"I thought the same, but I saw it in his eyes when I interviewed him back then. He loved her. Mason would never hurt her."
"He hurt her the moment he set eyes on her," I growled. "The Dunkins are a sadistic bunch, and he should've stayed away. I don't give a shit if he physically killed her or not. Her death is on his hands, and I want to speak to him. I need you to make that happen."
Beckett shook his head despite the hold I had on him. "Sorry, but I can't do that. He doesn't even want to talk to me, so there's no way in hell I'm going to help you."
Fuck!
I knew that was going to be his answer but hearing it still pissed me off. I forced myself to take a few deep breaths. Wes and my teammates were right. I couldn't kill Special Agent Walsh. Not yet anyway.
"I'm going to talk to him with or without your help," I snapped.
I didn't want to take the chance that my temper would get the better of me, so I threw Beckett to the floor and strolled out of his home without a look back. My conversation with him was far from over.
I waited until I was driving back to Kentucky before I called Wes.
"Is this your formal call for a cleanup crew?"
If I were the type of woman who rolled my eyes, this would be the perfect time to do so. That wasn't my style though. "I didn't touch a hair on the special agent's head."
Okay, that was a lie. I'm sure at some point while I had him pinned to the wall a stray hair touched me, but that was a minor detail, and Wes didn't need to know about it.
"Somehow I don't believe you."
I kept my eyes focused on the dark road ahead of me and kept my mouth shut. Wes didn't need the details of my interaction with Beckett.
Plausible deniability. That was the relationship my team had with Wes.
Wes huffed. "Did you secure a meeting with Mason?"
"No." I ground out the one word. It tasted like acid on my tongue. It wasn't like me to fail on a mission and knowing how much this meant to me only made matters worse.
"I'll see what strings I can pull on my end." Wes was quick to tack on before I could answer, "I'm not promising anything, but I'll see what I can do."
"I appreciate it." I hung up the phone before Wes could say anything more. I wasn't in the mood to talk. I planned to use the short drive home to formulate a plan. If Special Agent Walsh wasn't going to help me, then I would just go around him and to hell with the consequences. He had his one chance to do the right thing. Now he was my enemy, and I would gladly show him how I handled people who crossed me.
CHAPTER FOUR
BECKETT
As soon as Anita slipped out the front door, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed my old partner as I rolled my stiff neck side to side. I just had my ass handed to me on a silver platter, and I could honestly say it didn't feel good. I underestimated Anita once again.
"It's a little late for a chat session, don't you think?" Callahan answered after the first ring.
"Meet me at The Pit. It's important." I didn't want to say anything more in case Anita hid listening devices in my place while she was waiting for me. I wouldn't put it past her. I needed to do a sweep as soon as I got back but talking to Callahan was priority.
"I'll be there in thirty." He didn't say anything more before hanging up.
The Pit wasn't the official name of the hole-in-the-wall bar Callahan and I used to visit often when we needed someplace safe to talk. Callahan wasn't just my old partner. He was my mentor and taught me everything I knew. I considered him family and was one of the few people in my life I actually trusted.Right now, I needed someone I could trust to work through what happened.
I made it to the bar in fifteen minutes. It wasn't packed despite the late evening, but that was nothing new. The Pit wasn't a touristy spot. Only the locals knew of its existence, and that was the way the owner preferred it.
I grabbed a booth in the corner and waited for the owner to come over to take my order.
"It's been a while. I thought you forgot about this place." Ranger was a burly man in his forties. There was never any trouble in The Pit because people knew if they started shit, Ranger would toss them on their ass and never let them in again.
"Nah. I've just been busy. How are things here?"
"Same old shit just a different day." It was the same answer Ranger gave every time I asked.
