Page 109 of Deadly Secrets
She toyed with the spoon a moment, considering that.
The devil on her shoulder urged her to climb into bed and hand-feed him ice cream, but her heart still felt like it was in pieces. She slapped the devil with her spoon. “I’m glad to know about my birth parents—I think—but since my mother didn’t stick around to chat, I guess that’s a dead end once again. Let’s get back to you. Now would be a good time to tell me the truth about Percy.”
“I can’t.”
She considered throwing the spoon again, and dug into the ice cream instead. “I’ve already promised myself that no matter what it is, I won’t throw you or anyone else under the bus, so stop worrying. I’m not looking to get anyone in trouble, or tarnish your brother’s image with your family. I just need to know what really happened. I need to be able to trust you again.”
Roman took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the pillows, closing his eyes. He was still for so long, she thought he might have fallen asleep. It wouldn’t surprise her, since he’d only been out of post-op for a short time and probably needed rest.
But she kept eating her ice cream and watching him, just to be sure he wasn’t faking it to keep from answering her.
Questions about Justine circled her brain.
Why would she run away from me a second time?
It was too much. Tears welled behind her eyes and she blinked them away. She wouldnotcry for the mother she’d never had. The woman who claimed to care so much for her, but had abandoned her. Twice.
Roman cleared his throat, and then opened his eyes, startling her back into the present. He lifted his head from the pillows and met her gaze. “Are you okay?”
No, she wasn’t. Brooke dashed at her eyes. “Fine. Tell me about Percy.”
He sighed. “What I told you the other day is basically the truth. I helped Percy get over his drug addiction. He had a felony drug charge looming over his head though, and I got the DA to cut a deal with him. At the time, I was running a different taskforce, one working to break an international drug syndicate. If Percy helped us, he wouldn’t end up in prison.
“He worked his street contacts and we put a sting into motion. Percy got in deep enough that the cartel’s main buyer wanted to talk to him about moving product to and from the Middle East. A place my brother was very familiar with. But the night the sting was supposed to go down, I got cold feet and called it off.
“It was a huge break for us, but I couldn’t send him into that meeting. My gut kept telling me something was off. That this buyer had found out Percy wasn’t who he said he was.”
Brooke stuck the spoon in the ice cream and sat back. “How did he end up dead?”
“Percy was pissed when I pulled the plug an hour before the op was to go down. Some of the taskforce members were upset too—they’d put a lot of days and nights into laying the framework, but they respected my position. Percy didn’t. He went to the meeting anyway, and he sent a text to three of the taskforce guys after he was there telling them it was going down right then, that I was with him and needed their help. They all scrambled to get there and set up surveillance, not realizing he’d played them. Before they could get hold of me and confirm whether or not I’d okayed the op after all, Percy was dead, and the other three guys severely injured trying to save him.”
Crude. Brooke shook her head, not surprised that Percy had a hero complex—it seemed to run in the family—but really, what the hell had he been thinking?
Roman shifted his leg and winced. “The cartel was in the wind again. All the long hours, being away from their families, and risking their lives to stop this international cartel, and what did they have to show for it? A dead CI who’d blown the operation and nearly gotten three men killed in the process.”
“I’m sorry, Roman.”
She was too. Like her mother, Roman’s brother had no doubt meant well.
“I covered for him with the family because I had to. I couldn’t let them know what his final act on this earth had been. I also took the blame for the failed op, claiming I had tried to pull it off at the last minute. The men who were injured all survived and still have solid careers and that means a lot to me.”
“You couldn’t just tell me that from the beginning?”
“I promised those guys I would never tell anyone. Promised myself I would take Percy’s actions to the grave. My family doesn’t need to know the truth. It would serve no purpose to soil Percy’s memory.”
“It appears taking the blame didn’t hurt your career.”
He shrugged and the action drew another wince as he disturbed his bandaged shoulder. “I’m here on the West Coast, as far away from Homeland headquarters as they can put me outside of Hawaii or Alaska. The higher-ups see it as punishment, but it actually works well for me. I get to stay close to my family and work a job I love with the DTT.”
The taskforce was a good group. She envied him in many ways.
Cleaning off the spoon, she put the lid on the ice cream bucket, then retrieved her box of tissues and stuck both in her purse. Without the Glock in there, she had room for them. She dropped the strap over her shoulder. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”
As she limped toward the door, he called after her. “That’s it? You’re walking out after I told you everything?”
She turned back. “I need some time to myself. I have a lot to process, and unlike you, I don’t have family and friends to lean on for support.”
“Brooke, I’m here for you.”
