Billionaire Misery (13 page)

She’d brought down Blake Wilkes.

They
had brought down Blake Wilkes, she and Craig.

She had done something guaranteed to make her career, and to make the world a much safer place. Wilkes was a ruthless killer and he deserved to be in jail, but she never would have been able to make that case if Craig hadn’t helped her. She had tried to make Craig into Wilkes as an excuse. Blaming him for being the bastard’s son. It wasn’t his fault.

Maybe that was the card that she could play, since the stubborn man wouldn’t run like she’d told him to.

Why hadn’t he just taken off?

She knew the answer to that question, and it tore her heart into pieces even as it made joy explode throughout her being.

He was a good man and loved her.

He’d finally put the past and the tragedy that had been Lisa behind him, and he loved her.

Not that it would matter if he was in prison for the rest of his life.

That thought was unbearable. She had to do something to get him out of there, even if it meant she’d have to go to jail for her part in the criminal activities that Craig, and she, had taken part in to get that information.

She knew, all too well, that Craig would refuse to name her, and that he would take all the blame if she let him.

If she didn’t let him, the evidence would be thrown out of court.

An idea hit her then, one so bold and risky it almost took her breath away.

There was one way to get Craig out of jail, but it meant going to her boss and laying the whole thing out on the table and daring them to call her on one hell of a lie.

The car with Craig in it headed out, and Director Fields approached, his usual ingratiating grin even larger. “Damn good job, Jessie!”

She didn’t bat an eye or miss a beat as she answered, “I had to arrest him for show. I figure he’s safer in jail for the next few days that he would be out of it, all things considered.”

“Excuse me?” Fields blinked. “What?”

Jessie said, “It’s like this: Craig committed multiple crimes. Without him committing those crimes, we would not have gotten Wilkes. So we either have to give him informant status and absolve him, or we have to release Wilkes. We’re fucked either way, I guess. But I needed him. He knew I was undercover and swore he’d do whatever it took to help me.”

Fields went white then scarlet. “Are you kidding me?”

“No,” she said calmly. “I didn’t put him into the system because Wilkes has access to the system. He knew I was DEA. He also had agents on the payroll. The names are in the file. Some of them are friends of yours, Director, and I’m telling you so you know I know, and there won’t be any bullshit later.” She swallowed, liking the look of worry on her boss’s face. “Craig was working with me. Without him, we have nothing. I didn’t put him in the system because I knew he could get killed, and because I needed someone who wasn’t a cop.”

Their gazes met and clashed. Fields turned even redder. His cheeks were mottled with color and his cold gray eyes wore red rims. The tip of his little pug nose glowed crimson. He spoke accusingly, “You got too close, Lieutenant.”

“That’s not the issue. Without his help, we’re dead in the water. It’s not against the law to use stolen evidence, as long as we didn’t steal it. It’s not against the law to entrap someone, if we didn’t entrap them. Craig stole and entrapped, among other things. Without the evidence I collected due to his actions, we have no case. Am I making myself clear?”

Fields said, in a strangled voice, “He’d better play ball, Jessie. You got yourself in way too fucking deep.” He pointed a finger at her. “You’re done. You know that, don’t you? If anyone finds out you got too close, you’re done. So keep your little plan to yourself. I mean it. One word about...whatever it is that’s going on with the two of you, and I know it’s something, and you’re done.”

“I’m not willing to risk his life, or anyone else’s, not for any reason.” She knew that wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear that her career was the most important thing. It wasn’t, not anymore.

Fields sighed. He knew he was defeated. “Damn it! I’ll have him put in a cushy solitary cell so nobody on Wilkes’ team can fucking get to him.”

She nodded. “Thanks.”

He stared at her, long and hard. Finally, he sighed again. “Are there really... friends of mine on that list?”

“Yeah.”

Fields shook his head. She almost felt sorry for him. Fields was an asshole, but he was a good cop, and he wanted to do good. “You know you could have turned him loose and we never would have known it.”

“Thought about it.”

He didn’t look surprised. “I’ll see you back at the office. We have some arrests to make. Sit on this until we get there. I need to call in Internal Affairs.” He grabbed his walkie-talkie and barked into it. “Get the warrant for Wilkes’ arrest. We have everything we need.”

“Understood, sir.”

He stormed away. Jessie headed for her bike. Craig’s sat beside hers. She stared at it and then took out her phone. She dialed, and when Katie answered she said, “I need to talk to Morgan.”

Katie said, “He doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“Craig just got hauled away. It’s a long story, but I need help and Nate’s not going to offer it.” When Katie didn’t say anything, Jessie pressed. “My boss just sent out the order to have your father arrested on seven counts of murder, drug trafficking, intent to sell, bribery... that’s just the start.” Those were the charges that Morgan had been set up for. That’s all that mattered for now.

Katie’s sucked her breath in sharply. “You...you arrested my father?”

Jessie closed her eyes. She liked Katie, and now they could never be friends. “It was him or Morgan. I made a choice.” The right one.

Katie whispered, “Thank you.”

Jessie snapped her eyes open. Tears threatened to spill out, but she held them back as Morgan took the phone and spoke gruffly. “What is it, Jessie?”

She took a long breath and began to talk.

C
raig stared around at the tiny cell they’d ushered him into. It was a single cell, a solitary cell, and he knew without being told that they were keeping him out of general population for a good reason. Wilkes was also in an isolated unit, and Craig had no idea how that was sitting with him. Most of his men were probably in there too. If Jessie turned over all the files, there would be a lot of cops, DEA agents, lawyers, and other supposedly good citizens joining them pretty soon. The inside was going to start looking like the outside very soon.

Jessie must have had a hand in making sure he was put in a single cell. He sat on the bunk and stared at the cold gray wall. Where was Jessie? Was she safe? Was she giving the files to someone they could really trust? Was there anyone she could really trust?

Fear stabbed at him and he couldn’t push it away. What if she wound up killed by one of Blake Wilkes’ crew of hitmen and thugs? The man could order the murder of anyone that he wanted to. He was far too powerful, and taking him down was probably not going to be as simple as Jessie seemed to think. Even here, in his own private cell, he wasn’t safe.

Jessie.

His beautiful Jessie.

Was it possible that he had really lost her, all because he had had the misfortune to be born to a man who had created so much wrong in her life? It wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right. There had to be a way for them to work through this mess.

That is, if he ever got out of prison.

That last thought depressed him so much he couldn’t bear it.

He could do the time. He knew he owed it. He couldn’t bear the thought that he would never be able to touch her ever again, never be able to make love to her, or talk to her until they ran out of things to say. Loving her made him feel alive.

The memory of her riding made him smile. The memories of a night that they had ridden out to the lake and gone skinny-dipping made his body ache, and his heart too.

How beautiful she’d been under the moonlight and the dark shadows cast by the trees, her body moving effortlessly through the water as she glided toward him with desire and trust written all over her face.

The image rippled away as reality set in.

He’d lost her. There was no way he could ask such a beautiful and vibrant woman to stay his when he would never be able to be hers. That was unfair and illogical. She’d meet someone and fall in love. She’d belong to someone else.

That was only right. She deserved to love someone and be loved back. She deserved to have a family and a future. He couldn’t offer her those things from inside a prison cell.

He knew he should be happy that she could still have a life outside the barren stone walls that held him, but all he felt was rage and sorrow. He missed her already, and it was just the first day of what promised to be forever.

The time drew out, and then drew out again. He had no way of knowing what time it actually was. They’d taken his watch when they switched his street clothes for an orange jumpsuit. The few cries and shouts coming from the other cells were muted by the heavy door and walls surrounding him. There was no window, and no light except for the watery gray light drifting in around the slit in the door and the sterile light from the narrow bands of the fluorescents above him.

He lay down. His body ached with weariness, and his mind was filled with too many thoughts. He blanked them out deliberately and closed his eyes. He slid into a deep and dreamless sleep, his body relaxing into the hard mattress inch by inch.

When he woke again it was much later, but he had no idea how much later. The clanging that had woken him came again, and he turned his head to see a tray being shoved through the slit in the door. He got up and took it, and then went and sat back down on the bunk, staring down at the unappetizing mess of what appeared to be some kind of stew and some sliced white bread on the side. There were a few butter packets and a spoon. Nothing else. He didn’t want it, but he dug in anyway, eating every last bite of the wooly and scratchy mess. He returned the tray and spoon when he was ordered to, and then he went back to his bunk. The time became almost unbearable and he tried to think or move, but he had exhausted his body and his mind over the last few days. Eventually he fell asleep again, burrowing under the one thin blanket to try to get a little warmth into his body.

He thought of Jessie in bed beside him, and tried to push the images away.

Maybe he should have run like Jessie had told him to.

M
organ studied Jessie’s face carefully. “You realize half the guys in this town’s clubs would love to see you dead, right?”

She nodded. “I know. I also know that if it hadn’t been for what I did, for you, Craig, and even Nate, your guys would still be facing multiple murder charges.”

Morgan nodded and said a trifle ruefully, “True enough. But still, what you’re asking is a lot.”

“I know you don’t owe me, but you do owe Craig.”

Morgan nodded again. Jessie could see why Katie was so in love with him. He was a good man, and a fair one. He held his code above everything else, and she was hoping he would take that code into account now. He finally spoke, “I can’t stand for you.”

“I know.” She did. She wasn’t asking him to. She was a cop... a former cop, as of that morning, but a cop. One who’d helped put a big chunk of their business on ice and a lot of the people they did business with in jail. Speaking for her was the last thing she’d ask him to do. She had nowhere else to turn.

Morgan sighed. “I’ll see what I can do. No promises, though. I don’t run my club like a dictatorship.”

Jessie sagged with relief. “Thank you.”

His eyes scanned her face again. “Nate’s going to have you killed if he can, and I bet he won’t be the first in line to want your head on a plate.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Morgan watched her, a look of disbelief on his face. “There’s nothing that can be done to change his mind.”

She shrugged. “I made my choices. Nate made his. He’s a tough guy, and I don’t doubt he got help in ducking out from under the shit headed his way.”

“He can’t go to jail. It would mean his life. Too many of Wilkes’ people are on the inside.”

Jessie pressed her lips tight and forced air out through her nose. “I get that he’s put a contract out on me. I didn’t exactly stay true to the code.”

Morgan’s lips canted upward slightly. “You don’t seem too worried.”

“Have you met me?” Her lips lifted in a smile, but hers was far grimmer than his.

Morgan snorted, “Do you really know Nate? He’s all smiles and chuckles until he wants you dead.”

“I’ll take the risk.” Her eyes were steady. But so were Morgan’s.

“Are you willing to risk Craig too?”

Her heart sped up at the mention of his name. “He didn’t do anything to Nate, or you. I did that. That’s all on me. He’s not testifying. He’s been written up as an anonymous source, so his identity will never be on paper, just a number. He’s safe. The charges against him are being dropped in a matter of days, and he’ll be out, free, and without a bit of blame on his head. In fact, he’s been arrested on paper for his part in those murders, and since they’ve reversed the charges already, there’ll be no questions on how he got out. He’s safe, Morgan.”

Morgan nodded. “I believe you, but I’m not Nate or his crew, and you can believe it won’t be just his crew gunning for you. The men he got his dope from are going to be pissed off too, and they’re the big guns.”

“Just another rung on the ladder.”

“Do you know he loves you and that he’s not the kind of guy to let something go when it matters to him?”

She had to blink rapidly to keep tears from spilling and betraying her. Morgan was referring to Craig. He just laid it out on the table without a thought. “He won’t have a choice. If I stay, he’ll die. So I’m going ghost. He won’t find me.”

“And that makes it better?” Morgan raised an eyebrow as he stared at her.

Her throat hurt and she tried to swallow the pain. “He won’t be the only one hurting, Morgan. But he needs to be away from me. He deserves a woman he can trust, and I wasn’t that. He needs to live.”