one with options now. What I do next depends on what she does next.
Once Blake has a fresh heads up about Pri, I shower and dress in jeans and boots, heading to the kitchen to fill a cup with steaming coffee.
“What’s your feeling on this?” Adam asks, joining me, also freshly showered, his sweats exchanged for jeans and a “SEALs do it better” T-shirt meant to be a jab at Savage, who started his career in the Special Forces. That he ended up an assassin for our own government is not a pleasant subject, unless, for instance, you want him to kill someone like Deleon.
“I don’t know,” I say grimly. “I just don’t know, but I hope like hell she calls Blake.”
Once his cup is steaming, we take up opposite sides of the island and he says, “I’m not sure her calling or not calling tells you what you want to know, man. Sounds to me like she doesn’t trust anyone.”
My cellphone rings and I pull it from my pocket to find Blake on the caller ID. I show it to Adam and then answer on speaker. “You have me and Adam here, Blake.”
“Fucking perfect,” Blake says. “Just the two assholes I need. Adrian, she called. I gave her references. And as we agreed, I set-up Adam to meet her at two o’clock at the DA’s office to remove your risk of being recognized.”
“How do you feel about the call?” I ask.
“It was as expected,” he replies. “No red flags. She asked about Rafael. I think she suspects that you’re not who you say you are.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Me, too, but for now she isn’t sure and I need it to stay that way.”
“I’ll leave that to you to handle,” Blake says. “You’re the one on a hitlist. The bottom line is that it looks like one way or the other, we’ll get official placement on the case and that allows us to work more effectively.”
“Thanks, Blake,” I say. “I hope that happens.”
“It will,” he says and then, proving me right in my claim to Pri earlier, he adds, “Even if we have to volunteer our services. More soon.” He disconnects and I lower my chin to my chest, relieved that Pri called Blake, and if I’m honest, it runs deeper than my duty to take down Waters.
“You’re into this woman, aren’t you?” Adam asks. “She got to you.”
I glance up at him. “Yeah,” I admit because fuck me, it’s obvious, “and I can’t figure out what the fuck she’s doing to me,” I add. “I’m like a freaking slinky slinking down the stairs and having the wires get all wonky. It has to be the case. It’s personal to me and her.”
“Or not. I’ve seen how you are with women. You don’t get wonky. Ever.”
“I’m a hypocrite for bringing this up,” I say, bringing up a nagging worry, “and I say hypocrite, considering some of the things you don’t want to know I’ve done in my life, but she defended some really bad people at her father’s firm.”
“And got out. That matters.”
He’s right, but I know from experience that swimming with the sharks doesn’t just make you bleed, it changes you. It had to have changed her. “Just be aware.”
“All right then. Good thing I’m going to meet with her. I’m a good read, man. I’ll tell you if I’m worried.”
He is a good read, I’ve seen that first hand, but he doesn’t read me, he doesn’t know who I became with Waters. Which means he might not be able to read Pri. And yet, I would. Surely I would. Unless her getting to me has clouded my judgment.
“What comes next, man?” Adam asks. “Walker joins the prosecution team. Do you come forward?”
“Not until the last possible minute.”
“You have to tell Pri,” he says. “You know you have to tell Pri.”
“Go to the meeting,” I say. “I’ll decide what comes next after that meeting.”
He doesn’t push. He gets it. As Blake said, I’m on a hitlist and one wrong move could expose me and land me six feet under. I can’t let Pri, intentionally or not, put me there. I can’t end Waters or protect her from him if I’m dead.
Chapter Twelve
PRI
My father always says that a red tie is a power tie, it’s a statement about money, power, and success. My father possesses all of those things so I tend to take him at his word. Not that money and power motivate me, but success does. I want