“Why would they bother? What criminal would trust me after I turned on a cartel?” His voice went flat. “I’m a turncoat. No one’s gonna tell me anything.”
“Then how did you get out?”
“They had a flimsy case.”
I believed that, but I also knew he wasn’t telling me the whole story. While I could choose to take that personally, I was pragmatic enough to know we hadn’t reached that level of trust yet.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll buy that—for now. But we still need to talk about how you brought down the Hardshaw Group.”
He scowled, turned back to the stove, and flipped the steaks over.
“If you’re looking for lessons on how to bring down the Knoxes, then you’ll be disappointed. That took nearly a year to gain their trust and infiltrate their group. Which meant doing things I wasn’t happy doing to prove my loyalty. The Knoxes aren’t going to trust either one of us.”
He shifted to look at me again, his eyes hard. “Why did you call your father?”
“I told you. So he wouldn’t file a missing person report.”
“You could’ve had Louise tell him you’re fine. Or contacted the sheriff’s department directly in case he’d filed already.”
“You and I both know I needed to talk to him.”
The muscle on his jaw ticked. “How’d it go?”
I told him about Nicole Knox contacting my father and threatening to kill him if I didn’t hand the file over. And that she’d supposedly forgive and forget if I gave it to her.
“My father suggested I drop it off somewhere for her people to pick up, then disappear. Presumably, far, far away.”
“How convenient for him.”
“She won’t know if she gets the original file. And honestly, I don’t think she cares. She just wants to know what Mom had gathered, so she can prepare for any blowback.”
“That makes sense.”
“But she also wants to make me pay.”
“That’s a given.” His gaze narrowed. “Who else did you call?”
I didn’t ask how he knew. “Carter.”
He gave a short laugh. “Did you call to give him hell over the safe house?”
“No. I told him about Nicole and my father.”
“That’s it?”
I hesitated. “I ran an idea by him.”
His brow furrowed. “What idea?”
I hadn’t planned on having this conversation while he stood at the stove, reheating our food. I’d hoped we’d be sitting down, but stalling wasn’t a good idea. Better to rip off the Band-Aid.
“I want to go to Little Rock and get in contact with some of my old sources.”
“I’m fine with going,” he said, eyes flat. “You and Carter are the ones who keep telling me I need more time to recuperate.”
I drew in a breath, steeling myself. “Without you.”
I’d expected him to blow up, not the steely silence I was facing now.
