Page 83 of Her Protector Daddies

“Not the preservation of your kid, though, huh?” Bailey growled. His thick arms crossed over his chest, and a deep sigh rumbled through his chest.

Tyler grunted his agreement, then stiffened his stance. Money gave way to an obscene amount of jewelry, watches, crystal ornaments, and handfuls of jewels. The Captain’s desk was beginning to look like an over-stakes poker game.

“Tell me about the robbery,” Aubrey said, her magnets clacking continuously.

“Well, I knew Andrés didn’t travel with his private collection. It was too big and I knew that after a big bust, he had a favored that Casino. It didn’t take me long to work out which Casino because I’d had a run-in with his private security once or twice. They knew I was a cop-.”

“Ex-cop,” Jay cut in.

“Right.” My father shot him a sorrowful look. “Ex-cop. So I had value. Insider secrets and the like. Helped me out of a few sticky situations.”

Bailey’s teeth clacked together in irritation.

“So, I just had to keep an eye on where I saw those guys the most. Personal security to watch over his private collection, y’know? I knew there’d be enough there to make a sweet buck, and more than enough to buy me freedom. Although,” he added hurriedly. “It was mostly the money I focused on.”

“And?” Aubrey prompted.

“I was high. I just acted. Matt and I had talked about the score a few times, but he didn’t know I was going to act that day. We were just supposed to be scoping the place out but with drugs comes a faux confidence. So I attacked the guards, stole everything I could get my hands on and fled.”

My father slowly turned back to me and his eyes were heavy, like the droopy sad eyes of an old dog.

“Selena, I’m so sorry you got dragged into this. I wanted to come back for you but I was so scared of what might happen that I just—I couldn’t.”

“I was scared too,” I snapped sharply, fighting to keep rising tears at bay. Jay’s hand flexed on my thigh. “I was terrified and had no idea what was going on, no idea if you were alive or dead or anything and I still helped. You ran.”

“I know.” My father winced suddenly and shook his head, sending the dirty rat tails of his hair flying in a halo.

He was in withdrawal. I’d seen it often enough to understand the signs but my sympathy was all gone. I had been through hell. How dare he stand there and tell me that he was scared.

“These jewels,” Bailey said, moving around Marcus to get a better look at the items Tyler was quietly cataloging. “We can tie them to the home invasions, right? Fingerprints, DNA, that sort of thing? Some of these have to be registered with how rich they look.”

“Maybe part of the reason Andrés never got rid of them? Soon as you try to sell a cataloged jewel, the LAPD will be on your ass.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Aubrey warned. “Forensics will take care of all that, but for all we know, Andrés was careful—beyond careful. There might be nothing here that even hints at him.”

“There will be,” my father said. “He was proud of these, like a lion showing off a kill. They were his achievements and his threats. The fact he wanted them back so desperately should attest to that.”

“In court, do you know how easy it will be to spin that he wanted you dead just because you were an ex-cop?” Aubrey pointed out. “Or have the drugs addled your brain enough that you can’t even comprehend that?”

Listening to them discuss it back and forth was suddenly deadening, and Jay’s hand against my leg turned into a weight that I had to escape.

“I need some air.” Rising quickly, I brushed past my father and headed out into the hall where I placed my hands firmly on my hips and took a few deep breaths. It had grown so hot in that room that the cooler air of the hallway was welcomed and I soaked it up as an anxious sweat had my shirt clinging to my back.

Was it my father? Was he why I felt like a noose was closing around my neck once again? Or was it Andrés and his impossible reach. How long until he learned that my father had turned himself in and that the bag of toys was now in evidence?

“Selena?” Jay followed me out into the hall, leaving the door ajar.

“What if he’s got other people here?” I said breathlessly, turning to Jay. People who will taint all that evidence and make it useless in court, what then?”

“Selena.” Jay approached and lightly grasped my shoulder. “The chain of command will be working overtime to make sure that doesn’t happen. I know it will be hard but if forensics comes back with something good on all that shit, then the Captain herself will be watching every piece like a hawk?—.”

“Holy shit!” Tyler’s exclamation from inside the office derailed Jay’s thoughts, and we hurried back inside.

Tyler stood at the desk, delicately holding an LAPD-issue weapon between two fingers. “Is this… what I think it is?”

Beside me, Jay turned as white as a sheet.

“Andrés likes his trophies,” my father sniffed, tilting his head to the side and using his shoulder to scratch an itch. “I recognized the gun when I came down. There’s only one reason a man like him would have kept a police gun as a trophy. It was the fucking crown jewel of my steal and I figured Andrés would give me whatever I wanted in order to get that gun back.”

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