From the way the crowd starts murmuring, I think maybe we’ve pulled it off. No one suspects that I’m anything but one of the contestants who fell in love with a member of the production crew. It can’t be the first time it’s happened on a show like this. Still gripping Nina’s hand tightly, I glance over to make sure Lyle iskeeping Aaron at bay, then start walking with her toward the stairs so we can make a quick and (hopefully) quiet exit.
“FBI!” Morrie shouts from the crowd.
Goddammit, Morrie, I was covering our tracks!Astonished that he would break cover this way, I stop to look at him.
Morrie is rushing toward the stage, brandishing his phone. “FBI!” he shouts again. “I have a warrant for Aaron Miller’s arrest.”
It’s my turn for my jaw to drop. The crowd erupts in noise. Morrie’s almost to the stage, but Aaron has started backing away, like he might try to run for it.
I guess it’s time for me to finally drop my cover, too. “FBI!” I shout and make a beeline for him.
Sure enough, Aaron spooks and runs toward one of the backstage exits. He’s pretty quick, but I’m younger and faster, and I have the added bonus of the classicMission: Impossibletheme song playing in my mind from all the times I’ve done speed-running training, trying to be as fast as Tom Cruise in his prime.
I take enormous pleasure in tackling Aaron Miller to the ground. Morrie joins me a moment later, slightly out of breath from all that running. (I bet he wishedhetrained with Lalo Schifrin’s music now. Maybe he wouldn’t be so winded.) “You wanna do the Miranda warning, or should I?”
“It would be my greatest honor,” I return, pleased as punch. Aaron tries to wriggle out from underneath me, so I use my knee to pin him between his shoulder blades. “Aaron Miller, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say canand willbe used against you in a court of law ...”
After the dust has settled and Aaron has been removed into custody with the help of local law enforcement (who, luckily, happened to be on-site—apparently the sheriff’s deputy Jackson James always comes to these community center events), I check in quickly with Morrie in the parking lot. We’ll need to follow after the police units shortly, but we have at least a few minutes to debrief.
“So what’d we get him on?” I ask. I assume something must have come up outside of our investigation here in Green Valley; maybe one of the witnesses was finally able to provide evidence.
“It was Nina,” Morrie informs me. “She sent me a bunch of files from Aaron Miller’s computer. I couldn’t go through all of them while I was in the audience watchingthatshitshow unfold, but I heard enough to send it on to Agent Decker. Plus all that stuff Nina was saying onstage ...” He shakes his head grimly.
My jaw clenches. I know what he means. All the controlling tactics Miller used on Nina—withholding wages, hiding her passport. Her situation was much, much worse than I realized. “Human trafficking?” I guess.
“Enough to make a solid argument for it, if Nina’s willing to give a statement and present proof.” We both know she will. Morrie continues, “And at least enough to use probable cause to search his computer. Decker was able to get through an emergency e-warrant while that soap opera was happening onstage.”
He’s not talking about the Aaron Miller stuff now; he’s talking about me, making a fool of myself by rushing up onstage and shouting dramatically about the woman I love. Whatever. He can mock me all he wants. It was badass, and we both know it.
“It was a good strategy,” Morrie adds. “Distracting everyone long enough to buy time for the warrant to come through.”
He meets my gaze. He knows that wasn’t what I was doing. And he also knows I almost blew my cover and wrecked the entire investigation.
He’s giving me a gift. A lifeline. Honestly, I’m not sure I want it anymore. I’m not sure this life is for me. I want to help people, but I don’t know if I can go on pretending.
But Morrie claiming my actions were motivated by strategy buys me some options. And it proves that deep, deep,deepdown, he loves me just as much as I love him. If I thought he would accept a manly embrace, I would offer it, but instead I clap him on the shoulder. I can’t resist needling him just a bit, though. “Thanks, Papa Bear.”
He rolls his eyes at me, immediately moving away. “Ruin it. You always ruin it, man ...”
With that all settled, I backtrack, overcome all at once with the need to find Nina, just to make sure she’s all right, before I have to go down to the local jail. Aaron Miller is in custody, so I know she’s physically safe, but I need to know she’s okay?—
Before I can make it even a few steps, I see her. She’s standing outside the auditorium, waiting for me. I run to her, shamelessly, needing to be near her, and she runs to me.
We meet in the middle, half colliding against each other. I pick her up in my arms and hold her as tight as I can. I have to leave soon, I know, in just a few minutes; but I also know I don’t want to leave her, not ever again.
“You did so good,” I tell her. She doesn’t even know the half of it yet. I can’t wait to tell her how amazing she really was tonight and what she managed to accomplish. It’s too complicated to explain, though, in the short amount of time we have, and I just want to hold her. I need to hold her. “You did so, so good.”
She clings onto me just as tightly. She’s so strong, but somehow she seems to need me as much as I need her. I don’t know what I did to deserve her, in this life or any other, but I feel like the fucking luckiest man on the planet. I’m going to spend the rest of my life being the man she needs me to be.
Not Cass. Not Nate R. Justme.
Chapter 42
Nina
Before he leaves for the police station, Wes gives me his credit card so I can book a room at a hotel. I wish I could pay for it myself, but I don’t have access to any money; the salaries for the various odd jobs I worked over the years always went toward paying back my debt to Uncle Aaron and Aunt Hope. Maybe now all that will change now that Aaron is in custody.
He’s in custody. He’s been arrested. Wes couldn’t tell me much, but it’s enough that the FBI thinks they can make a case against Aaron and get him sent to prison. His days of hurting people are over.
