Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
I don’t bother knocking before walking in. The room is filled with steam, and I can just make out the outline of Emma in the shower, her hands in her hair and her head tipped back. Going to the glass door, I open it a couple of inches, enough to get an eyeful of her, dripping wet. Enough to regret agreeing to meet with Tucker.
Her eyes blink open to meet mine. “You have a lot of clothes on.”
I grin. “Tucker is coming over to talk for a few minutes.”
“Oh.” She wipes the beads of water from her face. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just something with work.”
“Okay, I’m probably going to crawl into bed when I get out of the shower.”
“Don’t feel like you need to hide in the bedroom,” I tell her, letting my gaze travel leisurely over her, from her wet hair to the tips of her breasts.
I jump back when she splashes water at me.
“Get out of here so I can finish showering.”
Laughing, I wipe my face. “I’m just enjoying the view.” I reach into the shower to brush my knuckle across her nipple, and she splashes me again.
“Go away.”
Chuckling, I shut the shower and leave the bathroom, closing the door behind me when I hear a knock at the door. I grab a tee and carry it with me out of the bedroom.
Tucker’s eyes move over my face and shirt that is half soaked when I open the door to him and raises a brow.
“Emma is in the shower,” I explain, and he smirks, shaking his head.
I change my shirt and toss the wet one onto the couch before I walk to the kitchen, where Tucker has taken a seat at the island. Opening the fridge, I take out two beers and pass him one.
“What’s up?”
“Tomorrow morning, I need you to go with me to a meeting.”
“Okay.”
“Remember how I told you any calls that comes through regarding Pastor Green or the World Church are transferred to Stedman or one of his men?”
“Yeah.” I put the bottle to my lips and tip it back.
“I did some digging and found a woman named Tiffany, who works at dispatch. She’s young, barely twenty-one, and she attended the World Church until a month ago, when she found out she was pregnant.”
“Shit.”
“You wanna guess who the baby daddy is?”
“Don’t tell me. Steven.”
“Patrick.” My scalp begins to prickle. “Apparently, they’ve been seeing each other since she was eighteen, and for the last four years, he’s been promising her that he’s going to leave his wife.”
“How the fuck did this come up?”
“I just happened to call her and ask what the protocol was when their office gets a phone call about the church or anyone with the last name Green… on the same day he told her she needed to have an abortion.”
Oh, fuck. “Who did you say you were?”
“I told her I work for the state and that we’ve had some complaints. She was happy to spill half her life story, then agreed to meet up and continue the conversation, since she was getting ready to go to work.”
“She could just be pissed about the relationship coming to an end and not getting what she was promised.”
“She could be, but if she’s not, if she has some kind of proof they’re having calls regarding the church or the Greens rerouted to only a certain group of officers, this could be the break we’ve been looking for.”
“What time is the meeting with her in the morning?”
“I told her nine and that we would meet for breakfast. I don’t want to scare her, and we can’t afford to bring her into the station, where she might be recognized. Stedman is already watching us.”
He’s not wrong. Stedman’s had it out for us since the day we interrupted Patrick Green’s service and arrested his nephew in front of his entire congregation. And he considers Patrick a friend, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew he was having an affair with this girl. If he were to see her speaking to us, I have no doubt he would tell Patrick or find a way to intervene before we could get anything useful from her.
“We need to be careful with this. I’m not saying I think Stedman or Patrick are capable of harming anyone, but if they’re willing to cover shit up, they might be.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“Did you talk to Axel?”
Our boss at the FBI. He’s been anxious for us to find something on Stedman that he can use to guarantee the deputy chief won’t be able to slither away.
“I spoke with him earlier. I told him I’d call after we meet up with Tiffany.” He glances at my bedroom door. “Have you told her yet?”
“What?”
“That you work for the FBI?”
“You don’t think Miranda mentioned it to her?”
“I doubt it.”