Page 149 of Bossy Hero

“He hand-picked Patterson for us.” I shrug, clicking my tongue. “I trust no one at this point.”

I’ve met with the chief enough times that I should have noticed if he was up to something.

My eyes scan the faces of my team, landing on Tomer’s.

Ifhecould lie to me for so long, maybe my gut isn’t as reliable as I thought.

“Might I do some poking around?” she asks, her shoulders raised and chin lowered to feign innocence.

Ha. That’s a laugh.

“Not yet.”

She harrumphs.

“Speaking of you being shady as fuck, what did you find out about the read receipts with the mayor and Dempsey?”

“Boss, I’m flattered you think so highly of me.” She shimmies her shoulders and grins deviously, not the least bit offended by my comments. If anything, she’s proud. “Nothing in their emails tying them together, which makes sense. People tend not to broadcast their corruption in their official accounts. However, the mayor’s calendar shows multiple meetings with Dempsey. And another one I found quite interesting.”

She pauses for emphasis, drawing groans of impatience for the entire room. “He met with the one and only Huxley Bowen from the Miami Port Authority about two months ago.”

My fist pounds the table. “Something else telling us the mayor is involved. Both Dempsey and Bowen were on the list of seventy-two. And the mayor has past meetings with them.” Tension sets into my shoulders. “I want to know more about this fucking list. What the fuck did he give it to us for? Let’s finish that damn email reply and ask him.”

“Let me ramble for a bit. Indulge me.” Mia rolls her hand in a circular gesture. “The architect originally said he was sending the list to us to help pull down one of the clouds. He said he couldn’t fly free until the sun set and all that shit. So we assumed the list from Katia was meant to take down the trafficking ring. That was the first cloud he could let us pull down without him being incriminated.”

Klein nods slowly. “Right. But what if it’s notthatring?”

“Exactly. We assumed it was, and when Lettie saw names she recognized as potential customers, it confirmed our bias. However, the list might be for us to take down something else entirely. Or someone else.”

“Huxley Bowen?” Tomer muses. “He’s come up enough times. His hands are in everything.”

“Perhaps.” Mia shrugs noncommittally. “Or maybe it’s a different ring, and there happens to be crossover with customers who visited the trafficking house. These are disgusting humans, so partaking in one crime doesn’t preclude them from others.”

Shep pipes in, excitement layering his tone. “Based on info Yuri’s shared with me previously, we know Lenkov loves his little insurance policies to keep people in line. Making his business partners into users of his trafficking services would give him something to hang over their heads.”

“And Yev told us Viktor and Katia recorded those assaults for later use.” Tomer grimaces, probably at the memory invoked by the topic. Mine does the same. Poor Lettie.

“Did he sayKatia, though?” Mia asks, returning to the mantle of Katia’s biggest supporter.

Tomer counters. “I can’t recall word-for-word, but if he didn’t say it, he certainly implied it.”

These two get along like siblings. Thick as thieves one minute. Crawling under the other’s skin in the next.

I remember those days.

Daniel.

My heart squeezes painfully.

I smack the table, stopping this before it goes off the rails again. “Focus, kids.”

Everyone jerks to attention, heads whipping in my direction.

Determined to get to the bottom of this, I order, “Let’s type out that email reply now.”

“As requested, I’ve got copies,” Lettie announces, breezing into the room.

Again, I’m fucking interrupted.

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