Page 80 of No More Spies

There was a lot of nuance left out of her dad’s report. “SoShannon gets out of Iowa, goes to California and meets Zach’s dad.”

Her eyes slid away, sorrow on her face. “Raymond White. Hewas older than Shannon. At the time she was a senior, and she worked in a lab.I don’t pretend to know what she was working on, but I know Ray targeted herbecause she worked in that lab. He was a low-level drug dealer at the time. Heconvinced her to use the lab to make some designer drugs that bumped him up alevel in his organization. She proved to be excellent at creating drugs. If shewas a bartender, she would have been called… What’s the name for it now? It’sreal fancy.”

“Mixologist,” Cooper provided.

“Did she stay with Ray?” Kala prompted. “I know he wasarrested a couple of times.”

Joyce nodded. “I was already in the Army then. I didn’t knowwhat was happening. She would write letters to me. About her classes and howshe was up for a big internship, and then one day they stopped. It was a longtime before I could get leave, and when I finally found her, she was pregnantwith Zach and fully in Ray’s world. I tried to get her to go back to school,but she loved him. She had a nice house and said he treated her real good, andthey had a baby on the way. I didn’t know better. I had no idea how they weremaking their money.”

“She was still cooking drugs?” Cooper asked. “Did she takethem?”

“No. Never. She never did her own drugs,” Joyce said likethat was some kind of virtue.

Kala didn’t get that. Shannon had actively harmed the worldfor money and love.

“She certainly didn’t when she was pregnant. I was inGermany at the time. I thought she was like our mom. She found a man and didn’tneed her family anymore. I was hurt, but at least I thought she was happy. Shesent pictures when Zachary was born, and everything seemed fine. Then it allwent to hell. That’s when I got out.”

“She was arrested.” Kala knew this part of the story.

Joyce nodded. “The cartel they worked for decided Ray wascheating them, and he went on the run. Shannon was left holding the bag. I cameand got Zach, and that was when I found out she was pregnant again. And she wasfacing seven to fifteen years in prison.”

“Zach told me he wasn’t sure why you didn’t give him up foradoption. He knew about his sibling,” Kala said.

“About his brother,” Joyce corrected. “Shannon had a boy. Asfor Zach, Ray knew about Zach. The cartel knew about Zach. We decided it wasbetter that I watch over him, but we had a shot at hiding him.”

And that was the moment she looked at Cooper and Kala’sworld shifted.

Or if it’s… Well, the fact that he’s here tells me alot.

Joyce hadn’t been talking about Zach. She’d been talkingabout Cooper. She’d been staring at Cooper like she knew him.

Which she did.

“Joyce, I’m going to need you to tell me where your sisterstashed her second son.”

ChapterThirteen

Cooper wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was clear Kalahad picked up on something important. It was there in the way she’d sat up, inthe gleam in her eyes. Sometimes he simply liked to watch her work. But therewas a weird feeling in his gut, some instinct that put him on edge.

“Zach told me his brother was given up for adoption. His momwas in prison and wouldn’t be getting out for a long time, so she gave him up.I suspect the dad was completely out of the picture by then,” he said, tryingto move the conversation along.

He thought about making some excuse to leave. He wanted tocheck around, to see if he could figure out if Zach was coming back or if Joycewas getting confused. She’d said Zach had shown up but that he came and went.This wasn’t the kind of place where one simply showed up out of nowhere andleft just as quickly.

And it wasn’t like they didn’t know where he’d been lastweek.

The thought of arresting Zach made him kind of sick to hisstomach, but he had to do it. He had to bring him in, and then they wouldfigure everything out. Now that he knew more about Zach’s mom’s story, heunderstood how he could have had ties that dragged him down.

Could his father have resurfaced and brought him intosomething dangerous?

“Ray came in and out of Shannon’s life. I still don’t thinkhe knows about…” Joyce nodded his way like she couldn’t stand to talk about theother boy. She probably felt guilty for not taking him in when she’d taken inZach, but she’d had her reasons.

“But he knows Zach?” Cooper hadn’t thought a lot aboutZach’s father. Zach didn’t say much about him. Were they in touch?

Joyce nodded. “He lived with them for about six monthsbefore things got real bad, and he left them hanging out to dry. The cartel gotupset with him. He was skimming the profits.”

“Joyce, I need to know about the adoption,” Kala said,leaning in.

“I’m sure it was closed if she was in prison and worriedabout someone finding out.” Cooper knew a bit about adoption since both he andHunter were adopted. Kala should know something, too, though he was pretty sureTasha’s adoption hadn’t been entirely legal.

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