Page 45 of Unleash You

“Like cocaine, coke?” Anabelle sat on her haunches, hovering over Josh.

“Yeah.” Rebecca rubbed her temple as if she’d finally realized how fucked up all this seemed to us.

Anabelle let out a breath and dug her hand inside Josh’s suit jacket. Her mouth pressed into a thin line as she rummaged one pocket and then the other. When she found nothing, she dropped to her knees. “He lied about everything.”

“Check his pants.” Rebecca pointed her chin at Josh’s crotch.

“I’ll do it.” Zack wrapped his stethoscope around his neck.

The entire night had come down to this. We were pickpocketing the congressman. Zack lifted Josh’s shoulder with one hand and fished a white envelope from underneath him. Was that the visas Josh had promised Anabelle? Acid pooled in my stomach. This asshole thought it’d be okay to use this favor to get Anabelle to do something she didn’t want.

“He even signed them.” Anabelle read through the pages she pulled out, then glanced up at me. “We only have a week to get the trip ready.”

“We can make it work.” I forced a smile and reminded myself that this was a good thing. We had a solid chance at getting Charlie back. But at what cost? I wished there was a way to talk Anabelle out of going to Maracaibo with me. Why did she have to be so stubborn about this?

Being Charlie’s sister put a target on her back. Hell, just knowing about Rebecca and Smith’s dealings made her complicit in all this.

“What do we do with him?” Zack peered up at me. “He can’t stay here. Tomorrow he’ll wake up with a black eye and no memory of tonight. How do we explain that?”

“We can say he fell on his way to the car.” Anabelle stuffed the visas back in the envelope. “If he thinks he overdid it with the bourbon, he’d be too embarrassed to question our story. Let’s carry him out and drive him home.”

I regarded her with my mouth slightly open. When I first found her pinned under Josh, I wasn’t sure how she’d handle it. “I think Rebecca is a bad influence on you.”

“I tried to give him a chance, and you saw how that ended.” She glared at him. “Why couldn’t he just do the right thing? It’s not that hard.”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question for years. There’s no real answer.” Rebecca plopped herself on the sofa. Her gaze settled on the papers in Anabelle’s hands before she glanced at me. “Are you really going back?”

“That’s the plan.”

“I wish I could help.”

“You’ve done enough.” Zack hooked his arms under Josh’s armpits. “Wes, a hand?”

I grabbed Josh’s legs. “Is he really okay? It doesn’t look like he’s breathing.”

“He’s breathing.” Zack led the way toward the front door and to Josh’s car. “What a fucking mess. When I get back, you’re going to tell me what the hell is going on.”

“Okay.” No matter how hard I tried, I kept getting the people I loved involved in this never-ending mission. “I’ll ask Anabelle’s driver to follow you.”

Nodding, he buckled Josh into his seat like a crash-test dummy. “I’ll text when it’s done.”

I trudged back inside. As soon as I cleared the threshold to the great hall, Rebecca shot to her feet. “I’m going to check on Lilly. Just to be safe.”

“Hey, thanks.”

“Sure.”

If it hadn’t been for Rebecca’s unconventional ways, we would have a much bigger problem on our hands. I would have beaten a government official to a pulp. By now I had a pretty good idea about Josh’s character. He would have manipulated the situation to help himself. At least this way, Anabelle had what she needed, and we had the upper hand with Josh.

“Do you think Josh will cancel the visas when he wakes in the morning and realizes they’re gone?” Anabelle regarded the papers.

“Not if you make it public. Let everyone know how generous he was to help your relief project.” I took a strand of her hair and placed it behind her ear. “I wish I could talk you out of going.”

“Not a chance. I spent the last eight years of my life with my head buried in the sand. I can’t keep doing that. Charlie needs me.”

I nodded. “Tomorrow morning I’ll make sure and let mom know that Josh came through for you. She’ll tell her friend, Birdie, and then all of Atlanta will know.”

“You’re not wrong.” She laughed and met my gaze. “Would you stay?”

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