Page 69 of Bourbon and Secrets

As soon as I came home the morning after the auction, I uploaded all the content I acquired and shared it with Cortez. I had expected some repercussions from my swift departure and run-in with Waz, but I haven’t heard so much as a peep from Blackstone.

And then this morning, Cortez confirmed that the private auction was broken up an hour after Lincoln and I left. There was only one arrest made. Brock Blackstone was taken into custody; however, no charges have been filed. It left a nervous feeling in my gut—this isn’t going to just fizzle out. Fiasco isgoing to be the battleground for whatever’s coming. Which begs the question: who’s the FBI targeting?

CORTEZ

You did great stuff on this case, Faye. Your work on the Blackstone file is complete. Between the surveillance over the last few months that you’ve shared, in addition to what and whom we were able to identify during his private auction, your contract has officially been fulfilled.

Catching my attention, my sister hurries past the living room, but I call out after her. “Maggie.”

She and I need to talk. There’re a lot of questions that I’m not okay with her running away from any longer, specifically about Waz. Whatever she’s involved in with Waz King is trouble—that much is obvious. But after my run-in with him and the fact that he and Wheeler Finch were at that auction, my sister is in the line of fire. And as much as our relationship is broken, not a single part of me wants her to get any more hurt.

Walking backwards, she leans on the archway to the room with a sigh. “Yes, I drank your seltzers. We’ll call it part of your rent.”

I blink at her first, then crack a smile. “Shut up. I’m not paying rent when I own half this place. But stop taking my things, please.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Fine. Stop moving around my gym equipment.”

Arguing isn’t what I want to do, so I don’t counter with the fact that her gym equipment is inmyold bedroom. Instead, I pivot. “Why are you working for Finch & King?”

She stares at me, her shoulders tensing as she stands up from casually leaning. I’m not sure what she’s looking for, or if she’sjust trying to decide whether the truth might work. But instead of an answer, she throws a question back, “Why are you here?”

The doorbell rings, but she doesn’t move to get it until it rings again a second later. Without a word, she moves down the hallway to answer it. I hear her unlock and remove the chain, but other than, “Hey,” I don’t hear anything else.

“What!?” Maggie whisper-shouts. She never did do “quiet” very well.

“Nice to see you too, Maggie.”

That voice has me standing and moving closer with light footsteps.

“Unless you want an audience, you need to keep your voice down, Cortez.”

“You’re not answering your phone,” he says as I peek around the couch. She’s trying to keep the door angled closed.

Maggie’s voice raises. “Your buddies at the station took my statement. I have nothing else to add.” She opens the door wider now and looks over her shoulder right at me.She knew she was being too loud, that I would hear. “He’s all yours,” Maggie calls out, then walks away and leaves the door open as a signal for him to come in.

When he sees me leaning against the threshold of the farmhouse’s living room, he looks surprised and hesitates to come inside. It’s interesting body language for someone who came here to see me. It’s even more curious that he’d be here at all. After his dismissive work text, I would have thought an in-person visit wasn’t necessary.Unless I’m not why he’s here.There’s something about their exchange that isn’t sitting right.

“I was hoping you’d still be here, Faye.”

Pulling my hair up in a loose knot, I sit back down in the chair I had been zoning out in and glance at the bit of snow that’s started falling outside. “What did you want to tell me?”

“Just that the Fiasco Charity Rodeo kicks off tonight. Full weekend of bulls and bronc riders overflowing the town.”

“You finished out my case via text, but you wanted to tell me about the rodeo in person?” Brow pinched, I glance at Maggie. “The fuck, Cortez? Why are you really here?”

Maggie’s head tilts to the side, watching with an odd mix of irritation and amusement.

My phone buzzes with another text.

FOXX

Hi Faye. Did you know that the caverns in Fiasco have the greatest concentration of geodes and stalagmites in this part of the country?

When I told Lincoln about how sexy smart was, I didn’t think he would go down the path of random facts about geology. Wait, this sounds...

FAYE

Lily?

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