The article went on to say that the victim had been one of Vince’s runners, a kid in his twenties. His mistake? He’d fallen for a woman who was the cousin of a rival family.
I stared at the screen. Maybe that kid hadn’t been the only one Vince felt the need to teach a lesson. Maybe Vince had found out that things between me and Juliette were more than just friendly. Maybe…maybe the bullet at the farmer’s market hadn’t been meant for Juliette after all.
Maybe it was meant for me.
CHAPTER 26
Juliette
Beep beep.
I looked around the bedroom to see where the muffled sound was coming from, but nothing obvious stood out. The shower was running in the bathroom, so I chalked it up to Wes’s phone buzzing from his jeans or something. For a second, I thought about stripping out of my clothes and joining him. It felt like forever since we’d been together. But then I pictured the bandage across his back. He needed to heal, not be tempted into doing something more strenuous than he should. Instead, I took off my clothes and opened the drawer to get something more comfortable to wear. The meeting with my agent hadn’t gone well, and all I wanted was a pair of comfy sweatpants and a tall glass of wine. I tossed my dirty clothes into the hamper and was about to head to the kitchen for just that until…
Beep beep.
There it was again. I turned in a slow circle. It sounded more like it was coming from the bed than thebathroom now. I lifted the pillow and checked under the blanket.Nothing. Bending down, I picked up the bed skirt. The only thing underneath was Wes’s duffel bag, the one he’d brought when he showed up at my door that first day.
But it was empty. Wasn’t it?
My heart started to race. My eyes flicked to the bathroom door, then back to under the bed. Holding my breath, I listened for proof the shower was still running. Once I confirmed that I still heard water, my pulse kicked up another notch and I reached for the bag and unzipped it. Inside, tucked into a folded sweatshirt, was a phone. Not Wes’s regular iPhone, but one I’d never seen before—a flip phone. And the small LED screen glowed with1 New Message.
My heart thudded.What the hell?Why did Wes have a second phone? All the doubts I’d managed to bury about him having an affair came roaring back to life. I didn’t think twice before flipping open the cell and pressing the button to play the message.
A woman’s voice came through—calm, clipped, and professional.
“Hey, Wes. I forgot to mention something yesterday at the hotel. We had to pull Detective Tiramani, the other guy we had on the inside back in New York, because we heard chatter that one of Vince’s guys was asking questions about him. Apparently, Tiramani ran into one of Vince’s captains who was out to dinner with his nephew and his nephew’s friend. The friend recognized Tiramani and asked if they’d ever met before. Tiramani lied and said no, but the truth is, he’d locked the kid up a few years ago for possession of stolen goods. We thought Tiramani pulled it off and everything was fine,but then the uncle started asking around about him a few days later. We had to be safe rather than sorry. None of this has anything to do with you, or the operation you’ve got going on out there with the daughter. There’s no indication your cover is blown, but I wanted to let you know anyway.”
Then there was a soft click, not nearly as dramatic an ending as it should’ve been for something that had rocked my entire world.
Holy shit.
Wes hadn’t been lying about not having an affair.
This lie was worse.
So, somuch worse.
He was still a cop.
And he was undercover.
Using meto get to my dad.
All this time I’d thought my father was the only crooked person in this situation. Turned out I was wrong.
Weswas the crook.
I stood frozen for a minute, the flip phone in my hand, until I suddenly realized I couldn’t hear the water running in the shower anymore. Panicked, I tossed the cell back into the sweatshirt and shoved the duffel under the bed.
I barely had time to get to my feet before the bathroom door opened. Wes walked out, wrapped in a towel, hair still wet, like nothing had happened. Fury burned hot in me, yet I managed to breathe. I needed time to think. To plan. To figure out what the hell to do.
He smiled. “Hey. You’re home.”
“Yes, but…I forgot something at my agent’s. I need to go.”
“What did you—”
Wes didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as I tore ass from the bedroom, bolted through the living room, and grabbed my keys from the kitchen counter. I was at the front door before he caught up.
