He didn’t have to clarify what he meant by ‘before.’ She knew perfectly well what he was asking about.
She nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak but he still watched her intently and she knew he wanted her confirmation. And, the truth was, Jennie didn’t want to lose Chad.
Their time in Florida before ‘that night’ had brought them a lot closer than they used to be. They’d talked about so many things and spent more time with each other than she ever thought they would.
“We’re good. It’s okay, Chad,” she said as she put on her brightest smile and ordered her nipples to stand down. “We really are okay, Chad, I promise.”
He smiled. “Okay. See you at work then, Jen.”
She turned and walked down the hall, hoping she was right. She didn’t want to lose a friend she’d only begun to truly know.
Assistant United States Attorney, Caroline Waters, steered her sedan down the dirt driveway that served as the entrance to the abandoned building site. The location should have been an enormous mall by now, but the owner had run out of funds and the project was on hold. The lot was sufficiently isolated to serve Caroline’s needs today.
She spotted Bandon waiting for her in his truck and pulled alongside him. She didn’t plan to get out of the car for this talk. She hated coming to the filthy job sites he was used to.
In fact, she hated dealing with Bandon at all. She found him tactless and rude and he certainly didn’t go to any lengths to hide the slimy, appreciative looks he gave her body whenever they met. It made her skin crawl, but he was a necessary evil at this point in her life.
When Caroline discovered just how hard it really was to pay off her law school debt on fifty thousand dollars a year, she decided there were two options. Go to work as a defense attorney instead of a prosecutor or pick and choose the crimes she really cared about prosecuting.
When she found a crime she didn’t feel truly needed to be prosecuted, she offered the accused a chance to pay their way out of trouble. Then it was simply a matter of telling her boss the case they had wouldn’t stick, there had been errors in the collection of evidence that would damage the case, or any number of other excuses. On a few occasions, she’d had to go a little further and arrange for evidence to disappear so no one would begin to see a pattern in her ‘dropped’ cases and suspect her.
All in all, she only needed to do it a few times a year to make the money she needed, and with any luck, she’d pay off her loans soon and be free of it all. And free of the likes of Rick Bandon.
For now, he was a necessary evil in laundering her funds for her. Things were getting to the point where she was going to need to buy shares in his marina company to keep everything looking above board, but with this recent complication, she was relieved her name wasn’t on any of the books yet.
Bandon rolled down his window. “To what do I owe this unscheduled visit, Caroline? Not that I’m not always happy to get a call from you, but I hadn’t expected to see you again until next month.”
Caroline suppressed a shudder at the leer on Bandon’s face. “We have a problem. The FBI has opened an investigation into Florifish. Those brothers you swore to me were so malleable and loyal are now feeding information to the FBI about your little endeavor.”
“Mylittle endeavor. You’re in this as much as I am, lady. Don’t you forget it.” His words were big but she saw the swagger drain from Bandon’s body as he slumped in his truck, absorbing the shock of the news.
“Luckily for you, I managed to get myself assigned to the case. They haven’t brought in any information to implicate anyone other than you yet and I expect you to keep it that way,” Caroline said.
“Well, where the hell will that leave me? Don’t think I’ll let you leave me hanging out to dry on this one, Ms. Big Wig Attorney. If I go down for this, I’ll take you down, too,” Bandon sneered.
Caroline held out a hand to stop him. She’d already thought this through. She knew perfectly well Bandon would turn against her if he were arrested for money laundering and she wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out he had some kind of document or tape or something to hold over her head if push came to shove.
“I’ll take care of the investigation, but you need to take care of those Masters brothers. They can’t make their next meeting with their handler. There was, apparently, one other witness. I’ll get her name and location for you as soon as I can. In the meantime, I suggest you keep that boat company running as a legitimate business and put all your other activities on hold for now. We need to do damage control.”
Bandon stared at her for a few minutes.
She’d always suspected he was a sick bastard who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and she was right. As long as she laid out a plan, he’d pick it up and run with it. She was sure of it.
His voice was cold and unfeeling when he finally spoke. “Fine, I’ll take care of the brothers. You get working on that other witness.”
He gave only one curt nod before he drove away.
Chapter 21
For weeks, Chad and Jennie were a little stiff and awkward around one another, but it gradually began to go away. They fell back into the swing of things, with Jennie being a wise ass and Chad laughing at her like he used to.
Since he wasn’t willing to lose her as a friend, it was the way things had to be. There wasn’t any getting around it.
Thanks to Mrs. Poole, Jack and Kelly were back to hosting get-togethers at their house on a regular basis despite the fact they had a three-week-old baby. It made Chad laugh to think about it. He thought they would have taken a few months to get settled in, but they were hosting their first barbeque today.
Chad stepped out onto the porch and couldn’t hold back his smile. His tough cousin, a man who ran a Fortune 500 company and often had grown men trembling in their boardroom chairs, was cooing and babbling like an idiot for his tiny baby girl. A complete and utter idiot.
Before Chad could even scan the rest of the group to see who was there, his eyes went to Jennie. She stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed and shook his head before grabbing a beer and joining her.