I should have known that, I think. My mother is flawed, but in her own way, she loves me. And I love my parents despite all our conflicts. “I’m not coming back.”
“Let’s have dinner.”
In other words, he’s unfazed by my decline and setting up negotiations. “Not until after the trial,” I say. “And if I lose, what would there be to talk about?”
“You won’t lose. You never lose. But after the trial works. We’ll do Thanksgiving together and talk about the future. Be careful. It’s a different game being on the bad side of the bad guys.” Someone speaks to him. “Gotta run. Win big, my girl.” He disconnects.
I lower the phone and glance at Adrian. “Nothing interesting. Just him wanting to cash in on me winning this case.”
“He wants you to come back to the family biz,” he assumes.
“That’s never going to happen,” I assure him. “But what’s interesting is him being at odds with Logan over the Waters case. He says he wants me to stay on it. Logan wants me off. Somehow Logan made a deal with someone and he’s desperate to get me off this case.”
“And yet, he went to your father for help?”
“He went to my father about getting me back. My father took his own angle on making that happen. Can Lucifer dig around and see what kind of trouble Logan might be in? There feels like there is more going on with him than what’s on the surface.”
“I’ll have him check him out,” he agrees. “And I’ll have him look for ties to Waters outside of Whitaker.”
“With his client list, I’m sure he’ll find some,” I warn. “I’m not sure it will be as easy as that to pin down what’s really going on. And don’t forget to tell him about Ed’s assistant suddenly taking an unplanned vacation during Ed’s reelection and this trial.”
Adrian calls Lucifer and while they talk, I am thinking about that call with my father and the way he twisted my new career, my repenting for my sins, into his money-making opportunity. Unbidden, I drift back into the past, momentarily back to a day when I was still working for my father. I was at lunch in the restaurant on the lower level of the firm’s building with my then-friend Susan, a pretty redhead and up-and-coming attorney in the firm.
I sign my credit card slip, and Logan walks in, eyeing me and Susan. I cut my stare, and Susan lowers her voice. “Are you ever going to give him another chance?”
“Never,” I say, putting away my card. “I need to get upstairs for a meeting.”
“I know he screwed up,” she says. “But you haven’t been happy since the break-up.”
“I wasn’t happy before the break-up.” I stand up and she does the same.
“I’m headed to the courthouse. Let me know if you want to talk.”
“Thanks,” I say, but I don’t really know her that well and I’m still living in the aftermath of my ex cheating on me with my long-term secretary. I’m not going to talk to her. I’m not in the right headspace to start trusting new people.
I hurry out of the restaurant and ride the elevator upstairs. Once I’m there, I stop by the outrageously fancy break room for a bottle of water, when the news on the big screen television by the seating area catches my attention.
“I repeat,” the male newscaster states, “Richard Caine, who was found not guilty of the murder of his business partner just one week ago, has shot and killed his family. He is considered armed and dangerous.”
My client, who I thought was innocent. The room spins and I whirl around and start walking. I hurry down the hallway and into my office, slamming the door shut and leaning on the wooden surface. I can barely stand for my trembling legs. My purse falls from my arm and tears burst from me as I sink to the ground. “I’m done,” I whisper. “I’m done with this job.”
“Pri.”
At Adrian’s voice, I snap back to the present. “Lucifer wants to talk to you.”
I nod and accept his phone, eager to help, that memory spurring my need for action, my determination to make a difference in the right ways, no matter the cost to me. I end up talking to Lucifer for a few minutes, helping him with what he might dig for with Logan and Ed. We disconnect as we reach the security post for the prison and it’s not long before Adam pulls us into a parking spot, even less before Adrian and I exit the vehicle and he turns me to face him.
His hand slides under my hair to my neck and he tilts my face to his. “You don’t have to do this.”
“And yet, I do. I really do, Adrian. And I want to. Besides, I’m going to face him in court and I’m going to destroy him. Better I warm up here and we catch Deleon.”
He studies me, his gaze probing, and I don’t know what he’s looking for, but I know what he finds.
It’s not fear. It’s determination. And certainty. This is where I belong, and I belong here with him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
ADRIAN
The past…
There are twelve of us, all in Devil jackets around the club table, a devil that matches the one on my arm carved in the wood. Waters, the King Devil, is at the head of the table, ruler of this land, in this world. He’s forty-two, brutally vicious, sporting a dark beard with hints of gray, but doesn’t drink or do drugs. He just peddles drugs, weapons, and women, while pumping iron, and adding new tattoos.
And after two years of hell undercover, I’m now one of his two most trusted men.
I’m to his right. Jose Deleon is to his left. I’m his strategist. Deleon is his fixer, a man who kills for sport.
“We have a new opportunity,” Waters says to the table. “Our Dark Knight has a new opportunity. Lots of money and women.”
After two years undercover for the Feds with this shit show, the Dark Knight, as Waters calls him, is the only reason I haven’t taken them all down for a deluge of crimes, including murder. We know who he is—John Jacobs, the CEO of Mega, the first real competitor to Facebook—but he remains untouchable. He uses Waters for cover. And John Jacobs is my mission, even beyond Waters.
The door burst open and Devon, one of our newer members, appears holding Sheila, a pretty blonde who runs around with no clothes kissing the King Devil’s ass, and anything else he wants, daily. “She’s been stealing from you, King Devil. I found her digging around in your office.”
Sheila starts screaming. “I wanted to surprise you with a gift. I was looking for ideas. I swear. It’s almost your birthday.”
Which is true, but I glance at Waters and he’s not buying it. Evil hums from him. Deleon meets my stare and smirks with amusement. He’s already enjoying her certain demise. My fingers curl by my sides and I know, I know, this is one of those times I’ll be forced to walk away, forced to endure what I cannot stop.
Waters stands up. “I need to be someplace. She’s probably talking to the cops. Have fun with her, punish her, but don’t kill her until I talk to her.” He glances at me and then Deleon, motioning us toward the door. We both stand and follow him and already Sheila is in a corner, out of view, with three men in front of her.
I grimace, adrenaline surging through me, fighting the clawing need to save her and shoot every motherfucker in this place. But I can’t. There are women being held captive in camps that will be moved and lost if I blow my cover and crimes that will go unanswered. Sheila will end up dead and I won’t be able to connect it to Waters.
I keep walking and shut the fucking door on a woman in need, wondering what will be left of me when this is over. I wonder if I’ll still recognize myself. Who am I kidding? I already don’t.
Once we’re in the main clubhouse, Waters motions us to the porch. We step outside and his phone rings. He answers the call and steps away from us.
“You don’t like to see the women touched,” Deleon comments, leaning on the railing, elbows on the wooden ledge.
I lean on the same ledge, my back to the wood, and cross my arms over my chest. “I don’t see you partaking in the festivities yourself.”
“Nah,” he says.
“You know me, man. I like my women soft and moaning.” He turns around to face the same direction as me. “King Devil knows I’ll kill ‘em, but I don’t want to fuck ‘em. I’m about business and money. We’re alike in that.”
He thinks we’re alike and he’s not wrong. He’s a killer and before this is over, I predict I will be, too. And he’s the one who will be dead.
***
The present…
Waters attorney finally arrives over an hour late, which I suspect has something to do with him finding out I’m present.
Once we’re in the main hallway leading to the secure room where Waters has been taken, I stop Pri just beyond the guard’s reach. And holy hell, she’s beautiful, the kind of beauty Waters will get off on in all the wrong ways. “He’s a monster. He will try to get under your skin.”
“I know his type,” she says, “too well.”
“Emotions are corruptible tools to use for manipulation.”
“So my father preached to m from the day I could walk.”
“Waters will tell you how fuckable you are. How I’m using you. He’ll say some crass things, like asking you how good I am with my tongue. He loves that line.”
She blanches. “I—ah—thanks for the warning. And for the record, between us, very good.”
My lips curve. “Is that right?”
“Yes. It is. Can we get this over with?”
I study her a moment, looking for any sign she doesn’t want to do this, but I find only determination. “Yes. Let’s get this over with.” I motion her forward and we close the space between us and the guard. The man in uniform, with a belly that says he loves beer, buzzes the door and I hold it open for Pri. With her head held high, her body language confident and fearless, she enters the room with me quickly following. Waters, dressed in a black-striped prison uniform, sits behind the only furniture in the small concrete room—a basic table. Beside him is Daniel White, his attorney, a lanky man in a suit, wearing thick-rimmed glasses. Waters’ eyes meet mine and cut like hot steel, the devil himself in the depths of his green eyes. His lips quirk with amusement.
White pushes to his feet and eyes me, shifting to Pri, as he demands, “Who’s this?” as if I’m not able to speak myself and he doesn’t already know anyway.
“That, Daniel,” Waters replies, “is the prosecution’s star witness, Adrian Mack.”
Daniel smirks. “The star witness that committed crimes you can testify to.” He offers Pri a gloating look. “Maybe we should have him on our three for one list.”
Pri steps to the opposite side of the table, across from Daniel, meeting him head on. “I don’t need a list. No deal.”
Waters’ eyes fix on her as I step in front of him. He glances at me. “Nice piece of pussy. I see why you’re fucking her. She can get you off and keep you out of jail.”
I lean on the table and look him in the eyes. “Maybe if you get Daniel off in the back room, he’ll do the same for you.”
His lips curve. “I’d rather lick Priscilla. Or is it Pri?” He leans closer. “No one is as good at being bad as you were, Adrian Mack, if they’re not really bad.”
“And yet, I didn’t kill you.”
“You didn’t want to kill me.”
He’s wrong. I wanted it like I have never wanted anything in my life.
Daniel clears his throat and sets a piece of paper on the table. “The list.”
Pri waves it off. “Irrelevant. I said no deal.”
“Then I’ll talk to the DA,” Daniel counters.
“Ed signed off on this,” Pri says, cool and confident, unfazed by Waters, at least on the surface, “and he’s now taken an extended vacation.”
“Good,” Waters says. “Vacations help people relax and let their guard down.”
“If Ed is really on board with the no deal strategy,” Daniel says, “he won’t mind if we send the list to the press, I assume?”
“Not at all,” Pri states, her eyes daring to meet Waters’. “And he and I will both tell the press all the reasons you won’t go free. We’re done.” She looks at me and in silent agreement, we turn for the door.
I’ve just reached for the handle when Waters says, “It’s always hard to say goodbye to the pretty ones, don’t you think, Adrian?”
It’s a threat against Pri, and despite expecting as much, it jars me. I inhale, all but radiating with my need to go over that table and destroy him, but once again, one last time with this monster, I hold back. I don’t, however, walk away. I know him and when he’s angry he acts quickly, or rather, he orders Deleon to act quickly. I use this moment and that knowledge as a chance to push him a little harder, to make sure he wants me dead tonight.
I walk to the table, press my hands to the top again, get in his face and say, “It’s over for you,” I goad, trying to get him to threaten me on camera. “I’m the end for you.”
“You’re overly confident, Adrian. The end is near, but it won’t be the end you write. It’ll be the end I write. The one I’m writing in my head this very moment.”
“In handcuffs, a striped suit, and about to go back to jail. I could have justified killing you twenty times over and if I believed you could hurt me, I would have. But I don’t. You’re pathetic, barely a man, one who had to hide behind his Dark Knight. I wanted you here. Learning what it’s like to be someone’s little bitch. And you will, many times over.” I push off the table and walk to the door, opening it and urging Pri into the hallway.
We leave Waters behind, but this isn’t the end of my story with Waters.
If we play our cards right, it will be the end of Deleon.
Chapter Thirty-Four
PRI
Once we’re in the SUV, Adrian kisses me. “You did good, sweetheart. You okay?”
“Yes. I just want that monster to go down.”
“And he will,” he vows. “I really am the end of him.” He strokes my hair and leans forward to talk to Adam, who sets us in motion.
I’m not listening to their conversation, though. I’m thinking of the interaction between Adrian and Waters. He asked if I’m okay. I know now, that deep beneath his surface, beneath the jokes and good nature, is a man tormented with deep scars. He calls himself dirty because he feels dirty, but I’m the one who’s dirty. I’m the one who helped people like Waters for money and accolades. He did what he did for the greater good, and I’m going to make sure he remembers that and it won’t be easy. Not when the press and the defense team will try to paint him as dirty as he feels.
Adam drops me and Adrian off at my office building, a necessity to ensure that he’s not followed back to the rental where the team is working. “Let’s walk to your place,” Adrian says. “And quickly, before you get cornered by someone exiting the offices.”
“You’re making sure Deleon sees you.”
“He’s seen me already,” he says. “Waters made that clear. Right now, I’m taunting him, telling him I’m not afraid of him.” He grabs my briefcase. “I’ll carry this. Do you need your flats?” He pulls them from my bag.
“Yes,” I say. “Thank you. And your arm.” I hold onto him, changing my shoes, struck by how comfortable I already am with Adrian, and I think that matters. It feels like a natural trust level I instinctively have for him. And somehow, he’s exciting and comfortable.
I slip my heels into my bag hanging at his side.
“You’re back to being very short,” he comments, “but you handled yourself like you were ten feet tall in there with Waters today.” He motions me forward and we start walking.
“I have a zone I get into when I’m with those monsters.” I glance over at him. “I’m sure you get it.”
He cuts his stare, and looks skyward a moment. “I do.”
“I can’t imagine what it was like being on duty, living undercover for two years,” I say, trying to remind him that he was on duty, doing a job, and what that job forced him to do isn’t what defines him.
I decide not to push him, not now, and instead, change the subject. “Obviously Waters’ people were watching us and we didn’t know it. Is that a concern? Maybe they already know where your team is holing up.”
“I suspect Deleon had a man watching you,” he says, “just in case he had to target you, which probably means the coffee shop, which led to me. I knew approaching you was a risk, but they didn’t have any real recon, or we’d know.” He slides his arm around me. “I promise. The team is in control.”
I trust his team, I do, but this is all unsettling, and how can it not be? People are dead, murdered for crossing Waters and we have both crossed Waters. For now, though, we approach my front door, and I focus on what’s in front of me. “Is this really a good idea?” I ask. “I mean can’t Deleon just show up now?”
“Savage and Jacob are already inside,” he says, and I remember overhearing him and Adam talking about this while my head was still in that room with Waters. “Adam will join them after dark,” he adds. “Dexter is still with Ed. Once we leave, anyone watching will still see them moving about the house. At nightfall, we’ll leave.”
I glance at my watch. “Somehow it’s six-thirty already now. That’s not going to be long.”
“Just enough time for you to pack and for us to order food. Go through the motions and punch in your code.”
“Right,” I say, doing as instructed and punching in my code.
Adrian opens the door and I enter, turning to face him, the sound of Savage’s voice lifting from the kitchen. “Your team being here is comforting,” I say, setting my purse down. “But what’s not,” I add, “is the way they can enter at will despite my security system.”
“Technology can be deceivingly comforting,” Adrian says, locking up again and setting my briefcase next to my purse. “But you have to remember the average criminal can’t do what Lucifer can.” He steps close, big and warm and hard, all things I find extremely wonderful right now.
When He's Dirty (Walker Security: Adrian’s Trilogy Book 1) Page 16
