Maya turned to Eric. “You can still turn yourself in. It’s not too late.”
“Like I told you,” Eric said, “I can’t. Not right now. I’m sorry.”
“What if I arrest you?”
“You’ve tried that before, remember?” Eric answered. “I’d just leave again. One way or another.”
“True, but I don’t want to lose you again,” Maya said. “There has to be some way for you to work around this.”
“You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that,” Eric said. “I don’t want to lose you either. I’m very proud of you. You’re an amazing officer and K-9 handler.”
Maya shook her head. “I don’t know about that. I seem to keep pushing—breaking the rules.”
“Runs in the family,” Eric said with a wink.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Look, at some point, I’ll make everything right. I promise. But not yet. Right now, I need to leave and get a head start. You can let them know you only saw me as I was escaping. Couldn’t get me. Say whatever you need to, but I need to hit the road.”
Maya really wanted to stop him. She fought an urge to go slap some cuffs on him and arrest him right there, but he was right. He knew how to escape. Just like she’d given Josh the paper clip to pick the locks, all law enforcement knew how to get out of handcuffs. It just was that most officers would never think of doing such a thing. Although circumstances had pushed Maya to give Josh that paper clip—something she thought she’d never do.
“Okay… I’ll trust you to do what you need to do and stay out of trouble… Dad,” Maya said. She’d never said that word to him, but he was right—he was her father.
“You have no idea how happy I am to hear you call me that for the first time. I’ll be in touch. I promise.”
With that, Eric grabbed a backpack and some other belongings and then headed out the back door. Part of Maya hoped she would see him again and part of her hoped she would never again have to face this agonizing decision of what to do with her father.
After the door closed behind Eric, Maya stood there in shock for a moment. Josh came over and wrapped her in his arms. She leaned into him, appreciating his strength in helping her through this situation. They were there for each other.
“I know that was hard,” he told her.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t try to arrest him?” Rory asked.
“I am,” Maya answered. She wanted to stay in Josh’s embrace forever, but she pulled back to look at Rory. “If you’re asked about this, tell them I forced you to leave it alone. At some point, he’ll get arrested, but not today.”
“I understand,” Rory said.
Elena stayed silent. Maya figured at this point, she wasn’t going to say anything either.
“We need to all get to our positions,” Maya said. “Are we ready to do this? Once we are all set, I’ll radio dispatch. Josh’s dad should have made contact and we can see who shows up.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Pops stared at his desk as if the wood grain would give him an answer like tea leaves. Spencer sat across from him in one chair, Lucas in the other. Pops had just heard what Maya had texted. At least if Agent Kessler was involved, he knew things would be a little more on the up-and-up, but he didn’t like this. It felt worse than the charges he’d faced. He didn’t want Maya to go down a road where she had to go rogue, but he agreed that in this situation, with what they had to go on, it was better than nothing.
“Do you think the senator took the bait?” he asked.
“My guys are watching his house,” Lucas answered first. “He hasn’t left. His security detail hasn’t been around all day, though, but I think his wife went out shopping or something. She with Natalia?”
“I don’t know,” Spencer said. “I don’t think they are together. Natalia was exhausted after everything with Josh. She was going to take a nap and Bianca was going to run to the grocery store to get some more food. We’re running low. Then she’s going back to the house in case there’s any news. I haven’t told them about what we know. As far as the senator, he did text me back, actually sounding really confused, like he didn’t know what I was talking about. But it’s smart of him because he’s not admitting anything in a text that could end up in court.”
“Yeah, but Maya’s message could get her in a lot of trouble.”
“Possibly,” Spencer agreed. “Wouldn’t be the first time that law enforcement pushed things, like when officers lie during an interrogation. It’s not illegal and sometimes it gets them what they want.”
“I know,” Pops said with a sigh. “What if we tried that? I mean, we have a person sitting here in the jail waiting to be sent back to Chicago, since they want her more and she’s wanted for worse crimes there. I’d love to find out what she knows. I could bring her into an interrogation room.”
“She’s tough, and if she’s a Dark Angels member, she won’t say much easily,” Lucas said. “We would need to figure out how to break her, but she probably knows interrogation techniques better than we do.”
