Page 121 of Protecting Love

“It doesn’t leave this room?” Debra asked.

“I can’t guarantee any of that.”

“Why didn’t you just leave?” Paris asked. “With the huge layoffs and restructure coming, you’re stressed. You use that as an excuse. You wouldn’t be the first person to walk and not be part of it.”

“I wanted to be wrong,” Debra said. “But also, if something happened, I thought the first place they’d look is someone who left when it came out. If I stayed, maybe they wouldn’t think I’d be part of it.”

He shook his head. That logic made no sense.

“Those who stay are always looked at just as much as those who leave. Everyone will be. Make no mistake. If something shady is going on and law enforcement has to be involved, everyone is a suspect until they are cleared.”

Debra sank into the chair some. “I don’t want to be any part of this.”

“But you are,” she said. “And your actions made you more involved. It’s best if you just tell us what you know.”

“Maybe I need an attorney.”

He looked at her. “Would it help if I had my attorney here?”

“But he wouldn’t be for me,” Debra said.

“You can trust me,” Paris said. “I mean it.”

“If you truly think there is something illegal going on, this is the next first step,” he said.

“I... I guess so. If you can get him at this time of night.”

“He’s still upstairs,” Fletcher said. “He knows what is going on and I asked him to stay.”

He didn’t miss the flash of annoyance over Paris’s face that she wasn’t brought into that.

He didn’t have to tell her every step he was doing.

She called Spencer, asked him to come down, then for the next hour, he listened to everything Debra had to say.

Nothing was enough for anyone to look into anything.

Nothing but her words alone.

But when everyone left but Fletcher and Paris, he called Avery, got her voicemail and left a message.

“Who was that?” she asked.

“An analyst who worked for me prior. I gave her the file. I’m pretty sure she can get into it. But there is a lot going on right now at the Bureau and I said no rush.”

“You think it’s a rush now?”

“I think that if nothing is on that file, we’ve got nowhere to go. Either way, we know who sent you the notes. We know it will end. You can move on.”

She reached her hand over. “I’m glad for that part. But what does moving on mean for us if you’re not my shadow anymore?”

His hand landed on hers. “I’ve never been your shadow.”

“Maybe I liked it though.”

Maybe he did too.

But he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone.