Page 122 of Proof of Guilt

Dwight Emory.

Even though Ivy hadn’t met the man, she knew this was Theo and Wesley’s boss. He didn’t look especially pleased, either, but then, one of his agents—Wesley—was accusing a fellow agent—Theo—of a crime.

“Well?” Theo prompted when no one said anything.

“We’re sorting it out,” Emory answered.

“We’re not close to sorting it out,” Wesley snarled. He nailed a glare to Theo. “How could you do this to me? We’ve been partners for years. Friends,” he amended. “At least I thought we were, and then you start asking questions. You’re treating me like a criminal.”

Theo huffed, and his hands went on his hips. “Seems to me you’re the one who said I wanted Ivy out of the way so I could get Nathan.”

“Don’t you?” Wesley challenged.

“No.” And Theo moved closer to her, sliding his arm around her waist. He probably did that because she wasn’t looking so steady, but it was also a signal to Wesley and Emory that the old baggage between them wasn’t as toxic as it had once been.

Ivy wasn’t sure when that’d happened exactly. Maybe around the time Theo had been trying to save her life.

Theo volleyed glances between Emory and Gabriel. “What kind of proof did Wesley produce to make an accusation like that against me?”

“A CI told me,” Wesley volunteered.

Ivy wasn’t sure who gave Wesley the flattest look, but Gabriel, Theo and even Emory weren’t jumping to embrace the so-called evidence.

“We’re trying to find the CI now,” Emory finally said. “If he confirms Wesley’s claim, then we’ll still have to consider the source.” Emory looked at her then. “As you can imagine, CIs aren’t always truthful, and this could be a situation of someone wanting to get back at Theo.”

“Yeah, Wesley could be doing that,” Theo insisted. “Because he might want to get suspicion off himself.”

Wesley howled out a protest, but Gabriel made a sound of agreement. “I got the security footage of McKenzie’s bar. It’s grainy and there are only a few good camera angles—”

“I didn’t go there to pay off anybody,” Wesley interrupted.

Ivy glanced at Theo to see if he knew what any of this was about, but he only shook his head. “What happened on that footage?” Theo asked Gabriel.

Her brother took a deep breath first. “When Wesley entered the bar, he took out an envelope from his jacket pocket. And, yeah, he was wearing a jacket despite the fact that it was ninety degrees outside. It gets grainy when Wesley goes to a booth in the corner, but it appears he gives the envelope to a known thug by the name of Nixon Vaughn.”

Oh, mercy. That wasn’t good, and Ivy immediately wondered if this Vaughn was a hired gun. Maybe the very one who’d attacked them today and shot that woman.

“He’s not on payroll for the DEA or any other agency,” Emory added.

Theo’s jaw was very tight when he turned to Wesley. “Did you pay off Vaughn?”

Wesley’s jaw wasn’t exactly relaxed, either. “Yes. Because you told me to.”

A burst of air left Theo’s mouth. “No, I didn’t. And what makes you think I did?”

“I got a text from you.” Wesley muttered some profanity under his breath. “You said to give Vaughn five hundred bucks, and that you’d pay me back. You said Vaughn had info about the threatening letters the Becketts had been getting. So I gave Vaughn the money, but he said he didn’t know anything about the Becketts.”

“The text came from a burner cell,” Emory provided.

“Theo uses burners all the time,” Wesley snapped.

As the daughter and sister of cops, Ivy knew what a burner was. It was a prepaid phone that couldn’t be traced. Theo probably did use them for his job, but in this case someone had used it to set him up.

To maybe set up Wesley, too.

But why would someone have done that?

Maybe the person hoped to get both Theo and Wesley thrown off the case. If so, it wasn’t working. Theo wasn’t going to let this go whether he was officially on the investigation or not, and she doubted Wesley would just walk away, either.

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