Chapter Twenty-Two
Jordan
As I woke up with Chase next to me, I felt like everything was going to be just fine. We had arrived at the police station and made the decision to let them help us. I finally had a sense of relief. Plus, sleeping in the employee bunkroom was probably the safest place in the city. Both Chase and I had slept well past nine o’clock in the morning, and it felt pretty fabulous.
When I started to wake up, so did Chase. But neither of us were in a hurry to get out of the tiny bed we shared. It was safe. We hadn’t had a safe night’s sleep in a very long time.
“I just want to stay here wrapped in your arms forever,” I whispered as he tightened his arms around me in a tight squeeze.
“Pretty amazing how good I slept last night. I really needed that.”
“Me too.”
I felt his
lips as they kissed the back of my neck. Not in a seductive way, but in a sweet, loving way. It was just what I needed. I really couldn’t wait to spend the rest of my life with Chase. Sure, we had rushed into the marriage, but we could spend the rest of our time getting to know each other better. We could grow old together.
“I have to ask you something and please don’t get mad,” he said.
“Sure, anything.”
“You’re not working for Escabar, are you?”
“What?” I said as I jerked myself away from him and stood up beside the bed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry. The Captain started questioning me yesterday and put doubts in my head. Like why you went with Salina and Salvador and why Escabar left you untouched when he had you kidnapped. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“You seriously think I am working with Escabar?” I said as I tried to control the anger that I felt building inside of me. “What do you think happened? Do you think Escabar hired me from Liechtenstein to seduce you? Do you think I somehow just waited for you to message me so I could trap you for him?”
I could hear my voice getting louder and louder as I talked, but I couldn’t stop myself. The anger and betrayal that I felt had overwhelmed me to the point that I couldn’t even stand to look at Chase.
“I’m sorry, Jordan. They got in my head. I knew it wasn’t true. I told them it wasn’t. But I just had to ask. I said I was sorry. We need to move on.”
I felt the tone in his voice change, similar to how it had when we first argued. He certainly wasn’t going to continue the conversation any further. Chase had decided he was done talking about it, so I was supposed to give up on the argument and just be done.
“Well, I don’t need this. I’m going to ask the Captain if he wants to talk to me directly. If he has concerns about me, he should ask me himself instead of going through you.”
I grabbed the door and swung it open, but Chase had flung himself out of bed and stood beside me. He held onto the doorknob and wouldn’t let me leave the room. I pushed hard against him, but he still refused to let me leave.
“You can’t go, I have something I need to tell you,” he said solemnly.
“Like what? You think I’m working for the mafia, too, or how about maybe I’m a Russian spy? What else is there?”
“They aren’t going to help us. Captain Bastrop said we don’t have enough information for them to go on. His only solution was for me to go meet with Jose and get him to confess while I was wired.”
“Are they stupid? Jose isn’t going to meet with you without searching you for a wire. Then, he’ll kill you right there if he finds one. Even I know that.”
“Exactly. So, basically, they aren’t going to help us.”
“What the hell? What kind of police department doesn’t help people when they need it? So, they just are all right with us getting murdered?”
“No, I’m sure they don’t want that for us. Captain Bastrop did suggest that we lay low for awhile and that I pay Escabar the money I owe him.”
“Laying low isn’t going to make Escabar forget about you stealing his black book. Wait – did they keep the black book?”
“Yes, they still have it.”
“You need to go get it back. You need to make them give it to you.”