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Hell, yeah, I wasn’t missing a single thing.
“Once things settle down, Easton and I will come out.”
“Heard your father’s being released soon and Pidge is taking him home.”
“You heard right.”
Tomorrow was the day and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Easton and I had visited every day after work. Every day my mother was sitting vigil at my father’s side. Every day I saw a side of my dad I’d never seen. He stared at my mother like he couldn’t believe she was real. And she looked at him with regret and yearning. I wanted to see more of that but my father was chomping at the bit to get out of the hospital, and bitched about it insistently.
I also wanted Charlie to spend more time with Easton now that Easton had warmed up to him. It was strange, in the sense I never thought I’d have my mom and dad in the same room as my man. Seeing as I thought my mom was dead, that would’ve been an impossibility. But in a plot twist I didn’t see coming, I had that now and I wasn’t ready to give it up.
I couldn’t say all was right in the crazy world of the Bauer-Michaels family but Anna and Charlie were putting in the work to repair what had been broken with all of us. This included admitting that they’d been deeply in love (something I knew) and had been in a relationship for many years without me knowing. Around the time Anna caught wind Zenith was looking for her, Anna and Charlie had decided it was time to tell me about the relationship in preparation for us becoming a family. That broke my heart. But Easton, being Easton, giving me everything I needed held me while I cried over two people I loved losing so much. I cried for all that I could’ve had, all that I lost, and all I would never have. Thankfully Easton was generous with his soft, gentle wisdom reminding me I had it now and I had a choice—look back or look forward.
I choose the future.
“Got some business to discuss,” he went on.
“Hit me.”
I heard him chuckle and through that he muttered, “Those people have ruined you.”
Translation: Those people fixed what was broken inside you and I’m all kinds of happy.
Okay, the all kinds of happy wasn’t a direct translation, but that was my interpretation.
“Are you going to tell me what you need to tell me or hand me shit?”
“I’m gonna tell you, darlin’. We got nothing on Patricia. She managed to keep herself clean.”
“Kira didn’t find anything either.”
“If Kira didn’t find it, I know she’d punt it to Garrett. If neither found anything there’s nothing to be found. Can’t send a team out with proof.”
He was correct. Black might work in the morally grey but the morality part of that didn’t waver. If there wasn’t proof, no action would be taken.
“So she walks,” I noted. “What about Wentworth? Bishop have any luck getting him to talk?”
“When hasn’t Bishop gotten the intel we needed?”
That would be never. The difference between Kira and Bishop was he gathered his intel up close and personal.
“Never,” I answered. “What’d he get?”
“Black’s handling this.”
I didn’t like that. I wanted to know the full scope of what Maddon had done and what other connections he had.
“Maddon is mine.”
“Maddon is dead. It’s over. Wentworth is supplying everything we need to get Badger and the team ready. He’s doing that hoping at the end he’ll remain breathing even if it means he does that with an extended stay in Bogota in the less than luxurious accommodations he’s not used to but currently occupying. We’ve funneled his money into our accounts. He has nothing but a pipedream Bishop is feeling friendly when he’s done.”
Bishop never felt friendly.
“Fine,” I snapped, knowing I wouldn’t get more out of him. “But I want you to know I’m not happy you’re cutting me out of all the fun. Easton selfishly took Maddon from me and now you’re taking the rest. Just because I have girly parts doesn’t mean I can’t handle business.”
There was a beat of silence that stretched into seconds.
Then my old boss busted a gut with his roaring laughter.
