Page 28 of Liberating Love

“Where are we going?” I ask as I mark an oddity in the file I’ve been examining for the past hour.

“Someone contacted me… I think he has something on the warehouse,” he answers.

I pause and finally look over at him. “That’s big, Caputo.”

“I know. He’s meeting us at a coffee shop in an hour.”

I nod and go back to my file, wondering who our mark is. Right now, Jovany has a piece of paper with a question mark on it up on the board at the top, but I’ve gotten the sense that Jovany knows who it is. Or at least, he suspects who’s at the top of this. He’s been following the money trail while I’ve been tediously going through file after file, from drug busts to murders, and marking which officers seem to have the same report for nearly every drug bust they’ve done. As in, they’ve been copying and pasting it over with only changing the perp’s name. Some of them don’t even make sense at all.

It’s frustrating seeing all the incompetence and seeing just how long the police corruption has been going on. Some of the things I’m finding are a decade old. It’s unbelievable, and I’m almost scared to know how high up this goes.

“Ready?” he asks as he stands and stretches.

A glance at the clock tells me I’ve been staring at this damn file a lot longer than I thought, so I snap it shut and stand to stretch as well. “Yeah.”

He nods, grabs his keys, and we head out. Jovany shuts up our office and types in the code on the electronic lock on the door, and we head to the car. The drive is uneventful, but not uncomfortable. In the time I’ve spent with Jovany, I’ve noticed that he’s not one of those people that has to fill the silence with chatter, which I appreciate. I’m not an overly chatty person myself most of the time—of course it’s a little different when I’m with true chatterboxes like Gavin and Holden—so it’s nice to be able to sit without the pressure of coming up with a topic to talk about.

Jovany parks at the coffee shop and says, “This kid is skittish, so let’s try not to send him running for the hills.”

“Got it,” I say before we exit the car.

I spot the kid as soon as we walk in even though I’ve never seen him before. He’s sitting in the corner booth, fidgeting and glancing around like he’s afraid the boogie man’s gonna jump out at any second. At first glance, I’m worried that he’s a junky with the amount of wiggling he’s doing, but as I take in his healthy-looking face and the way he’s biting his bottom lip, I’m pretty sure he’s just nervous. More like terrified.

Jovany heads over to the kid right away, so I go up to the counter to order us some coffees so we don’t scare him off. After placing my order, I watch Jovany and the kid out of the corner of my eye and notice that the kid’s a little less freaked out now. As far as I can tell, Jovany’s pretty good at setting people at ease, not that we’ve left the office much in the months we’ve been working together, but the little I’ve seen, he’s damn good at his job.

After collecting the coffees, I walk over to the table and set all three down as Jovany says, “Seth, this is my partner, Aiden. Aiden, this is Seth. He works at the Loyal Day Factory.” I’m not technically Jovany’s partner, but I appreciate the sentiment. It’s probably easier than explaining that I’m just a lowly officer helping out the detective.

I offer a smile and push one of the coffees toward him. “It’s nice to meet you, Seth. I wasn’t sure how you took your coffee, but I brought over some sugar and creamer if you like.” As I sit beside Jovany, I pass him his coffee—sugar with light cream—and pull my own toward me.

“Thanks,” the kid says. He’s probably around nineteen or twenty, and now that I’m closer to him, I can appreciate how good looking he is. His dirty blond hair keeps falling in his honey-colored eyes that are wide and constantly scanning our surroundings, but they’re bright and clear. His slight frame makes him look even younger up close, but he’s certainly on the pretty side.

Jovany asks him, “Are you sure they said next month?”

The kid nods. “Yeah. It sounds like something happened to their last shipment or something, so there’s a delay. I didn’t catch the entire conversation.”

“And you sawhimthere?” Jovany asks.

Seth glances down at his coffee cup and nods as he picks at the label. “Yeah, it was him.”

Jovany blows out a breath and leans back, rubbing his temples. “Okay, okay.”

I want to ask him who he’s talking about, but I know I should wait until we’re in the car alone. They’re probably not saying his name in public on purpose. From all the old files I’ve been helping him go through, from all the shady shit happening at the station, I get why Jovany’s been keeping everything close. He clearly has someone higher up on his side—in internal affairs—since he’s been allowed to commandeer an office and an officer to his cause. Hopefully soon he’ll start sharing his suspicions with me, but for now it seems that he’s just wanting me to point out anything “off” I find in certain old cases so we can figure out everyone involved in this. Pretty sure this is all building up to be a shitshow.

Jovany and Seth talk for a few more minutes before the kid takes off. Jovany’s eyes track the kid all the way out of the shop before he focuses on me and blows out a frustrated breath. “I know I owe you an explanation.”

“That would be nice.”

“I’m not sure what to think yet. But… if this is the break I think we need, I might be able to tell you soon.”

I nod and sip my coffee, trying not to let my frustration show. I know the guy trusts me, but I also know that he’s worried and stressed about this, yet he refuses to open up. It’s kinda annoying. More than kind of. But we’ll follow the evidence and see where it takes us.

He slaps me on the shoulder and says, “Come on. Let’s go grab some real food before we head back.”

“Sounds good.”

He slides out of the booth after me, and as we head to our car, I feel my phone buzz in my back pocket. Once we sit and Jovany pulls out of the parking spot, I pull my phone out to check my messages. There’s a text waiting for me from Delaney.

Delaney: I need your help.

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