Resist

I saw the strain on her face. I didn’t know if she was fighting back tears, or if it was anger.

“As long as we cooperate with the bureau and they catch Jeremy West this nightmare will be over soon.”

My eyes flashed to hers. I hated that she used his other name. I hadn’t accepted it.

“You did agree to help, didn’t you?” she pressed.

I turned my chin away from her.

“Elliot, he has stolen government documents. And it’s not the first time. You have to tell them everything you know. He has to go to jail for this. For all his crimes. You have to stop him from working with more sources outside of the government.”

“I know.”

She sighed. “Thank God. I was worried for a second you were so far gone that you were considering helping him.”

I wondered if she knew she was his first target. That if there were no Preston, she’d be the one sitting here in broken pieces. Stunned. Destroyed.

Would Greer have fallen in love with him? Would she have given him everything she had? Trusted him with her body? With her life? Or was I so vulnerable I let him touch a piece of me that should have been safeguarded? Was I the sucker that let him go farther than he had ever gone with another one of his targets? I was the fool. His fool.

Did he wait until Garrett went off the radar? Did he know my first day at work was the worst way a first day could go? I didn’t know if I was angrier at him, or myself for falling for it. For needing his reassurance. His strength. His calm ability to mend wounded parts of me.

“They want me to tell them everything, Greer.” I looked at my friend. “Every single detail about our time together.”

“It will help them. It’s necessary.”

“But how does that help me? I don’t want anyone else to know. It’s too personal. It’s private. I don’t want our relationship to go down in a manila file.”

“He is a threat to national security. Nothing else matters.”

“It does to me.” I didn’t care how that sounded. “Can’t they get that information some other way?”

“Don’t you want him to pay for what he did? Don’t you think he deserves to be punished for stealing? For using you?”

I took my first sip of coffee. Some of the haze had cleared from my head.

“I can’t believe it’s all true. It’s not possible.”

Greer placed a hand on my leg. “It is true. It is what happened. Jeremy West pretended to be Vaughn Hunter to gain access to this apartment. To get his hands on the information I carried with me on the defense contract companies. He worked his charm and charisma on you Elliot to get what he wanted. And he got it.” She paused. “And if we don’t help the authorities stop him, he’ll keep doing it. Who knows what the next job will be. Nuclear weapons? Information on our spies? Access to the president? It’s never-ending.”

“He isn’t that kind of man.”

“The man you thought you knew might not have been, but Jeremy West is. He’s a thief of the most dangerous calculated level. You have to accept it.”

I kicked my legs to the floor. “I don’t.” I stormed inside.

I marched to my bedroom to get dressed.

I didn’t want to think about Vaughn. I didn’t want to analyze the bureau’s questions. There was one place I could go to escape all of that. A place where women lined the corridor, waiting for my help. A place I helped women get back at the men who hurt them. Who made them feel lesser. Who used them. Who punished them.

I might not be able to punish Vaugh, or Jeremy or whoever in the hell he was, but he couldn’t stop me from going after Senator Mitcherson and men like him.

I felt bad for the cases that came across my desk today.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Another week passed. I called it hell. Other people called it Monday through Friday. I tugged on my messenger bag and the case load I had on Lana Foley. My heels echoed in the hall. I hadn’t bothered to change into my walking shoes when I left my office.

Professor Harrison’s building was in one of the prominent parts of campus. A place that was allotted for the noble. For the professors who had accolades behind their names.