This is something bigger than me. I'm not just going to have to shut down his sneaky attempts to hurt her. I'm going to have to call him out in a bigger way. It means I have to do to him what he's been doing to Olivia—look up his former cases, find out what shit he's been into, and call him on the fucked up bullshit he's pulling. And that will require help.
I pull up Reilly's number and call him, my mind already thinking through my next steps.
"Gunny. I was starting to think you forgot about us." He sounds light and cheerful. With about XXX weeks left on his contract, he's probably feeling lighter than air.
"I need your help," I tell him. "Not when you're out. Now."
The tone of his voice changes immediately. "What's going on?"
"Remember the client I told you about? The custody job that funded the office deposit?"
"Derek something. The ex-husband?"
"Yeah, his name's Derek Bennett. But the job went sideways." I lean my head back against the headrest and close my eyes as I explain, "He didn't hire me to make sure she's being a goodmom. He hired me to find sketchy ways to fabricate dirt on her. He wants to take the kid away from a perfectly good mom all because she has depression." It's not the full truth, but that's the foundation of his shoddy case.
Reilly goes quiet for a second. "How bad's the custody filing?"
"Bad enough. He's using the medication I reported, the fact that I had unsupervised access to the kid. The fucker calls me a 'stranger' to them, though he fucking hired me to get close. He knows I'm not a danger, yet he wants to make me look like a kidnapper or something. A decent lawyer could spin it into a compelling case if the judge doesn't look too hard at where the information came from."
"So, what do you want to do, bud? I mean, this isn't our area of expertise. We're supposed to watch businesses for break-ins." Reilly has a point, but I helped make this mess and I'm going to fix it, one way or another. I just want his help.
"I want to dismantle it. I need someone to dig into Derek's records, his phone logs, financials. He has to have done something similar in other cases, you know—really fucked with people. And I need it documented clean enough to hand to her attorney."
"That's not a one-man job, Caleb."
"I know. That's why I'm calling you." When my eyes pop open, I see a few women walking past talking. One of them has short, dark hair, just like Olivia, and it makes my chest twist.
Reilly exhales in a huff, but I know he won't let me down. "Let me make some calls. How fast do you need this?"
"The court date's in July." I count on my fingers the number of weeks we have left, but he says it for me.
"That's tight but doable." I hear him shuffling through papers on his end of the line and know he's already spooling up for this mission. "Send me everything you have. The reports you wrote, the phone number from the boutique, the custody filing if you can get a copy, and anything else that connects Derek to the harassment. And give me every shred of information you have on him too—his address, phone numbers, any name of former clients. I'll build a timeline and we'll start pulling threads."
"What about Dawson and the others?"
"Dawson's got leave coming up next week. I'll put him on the phone records and see if we can find any other cases similar to this. If he owns a burner, it might get tricky?—"
"I doubt he's smart enough for that," I grumble. "And Mick?"
"Mick owes me about six favors and he's been bored out of his mind. I'll put him on social media and public records. If Derek has other women, other complaints, anything that shows a pattern, Mick'll find it. And Torres has a buddy who does forensic accounting. If we need to follow Derek's money, he’s our guy. But I'll hold off until the phone records tell us where to dig."
"This is real work, Reilly. I need it done right." I'm not screwing around with this. I can’t live with myself if Derek wins. Olivia doesn't know it, but we may be her only hope. I can't let her down again.
"When have we ever done anything wrong?" He chuckles. "I'll have a preliminary plan by tonight and I'll call you once I've talked to everyone. In the meantime, don't contact Derek. Don'tanswer if he calls. Don't give him any reason to think you're building a case against him. Let him believe you walked away."
"Easier said than done," I mutter, because honestly, if I see that man, I'll throat punch him.
"Look, just be smart. This is going to eat up time and money, and I need to know that you're not just doing this because you feel guilty."
It's more than guilt, but how do I explain that? That woman exposed a part of my heart I’ve kept buried for so long, I thought no one would ever find it. She came in like a ray of sunshine during a hurricane and dried up my nasty side. I'd do anything for her, just to keep that warmth in her heart a little longer.
"She's worth it, Reilly. She's the best person I've ever met and I helped the worst person in her life build a case against her. I need to fix that."
"Alright. We run this clean and quiet, and by the time that court date rolls around, Derek's lawyer's going to wish his client had never picked up the phone."
"Thanks, man." I hang up and set the phone on the seat next to me.
Derek thinks he's winning—like Olivia will have no choice but to fall in line and worship at his feet.
