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With shaking hands, I switched the phone to speaker and opened the photograph. Staring back at me was a pair of familiar green eyes set in a handsome, square-jawed face.
“Holy shit.”
“I’ve only met West a couple of times, but that’s him, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” I whispered, unable to take my eyes off the image.
The stranger who wasn’t a stranger. A man I thought I’d known until two days ago.
I’d realized he might be keeping secrets, but I had no idea it would be something as monumental as his entire identity. Even his name was a fabrication.
Hell, I’d been calling myself Joanna Gallo outside of work for weeks now. I’d kept my maiden name professionallybecause it was easier. But West had stood by and let me call myself by a false name.
I’d been a fool. An utter fool.
“Why would he go undercover to marry me?” My voice shook and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know the answer. “I’m not involved in anything illegal. The worst thing I’ve ever done was park a police car in a no parking zone with the lights on when I was running late.”
Zeke made a sound of amusement. “I forget how straitlaced you are sometimes.”
“I’m a cop. It’s literally my job to abide by the law and to enforce it when others don’t.”
“Apparently, it’s your husband’s job too.”
I shuddered. “Can we not call him that?”
“What? Your husband?” He tutted. “You did marry the man, Jo. And you didn’t even run a background check on him.”
“I didn’t think there was any reason to,” I gritted out.
Of course, Zeke would think I ought to have been more suspicious of him. Zeke verged on paranoid. It was a miracle he hadn’t driven his girlfriend, Fiona, crazy.
“You can’t think the best of everyone.” He cleared his throat, as if sensing I was about to lose my cool. “Getting back to the point, Agent Conti is currently involved in a classified investigation. I did a little snooping and I think I know why he pursued you.”
“Was this snooping legal?”
He ignored the question. “His team is investigating a ring of dirty cops who are on the payroll of Carlos Ortez.”
My breath hitched. “Of the Ortez organized crime syndicate?”
“Bingo. The feds suspect the reason he’s been so slippery is because he’s paying off a bunch of local police officers.We’re talking double digits here, not just one or two bad seeds.”
“What the hell?” How could my fellow officers stomach taking payoffs from a worm like him? Ortez was a blight on the city, spreading pain and misery everywhere he went.
“I know. It’s bad,” Zeke agreed. “I need you to think. Has West ever mentioned him?”
I wracked my mind, trying to recall whether we’d ever discussed the Ortez family, or anything to do with organized crime, but I came up blank. “I can’t remember. You think he believes I’m involved? Is that what this is about?”
“My guess would be the opposite,” Zeke replied.
I tapped my foot impatiently. “Explain.”
“As you’ve said, you have an impeccable record. You’re one of the few detectives who would be above suspicion. My guess is that they knew other cops might have reason to be wary of someone new in their life, but you didn’t, so you’d be more open to manipulation.”
“Great.”
“Not to mention that being with you would give Conti a level of access to your colleagues that goes beyond what a usual bartender would have,” he continued, ignoring my exclamation. “Even one at a cop bar.”
I slumped against the back of the chair and pushed a loose strand of hair off my face. “So, you’re saying that West dated me in order to get close to my colleagues because I was the easiest way in?”
