REMINDERS OF THE PAST
“Why do you let him treat you that way?”
My pulse jumped when I felt his hand brush my lower back, and I spun around to face him
Cash.
He was too close, and his eye was pinned on me.
My gaze darted across the crowded room. What if Carl saw us like this?
Carl Graves was possessive to the point of danger, and everyone knew it.
Well… everyone except his reckless and infuriating son.
“What are you doing?” I hissed and stepped away from his touch, “Stay out of it, Cash.”
I tried to brush past him, tray in hand, but he blocked my path with one step, his voice firm.
“Tell me the truth. If I hadn’t walked in with that gun… would you have told anyone Carl abuses you?”
My face went cold.
“Yesterday you told me not to ask questions that weren’t my concern,” I snapped with restrained anger. “Now I’m asking you to do the same. Mind your fucking business.”
I walked away with a stiff spine not waiting for a response.
The house was crowded with uniformed men and federal agents. Carl had invited half of the department over today.
Carl claimed they were crafting our mission to Oregon.
It made me wonder why hadn’t he just done this at the office? Except it was a distraction.
I handed out the teacups, one by one, until I reached Carl.
He wrapped a hand around my waist and kissed me, full on the mouth and possessive. “Thank you for saying yes, baby.”
Technically, I didn’t say yes.
But after the confrontation yesterday, Cash walking in on us with that gun, and Carl releasing me only to disarm his son…
What choice did I really have?
“The next time you point a gun at me,” Carl had warned Cash coldly, “Cage won’t be the only one involved in your trauma.”
I remembered the way Cash had looked at him wordlessly, the tension between them filled with a thousand unsaid things.
Something dark was going on in this family.
“I’ll get you your own private lab, I’ll give you money. Cars. Luxury. Whatever you want!” Carl had yelled his promises in my face. “I just need you to go on this mission and not fuck it up for me. My career’s on the line, and it depends on both of you. If you fail this, don’t bother coming back. I’ll be waiting with open graves.”
And I believed him. Carl Graves didn’t bluff.
I knew some of his dirty affairs, and some secrets to know that he would deal with us if thing didn't go as planned.
He was ambitious and didn't play with his job.
“Chief,” an officer’s voice broke into my thoughts, and I turned to the man who stood holding a sealed evidence bag. “The dead man from the explosion, Antonio Cruz, we found something in the wreckage.”
“What’s that?”
“A piece of the red dress we found at the other crime scene and a pair of baby mittens with the name Anna stitched in. Maybe someone visited him before the murder.”
Carl straightened in his chair “So, what does this mean? Antonio Cruz had another child?”
“Probably, we’ll look into that. Chief and I think we’ve found his daughter.”
Carl’s head whipped to the officer. “I thought you said she was missing.”
“Yes, for 23 years. But we came across a photo of her with the old man.” He extended the picture toward Carl, but Carl shoved it away without even a glance.
“That’s not relevant right now.”
Odd.
But it was… Everything was important in an investigation.
Especially photos. They weren’t just clues… They were reminders of the past.
“What’s her name?”
“Amelia Cruz. We think she was the one who paid him a visit before he was murdered.”
“How?”