He laughs loud and grabs the remote control from the ledge. Turning the sound up on the stereo, U2 sings about one love.
Pacer presses another button on the remote and all the shutters slide out and shield the entire balcony.
Sliding up against me, he leans into my ear and speaks. “If you haven’t worked it out for yourself yet—Reed tells me the people who have slipped through the cracks, and I help him get rid of them.”
I replay the words over slowly.
Jackson and Pacer have been working together to kill bad people?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
She is smarter than I gave her credit for. I can see her brilliant mind piecing everything together as I give her all the details of the deal I have with Reed.
“So you kill bad guys for Jackson Reed? But why does he want them dead?” Her eyes still search for answers.
I shrug. “I guess he hates losing cases. Some of them have pretty scary past times. I mean, who wants the fuckers that hurt women and kids to get away with it?”
“This is why we have a judicial system. What if the shit Jackson Reed sprouts to you about these people is wrong? What if you’ve killed innocent people?”
If only I’d thought of this sooner, I wouldn’t be in this position.
“That’s what happened with Sean Collins, and I found out.” I knock back the champagne and try to stop the rage I feel building, because I never should’ve trusted Reed in the first place. “The problem with your judicial system is that it’s flawed. It only takes someone as clever as you to come along and suddenly guys are roaming the street when they should be locked up.”
“But that’s not up for you to decide.” Her frown is full of disappointment.
“That’s right, I forgot; it’s people like your Dad who get to choose everyone’s fate,” I fire back angrily.
“My Dad worked his ass off to get to the position he was in. He’s an educated man, and has good morals. You would never understand the pressure he had because your family paid little attention to our laws.” She jumps out of the bath and grabs one of the towels rolled up next to the bath. “The worst part is, you really don’t care about any of it, either. You think you’re above it all.” I can see the flare rising up in her face as she wraps the towel around her, and she stomps her way to the bathroom.
Go fuck yourself, Chelsea Tanner!
She doesn’t know everything. It’s people like the Tanner family who think they’re above reality—above making bad decisions and living with the consequences for the rest of their life. Her father gets to lie in a nice comfortable bed and go to sleep every night, regardless of how many lives he’s snuffed out.
Watching the closed bathroom door, I scull the rest of my champagne.
For someone who’s meant to see both sides of the coin, Chelsea looks through muddy water sometimes. I know I shouldn’t have mentioned her Dad like that, but there are so many more layers to this city that people like the Tanners have no idea about. Her father can judge and her mother can spin all the stories she thinks will sell a magazine, but at the end of the day, they are just playing with people’s lives. I just thought Chelsea was different; I thought I could show her another side to life. But the fact is, we are and will always be two very different people from opposite sides of the street.
I get out of the bath and pull the plug to drain the water. Wrapping a towel around myself, I have to see if Chelsea’s all right. The last thing I wanted was to upset her like this.
Knocking on the door, I speak. “Chelsea. Can I come in?”
She doesn’t answer so I open the door anyway. I find her leaning against the basin, tears filling her eyes.
I rush to take her in my arms and look deep into her gaze. “Hey. I know it’s a lot for you to take in today. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”
She looks up at me and a tear slides down her cheek. It breaks my heart to see her upset. I can be such an asshole sometimes.
Shaking her head, she answers. “It’s not that. You’re right. Everything I’ve ever thought to be right in my life has been turned upside-down since I met you. I question everything I’ve ever believed in. My family aren’t any better than yours. I saw that today. At least your family doesn’t hide behind some false idea about what they do.”
I catch the tears that stream down her cheeks with the back of my finger and just hold her. I want to take all her sadness away.
“We can set this all straight again. I can fix this and show the city about what’s been happening, right under its nose.” She pulls out of my arms and stares into my eyes as she speaks.
What is she talking about? Does she want me to go to prison?
“And how are you going to do that without putting me in the picture?” I don’t know where she’s going with this, and I don’t like it already.
“We can put you in it, but I know a way to do it so that it looks like you have been set-up. Which you have, so it’s not going to be difficult to expose Jackson.”
“Then what? Another Jackson Reed will be waiting to corrupt the system again. You can’t save everyone, Chelsea. This is just how it is. There’s always a war to fight, and always a war to fight for.”
I see a glimmer of a smile on her face again and her eyes light up. “Well, I can save you.”
She wants to save me? I don’t know how I feel about this. I’m one of the city’s most notorious gang members and she wants to save me? And after everything, she still wants to be in my life?
“So how do you suppose we do this then?”
“We need to get Jackson to confess.” Her eyes are full of hope as she talks.
I can’t help but laugh at her confidence. “Yeah sure, detective. I’ll just see if he’s up for that.”
“There’s a case I have. It’s due for trial in a month. Have your heard of Robert Simmons?” She pulls back. Walking to her bag, she grabs out her iPhone and scrolls through it.
“Yeah isn’t he the creep that attempted to kidnap that girl?”
She nods. “Well he has a long history of being picked up in areas where there are kids. I know he’s bad, but he’s got money so he’s got me representing him.”
“This is what I mean. The system is fucked.” I scratch my head, wondering how someone like Chelsea can even defend these fuckers.
“So why don’t you set up a meeting with Jackson, and mention this Robert Simmons. Jackson’s the leading prosecutor on the case.”
She is a clever little vixen. Her attitude about this is surprising. Does she love me enough to willingly risk everything to defend me?
There’s just a key piece of this set-up that she’s overlooked. “But what about the fact that Jackson still has the documents that will put me behind bars for good? He’s threatened that he has people waiting to release the documents as soon as I do anything.”
Her mouth moves as she considers the spanner that I’ve just thrown into the works.
“Then Jackson Reed will just have to go missing.”
I don’t know if I’m excited or worried about what she just said. I’m definitely speechless. Words gone. Mind gone.
***
Bacon and eggs—a food I have never considered to be sexy. But standing over Chelsea to drizzle maple syrup on her body, I look at the few strips of bacon left that cover her perfect pussy, and I have to say this is the sexiest-tasting bacon that I’ve ever had.
She giggles and squirms as I take my time to dribble the syrup over the curves of her body. I watch it run into her little slit, and lean down to lick it because it looks too good, and I can’t help myself.