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“I just mean that Brennan could be doing a lot more meaningful things with her law degree than helping people who belong behind bars,” Blake explained.
“What if they don’t belong there?” Hallie asked softly. “What if they were wrongly convicted? Don’t those people deserve her help?”
Blake sighed, taking in her words. He hadn’t thought of it like that. Doing his job meant keeping a very black and white view of the world. There was right and there was wrong. There wasn’t time to be thinking about all the gray areas. “Do you know how rare it is to be wrongly convicted of something?”
Hallie shifted in her seat. The last thing he’d wanted to do was make her uncomfortable, but he didn’t want her to have any delusions about what Brennan was doing. “No, but even if it’s just a one percent chance, what if I was that one percent? What if I was convicted of something that I didn’t do? Wouldn’t you want me to have someone like Brennan in my corner?”
Blake’s jaw tensed as her point sank in. He’d all but tried and convicted Hallie of being involved with his shooting, when the only thing she’d done was take steps that had actually saved his life. “Yes,” he finally ground out softly, so as not to raise Caden’s ire at his tone. “Fine, you win. My sister is doing cool things in Florida.” He didn’t really believe it, but he could see why it meant so much to Hallie, and he wouldn’t take that from her while intruding on their lunch.
Hallie smiled, obviously pleased with herself.
“Brains and beauty,” Caden said, lovingly pressing a soft kiss to Hallie’s temple.
Blake shook his head. “I just don’t like her having to interact with dangerous people like that. Brennan acts all tough, but she’s -”
“Are you kidding me?” Caden said. “Brennan is tougher than you and I put together. If anyone can expertly juggle the system and the felons, it’s her.”
“Yeah,” Hallie said, thoughtfully. “I don’t think women get nearly enough credit these days. We’re a lot tougher than we look.”
“Alright, tough woman,” Caden said with a grin as he wrapped a protective arm around her. “We should get going. I’ll walk you to your car, then Blake and I need to get back to the office to finish up some things before we can call it a day.”
“Okay,” she said, then turned back to Blake. “I’d love to meet Brennan some day when she’s in town. Is she coming for a visit anytime soon?”
Blake chuckled. That was the million-dollar question. “You’d have to ask her that. Brennan lives by her own set of codes and rules. Pretty much does what she wants, when she wants.”
“Must be nice,” Hallie mused.
“Hey,” Caden teased her.
She kissed him on the cheek and he wrapped an arm around her as they made their way to Hallie’s car. “Oh, I forgot to ask you how everything went with Skyla,” Caden said.
Hallie beamed. “Amazing. Skyla is the best. I can’t believe my little store is officially partnering with Madigan’s again. It’s going to be such an awesome event.”
Blake recoiled on the inside. This entire time he’d been going to Madigan’s, he hadn’t considered how this would affect Hallie and Orly when they found out that Skyla was involved with the MC dealing the same drugs that had almost killed Orly.
The last thing he wanted was for them to get hurt in any way, but since this was an ongoing investigation, he couldn’t say anything to warn them.
He drove back to the office in a tense silence, and was only mildly relieved that Vivian was nowhere in sight. Madigan’s didn’t open for another few hours, so Blake was going to catch up on some paperwork at his desk, when the woman seemingly materialized out of nowhere.
“Is now a good time to talk?” She asked, her gaze solely on Blake.
It was never going to be a good time, but Caden had made his position on her clear, so he gestured for her to lead the way.
Everything about Agent Vivian Bennett screamed Internal Affairs. The way she wore her hair. The pants suit she wore. Even the way she walked in that cocky, nothing can touch me, but I can fuck you over, kind of way. And even with all that, there was still something about Vivian Bennett that came off as off. And Blake wasn’t going to let his guard down around her until he figured out what her angle really was.
“So?” She said, as if she had someplace else to be. “What have you learned about the case so far?”
Blake had kept an eye on the text messages Arlo J had sent and received while he was at lunch with Caden and Hallie. He was pretty sure it was Skyla, but needed confirmation, which he hoped to get tomorrow night. He was tempted to keep this information to himself, but Caden had ordered him to cooperate, so Blake handed her the phone.
She took it from him with a questioning glance. “What’s this?”
“You asked what I knew so far. Arlo J is meeting someone from Madigan’s tomorrow night.”
She eyed him cautiously. “Why then?”
Blake shrugged. “No idea. But they’re meeting at nine and I plan to be there. Figured you’d want to tag along.”
Vivian smiled, her face not quite transforming from it because the expression didn’t even come close to reaching her eyes that instead reflected mischief, and the promise of something unspoken. “I do. Thank you.”
