Page 116 of Bossy Hero

“The thing is...”

“Spit it out, T.”

“She doesn’t want you to think she’s coming here as a ploy to get your attention. It has nothing to do with that.”

My eye twitches. “Nothing to do withme, you mean?”

He sighs, shoulders hunching slightly. “I’m guessing that came out wrong. I’m sorry. Yeah. Nothing to do with you. She’d just be here for safety. Assuming you’re okay with it.”

Where’s Leo? I could really use an excuse to walk away right now.

“Fine,” I husk out, then stomp past him.

My daughter has nothing to do with me.

Have truer words been spoken today? Doubtful.

My eyes land on the whiteboard when I re-enter the lair, ready to get this shit show on the road. “All right, team. Talk to me. How are we going to take down the Lenkov Bratva?”

There are seven columns scrawled on the board. Five headings are written in one person’s handwriting, and two additional headings are in what I recognize as Tomer’s chicken scratch. On a cursory scan, it seems these are the main categories of crimes committed by the bratva.

While they provide a basic rundown, I mentally assign staff to various tasks based on their skill sets.

As expected, the majority of the information is under theHuman Traffickingcolumn. Given Mia’s past fighting traffickers and Lett—my daughter’s—recent victimization, I’d imagine they’re chomping at the bit to tackle that arm of the bratva.

TheCyber Crimesheading also has a lot of shit under it. For obvious reasons, I’ll assign the intel team to run point on those tasks.

“I don’t see anything underLaw Enforcement,” Leo states, pointing his pen at the far side of the whiteboard. “What’s that column for?”

Klein answers on behalf of the intel trio. “We need to partner with them more closely than usual in order to get convictions that’ll stick. Our initial thoughts are to use the standing info exchange with CPD as a starting point, then loop in the FBI Trafficking Task Force via Mia’s connections. Additionally, we put it on the board so we don’t leave them too far behind. They move slower than us, and if we don’t see it up there every damn day, we’re likely to plow on.”

My fingers tap across my Redleg tablet, typing out an action list for Peggy to carry out tomorrow morning. She’s got a lot of fucking meetings to schedule, for starters. “I’ll talk to the chief and the sheriff first, and we’ll go from there. I’ll also call the mayor’s office to start working up the political chain. Never know when we might need some pressure applied.”

Klein uncaps a marker and scribbles a recap on the board. “Sounds good, Boss.”

Mia clicks her tongue, her mouth bunching to one side. “Hate to throw this out there, but we probably need to be cautious around law enforcement. We don’t know who to trust.”

Solemn nods of agreement all around.

Tomer adjusts in his chair, causing a grating creak to reverberate around the room. It’s irritating. Not only the sound, but also having to work with him right now.

He raises his hand like he’s in fucking grade school. “I’ll take point with Detectives Salgado and Patterson. I’ve already been working with them on some of this.”

My hackles rise, and I react with a glower and cutting tone. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Under the table, Leo bumps his leg against mine.Intentionally.

Clearly, his gut didn’t just fire like mine did. Tomer’s definitely doing something he shouldn’t be. And I’d bet money he has some personal war going against the men who hurt Lettie.

And I get it.

However, he better not fuck up the relationship I’ve been cultivating with law enforcement. We need them on our side now more than ever to make this work. If he’s hell-bent on vengeance, he’s more prone than usual to say something he shouldn’t. Or take risks that’ll raise red flags. And our partnership will be fucked.

Tomer’s gaze falls to the table, shielding his eyes from me. “Just that I’ve been giving them information Lettie has shared about her time in the prep house. And as you know, they’ve already made several arrests based on what Mia and I have fed them.”

I roll my tongue over my teeth, attempting to quash my knee-jerk reaction. Maybe the gut is off, and it’s the nagging knife in my back bothering me instead.

Then again... the way he won’t look at me doesn’t sit well. He knows I can’t sense his intentions as well if he doesn’t meet my stare.

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