“I think most of it does.” He nodded. “It started when I was eight.” He looked me square in the eyes. He knew. This was it. This was the moment I’d been waiting for.

“And you’re willing to talk without a lawyer present?”

“Let the man talk!” I spat. Jesus!

Bryce laughed. “I’ve been waiting for the day I could take down my father.”

Me too! “I think we can remove the cuffs now. Get you some water.” I stood and started to remove the cuffs as Agent Reigles left the room to get the water. It was the first time I was trying to fight back tears. This was my brother. I wanted to wrap him in my arms and hug him. I didn’t care who he was and what he’d been doing for the last twelve years. I’d missed him.

Reigles returned with a bottle of water and Bryce took a few sips. “The night of my sister’s seventeenth birthday, all I wanted was cake. We never got treats. I was eight and thought that we’d at least have a cake. Instead, our mother sent her out with my dad. At the time, I didn’t know he was my dad. I don’t think she knew he was my father either because he wasn’t her dad. Anyway, she never came back. To this day, I don’t know what happened to her.”

I pulled everything from within me to show no emotions as he stared directly at me and told the story.

“That night, my dad came into our trailer and beat my mom. I’d thought that he’d beaten her to death, but I was too young to know for sure, so I left her in her room. The next day he returned and took us. She wasn’t dead, but we left and never returned. I thought for sure my sister was dead and I cried. I cried for days, but never in front of my mother and that man. I didn’t want him to beat me like he beat her, but I just wanted my sister because she was my best friend. But she never returned to get me.”

I stood, causing the metal chair to screech in the process. I was about to lose my shit and become a blubbering mess. I should of returned that night and taken him with me. I had enough money for two bus tickets. Seth could have taken us both in. Instead, my actions caused my brother to become a criminal.

“He filed some papers and changed my last name to Martinez. Growing up he forced me to do things that I never wanted to do. Steal this, beat him up, fuck her. It escalated each time. Eventually, we moved here from Miami and started picking up the prostitutes working the streets of Vegas, or the Weekend Warriors who fly in just on the weekends to have a good time. Those are the best ones because it’s harder to know they’re missing.”

“Anyway, my mother killed herself three years ago. She left a suicide note and confessed that Tony was my father, so it’s only fitting he has me running his business for him.”

“How did …”

“She overdosed on oxy. She said the pain of losing her daughter for selling her at seventeen was eating her alive and it was too much for her to take. She was tired of living under Tony and his orders.”

“And you still think it’s okay to sell women?”

“I don’t have a choice.”

“Why not come to the police?”

“I’d still end up in prison.”

“But you’ll be doing the right thing. Think about your mother. Think about your sister.”

He stared at me. “Can I make a deal?”

I stared back. “What kind of deal?”

“I can’t save my mother, but in hopes that my sister’s still alive I want to make a plea in exchange for Tony. I’ll work with you to bring him down.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Paul

Before I could speak to Andi—or Joselyn … whatever her name was, the police rushed in. It was a whirlwind. At first I was handcuffed until she explained the situation and then I was asked to go down to make a statement of what happened. Then I was told to not tell anyone because Andi … Joselyn … was still undercover.

I didn’t understand why. I thought she’d caught the guy. Why else would she pull her gun on him? Why would they shoot at her? And why did she reveal her real name?

Usually, I would go to Gabe and talk everything out with him, but I couldn’t tell him that I was just in a shootout with two thugs, a pimp, and my FBI girlfriend. I’d thought his situation with Major Dick was crazy, but I believed mine was the icing on the cake and I couldn’t even tell him.

Wasn’t that some shit?

So I went to the liquor store, bought a bottle of tequila and went home to wait for whatever the fuck her name was. I wasn’t sure why I was mad at her—but I was. I was questioning if it was all even real between us or if it was all an act. I half expected her shit to be packed and moved out by the time I arrived home. But when I pulled in and peeked in her room, everything was the same. I showered and changed into shorts and then broke open the bottle of agave goodness.

I was halfway through the bottle, watching ESPN and almost forgetting that I’d killed two men—something I hadn’t done since Afghanistan, when An … Joselyn walked in.

“Hey,” she greeted.

“Hey,” I slurred.

“Are you doing okay?” she asked, setting her purse down on the coffee table and sitting next to me. I tensed and so did she. “You’re mad?”

“Of course I am!” I shouted and stood. Well, stumbled.

“You’re drunk.”

“And you’re an FBI agent. Are you going to arrest me now?”

“Why are you being an asshole?”

I swayed for a few seconds and then sat on the coffee table, unable to stand any longer from the alcohol in my system. “Do you know what happened today?” I snapped, jerking my head up a little too fast. I was referring to the fact I’d killed two men.

She stood. “Do you know what happened today?”

“I learned that you’ve been lying to me this entire time.”

“I only lied to you about my occupation, Paul.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Are you sure about that, gorgeous?”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I’ve been sitting here for hours questioning everything.”

She sat back down and reach for me, but I slid a few feet from her so she couldn’t touch me. “Why?” she asked.

I chuckled. “You were placed here by the FBI and then you struck up a relationship with me. I’ve replayed everything over and over in my head, but I don’t know what’s real and what’s not.”

“Everything between us was real.”

“Except your name.”

“Yes, except my name.”

I looked directly into her eyes, wanting to know the one hundred percent truth about my next question. “What about your seventeenth birthday?”

“It was all true. What I felt for you and what I told you was true. I fell in love with you. If you can’t grasp that, then I don’t know what else to tell you. I’ve had a long and emotional day.” She stood and so did I.

“You had an emotional day? You caught the guy you were after. I saved your fucking life. And all I got when you walked in the door was a hey.”

“Sex—”

“No!” I wasn’t sure if it was the tequila, my heart, the fact that she’d lied to me or that I had killed two men, but I was angry and I was angry at her and I couldn’t hold my tongue once I started. “Don’t sexy me, Andi, Joselyn, whatever the fuck your name is. I killed two fucking men today and I can’t even talk to my best friend about it. Fuck, I can’t even talk to you about it because you weren’t here. Now I get a fucking hey. Well, fuck your hey. See, this is why I don’t date. Women and their fucking games—”

“What games are you talking about? I’m not playing games!”

“You are with my heart!”

“I’m not playing games with your heart.”

“You pretended to love me.”

“Is that really what you think?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Yes.”

She stared at me for what felt like an eternity, I didn’t know why I said the things coming from my mouth. The more I said them, the more I knew they weren’t true, but I felt like hurting her.