Page 50 of Broken Wolf

“Smart. Really smart. Thanks, Thomas. I can make that work for sure.”

Well, that was my good deed for the day.

And better Brian have the deputy director in his face all the time than me.

Cry me a river.

A couple days of digging and we finally got a name on who owned the trailer park. Greg Camara… And there was nothing on him.

Abso-fucking-lutely nothing.

So that wasn’t his real name.

Yeah, nothing fishy here.

And he was stupid because then it was extra easy to seize it all. But there had to be more to it than that, right? Any idiot nowadays had to know that would be the result.

So was there some bigger con with money overseas or—what was the deal?

I didn’t hand it all off like normal. Something irked me about this one, and if we were dealing with dirty cops in DeKalb, I wanted to be directly involved.

Fine, I gave myself more work too often. But I liked this part of the job. It was what I had signed up for. I hadn’t ever wanted to run an office or be management.

That shit bored me to tears.

There was just something that made me think I needed to be involved in this, and I’d survived a lot following my instincts. I wasn’t going to do it all solo though, getting a team to work with me and giving out tasks. It would be good training for some who were greener and had come on while I was gone and I didn’t know well so I could get a feel for them too.

I had them start by digging deeper into this guy. Finding any trace of him anywhere—social media, credit, memberships—anything. I wanted his life.

Also, everything on this trailer park. Who lived there. Who was tossed out. I wanted deeds, evictions—all of it. I wanted them to sniff out the dirt from the piles of normal.

Fun FBI work like that.

They would thank me for it later because I’d done that for so many years that the dirt practically leapt out at me now.

“Keep this close to your vests,” I warned them. “Don’t make a show of getting information and don’t even talk about it with others. Anytime there is dirt on cops, we don’t share even over the watercooler. We all like to talk too much, and we all know too many people. Someone in this office knows someone on that police force.”

“And you don’t trust people here,” someone muttered, bobbing his head.

“No, I didn’t say that at all,” I growled. “I trust everyone here. It’s not needed to worry them that it’s their friend. We all have enough shit on our plates. Just keep a lid on it and learn discretion. That’s what I’m saying.”

He looked properly chastised. “Got it, Chief.”

Twit.

I was surprised to see I had a sparring date with Dain when I got home after work. It had been weeks since the first, and given how that one had gone, I hadn’t thought we’d have another.

Did he know it was on my schedule? Had someone been hopeful for me and added it?

Apparently, it was legit because he was in the training room of the building working out and waiting for me. He smiled when he saw me in the mirror and walked over towards me.

“I’m shocked we’re doing this again after how you acted—weren’t you mad at me?” I blurted in my lovely goober Sera way.

He frowned before giving me a soft kiss. “I was an ass to you. I swear I was teasing. I didn’t know you thought I was serious and I hurt you. Truly, wife, I enjoyed it. I very much enjoyed it. I was happy it was on my calendar.” He gave me another kiss when I didn’t say anything. “If I had known you still worried about this, I would have asked for another sparring date immediately.”

I wanted to really believe that. I did.

But if he didn’t ask for it… And I didn’t ask for it.

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