His eyes flicked once around the site, then came back to me. “You made it sound urgent.”
“It is.”
He waited. And the silence between us made my panic worse, because it was obvious he thought I was about to hit him with some emotional shit when really I was standing there trying to figure out how to confess something that could ruin both of us.
I forced myself to keep going before I lost my nerve. “When I first suggested us being linked together, I made it seem like it was about Project 83 but that wasn’t the real reason.”
Reek didn’t flinch or say a word. He just looked at me.
“I was already in trouble with the Feds,” I confessed. “I’m facing charges. I offered to bring them something bigger because I knew my father was working with the Cartiers, I saw an opening. I thought… if I got close enough, I could get what they wanted.”
That was the first time something changed in his face, but it was so small that a woman who didn’t know him might’ve missed it.
“I suggested the fake relationship because I wanted access.” The shame of saying it out loud made my throat burn. “I wanted proximity. I wanted to hear things, see things, get close enough to give them something real. But I never did.”
Reek’s eyes stayed on me, cold and impossible to read.
“I didn’t give them anything real,” I rushed out. “I gave them scraps. Things that led nowhere. Things that wouldn’t stick. Because somewhere in the middle of all this, it stopped being fake for me.”
He still said nothing, and that silence was making me unravel.
“I fell in love with you,” I admitted. “I know how stupid that sounds. I know exactly how bad this is. But I’m telling you the truth now because I don’t know what else to do.”
The November wind blew through the fencing behind us, making it rattle.
Reek didn’t even blink.
I stepped closer without meaning to. “Please say something.”
His jaw flexed once.
That was it.
“Agent Mallory is getting impatient,” I continued to explain. “She already extended my deadline. She wants the bosses. She wants enough to open a real federal case, and if I don’t give her something bigger than my case, I’m done. I’m trying to come to you before she forces my hand. Before this gets even uglier.” My eyes burned with tears. “I’m asking you to help me get out of this. Please understand that none of this stayed fake for me. I know how it started. I know what I did. But I’m here now, telling you before anyone else can. That has to mean something.”
He just stood there with an emotionless expression, glaring at me, not saying one word.
“I thought maybe…” I swallowed hard. “Maybe if you knew I chose to come to you first, if you knew I was trying to protect you now, maybe you’d understand. Maybe you’d believe me.”
7
TARIQ “REEK” HORTON
She stood there talking about love, the Feds, and how none of this had stayed fake for her, and all I could do was stare at her, because every word coming out her mouth felt like another violation.
She had used me and the little trust that I gave people. Every link-up, every time she laid up with me and looked in my face like she wanted more was a fucking set-up.
“You got close to me to build a case?” I finally spoke.
Her eyes filled with tears. “At first. Yes. But I didn’t give them anything real—”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
She shook her head fast. “Reek, please just listen to me. I’m telling you now because I’m trying to fix it. I’m trying to choose you.”
The nerve of that almost made me laugh. “You think this make you look loyal?”
“It should,” she whispered. “I came to you first.”
