I leaned over, letting my head drop into my hands.
“Ambrose?”
“Honestly?”
“No, I want you to lie to me.”
“I was hoping you’d tell me to forget plans, to forget rules, and go take Carlotti out by myself.”
“First of all, if I said that, I wouldn’t send you by yourself. It would be you and me going after him together. Second, Dax would fucking kill me if I sent you on a suicide mission, then Remington would bring me back to life and kill me again. And third, no matter how effective that might ultimately be, we need to take the whole operation down, not just Carlotti, and we need to do it as a family. All of us. That’s what it’s going to take.”
7
Eric
When I reached my house, I realized I didn’t remember any of the drive there. I’d gone over and over my time with Ambrose, trying to figure out where things really stood. I was going to have to keep fighting for him to keep me in the loop.
I needed to know what he was up to. Was he making plans on his own, or was he talking to his family? What could I do to make sure they didn’t make a move without me? Keep surveillance on the shed? I could hardly do that and do my job. I didn’t have a camera good enough to set up in the woods to see what was happening, and I was still trying to recover financially from the month I’d taken off when I moved.
I was just going to have to keep calling Ambrose and insisting he tell me what was going on. If I had to, I’d show up at Dax’s house or track down one of his cousins. I wasn’t supposed to know where Remington lived, but I did. I’d found out what I felt I needed to know about the Theriot family after making my previous agreement with them. I hadn’t looked any further, though. I knew there were things I didn’t want to find out, things that were better off staying hidden.
Ambrose hadn’t lied about how hard it was to find any information about him. He’d been so well scrubbed from the internet that I could barely find a word about him. Even my buddy back in Baltimore who could usually find whatever I needed online was surprised by how little was available.
Apparently, I wasn’t going to learn anything else about him unless he volunteered the information. I wondered if he’d ever invite me to his home and offer me some of the moonshine I’d heard too much about during the time we we’re waiting together for LePlatt. He might open up if I got him drunk.
But why would he invite me there? No matter how much I fantasized about it, he wasn’t interested in me for anything other than information that would lead to Carlotti’s takedown. I was an informant to him, one he didn’t even trust to be part of the operation.
Quit being a drama queen. He trusts you, but he’s trying to protect you.
Was he really? And why did that thought make me feel warm inside. I didn’t need protection. I never had. I’d been the protector. Even when I was a kid.
I needed a reality check to help me put an end to my fantasies about Ambrose. I pulled out my phone as I flopped down on the couch. I would probably regret this later, but before I could stop myself, I called my sister.
“Candace Winston.”
She always answered like that. She was a realtor, so any call coming through could be business. She must have not bothered to look at the screen.
“It’s Eric.”
“What are you doing calling me in the middle of the day?”
“It’s my day off.”
She snorted. “I thought you small-town sheriffs never got a day off.”
“I could get called in anytime, but for now, as long as things stay quiet and nothing happens that my deputies can’t handle, I’m off work.”
“You’re just calling to say hi?” She knew better. I never called without a reason unless it was Sunday when we always took time to catch up.
“Do you have time to talk?”
“Uh-oh. What’s wrong?”
I began to pace the length of my living room. “I don’t want to get into it if I can’t tell the whole story.”
“I’ve got a while before I need to leave to meet a client.”
“Are you at home?”
“I am.”
“Then let’s FaceTime.”
A few moments later, her face appeared on my screen. She looked perfectly put together as always. She narrowed her eyes and studied me, twirling her ponytail around her fingers. “You look… exhausted.”
“In other words, I look like shit.”
“Well, I didn’t want to say it that way.”
“Since when do you care about protecting my feelings?”
“Since I’m worried about you. What’s this all about?”
Candace was the only one I’d told about working with the Theriots. I’d hesitated to tell her, but there wasn’t anyone I was closer to, and I needed someone to know. I knew there was a possibility I might simply disappear after that, and I figured it was best if my family could at least have some idea of where I went. I loved my mom, but I certainly wasn’t going to tell her I was working with the mob.