“You’re going to blackmail me?” she asks.
“No,” I say as Cassel slides a folder over.
Cassel taps the top of the folder. “Inside this is everything you need to destroy the Barlow family. We have rearranged it so it looks like you went through legal avenues to acquire all of the information needed. You would not only be stopping a crime family, you would be saving so many lives. The Barlows don’t merely have one or two people they’ve manipulated and drugged and sold. They have control over, hell… a hundred or more.Women forced into prostitution, as well as men and women who were manipulated into killing those who oppose them.”
I ask, “What’s more important to you? Stopping one man who promises you that he only disposes of those who are the worst of the worst or saving the lives of innocents?”
Patel stares at the file, and it’s almost like I can see the weight of the decision pulling her down.
She sets her hand down on the folder. “Okay.”
“Yeah?” I ask.
“I never thought I would do something like this.”
“I never thought we’d become best buds,” I say.
Her face scrunches up. “Are we?” She’s quiet for a long moment before speaking again. “You saved my life. The things he told me he was going to do to me…” She looks down at her hands. “And I knew he’d do it. I knew he’d kill me. I never understood exactly how that would feel until I was lying on that floor… Thank you for saving my life.”
“I’m glad I made it in time,” I say. “I’m hoping this means you’ll be a lot less nosy.”
Patel doesn’t answer this, which is not very encouraging. She just takes the file and nods at us before leaving. I know she holds my fate in her hands. She could use the Barlow case to gain prestige and then use it to tear me down. It’s a risk with such a stubborn woman.
The door opens and Henry walks in before sitting down in the chair that Patel just vacated. I quickly sit on his lap and hug him. “Daddy Henry, I barely lived.”
He pats my head. “How did it go?”
“It’s questionable,” Jackson replies. “It could go either way. She agreed to our compromise, but there’s no way to guarantee that she’ll stick with it.”
“There’s not,” Henry says. “I could try to get her transferred elsewhere.”
“Nah, we’re tight,” I assure him.
“I… I’m afraid that if you mess with her, she’ll retaliate,” Jackson says. “Let’s just… have some faith in her.”
“Okay,” Henry agrees as I try to put his hand back on my head for more pats. He pats my face, which is less comforting, but I’ll still take it.
After the vicious pats of affection, we head off on our way. When we reach our cars, I turn to Cassel.
“Thank you,” I tell him.
“You don’t need to thank me. I wanted to fuck over the Barlow family as much as anyone else. And while we could have done it ourselves, I honestly think this is for the best. This way all of the victims will get the help they need… hopefully,” Cassel says.
We part ways and head for home. We’d returned to our house after dealing with Colby, but our home is just a husk of its former self without all of my beautiful guns on display. Because we didn’t know if Patel was going to drop by with the FBI, we tore apart the house and Wellstone and pulled out anything that was even slightly illegal. But it seems like maybe we didn’t have to do it, assuming Patel keeps her promise. Jackson made me agree that I wouldn’t move everything back in until some time had passed without Patel knocking on my door.
Thankfully, anything that happens like thatshouldgo through Henry, so we’d get a heads-up.
“I don’t love this risk,” Jackson comments as we walk into our home.
“Yeah? I’m not the fondest of it either… but it is what it is. I… I think it’ll be okay. You know… Waylon won’t be home until tonight,” I say as I eye the door to the sex dungeon.
“Oh?” Jackson asks.
“Ohhhhh.”
“Oh…”
“Ohhhhhhh.”
