Page 23 of Protected By Him

Although the attraction I’d always had toward him never left me, I hadn’t thought much of it in recent years. I had just figured since he had Ella, he wouldn’t have time for anyone else in his life. And up until last week, I’d thought he only looked at me as a little sister.

Boy was I wrong. The way Leo looked at me was the furthest thing from familial. He looked at me with hunger in his eyes. And as I considered it, I started to think that look had always been there. I just hadn’t seen it because I hadn’t wanted to. Even now, as much as I wanted him, I was terrified of where this was going. Having Leo meant I could lose him, and I wasn’t sure I was willing to risk that.

The sound of voices broke me from my thoughts. Then, Leo called my name, and I followed the sound into the living room. There was a gentleman sitting across from him. But my eyes quickly tracked back to Leo. His reading glasses were perched on the tip of his nose as he was reading over something on an iPad. Damn, he looked hot and every inch the successful attorney he was.

The other man stood immediately and reached out a hand. "Hi, I’m Rob Wagner."

Laura Anderson," I replied, accepting his hand shake as I glanced over at Leo again. He looked up and smiled reassuringly at me.

"This is who I texted yesterday to help us find out more about Harvey,” he said. “Rob is in the FBI, and his wife is one of Boston’s district attorneys. They both specialize in white collar crime.”

Rob was wearing camel-colored slacks and a plaid button up shirt. He was conventionally handsome, tall and lean with blond hair and watery blue eyes. He nodded along as Leo spoke.

"Right. We’ve had our eye on Harvey for a while now. We think he’s working closely with Grey Wilkins," Rob said, sitting back down on the sofa.

I blinked. "Grey Wilkins? That’s the Chief of Police."

Leo nodded as he looked thoughtfully down at the iPad. "We are not sure that this has anything to do with the money or who he was speaking to in his office, but they’ve been observed visiting each other frequently over the last few days."

Rob butted in, "There is also evidence that Mr. Harvey and the chief grew up together, although they hadn’t seemed to be close until now."

"Do you think the chief let Mr. Harvey borrow money?” I felt like this was a little farfetched. But at this point, I had to look at all possibilities.

Leo shook his head. "We can’t be sure of anything until we get our hands on solid evidence," he said as he continued to thumb through Rob’s iPad. I thought about the folder of expense reports sitting in my room upstairs. I hadn’t shown them to Leo yet.

"Laura?" Leo anxiously sat up in his chair.

"Yeah?"

"Grab a pen and paper quickly," he said, his eyes wild.

I scrambled to my feet to go find one, but Rob was already throwing a fountain pen my way with a crumpled-up piece of paper.

"Write these names down," Leo commanded.

I quickly jotted down the various names he called out. When he was done, I looked up at him curiously. "Is that it?"

"Yes. We need to talk to these people," he said as he looked over the top of his frames.

"So, what do you think we will get out of these men?" I furrowed my brows "Do you know who they are?"

Rob walked over and peered at the list over my shoulder. "These are all former city employees who worked for or closely with the chief."

"And they all appear to have been fired around the same time and without much cause. That’s a lot of turnovers in a short period of time,” Leo said as he stood up, handing the iPad back to Rob.

"There have been rumors that he is crooked, but no one has ever been able to pin anything solid on him. Right now, it is just rumors. Even if these people tell us everything we want to know, we still need evidence," said Rob.

I spoke up, "I can pay Wilkins a visit; I’ll tell them I’m doing a story on the department.”

Both men looked at me sharply, but it was Leo who spoke first. “You’ll do no such thing. If he’s in bed with Harvey, that could be dangerous. I don’t want you out of my sight until this is over and done with.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Rob cut in, “Neither of you are going to do anything. This is an FBI matter, and you are both civilians. I’ll get my guys to track down the people on that list and see what they know,” Rob said as he typed out a message rapidly on his phone. Then he turned to me. “I came by and shared this information because Leo said you might have something on Harvey that we can use.”

I looked to Leo before answering. I didn’t know Rob, but if Leo felt he could be trusted, I would believe him. The only person I trusted more than Leo was my brother, and that was by the thinnest of margins. Leo understood my hesitation and nodded encouragingly at me. Turning back to Rob, I said, “I don’t know if what I have will do you much good. But I’ll show you. Just give me a minute to grab it.”

With that, I turned and left the room, jogging up the stairs and into the guest room to retrieve the file of expense reports. As I returned to the living room, I heard Leo ask Rob, "Why would Harvey owe the chief money? Surely, the CEO of a media company would be wealthier than Boston’s police chief. And why would Harvey go to him if he needed money? This just doesn’t make any sense.”

"These are all important questions," Rob said as I re-entered the room. "There are a lot of whys, but if the rumors are true and Harvey double crossed him, he could be worried for his life as well."

---