Page 36 of Stone Coast
Ross smiled. “That's exactly what I like to hear. But I need to be sure. Right now, you are an unknown. Are you the same person that you were before the accident? Do you have the same personality? The same loyalties?”
His concerns were exactly what Tyson said they would be.
“I haven’t changed.”
A disarming smile tugged his lips. "I'm sure. But I need to be certain. You understand.”
I nodded.
"I need you to come in for a full debrief. We’ll do a polygraph, ask you questions, assess your situation. Nothing to worry about.”
"I have questions.”
"I'm sure you do.”
"What happened tonight? Was somebody targeting me? Or Grayson?”
"We don't know, but I can speculate.”
"I'm listening.”
Ross took a breath and stared deep into my eyes. The wheels turned. How much should he reveal? How much could I handle? “The simplest explanation is often the most likely. A standard home invasion. They were looking to rob the home.”
I hadn’t ruled that possibility out, but given my previous incident, this was starting to seem like more than just bad luck.
“Of course, you’ve been in numerous operations and made your share of enemies. This could be some form of retaliation, but I doubt it. These were street thugs.”
“Have you ID’d the assailant yet?” I asked, trying to ascertain just how much he knew or was willing to share.
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“No,” Ross said. “But we’re working on it.” He paused. “There's one other possibility. And this may get uncomfortable."
I swallowed and nodded. I was getting used to uncomfortable at this point.
"We’d been watching Grayson.”
“Spying on him?"
"It was imperative that we knew everything about him. I'm not sure if you were aware, but he was planning on asking you to marry him. As you can imagine, in this line of work, we need to thoroughly vet everyone that is in the regular orbit of our officers.”
It made sense that they would dig into every aspect of his background, looking for potential threats and vulnerabilities.
"You found something," I said, seeing it in his eyes.
"We can discuss the specifics of it later. I don't think that's what this was about, but it's something to consider."
"What?”
"Like I said, this might be uncomfortable to hear.”
My eyes narrowed at him. “I think I can handle just about anything at this point.”
"Grayson was having an affair with a woman named Sierra Langston.”
My eyes rounded with surprise. But the revelation didn't come as a punch to the gut. I still had no real emotional connection to Grayson at this point. "I thought you said he was going to ask me to marry him.”
"That's what our intel shows. I hate to be blunt, but he was having a torrid affair with this woman. She's married. There is a non-zero possibility that her husband found out and perhaps hired these two street thugs to take care of his problem. Granted, it seems like a stretch. But something to consider.”
