Page 90 of Crimson Love

Chrissie schools her expression into a bland smile and speaks under her breath, “It’s news to me too.”

“Yeah, I pulled that one out of my ass,” I mutter before a few of the friendly crew invade our space. I shake hands and subject myself to small talk for the next few minutes before Patrick finally pulls me away.

“If you’ll excuse us. We have another meeting to get to,” Patrick announces and walks out of the room. Harlow, Chrissie, and I follow until we get to the back offices of the manor and close ourselves in Devon’s private conference room. Patrick turns to us. “I haven’t given Warner enough credit. He was ten times more aggressive than I thought he’d have the balls to be. Jett, I’m impressed. He's rattled. You did everything we needed you to do and more. And the bit about The Daily Market Report was a nice touch. We might need to make that happen if it could bring their plans to a halt.”

“After seeing you in there, I want the interview to happen just to grind that knife into Lex with a nice twist at the end,” Chrissie says.

Harlow smiles. “You would.”

“Going to battle is my specialty,” I say as I pull out my cell and excuse myself to take a call. “Hang on. It’s Devon.”

I don’t even get the chance to greet him. “While you’ve been dealing with your boardroom drama, we’ve had a different flavor brewing.”

“What happened now?” I demand looking toward Lennon’s closed office door and hope I don’t have to deliver more bad news.

“Petrov got a call from his client demanding their jewels. This isn’t the first time he’s made his demands, but this is the first time he put a hit out on Petrov if he doesn’t produce. This guy used the jewels as collateral on a loan to buy a shipment of fentanyl and opioids from China. And since Cruz and Jennings got a wire up on that number just in time, this conversation is actually legit and admissible in court.”

“No shit? Who’s the client?” I ask

“The kingpin that Jennings has been after for the last year. They’re moving in to arrest Petrov now. I thought I’d let you tell Lennon.”

“That’s great news. What about Reed?” I ask Devon sighs. “I’ll let you know. They have a warrant out for his arrest in the aiding of a kidnapping.”

“One down, one to go. Let me know when both fuckers are in custody.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

WET DREAM

Lennon

I can’t believe it. After all this time, Andrei is behind bars. After all these years, I should be able to breathe freely.

But my dad is still roaming the world a free man.

Actually, he isn’t just roaming, he’s running.

Brax and King said my dad must have skipped town before they could get to the motel to do surveillance. When they went in to arrest Andrei, my father was nowhere to be found.

I guess he tore out of town like a bandit—which he is. He forgot his cell phone at the meeting, and with no other devices detected in the area, there’s no trail. Even though there is a warrant out for his arrest, Dad is long gone.

So, yeah, breathing easy isn’t in the cards for me yet. Andrei in custody means the police have his cell, which also means, they have the proof in their hands that I killed a man.

So, all good ... and all bad, because it wouldn’t be me if there weren’t some bad.

Payne Deacon sits across the conference room table from Jett and me. Devon sits next to Deacon. I might as well make it official and say goodbye to my last bit of dignity. It’s all dumped on the table for everyone to judge.

Payne Deacon is exactly how Felicity described, but he comes across as a hard-hitting attorney. He’s tall with dark hair he wears long enough to look messy, but it still doesn’t look like he needs a haircut. His eyes are the color of whiskey and were friendly when he walked into the room but turned sharp as swords when I began to spill the details of what I’d been through and what I had to do to escape.

I drop my head into my hands to massage away the headache that’s creeping into my brain. Jett rubs my back and leans in to press his lips to the side of my head.

“That’s it,” I mutter with my eyes closed so I don’t have to look at him until I remember one last thing. I drop my hands to my lap and slump in my chair. “Oh, I also stole a car somewhere in Alabama. I feel almost as bad about that as I do about the captain. But I had to get as far away as I could from Florida, and I didn’t need a trail of bus tickets behind me. I know there are cameras in those stations.”

Jett puts his fingers to my chin and forces me to look at him. “I’ll take care of the car. Don’t worry about that.”

Payne looks between me and Jett and back to me. He tips his head and contemplates me before pursing his lips, making his strong, square jaw tenser than it was.

“What?” I demand. “Is there no defense for what I’ve done? Is it that bad?”