Page 81 of The Consequences of Love and Vengeance

“You’re out of line, detective. Don’t make me tell you that again.” Tom’s hard voice rings in my ears.

I look back at the chief. “What about me telling you how he touched me inappropriately?”

“If something had taken place like you said it did, then I imagine you would have reported it. Since no such report landed on my desk this week, I can only assume you’re lashing out at him for something I don’t give two shits about. What I do care about is credible evidence on Drago Acerbi. So explain why you have jack shit.”

“Like I said, there’s nothing to find. I can’t make something up to appease you.”

“Maybe I have the wrong person on the job.”

“Maybe you do,” I spit, regretting the words as they exit my mouth. Fuck. I can’t let him re-assign me. Drago needs me to prove he’s innocent, problem is, I can’t really do that. The chief isn’t accepting those photos as evidence that he’s not crooked. I don’t know what else to do. Drago is keeping something from me and until I know what that is, I can’t sit here with one hundred percent certainty and continue to spout Drago’s innocence.

But how to find out what that is? He’s not going to divulge. I know that much.

“What about the kid?” I ask. Tom’s eyebrows pop up in confusion. “Acerbi’s son. I still have him. Your contact, Captain Williams, won’t return my calls. If his mother doesn’t want him, then I see no reason to keep him from his father.”

“We’ve discussed that already, detective, and I’m not rehashing it out. Acerbi is not to be told. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I bite out.

“Good. Don’t bring it up again.”

Excuse me, I think, staring at my boss, looking at him really hard for the first time. He failed to address the fact that I still have Gabriel. He blew off Houston’s actions with me. He’s only concerned with something—anything—that’ll lead to the arrest of Drago.

“You’ve made a real fuck-up of this case as it is. I don’t know how we’re going to sort it out now and find anything substantial,” Houston says like he isn’t just as responsible for this case as I am.

Un-fucking-believable.

“Other than berating me—for no reason—you haven’t met with me once to discuss how we should handle this investigation.”

“Because I was under the impression you were an adult that could do her job.”

“I can. And I do, which is why I did it my way.”

“And that’s not getting us anywhere, is it, Brianna?”

“Enough from both of you,” the chief says. “Arguing isn’t getting us anywhere either. It’s not getting me any closer to putting an Acerbi behind bars. So”—he steeples his hands, looking at me—“here’s what we’re going to do. Houston is going to infiltrate his organization.”

“You honestly think that’s possible?”

If they think they can, then they aren’t as smart as I thought. I hate admitting that where Lance Houston is concerned, but the man isn’t dumb. He calculates everything, which is confusing, or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s a lot simpler than that because one thing I’m sure of—Drago would peg Houston the minute he laid eyes on him. There is no way he could get in tight with Drago’s company, much less the man himself.

And if they try? What will I do then?

Risking my career by sleeping with the enemy is bad enough, but telling him the details of a police investigation is a criminal offense.

I like Drago, but I won’t risk that. I will not step over that thin blue line. I can’t.

“We’ve done it in the past,” the chief says. “We can do it again. We’ll need to play this differently though. No one outside of this room can know anything.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea—or safe.”

Something like that requires a team, a task force, to pull it off. Nothing about this screams right, but I keep my mouth shut. At least for now.

Maybe I didn’t report Lance. Maybe I should have. But if they move forward with this botched bullshit, you better believe I’m going up the chain.

“We’ll discuss it more in a couple of days. I’ll have Becky put another meeting on my schedule, but for now, it’s tabled. I have another meeting in five minutes with the mayor’s chief of staff.”

Warning bells go off immediately and I know something is up. No matter how much I want to spin other scenarios in my head, my gut says the chief is involved in something that is not on the up and up with this case.

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