“Am I in trouble?” My hands are shaking uncontrollably.
“Not currently. We’re just trying to get a handle on how you got involved in all of this.” He sits across from me.
“I just work at Bella’s.” I can hear the pleading in my voice.
“And the warehouse?”
My mouth opens and closes a couple of times before I decide maybe my best course is honesty. “I was with Chris Roth, delivering an artifact to Oscar Cano.”
“And how did you get involved with the dealing of artifacts?” His no-nonsense tone is frightening, but there’s something else there too that makes me trust him. Just like Chris.
“I met Chris and had become friendly. One night, we ran into each other at Bella’s, where he needed to borrow an article of clothing in order to wrap up a delivery. It snowballed from there.”
“And you thought things would just work out, or did you have an ulterior motive?”
“I wanted to get close to Cano in order to avenge my twin brother, who died because of him.” In for a penny, in for a pound.
“I see. Thank you for being honest. I need to run this by my boss, but we’ll be back shortly.”
Just like Deputy Knight, he’s gone as fast as he came.
God knows how many hours I’ve sat in this chair. Multiple people have come in to get me drinks, food, and bathroom breaks, but there have been no further questions.
I have no clue what happened in the aftermath of the warehouse, even though I’ve asked every single person who’s walked through the door since Deputy Sinclair left.
I’m at a loss. There’s nothing to do and no one coming to talk, just me and my overanxious thoughts. And those are barely making sense anymore.
The door slams open this time, rattling the glass and scaring the shit out of me.
“I’m Deputy Collins. I’ll be arranging where you go from here.” He’s not even looking at me. Instead, his focus is on a manila folder.
“Umm, what?”
It’s then he finally looks at me. “Think of it like witness protection with more freedom. We’re going to need you in a safe house until we can round up the bulk of Cano’s crew. You seem to have an incredible memory that we can use.”
His words make me snap. From somewhere deep inside of me, the stubborn, hard-ass Nova resurfaces. “DidChristell you that? What if I say no?”
There’s a hint of a smirk on this man’s face, but I barely register it.
“If you are willing, we need your testimony on everything you’ve seen. More specifically, who you’ve seen. We’re not entirely sure just how far Cano’s reach goes, so we’re putting you in a safe house until we have a handle on things and have these bastards in jail.”
“Am I going to jail?” I arch an eyebrow.
“If you agree to work with us, no. If you refuse, you’ll be going down for Oscar Cano’s murder.”
“He’s dead?” I gasp.
“He is.”
“And I killed him?” Elation and relief, mixed with fear, paralyze my body.
“You did some good damage. I don’t have the final word if it was your knife to the neck or one of the shots that killed him, but I will use this to my advantage.”
“By blackmailing me.”
“By enticing you to do the right thing. Some people on our team believe you have some good in that heart and head. I’m not so sure, but it’s not my call. If you help us, you have blanket immunity.” He shrugs like he doesn’t care what choice I make.
My mind reels at the fact that Chris went to bat for me. It’s the only reason I can think of that this deal is even on the table.
