Page 49 of A Corruption Dark & Deadly

Chapter 12

When Annie burstthrough the front door, Jericho was at home on the phone. He still looked put together – every hair still slicked back, his posture rigid, with shoulders rolled back. There was a slight worry line between his brows but other than that, there was no indication that he knew the police had found the body Bennet had supposedly disposed of. She thought Bennet was supposed to be his right-hand man. Why would he turn in Jericho? And what could they do about it?

Jericho heard her come in and his eyes flickered over to her in acknowledgment, but other than that, he didn’t react. She closed her mouth, all of her steam disappearing as she closed the door behind her and locked it. Perhaps it was a good thing she was interrupted. She had been ready to go off on him because she was embarrassed that two homicide detectives from Seattle PD had come to her job and questioned her about the murder of the woman who had killed her parents. She hadn’t even known the woman was dead let alone who that woman was. In fact, she hadn’t even thought of that part of their first conversation, where Jericho told her he would rather get revenge than wait for the cops to give her parents the justice they deserved. Until now.

“Well, that’s no good,” Jericho snapped into the phone. She had no idea how he did it but somehow, he could snap without losing his cool, which boggled her mind. “I need to find Bennet and speak to him. Find me Bennet now, alive, and I will give you a hundred grand in cash. Do you understand me?” He paused, listening to the other end. “I don’t care how. Just do it.”

He hung his phone up and tossed it on the couch.

“We have a problem,” he said.

“A big one,” she agreed.

He furrowed his brow, wrinkling his forehead even further. “Why do you think we have one?” he asked.

“Detectives came to my job today, Jericho,” she told him, her eyes flashing emerald with anger. “Do you have any idea why that might be?”

He looked like he wanted to lash out at her. To be honest, she was surprised he hadn’t. “Tell me,” he told her instead.

Annie felt herself calm down knowing he wasn’t taking his problem out on her even if she had done that to him just now.

“They asked about Gabriela Gonzales,” she said, her voice slow and even. “Apparently, she’s the woman who hit my parents and got away with it. They found her body mutilated in the lake. They told me trace residue shows Bennet was with her at some point. Apparently, his hair was still on her body in some way.”

She paused, narrowing her eyes at her husband. “What were you talking about on the phone?”

To be honest, Annie thought he was going to tell her he was talking business and that business was none of hers. She thought he would write her off or get defensive for questioning him. Jericho constantly surprised her.

“The same thing,” he said, reaching up to cup the back of his head with his hand. “One of my contacts in Seattle PD informed me that Bennet came in on his own accord and told two detectives everything in exchange for immunity. If I don’t leave now, I’m going to get charged with a lot of crimes.” He wrinkled his brow. “I probably will never see sunlight again. If I get to live the rest of my life, that is.”

“Because you committed the crimes,” Annie stated. It wasn’t a guess, nor was it a question. It suddenly hit her; she suddenly knew what she always had: Jericho was the best bad guy she had ever known. All those things that had warned her against him when she first met him were all true. “You have cops in your pocket, blood on your hands.” Her eyes dropped to those hands that held her when she was crying, gripped her hips in the throes of passion. Hands that had killed people. Hands that fit perfectly with hers. “You’ll get the death penalty, for sure.”

“Yes.” Jericho nodded once, his eyes remaining fixed on hers. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about this but she didn’t feel as though anything had changed between them.

“Can we stay here or are they after you now?” Annie asked, tilting her head to the side.

Jericho’s pale green eyes flooded with relief. She wasn’t quite sure as to why that was – probably because he didn’t think that she would be too happy with the shift in their life.

“You’re not going to leave me?” he asked, quirking a brow.

“Why would I do that?” Annie asked. “I knew what you were going into this complicated web that makes up our relationship. The one thing we have to our advantage is the fact that we’re married so I don’t have to testify against you. Granted, that means I can’t lie for you but at least they can’t use me against you.”

“They can try,” Jericho pointed out. “They already have. They visited your work to try and gauge how much you knew and how you would react if I was a criminal.”

Annie thought about it for a minute. “They did ask me questions,” she replied. “I just pretended not to have any idea what they were talking about. Which is the truth, for the most part.” She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side. “Did you kill Gabriela Gonzales?”

“I did.”

Annie’s eyes widened. Not because he actually killed the woman but because he admitted it so freely. “How do you know I’m not wearing a wire?” she asked, annoyed.

He raised a brow and smiled. “Are you?” he asked.

“Of course not,” she told him. “But you don’t know. Maybe the detectives tricked me. Maybe they forced me to wear a wire.”

Jericho gave her a look. “I don’t think so,” he said. “Not you. I didn’t marry a gullible idiot.”

Annie felt her heart warm at the compliment. “So,” she said. “Are they going to come after you?”

Jericho pressed her lips together. “Bennet doesn’t have anything except details of the crimes and what he did when he was the one responsible for the murder,” he explained. “Even my contact says there’s no direct evidence linking me to the crime. The cops can bring me in for questioning, which they’ve done before, but Bennet’s story isn’t enough to throw me away. The only thing that might do me in is Gabriela Gonzales.”

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