Page 76 of Wicked Little Game
“You did your fucking research right in front of my face, and not once did you think about telling me the truth?”
“Well, I—”
“Shut up, I’m not done. Maybe, just maybe, if you’d have opened your stupid mouth and asked me to help you, itwouldn’t have taken you so long to gather a few sad pieces of evidence.”
She glares over at the documents that are scattered on my desk, finally taking a breath. My head is spinning. I don’t know which point to address first, but not saying anything also isn’t an option.
“Technically, I had enough evidence after not even two weeks. And after we met the guy at the country club, I had enough to keep our task force busy for a year.”
“Then why did you stay after that? Just because you wanted your dick sucked again?” she snarls, too agitated to get the hint.
Wonderful. Now I have to spell it out for her.
“Because I fucking like you, you idiot. Is this what you want to hear from me? That I probably ruined my mission, maybe my whole fucking career, just because I couldn’t bring myself to leave you?”
“Oh.”
“Oh,” I repeat mockingly. This woman is ruining me.
“And what did you mean when you said I should have asked you to help me?”
“It’s not that hard to understand,” she says. “I have a bachelor's degree in business administration. Since I was around sixteen, I worked for my father’s organization. Mostly office stuff, back when he made his money with drugs. You would be surprised how much fucking paperwork that is, almost like a real company. Just less legal, I suppose.”
She shrugs her shoulders, looking at the floor for a moment before she continues to speak.
“But then I found out that he dabbled in other areas. After I witnessed some of this shit firsthand, I was out. Drugs are one thing, and fuck, I enjoy being rich, okay? But everyone has a line they do not cross. And mine is at human trafficking.”
She breathes in deeply, biting down on her lip nervously.
“That was a year ago. I refused to work for him any longer and we had a huge fight. Probably because he was afraid that I’d bust his organization, narcing him out to the authorities. As if he doesn’t bribe every goddamn police officer and politician in this town.”
A drop of blood forms on her lower lip and she flinches as I try to wipe it away.
“I thought about it. About going straight to the DEA, but you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. And word gets around until it reaches more people who wouldn’t be happy that I started talking. With enough money, you can buy everyone and I know too much. So I tried to run away, without involving anyone else, but he has eyes everywhere. The moment I tried to board my flight, one of his men dragged me back here. That’s why I’m not allowed to leave the house, in case you were wondering.”
I’m still holding her arm, but it’s no longer to keep her from running off.
“Maybe he keeps me as some kind of pawn, or maybe he just doesn’t have the balls to kill me. I have no fucking clue. But to come back to my initial point; I know his organization from the inside out. Probably know more about it than he does, because I don’t know if you figured that out during your meticulous research—” She looks up to me, her eyebrows raised. “He’s fucking careless. Someone could sell him colored dirt and he’d think it’s uranium, so maybe you and your boss don’t need to worry at all.”
She slides her hand out of my grip, picking at the sparkly things on her nails.
“Most of the time he just parades around while half of his men steal from him behind his back. Too narcissistic to notice, and I bet it went even more downhill, now that I don’t have an eye on it anymore.”
I want to take her hand again, but she pulls it away immediately.
“So, what kind of evidence do you need? I know you said you have enough, but there must be something you still need because I sincerely doubt that you stayed just because of me.”
“I suspect he’s just the middleman,” I admit. “We want the one above him.”
It’s not even the entire truth, because I have enough intel to leave without them having to send someone else here, but it’s the only way to stay with her for longer, even if it’s just for a few days.
“Fine.” That’s all she says as she turns around and walks back to her room without looking at me.
Throughout all of my life, and especially since I joined the military, I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. Things that haunt me when it gets too quiet, but this charade here definitely deserves its place in the top three.
I don’t go after her. There’s no point in doing it. Nothing I could say could change what I did, and I have a feeling that any more talking would just hurt her even more.
I fucked up, big time, just because I was careless and thought with my dick instead of my brain. All I can do now is damage control. No matter what I’ll do, someone will suffer for this. Ruby’s father, logically, that was non-negotiable from the start.
