Page 85 of The Way We Are

“It couldn’t make matters any worse. Could it?”

“I guess not?” Savannah replies, her tone not filling me with confidence. “Maybe pretend you’re considering her offer while you suss out why she’s here.”

I groan. Ever since Savannah found the recruitment card Regina handed me last week, she’s been dropping hints about me joining the force. Some of her points are valid, but considering there's no way I can amass over two hundred thousand dollars legally in under a week, seeking employment at an agency determined to take down criminals seems a little foolish.

Pretending I can’t feel my heart racing a million miles an hour, I mumble, “I’ll go talk to her, see if I can figure anything out.”

Stealing her chance to reply, I press a kiss to the edge of Savannah’s mouth before hotfooting it after Regina. With the crowd the heaviest it has been all night, it takes me zipping past thousands of suit-clad men to reach the hallway Regina entered nearly five minutes ago.

The panic slicking my skin with sweat grows when I bypass Isaac on my travels. He's so immersed in his thoughts, he doesn’t notice my presence when he strides by me. His focus remains on one thing and one thing only, the pretty brunette he is clutching for dear life as if he's afraid she’ll run from him if given the chance. Although I’ve never met anyone in his inner circle, I assume this is the girlfriend Cormack teased him about a handful of times last month. She’s pretty, but she’s got nothing on Savannah’s sultry looks.

I wait for Isaac to merge into the heavy crowd before pressing on toward Regina. I find her in an old, desolate-looking locker room approximately five minutes later. She's once again speaking into the cuff of her sleeve.

“Whoa, Jesus. It’s me,” I stammer out when she suddenly spins on her heels to point her black government-issued revolver at my chest.

“Ryan, for...fudge...sake.” Her face relays her wish to replace her polite word with a less appropriate one.

She holsters her weapon before raising her wrist to her mouth. “Stand down. I repeat, stand down. He's one of us.” Her nearly black eyes lock with mine. “Do you have any idea how close you were to being shot? Don’teverfollow someone when they are undercover.Ever.”

My brain has barely registered the enormity of her warning when she clutches my elbow and drags me into the hallway. For her tiny height, her strength surprises me. “This is thelasttime I’m giving you an out, Ryan. Leave this warehousenow. Drive farfaraway and never look back.”

I yank out of her grasp just before we reach the main arena. “I can’t—”

“Then you're going to be arrested,” Regina interrupts, her tone the same one Tobias used on me earlier: the straight-up honest one.

“So you're working?” I don’t know why I’m asking that question when the answer is as obvious as the sun shining in the sky.

Regina spreads her hands across her cocked hip. “Does this look like my idea of a fun night?”

I shrug. “I don’t know what tickles your fancy. I’m assuming from Tobias’s reaction, you like tall, balding Russian men.”

Regina’s glare lodges a brick in my throat.

“Sorry,” I mumble, recognizing that insulting her choice in men isn’t doing me any favors. “I’m swimming way out of my fucking depth here.”

When Regina arches her dark brow even higher, I stumble out, “On this side of the fence?”

Noticing her glare is weakening, I resort to begging, “Please, Regina, I am begging you. Do not raid this event tonight.”

She ignores my plea with an immature roll of her eyes, assuming greed is fueling my plea.

“I swear to god, this isn’t about money.”

When she attempts to skirt past me, I seize her wrist, stopping her endeavor. The deep rumble rolling up her chest warns I’m seconds away from getting arrested, but being locked in a four by four concrete cell is the least of my worries right now. If I can’t get Regina on my side, I’m not just sentencing my brother to years of misery; I’m also issuing Savannah a possible death sentence. I’m not going to let that happen. I’d rather go to the depths of hell than see Savannah hurt again.

“I have information you’ll never get from any man in this room. Stuff that will take down the main players your department are after.”

Although my confession slows Regina’s steps, it doesn’t completely stop them.

“I have a ledger where the financial records go back over five years. There are names, bank account numbers, and transactions well into the high millions. Over twenty men in this room alone are mentioned in the ledger. Col Petretti, Vladimir Popov, and Henry Gottle to name a few.”

That stops Regina’s strides.

“How do you know those names?” she asks, her tone unlike any I’ve heard. It's half-impressed, half-furious.

“They’re in the ledger I have.”

The veins in Regina’s neck thrums as she asks, “Do you have thisledgerwith you?”

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