“Exactly. There were warrants for nine locations, so the sheriff’s department was asked to lend their support. I was on the team that hit Grant’s main operation. His specialty was heroin and meth, but we also found cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy. I never saw any money, but I heard later that one of the other teams confiscated over a million dollars.”
“Was your ex on your team?”
“No.” Her eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath. “He was a part of the team that found the money.” She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “He wouldn’t... He wouldn’t steal money and blame it on me.”
“Are you sure?”
“No,” she whispered.
“Were you still together at the time?”
“No, I’d broken it off with him a few weeks before.” She covered her face with her hands. “Oh, God. What if Grant thinks I have his money?”
“Hey. Come here.” He tugged her onto his lap so that she was straddling him. “We’ll figure it out. A few more questions, then we won’t talk about it anymore tonight.”
She leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. “Okay. I want to get to the bottom of this, so ask all the questions you want.” He trailed his fingers up and down her back, and she hummed. “That feels good.”
He wrapped his arms around her, wishing they hadn’t missed a year of being together. “One thing that puzzles me is the time between then and now. If Grant thinks you have his money, why wait a year to go after it?”
“I wonder that, too.”
“Where is he now? I assume because of who he is and the severity of the charges against him that he hasn’t gone to trial yet?”
“His bail was denied, so last I knew he was in jail. I haven’t kept up with the case, though.” She lifted her head and looked at him. “Honestly, I came here to start over and didn’t want any reminders of the rumors and gossip about me.”
“Understandable. We need to find out the status of the case, make sure Grant is still behind bars.” If he’d managed to get bond or released on a technicality, that could explain why this was all coming back to haunt her now. “Would you be good with calling your old boss and seeing what he knows? Also, it might be a good idea to tell him what’s going on.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that first thing in the morning.”
“Ask him if the name Homer Drake means anything to him. You said you’d never seen him before, but you’d never heard his name or his street name before either?”
“No, but other than assisting in serving the warrants, I wasn’t involved in the case. I’ll also ask him if he’ll talk to the prosecutor and the detectives handling the case.”
“Good idea.”
“I guess this lets Mason off the hook.”
“Probably, but we’ll still keep an eye on him. I don’t trust him not to stir up trouble.” He should tell her about his conversation with Mason, that her former deputy had been watching them, and what had gone down at the Kitchen today, but if he did, she’d spook. After a year of pushing him away, she was finally letting him in. He wasn’t willing to give that up.
“I don’t have Grant’s money, Tristan. You believe me, right?”
“I never once thought you did.” He loved when she said his name, especially since she’d refused to say it for so long. Also, he was done talking about this tonight. She’d taken off her shoes, socks, and utility belt soon after arriving home, but she still had on her uniform and her hair in a bun. “Hold your hand out.” He pulled a pin from her hair and dropped it on her palm, then another and another until her beautiful hair was free and falling around her shoulders and down her back.
“You have a thing about my hair,” she said, that smile on her face he loved seeing, when he gathered it up and wrapped it around his hand.
“I have a thing about you.” He could imagine doing this every evening when they came home. Talking about their day, taking the pins out of her hair, slowly undressing her...the next thing on his list to do.
“I kind of have a thing about you, too,” she said, sounding aggrieved by the admission.
He barely refrained from pumping his fist in the air and yelling, “Yeah, baby!” Instead, he slid his hands down to her ass. “Want to know what I noticed?”
She nodded.
“Your bottom is a perfect fit for my hands.”
His girl giggled, a sound from her he really liked, and he vowed to spend the rest of his life giving her reasons to giggle.
Chapter Thirty-Six