Page 12 of Wicked Sin

Woods: On it.

Vasquez: We’ll need a safe house or hotel budget for Ms. Reid, too. At least for tonight, preferably a couple of days. If the FBI wants to pony up for that…

Woods: I’ll find a way to make that request too.

When I’m invited back inside,Taylor looks drawn and tired. She gives me a half-hearted attempt at a smile. “Doc didn’t like my blood pressure. Says car bombs are bad for my health. Who could’ve guessed that?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have any more questions for me, detective?”

I shake my head. “Not right now.”

“You haven’t asked about my parents.” Her eyes are sharp. Focused. She may be tired, but she won’t be tricked here. She’s on guard. “While you were outside, I checked my messages. And the news. Why were you asking about what happened years ago? Don’t you think the attack on me is related to the arrest today?”

“Do you?”

“I’m not the cop. You tell me,Detective.”

A male nurse interrupts us, holding a small paper cup of water and a smaller cup with two pills in it. “Here you go, Taylor. And I’ll be back in a few with the prescription once the doctor signs off on it.”

I don’t miss the twitch of her jaw as she says thank you. Or the way she avoids my gaze as she downs the pills together in a single swallow, waving off the water as unnecessary.

The nurse takes her blood pressure again and then wordlessly disappears.

Silence stretches between us.

Finally, I exhale, loudly, and sit in the chair beside her hospital chair. “I think it’s possible we’re both being played here.”

Her right eyebrow arches sky-high.

“I got your name this afternoon in a file. A request from the Secret Service, who for their own reasons, did not want to contact you directly.”

“Because I would refuse to speak to them.”

“I got that distinct impression, yes.”

“Are we putting the Secret Service on the short list of assholes who might bomb my car?”

“No.”

“It feels like you’re missing a prime opportunity to nail a big suspect, then.”

“Do you think the US government wants to kill you?”

She hesitates long enough for me to think she actually might, but then she sighs and shakes her head. “No. I just really don’t like any of them. And frankly, I don’t think I’m going to like you, either. No offense.”

“None taken. But regardless of how I got here, and whether or not that was spurious, the fact is, someone targeted you with an explosive. That’s a crime. I investigate crimes, so you’re stuck with me. At least until I’m replaced by some of those people who you loathe.”

Her eyes go wide. “What?”

“Your choice, of course. But it’s just a matter of time before the FBI makes noise about taking over this case.”

“Because they’ll link it to my family’s legal trouble?”

I shrug. It’s as good a theory as any.

She closes her eyes. End of conversation.

---