Page 155 of What's Left of Us

Me:Just tell me one thing. Is there enough to get Del Rossi put away without him?

Beaugard:Get a life, Hawk

It’s not the answer I’m looking for, but at least the next hour will preoccupy my mind while I wait for him to tell me what he knows.

The good doctor is waiting for me when I arrive, holding the door open as soon as I walk into the sitting area.

When I step into her office, the newspaper on her desk catches me off guard. It’s open to the continued story of the headline.

Local Business Owner Under FBI Investigation.

The sound of the door closing behind her has me glancing over my shoulder. She steps beside me, following my gaze back to the paper. “It’s everywhere,” she says sheepishly.

She subtly walks over to her desk and closes the paper before grabbing the notepad and pen from beside it.

“Taking notes?” I tease.

Color creeps into her cheeks. “I was curious.”

“Nothing illegal about that.”

We walk over to our usual seats. She doesn’t sit until I do, so I sink into the cushions and stretch my legs out. “Anything else you’re curious about?”

She sets the notepad on her lap. “There are a lot of things, but I’ve accepted some of those I may never know.”

“Why is that?”

“Because everybody deserves to have a secret or two,” she answers easily, a warm smile on her face. “I’ll never know everything about you. That’s life.”

I’m tempted to ask what it is she wants to know, but I don’t. “I found out today that the man who shot me is dead.”

The sudden turn of conversation seems to startle her.

Before she can ask how that makes me feel, I offer her the information. “I’m not sad about it, but I’m also not a total monster. He pulled the trigger, but he didn’t make the call. He was as much a part of the chess game as we were.”

The good doctor wets her lips before leaning back in her chair and glancing down at her notes. “You said once that Georgiamight as well have handed him the gun. What exactly did you mean by that?”

One day, I wonder if I’ll ever be able to see what she said about me. “The short answer is that the lies we told ourselves caught up to us until we couldn’t keep lying anymore.”

“And the long answer?”

Taking a deep breath, my eyes go back to the paper she bought that’s laying face down on her desk. “I guess it’s time,” I murmur.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Lincoln/ Two Years Ago

Knight stares atthe cash I extend to him, then lifts his skeptical eyes up. “Hawk, it’s one thing to have me check into Georgia’s father, but this…”

I press the cash into his chest, forcing him to take it before the bills can flutter to the ground. “I’m not paying you to give me your opinion. I need facts. And it’s obvious that there are some things Georgia is holding back. She’s been getting text messages and phone calls to an untraceable phone, and I need to know who it is.”

“Do you think she’s cheating?”

The question is a punch to the gut. One I’ve asked myself when I wondered if I should reach out to Knight about this. “No, I don’t. But I think whoever is reaching out to her is associated with her father, and that’s why she’s not telling me.”

His expression doesn’t change. “What are you going to do once you have the information?”

“I guess that’ll depend on what the information is,” I answer. “So, can you do it? You said you got a guy who can manage some digging. I can’t keep asking my friends at work to help me with this. I need an outside source to tell me who’s on the other end of that phone.”

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