Fugitive Heart - By Bonnie Dee Page 0,56
got a past with these guys. Give me something to work with, and I’ll decide who I need to keep my eye on.”
Nick fought the urge to tell him anything, just to get the hell out of this room. He needed to hold Ames. But he wouldn’t say anything until he knew for sure Bobby Brown couldn’t be bought.
Esposito money had paid for more than one officer of the law over the years. His father’s fate nagged at him. They’d trusted Agent Kennedy, and he turned right around and told the Espositos all about Rossi’s approach to the FBI.
Kennedy’s boss, Giordano, probably was a straight arrow. He’d gone after Kennedy after the attack on Nick’s father. Giordano had a hard-on for the Espositos once it became clear that someone in his group had been turned. Giordano had come to see Nick a couple of times over the years, and he’d closed the door in the agent’s face. Nick’s father had survived the attack, but just barely, and their lives had been trashed.
No more trusting law enforcement.
But Nick had to admit this small town seemed different.
All those people showing up at once—that just didn’t happen, in his experience. It would be hard to sweep corruption and bad business under the rug in Arnesdale. But he couldn’t count on that, could he? Not when it came to Ames. He swallowed most of his worry and leaned forward so his hands rested on the table. He looked into Bobby Brown’s flat gray eyes.
“Listen. I’m with you on this because I want all the garbage with the Espositos over and done with. I want to get my life back. I will talk, but only to Tom Giordano of the FBI. And by the way? I’ll tell Agent Giordano the same thing I’m telling you now. Ames doesn’t know a damned thing more than Jake.”
“The FBI?” Bobby’s brows furrowed. “I’ve already alerted the state police for help. I’m not sure we need to involve the feds yet.”
“What else can you go with? I bet those two guys in the hospital aren’t going to talk to you, and what do you have on them? Let me guess. Their story is that the gunshot wound was an accident. Idiot number one was cleaning his gun when it went off and hit idiot two?” He didn’t think Les and Duffy were actually idiots, but he wasn’t going to give so much as their names to Brown.
Brown frowned and looked away.
Nick figured he’d gotten it right but tried, “Are you going to attempt to get them on something like carrying a gun without a permit?”
Brown made a disgusted noise. “The laws are looser here than in New York. They told me that too. They know their gun laws.”
“Here’s something I know about the Espositos, and you are not going to like it.” Nick drew in a long breath, wondering if exhaustion and the desire to get the hell out of the station were making him too chatty. He released the sigh. The information wouldn’t hurt Ames, and that was what mattered. “Sometime in the next hour or so, the best lawyers in the state are going to show up in Arnesdale, and they’re going to get those two out of here. If you try to stop them, then your friend with the shotgun. What’s his name—”
Bobby Brown scratched his chin. “Gopher.”
Ames’s boss who made the great fried chicken? Probably. So Nick would have to try protect him too. After years of keeping only his own butt and job safe, he was back to trying to protect people he cared about. Somehow it didn’t bother him as much as he once would have guessed.
He went on, “If you or your friend Gopher press charges, Gopher is going to end up getting a civil case slapped on him that’ll clean him out. He put an injured man in restraints, if I remember what happened correctly.”
The whole morning had felt like a dream. A nightmare, actually. Ames alone with two killers, and he’d walked away from her only to hear that gun going off. Jesus, he’d aged a thousand years during those seconds. He rubbed his eyes and got back to the matter at hand. “Those high-priced lawyers will have Gopher’s tooth fillings before they’re done. The two guys in the hospital will leave town as soon as humanly possible, and they will punish anyone who tries to stop them.”
“You’re talking from experience?” Bobby Brown leaned forward in his chair. “They’ve done