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“If you pay her off she will never go away. Just get her arrested. I’ll write about it and we’ll just weather the storm. She only holds us captive if we let her.”
I turn to face her. “I’m not ruling that out as an option but let’s hear everyone’s input then make a decision.”
“Agreed.”
The doorbell rings and I grab Cat and pull her to me, kissing her soundly on the lips before I release her and walk to the door. I open it to find Gabe and Reid standing there, looking like fire and ice, as I call them, in damn near the same body. Gabe being the fire because he’s always chasing women and money, and Reid the ice because he’s as cold a bastard as they come.
“We’re in the kitchen.”
I leave them there and start walking, they follow and end up on the opposite side of the island from me and Cat. “Royce wants me to call her back and tell her we’ll make a deal to drag this out and get ammunition on her and this asshole attorney working with her,” Reid says. “I think the bitch is ready to blow. I told Royce I can’t promise him more than a week.”
“Agreed,” Gabe says. “She’s not going to back down or take the thirty grand and go away. I think you have to wait her and a DNA test out. If she goes public, and you don’t care, you get your redemption. Call your agent, Cat, and cash in on this.”
“My issue is not the publicity,” I say. “I want Cat safe. I want Debbie committed if that’s what it takes. You did a damn good job of helping us get there. Drag her along. Get me more. Get us everything we can use to get her behind bars or in a hospital. That makes Cat safe.”
“She’ll insist on talking to you,” Reid says.
Cat’s hands go to mine, instead of her pulling away. She doesn’t like the idea. That’s what she’s telling me. “That’s a deal breaker,” I say. “Tell her that. I’ve already told you that. It won’t change.”
The doorbell rings. “That will be my client.”
“I’ll get it,” Cat says, hurrying away.
I lower my voice. “I want to get Cat out of town but she feels like it will make me look guilty if she leaves, and Debbie goes public.”
“It will,” Reid says. “And then you, your wife, and your marriage have to survive that added speculation. I don’t think Cat’s in danger, as long as Debbie thinks she might get paid.”
“This is getting to Cat. I hate what it’s doing to her. She doesn’t deserve this, and I love her too damn much to want to hurt her. She’s affected by how your father treated your mother.”
Reid, who has always been withdrawn and cold, surprises me by saying, “Cat knows the difference between you and our father. We all do or we wouldn’t be here helping. We’d be here pulling her out, even if she hated us for it.” He presses his hands to the counter. “I know you play things straight and even, but she’s playing dirty. Play dirty.”
“He’s right,” Gabe says. “It’s time to play dirty.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“What does she not want to get out of this? What or who does she want to protect?” Reid asks.
“If she had a secret,” I reply. “She wouldn’t be coming at us this hard.”
“In my world,” Reid says. “When you have a secret, you come at the other person harder and con them. And she’s conning you. Get Royce to find her trigger, the thing that will shut her down because getting her arrested comes with a price and exposure for Cat.”
I inhale and Royce joins us. “I heard. I don’t think she has a weakness, but her partner in crime, the lawyer does. I already have one of my men working on where you hit him and how. You control him. He controls Debbie. We hope.”
We hope. That is not the confident statement I want and worse, it’s the only thing I have right now.
Cat
My stomach is queasy again, but I fight through it because the minute I see Dana standing at our door, I know she’s shaken, her eyes bloodshot, her cheek flushed. And now, minutes later, she’s been standing at a portion of the window that creates a half moon around our front room. I step to her side. “What can I do for you right now?”
“Make this end, but we both know you can’t.”
“I can help you get to that end.”
“I’m here,” Reese says entering the room, and I can hear the footsteps and voices of the other men near the front door, apparently leaving.
Dana spins around and looks at Reese. “I was motivated to make Reginald feel secure,” she says, of her boyfriend. “I did. I fucked his brains out. I talked dirty to him when I wanted to hit him and scream at him. I made him feel like I was still in this with him.”
My lips part in shock at the bold words that feel so unlike Dana, but I sense the desperation in her. Reese and I share a look of relief, that this is obviously not a confession and he joins us, stepping directly in front of Dana. “What happened?” he asks calmly, his tone even, voice comforting, without accusation. He’s smooth and sincere, and that’s why he wins over juries, and me, for that matter.
