Page 114 of Love Me Fierce

Though it’s going to put me in hot water with Luke Ballard and the California FBI, fuck it. “The feds are building a case against Hyek, and I think he knows it.”

Zach shakes his head in disbelief. “Hold it. You think Hyek sent Jordy up here to find out if Vivian gave him up?”

“It would be the quickest way to squash the FBI’s case, right? Eliminate the source of the intel.”

Zach grips the wheel. “It’s fucked up. Vivian could have been killed.”

I gaze out the rain-streaked window at the dark blur of trees lining the road. “Yeah.”

“Jordy’s living in Idaho Falls?”

“For the past four years. Before that, he was in L.A.”

“Why’s he up here and not Hyek?”

“Jordy’s a lot closer to Finn River than Hyek is. Maybe Hyek offered Jordy a deal he couldn’t refuse. Or maybe Hyek’s got some sort of hold on him. Either way, Jordy comes to Finn River to figure out how much Vivian knows; if she’s talking to anyone. Maybe the drive-by outside Glory Holes was a test. See what she’d do.”

“But she didn’t do anything,” Zach says, arching an eyebrow.

“I was right there, though.”With my hand on Mateo’s back and my eyes locked with hers.Was that the moment our lives became inextricably woven?

“Then Jordy breaks in to find whatever evidence she might have been hiding,” Zach says, pulling me back to our drive.

“When he finds nothing, Kent gets Jordy to run Vivian off the road.”

“Did he mean to kill her, or was the accident a warning?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’ll clue us in now that he’s in custody.”

Zach nods. “If this it all true, think Jordy will give up Hyek?”

Ahead, Zach’s headlights splash across the back end of my truck, pulled over as far as I could before I ran down the bank to get to Vivian. Those seconds when I didn’t know if she was alive are going to haunt me until I take my last breath.

“Even if he does, it won’t help him,” I tell Zach as he cruises to a stop behind my truck.

“But it could help bring down Kent Hyek.”

“Yep.”

“The feds aren’t going to appreciate us stepping on their toes,” he says with a grimace.

“If they didn’t move at the speed of fucking molasses, none of this would have happened. Hyek would already be behind bars, rotting his pathetic life away. So my professional courtesy only extends so far.”

Zach nods. “Don’t piss them off too much. We’re about to break open two unsolved murder cases thanks to their fancy tools.”

“You’re right,” I say with a sigh. It’s a good reminder. Jordy Clarke is only one of many cases we’re working, and as much as I’d like to build a case against Hyek, doing so would jeopardize our hard work. I only have to picture Ashley and Ted Lambert’s grief to stop me in my tracks.

“See you back at the station,” I say, and step into the rain.

During my drive, I check in with Sepp, but Vivian hasn’t even gotten into the CT scan yet. At the station, Sheriff Olson is in his office, so I peek in.

He slides his bifocals off. “Rumsey, you had coffee yet?”

“No, sir. I can wait though.”

He motions for me to sit in one of the two chairs opposite him, so I drop down, exhaustion heavy in my limbs.

“I got a call from an assistant attorney general in Los Angeles. They want us to cut Jordy a deal in exchange for working with them to bring down a couple of LAPD vice cops they’re about to bring down for corruption.”

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