Beck let out a regretful sigh that surprised me. “By all accounts it seemed like he really loved Bonnie, and I think he wants to know who killed her as badly as we do.”
“I don’t like it, Beck. What if this winds up with him dead. Have you thought about that?”
“Collateral damage is part of the job, Ellison. Can you handle that?”
“I can handle it but making false arrests just to get a rise out of your enemies isn’t what I signed up for. We should be focusing on Mueller, rather than your crazed obsession with the Ashbys.”
“Excuse me? Obsession?” Beck spat out.
“You heard me, Beck, and I’m not judging.”
“Sounds like judgment to me,” she snorted into her beer.
“Well it’s not. But Mueller was a Fed who was deep undercover and we’re just focused on the Ashby family as if there aren’t at least a thousand other people who wanted this man dead. We should be casting a wider net, not a smaller one.”
I shook my head because she was being stubborn as fuck and I didn’t like it. “Who in his world had the juice to find out he was undercover?’
Beck took a pull of her beer and smacked her lips. “You found out pretty easily.”
“Yeah, well, I have excellent sources. You need to consider that maybe Bonnie Byrne Ashby was nothing more than collateral damage in all this.”
There was a play of emotions on Beck’s face. She was a petite woman who hated to be challenged, and when her blue eyes narrowed in my direction, I finally understood why Agent Marshall wasn’t here. He didn’t agree with her either.
“Getting the Ashby’s can also help your family as well, or maybe you don’t care about that.”
“You’re right about that, Beck. I don’t give a fuck about that. I want to know who killed Bonnie and Father Mueller. End of fucking story.”
Beck let out a low, angry growl before she pushed away from the table and stormed off. That was her thing when she didn’t get her way. She ran off to lick her wounds and find another way.
I had no doubt I’d hear from Agent Beck again before the weekend was over, I pushed all thoughts of her from my mind and took a long ride on two wheels to clear my head of all the week’s bullshit.
So far, the job was more politics than crime-solving, which made every fucking day harder than it needed to be. I had a lot to learn about being a cop while wading through the muddy waters of government politics and trying to solve a double homicide. It was a lot to deal with. But I knew I’d get there. Get some real answers.
Then, there was Maddie. Sweet and sassy, Maddie. Goofy and unexpected and so damn wonderful I didn’t even see her coming. She was a breath of fresh air when I needed one, and a hot, exciting woman when she wanted to be. She was great, and we were good together, but we were doomed from the start. She was, for all intents and purposes, an Ashby—or at least, an Ashby ally. She had a certain sense of loyalty to them, whether she realized it or not, but she hadn’t hesitated to provide me—unprompted—with information she thought I might find useful.
It was a fucking mess, but I wasn’t ready to give it up yet. And I could just hear my mom’s voice in my head. Don’t go borrowing trouble, son, trouble finds its way in good time. Always.
My mom was a very smart woman. Especially dealing with my dad all these years.
I pulled my bike over to the side of the road to text Maddie.
Jameson: You up?
Shit. That sounded like a booty call, didn’t it?
The phone rang immediately in my hands and I answered just as quickly. “That depends on whether or not this is a booty call.”
A bark of laughter escaped, right there on the side of the road, at her playful words. “I was worried it might sound like a booty call.”
“I’m up for a booty call but it sounds like you have something on your mind. What’s up, Officer?”
I let out a small sigh and smiled as I leaned against my bike. “Who says there’s anything wrong?”
“Just me and the sad bastard tone of your voice. I know I’m right, so let’s just move ahead to the part where you tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Everything is just a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Does that make me sound like a pussy?”
Maddie laughed, and I could just see her shaking her head at my words. “Nope. You wish you were a pussy. Pussies are strong and resilient, and right now you sound like a weak ass ball sac. But the good news is that things worth having are usually hard. You want to be a cop, right?”