Protecting Justice (The Justice Series Book 4) (32 page)

“Not unless you’re going with me.”

He saw it. The hardening of her eyes. “I’m not going with you, Tony. Stop trying to control everything. I gave Syd my word I would handle this and I don’t go back on my word.”

“She’ll understand.”

“You think?” She shook her head and started shuffling papers, refusing to look at him. “Tony Gerard, you’re fired.”

“I’m what?”

“I said, you’re fired. I don’t want you as my bodyguard anymore. Get out of here. Go help Grey.”

“You can’t be serious.”

The look she shot him was pure defiance. “Oh, I’m serious. As of this moment, we’re done. Finished. Your friend, who’s actually in trouble and needs you far more than I do, is waiting for you. I suggest you get to him.”

He stood, anger boiling in his veins. “I’ll get someone out front until I can get back here. I’ll call you with his number. Anything goes wrong, you call him and he’ll bust in here.”

Hopefully, Matt was available. If not, Tony was screwed.

“That’s not necessary,” Fallyn said, once more staring at the papers in front of her.

“Sure as hell is. We’re not done here, Fal. When I get back, we’re finishing this discussion.”

Chapter Twenty

Matt Stevens was the man. Tony’s former police academy buddy, now a private security contractor, had come through for him and agreed to keep an eye on the shelter for a couple of hours while Tony dragged one Justice Greystone back to the hospital.

That blowout with Fallyn didn’t help. Unbelievable. The two of them pushed each other’s hot buttons in every way. They’d either have to figure out how to avoid doing that or they’d kill each other one day.

And Tony would definitely have a heart attack along the way. Just like his father. Boom. Gone.

“For the record,” Grey said. “I thought I was ready to go home.”

Finally. Someone giving him a fucking break. Tony came to a stop at a light and glanced over at Grey in the passenger’s seat. “Yeah. I got that part. But seriously, hospitals are usually tossing people out. When the doc is telling you to stay, it generally means stay. But, forget it. We’ll get you back there, and in a couple days, you’ll be good to go.”

Grey looked in the sideview mirror. “Syd’s still back there.”

“Did you think she wouldn’t be?”

“After this morning, I wondered.”

Now that was funny. “She loves you. And something tells me she doesn’t scare off easily.”

A loud blinging erupted via the Bluetooth and Tony hit the button. “Gerard.”

“Mr. Gerard, this is Emily Latham.”

The lab. Another break. Things were looking up. “Hi,” he said. “You’re timing is good. I have Justice Greystone in the car with me.”

“Oh, excellent. I’m emailing him a full report, but wanted to let you know we detected Perisoladol in the protein powder sample you gave us.”

The protein powder. For whatever reason, he hadn’t seen that one coming. “All the other supplements were clean?”

“Yes, sir. Only the protein powder. It was pure drug. Only slight traces of protein powder, which was probably residue from the bottle.”

Grey sat a little straighter. “Someone replaced the powder?”

“Yes. It’s all in my report. Just wanted to give you a heads up.”

Tony punched off the call and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “The protein powder. We need to figure out who had access to it.”

In the back of Tony’s mind, something niggled at him. He worked through it, ticking away at the events of the past week. Helping Fallyn collect the supplement bottles, searching Heather’s office. The protein powder, he was sure, had come from the townhouse. Hadn’t it? When they were in Heather’s office, Fallyn had handed him bottles, but they’d been vitamins. No powders.

The light changed and he hit the gas, moving along with the traffic while he backtracked over the last week.
What is it? What is it? What is it?

“Talk to me,” Grey said.

“Thinking about where we collected all the bottles. Nothing is popping though. I think the protein powder must have been at the house. If it had been in her office, I’d start with Jordan. See if she knew where the powder came from.”

Jordan.

The video.

Heather’s video. Jordan’s interruption.

“Oh, shit.”

Tony pulled to the side of the road. “I have to call Fallyn.”

Chapter Twenty-one

The speakers were done, the residents of Fresh Start were in the kitchen enjoying a late dinner of leftover sandwiches. A handful of them had landed jobs, half a dozen more were going back to school or exploring internships that would refine their marketable skills. All in all, the day had been a success.

While the residents were busy feeding their faces, Fallyn and Jordan worked on cleaning up the downstairs area that had been converted into a meeting space for the day’s events. Jordan had told her to stay in the office, but Fallyn couldn’t stand it any longer. She had to do something to help that involved physical movement. If any of the women saw her, she’d spin the situation like she always did and disappear up to the loft.

Fallyn shoved dirty coffee cups into the garbage can and tossed some papers into the yellow plastic recycle bin next to it. Even that, with the stresses running her life lately, seemed a major accomplishment.

Staying busy kept her mind off the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. She shouldn’t have yelled at Tony. Should never, ever had used his father and the judge against him.

It had been the only way to get him to go to Grey. That and firing him.

He’s coming back. We’ll work it out.

So why wouldn’t the sick feeling in her stomach go away?

Beside her, Anita worked on taking down the overhead screen while Jordan folded up the chairs and stored them away.

“You made a real difference here today,” Anita said, releasing the screen and sending it whooshing up into its holder near the ceiling. “Thank you for everything.”

“
We
made a difference,” Fallyn corrected her, tying up the garbage.
Stay busy. Don’t think
. “I’m glad I could help.”

“Sydney was a fan of your sister’s because Heather was one of our biggest advocates. We all hoped she’d run for president someday.”

“I hoped that, too.” The hollow sensation moved from her belly to her chest. She missed Heather. Right now, she missed Tony as well. He’d filled the void Heather’s death had left and given her a fresh perspective on what was important in her life. “Working with the women today was great. I wish I could have had more face time with them, but I plan to come back when I can work with them individually.”

Anita smiled and shook Fallyn’s hand. “That would be wonderful. We could use someone with your public presence to keep a spotlight on what we’re doing here.”

Continuing Heather’s work—that’s what Fallyn wanted to do. Not easy when she lived in NYC, but maybe it was time to expand Pasche & Associates. A satellite office in DC would increase revenues significantly—there were plenty of political messes that needed fixing—and provide an excuse to work with Syd, rebuild a relationship with her father, and see Tony.

If Tony still wanted to see her.

How much she’d changed since he’d come into her life a few days ago. She felt unbalanced without him by her side.

Jordan returned from putting the chairs away and sagged against a table. “I’ll clean up the kitchen once the gals are done in there.”

Fallyn’s phone rang. She snatched it out of her pocket, hoping it was Tony with an update on Grey. It wasn’t. She almost didn’t recognize the number and started to ignore the call. That’s when it hit her.

Don Fox.
Finally
.

“I’m sorry, I need to take this,” she said, heading out of the room. She couldn’t take the call inside Fresh Start. Too many ears possibly overhearing the conversation. “Jordan, I’ll come back in a few minutes and help with the kitchen duty.”

Jordan waved her off as she started helping Anita take down the tables.

In the front hallway, Tony’s friend Matt, her
bodyguard,
abandoned his post and followed her to the back door. Fallyn answered the phone on the third ring. “Hello?”

The connection was terrible. Static filled her ear. “Miss Pasche?”

Placing a hand over her ear, she headed through the night toward the loft. “Yes, this is Fallyn Pasche. Thank you for returning my call, Mr. Fox.”

“I don’t know…” Static. The man’s voice sounded far away, like he was in a tunnel. “…can’t help you.”

Why was the connection so bad?

Fallyn took the stairs from the garage up to the apartment. Behind her, Matt stayed put at the base of the stairwell.

“Mr. Fox, I understand where you’re coming from. Please, I need to speak to you in person. My sister told me some things I need verified.”

Silence met her ears. Complete silence. Not even a hint of static. Fallyn banged the phone into her palm out of frustration. The screen said they’d been disconnected. Had he hung up or had the connection simply been too weak?

Letting herself into the apartment, she flipped on a light and hit redial. The phone on the other end rang three times and went to voicemail.

Dammit. She had to talk to this guy. She dialed again. Voicemail.
One more try.

Come on, come on.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding,” a familiar voice said from behind her.

Fallyn whirled. “Jeez, Jordan. You’re always sneaking up on me. I thought you were working on the tables.”

Jordan moseyed through the door and closed it behind her. Her gaze swept around the room to the sofa and then to the small kitchen off to the side. She sunk her hands into the pockets of her trench coat. “When’s Mr. Gerard coming back? Although, his friend Matt is kinda cute. I passed him at the bottom of the stairs.”

“Tony? I’m not sure. Why?”

She shrugged one shoulder and ran a hand over the back of a chair as she walked around, continuing to eye the place. “He seems very protective of you.”

“That’s sort of his job right now.”

“Right. After the break-ins and the car accident.”

She’d made it to the kitchen doorway and was leaning into the kitchen so far, Fallyn finally asked. “Would you like a drink or something? There’s tea.”

“No, I have to get back soon.” Jordan swung out of the doorway and smiled. “Dad’s expecting me tonight. We have our standard Monday night game of chess, you know.”

Fallyn didn’t know, but it sounded nice. She’d never shared anything more with her father than conversation over a plate of meatballs.

But that was okay. So they’d never played chess or went to a play together like Carl and Jordan were always doing. Her dad had taught her how to make a mean primavera and run her own business. Food service wasn’t all that different from being a fixer. You found out what people wanted and gave it to them.

“Why don’t you head out, then, and enjoy your evening with Carl?” Fallyn said. “I can handle the rest of the cleanup with Anita.”

Jordan sat in the chair and crossed her legs. “Have the cops figured out how that drug ended up in Heather’s system? I know Daddy will ask me tonight.”

For someone who said she had to leave, Jordan seemed to want to talk instead. Fallyn sunk onto the sofa and rubbed her temples where tension thrummed. “Nothing that I know of. I think we may have a lead from an independent lab we sent the supplements to, but I haven’t seen the results of the tests yet.”

“Is that so?” Jordan huffed out a sigh. “What a shame about all of this.”

It
was
a shame. Heather had been trying to do the right thing and had been caught in the crossfire.
If only I’d known sooner that she needed help. I could have fixed this. Protected her and Ryan.
“Did you know Heather was seeing someone?”

“No way.” Jordan chuckled. “Are you serious?”

Fallyn nodded, but it didn’t seem like Jordan was all that surprised. She was studying the window across the room. “It’s okay if you knew. Heather told you lots of things she never shared with me.”

“Honestly, I sort of did.” Jordan met her gaze head-on. “I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know for sure that it was anything series, and I had no idea who it was, so I kept it to myself. Don’t hate me?”

Actually it was kind of a relief that Heather hadn’t confessed her relationship to Jordan. “Of course not.”

Jordan waggled her brows. “Who was it? Was he hot?”

They shared a laugh. Like old times. Before jealousy had crawled under Fallyn’s skin. “He’s very attractive, yes. And powerful. At least his dad is.”

“Good for her. I’m glad she had someone, you know…before the end.”

Maybe it was time to put all that old jealousy to rest. “Me too. I just can’t help feeling that this is all tied together. I have a source”—she held up her phone—“whom I believe knows exactly what happened, but I can’t pin him down.”

“A source?”

“Sounds like his boss was doing unscrupulous things to get his hands on information Heather had secured during an investigation. He might have even been bribing or blackmailing someone in your office. He’s reluctant to talk though. Can’t say I blame him.”