting you. Is that possible?”
“You’re being more generous than I’d expect you to be.” She shook her head. “All this time I’ve been nagging at you about Wade, andI’mthe one who’s been letting my personal life get in the way of my work.I’mthe one who’s been compromised.”
“But you didn’t know. Whatever stupid shit I’m doing with Wade, I’m doing it with my eyes open. You couldn’t have been expected to know about your dad.”
“Butyoufound out about it,” she said softly. “How? Wade told you?”
And another damn land mine appeared. His mind raced. She already knew the feds knew about her dad. Was there any harm in telling her the whole story? Hopefully not, because he was going to do it. “Hockley told me. He wanted me on board because he was trying to keep you from getting dragged into it all. At least, that was his story. He wanted me to be aware of the situation so I’d do what he wanted if he needed me to—I don’t know, he wasn’t crystal clear. But it seemed like he wanted an ally who’d move fast if he saw an opportunity to protect you from the fallout.”
“That’s pretty fucking paternalistic,” she growled.
He managed to bite his tongue and not mention that given the way her actualpaterwas behaving, it seemed like being protective wasn’t paternalistic at all. “We were looking out for a colleague,” he said.
“Oh, yeah, ‘colleagues.’ I guess it’s just a coincidence that both of you are my ex-lovers?”
“You slept withHockley?”
“What, he didn’t mention that when you guys were talking about me behind my back?”
“Chill out, Kay. Our intentions were good—at least, mine were.” He grimaced. “Hockley? Jesus, that’s— I can only assume your taste in men has changed a lot since high school if you findhimattractive.”
“Yeah, I like straight guys now. Why the hell are we talking about this?”
“I have no idea. You brought it up, and I haven’t been able to burn it out of my memory yet.”
She snorted, and he felt better. She wasn’t going to fall apart, not all the way. Not so far that she wouldn’t be able to pull herself back together, especially if she had a little help from her friends. So he said, “We should talk to him, maybe. Hockley. He’s not in tight with the investigation—”
“They’re investigating my dad? There’s a formal investigation?”
“Well, shit, Kay, they aren’t going to just ignore it if they find a corrupt sheriff, even if he’s retired. Yeah, they’re investigating. But the FBI, not the DEA. Hockley’s not cool enough to be FBI, so he’s not really in on the details. We could talk to him, see what he can tell us. Figure out your next step.”
“I’m pretty sure my next step involves going over to my dad’s place and burning his fucking house down.”
“We should give Wade a call. He’s got a real gift for arson.”
Another snort, but then she shook her head. “No. I’m not going to fucking laugh about this. Not about anything distantly related to this. Stop trying to make me feel better—I want to feel bad.”
