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Teddi
Teddi pulled up next to the red sports car and parked at the barren gas station situated halfway between Sylen and Fort Collins. Angry clouds followed her, their nimble edges reaching overhead like they wanted to scoop the world up. She turned the heat up higher. It wasn't even an hour since she left Vera at the diner and she was itching to get back.
With a ‘come here’ wave of J’s hand, she jumped out and slid into the low leather seat of her car.
“How does this thing still smell like you just drove it off the lot?”
J looked over the interior with pride. “That’s the smell of money, baby.” Teddi huffed, accustomed to J’s brashness about the wealth she built through her skills.
Mackey had been doing well for the last two decades in her private investigative firm before hiring either of them, but J was their golden ticket. Hence the bag of evidence she was entrusting to her.
“There’s your samples including blood draws, swabs, and the note from the motel room. You think we’ll get the results back fast?” Tipping her head back, J swallowed down the remnants of a bag of chocolate malt balls she kept stocked in her center console.
“Definitely. This dude is solid, trust me.”
Teddi didn’t know the contact at the private lab in Denver but she trusted J to know what she was doing. She had to. They put their lives and jobs into each other’s hands and she had full faith in that safety net.
“How’s it going over there?”
Teddi leaned back, a wave of exhaustion hitting that she had been trying to hold back for days. She had successfully hidden it from Vera, who she was sure was barely holding on herself. Alex’s case was personal. Her close ties to the Aguilar family made everything more. More frustrating and more painful. She trusted that they would figure it out but her concerns for whatever was going on in Vera’s life were growing faster than she knew how to deal with them.
She’d always been that way; wanting to alleviate pain, to solve the problems of those she loved. Hell, even strangers pulled at her heart in a way that cost her more time and money than she could usually afford. Her dad always told her it would be her downfall. "You’re going to drown yourself in your own tears, Teddi.” He’d warn her with a thread of arrogance in his voice. Considering he was as cold as stone, she worked hard over the years to not let his cynicism sink in too deep. She was a bleeding heart and she knew it. Accepted it, even. Her abundance of empathy was something she grew into as she aged. It made her a damn good investigator.
But seeing the weight upon Vera’s shoulders, a weight she didn’t fully understand, was almost too much to bear this time. Seeing her torn, tired, so unlike her old self, was killing her.
“I want you to do me a favor. Off the books and don’t tell anyone. Not Mackey, Ximena or Vera.”
J stopped licking her fingers. “Why?”
They didn’t keep secrets from each other and never from Mackey. It wasn’t because she signed their paychecks but because it was how they operated. Mackey was tough as nails but she cared about them. But this was different.
“Because I’m not sure what you’re going to find and Vera will kill me if she finds out I asked you to do this.”
“If I find something that affects us, or this case, I’ll have to tell Mackey.” She lifted a bleached brow. “Eventually.” The implication was clear. Silence until necessary.
“Good enough. Something happened back in D.C. with Vera. I don’t know the details but I want you to find anything and everything you can. She’s on a three-month suspension and I want to know why. She mentioned something about The Unveiled, it’s a religious cult based around the East Coast.”
“Why don’t you just ask her? That doesn’t sound like a good way to rebuild your relationship if you ask me.”
Teddi rubbed a hand over her face. She was right, but she was out of ideas and J was the best tool she had at the moment. And that look in Vera’s eye when she threatened Deputy Gunson had set goosebumps racing across her skin.
“I know,” she asserted. “I know but something happened and I don’t think it’s some small stuff. I want to know what it is. I want to know how I can help.”
“And if…” she paused, the silence in the small car heavy.
“If what?”
“If I find something you don’t like?”
She considered it. She knew the crumbs Vera gave her were half-assed and full of omission. She trusted her to be in the right in whatever happened, but she also knew that people could surprise her. Everyone had secrets they wanted tucked in nice and tight six feet underground.
They used to share everything: their bodies, their hearts, their goals, and their dreams. But now there was an ocean between them and it was full of predators of every shape and size and she could feel them chomping at the bit.
“I can take it.”
“C’mon, T. I know you. You’ve been pining after her since you broke up, loved her all these years apart without a single second of contact. What I find may be the kind of thing you can’t unlearn. Let alone forgive.”
Teddi’s voice with stiff with conviction. “Nothing, absolutely nothing she has done will need forgiveness from me, J. I know Vera better than anyone else in this world. Even if she did fuck up, I know there’s a good reason for it. That’s not going to stop what I feel for her.” Tunneling her hands into her hair, Teddi felt her skin heat at the memory they made in the hotel room.
