Page 29 of Wicked Sin

This time the pause is longer. “The Horus Group?”

“Yeah. You know them? Anything I should be aware of?”

She laughs. “You can do this one alone, Detective. Full disclosure: my ex-husband is one of the principals there. Don’t expect to get anything from them. But if you have any questions after, feel free to reach out again.”

“Will do.” I disconnect the call and give Taylor a hard look. “One of the Horus Group guys was married to a local cop?”

She shrugs. “I don’t keep a spreadsheet on who’s fucked who, Detective.”

Yeah, I’ve noticed. “Let’s start keeping track of these things, princess. Now, take me into the lion’s den.”

When Taylor announcesherself at the locked entrance to the crisis management firm, we’re immediately buzzed in.

The elevator indicates that the offices take up two floors. We get off at the first one.

There’s a large man waiting in the middle of reception. I’m six foot three, and he looks like he’s about the same, but he easily has twenty pounds of muscles on me, and I can hold my own at the gym. More than.

This guy is a tank.

“Taylor,” he says, his voice full of barely contained fury.

She doesn’t seem bothered in the least. “Cole. I missed your wedding.”

“You weren’t invited.”

I step between them and hold out my hand. “Detective Luke Vasquez. We’re here on official business, if you don’t mind me breaking up this family reunion.”

He does his best to crush my fingers. I give back as good as I get. He grunts and lets go then leads us into a conference room.

“You armed?” he asks me once we’re alone.

“No.” I look him over. I can’t see a holster. “Are you?”

“No.”

Great. This is going great so far. “Mr. Parker, yesterday afternoon Ms. Reid’s car was destroyed by a car bomb.”

“Here?” He turns his intense stare to his sister-in-law. “Are you back?”

I answer him. “No. I’m an LAPD detective. The explosive was set at her place of employment in Northeast L.A.. I was sent there to follow up on a bogus claim of Ms. Reid dealing drugs out of the back of her car. We’ve determined that was a false report, which raises the question of who would want to smear her reputation?”

“And you’re looking at me? On the other side of the country?”

“You have considerable resources. You’ve done worse to detract from scandal, to derail investigations into significant crimes.”

“I don’t do shit like that anymore. As for the resources, most of the people Taylor here has pissed off over the years have a more significant reach than I might.”

“How many of them have demolitions experts on staff?”

“Lots.” He’s not fazed by my questions. “We didn’t do this.”

“Do you have any associates in California right now?”

There’s a long pause before he answers. “No,” he says finally.

“That took you a while to consider.”

“I was weighing the pros and cons of being helpful in another way.”

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