Page 145 of Veil of Lies

Quinn moved closer, nudging Harley out of the way, although he refused to let go of my hand. “Hey, Angel, how are you feeling?”

I thought about it. “Not great,” I admitted. “My head hurts like a motherfucker. Did I get hit by a truck?”

“No, just Norcross,” Brax said as he walked in through the door of my hospital room. He looked even worse than Harley if that was at all possible. “He saved your life. The guy took a bullet for you.”

“Fuck, is he…dead?”

“No, just bruised,” the man himself said as he followed Brax in. “I probably would have been dead if I hadn’t been wearing a Kevlar vest and you didn’t ruin Silva’s aim when you assaulted his nuts.”

“Nice work, babe,” Harley grinned.

Norcross walked around the bed and sat down in one of the plastic chairs. He too looked like shit, but he wasn’t my guy so I didn’t care all that much. Although I was relieved he hadn’t been killed saving my ass. I couldn’t bear the idea of him leaving a wife and kids behind, maybe a cat, too.

Was the guy even married?

It seemed like he was the type to be all about his career. Not healthy. Even federal agents needed love.

“Stella?” Once again, Harley’s sexy voice cut through my thoughts and stopped me from falling even further down the rabbit hole of insanity.

“Huh?”

“How’s your head? You hit the wall pretty hard,” Norcross asked.

I reached up and rubbed my temple. There was a lump the size of a goose egg. “Not great but I’ve been worse. Tell me what happened. Did you get Mateo?”

Norcross smiled. I think it was probably the first time I’d seen him crack a smile. He looked younger, less of a stick-up-the-ass dick. Smiles looked good on him. Maybe I should set him up with Tessa. Was he a bit old her for? Older guys could be hot.

“Stella!” Shit, was my brain fart the symptom of early-onset dementia? Had I sustained a traumatic brain injury?

“Sorry, my head is all over the place.” I tried to sit up, but a firm hand pushed me back down.

“Babe, you need to rest. The doctor says you’ll be fine, but a few days rest is in order.”

I grumbled but decided it was pointless trying to argue with Harley when he was on his ‘look after Stella’ mission.

“Mateo Silva has been indicted on numerous charges. He won’t be getting out any time soon.”

“How?” I was struggling to make sense of it all. Just a few days ago, Mateo Silva was just a creepy guy friend of Brax’s grandmother. Then he’d kidnapped me and revealed he was involved in my father’s downfall. I couldn’t get my head around everything.

“The USB drive you retrieved from the safe deposit box contained a ton of documents and the location of the original files. Your dad had collated information linking Mateo to the Matarosa Cartel. It was exactly what we needed to finally bring Mr. Silva to justice.” Norcross looked smug as fuck. I had no doubt his career had just been given a massive boost.

“The information implicated my grandmother, too,” Brax interjected. “She’s also been arrested, although her lawyers are working really hard to get her back out.”

“Not going to happen,” Norcross said. “The evidence is watertight. She’ll not see the light of day for a while.”

“What about Dad?” Hope bloomed in my chest. Surely the FBI would realize he was innocent now?

“My father’s lawyer is working on it,” Harley told me, my hand still firmly grasped in his. I had a feeling he wasn’t letting me go anytime soon. “Dad used me as an alibi and he doesn’t want Miranda to find out about Suzie. Cameron is filing a petition this morning to get the case reviewed. He says there’s no question your father will be released once a judge has had a chance to look at the new evidence.”

“The DA isn’t going to contest it,” Norcross said. “It’s clear your father was an innocent party in all this. Mrs. Walker introduced Silva to him after they realized your father’s investment company presented a useful opportunity to launder the cartel’s money. Your father was savvy enough to record conversations with Silva and keep records of everything once he figured things out.”

“Surely this must have been obvious when you went through his accounts? So why didn’t the feds believe him when he said he was innocent?” I was so fucking angry on Dad’s behalf. He’d spent the last year in prison, suffering, while the FBI chased its own tail.

“There was no evidence backing up his claim and he didn’t tell us about the documents. We believe he was being threatened by Silva’s guys in prison. They were using you against him to make sure he stayed quiet.”

“So that’s why we were nearly run off the road and then I was shot?”

“Yes, your father said something to his lawyer, and it got back to Silva. And yes, he’s been arrested too.”

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