She was like sunlight and rainbows right after a heavy but needed rainstorm. I could breathe her in for the rest of my life. Happiness. She was mine.
She pulled back and fanned herself. “What was that for?”
“Just happy to see you.”
She softened, her smile spreading a bit more. “Oh.”
I grinned. “Oh.” She was hella cute.
Her eyes got serious. “You were arrested?”
My gut tightened up, but I nodded, shifting back and reversing the Jeep. We had an errand to run before heading back to the house. “I was.”
“What happened?”
“The guy was saying some shit he shouldn’t have been saying.”
“What was he saying?”
I was pulling out of the parking lot, turning right, and slid my gaze toward Ava’s. “Some shit no man should be saying.”
“What’s going to happen?”
I was replaying in my head what Logan Kade told me.
“He has an open and shut case. They have witnesses. There was no provocation for what you did, no way you could claim self-defense, so at this point, you either need to get him to change his mind or you find something to bring to offer them instead.” He leveled me with a serious look. “You hearing me?”
“Can I scare him?”
“I would highly suggest against that, with this case, this guy.”
“If he changes his mind, would they drop the charges?”
“I can’t guarantee that, but I can tell you that they are motivated to work with you.”
“I’m supposed to narc or something?”
Logan inclined his head, checking his phone. “I wouldn’t use that word, but you have connections that their normal confidential informants aren’t able to access. You can think on that, otherwise buckle up. If you get a judge who hates privileged wealthy pricks, you could get screwed in the end.”
“What would you do? If it were you? If the guy had been saying shit about your woman?”
The phone went down, and Logan Kade set some scary eyes on me. “Then I would already be making calls to find anything on this piece of shit I could, and when I had whatever I needed to bury him, I’d pay him a visit. I’d make sure he’d be pissing his pants before I left. Course that’s contingent on if the DA would drop the charges if the guy wanted them dropped. My advice here? Find something on him to trade for you. And whatever you find, make sure it’s something they would salivate for.”
I relayed to Ava the gist of what Kade said.
She sat back, frowning. “What are you going to do? Who is this guy?”
“Roger Mitchell.”
“Roger Mitchell from my old bank?” She shoved forward, her nostrils flaring.
“I’m taking that you don’t like him?”
“He’s a piece of shit. You’re right when you said that. I stopped using their bank last year because of him. Every time I went in, I just felt dirty.”
“What’d he do?”
“Every time I’d go in for anything, they’d have to verify through him. He’d come out and handle whatever I needed himself. I hated it. Hated it. The dirty looks. The dirty compliments. I even tried doing the drive-thru, but he stopped that and made it where I’d have to come into the bank every time to either deposit a check or do a cash withdrawal. That’s not right. I love my new bank. I’m like a normal customer.”
“He did that?”
She nodded. “I thought that was normal since it’d been happening since I was sixteen.”
“Sixteen?” I tightened my hold over the steering wheel, imagining it was his neck.
The good news was that if he was doing that, I was sure he was doing other shit. “That’s abuse of power. If it came down to it, would you be willing to talk to a lawyer?”
“You think that’s enough to get him to drop the charges?”
“No, but it’s a start.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Of course. I’ll do anything you need me to do.”
There. Right there. It’s another reason I fell for her, and I had plans to tell her. Lots of plans. Elaborate plans, but not yet. We needed to go to battle first. I’d helped with this sort of shit, but it was always someone else’s fight. I’d been in the back, helping, supporting. This time, I was at the wheel. It was my fight.
It was time I let people know just what I could do.
20
AVA
We went back to Zeke’s house.
“What are you planning on doing?” I asked as we walked inside.
Zeke tossed his keys, went to the fridge, grabbed a beer, and stood, studying me. He took a sip before giving me a grin. “I’m going to hack him.”
I raised my eyebrow. “You’re what?”
He was nodding, talking to himself now. “Hack him. I bet there’s a ton of shit he’s hiding. I can get into his accounts. Figure it out and somehow give it to the DA in exchange for them dropping charges against me. Yeah. It could work.”
My mouth was on the floor. “What? That sounds like a horrible idea. You could get added charges if you get caught.”
“Nah. This will work.” He came over, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “This will totally work. This is a great idea.” He started down the hallway.
I trailed behind him. “This is a horrible idea.” My phone was ringing, but I silenced it. I had a huge catastrophe here to prevent. “Zeke.”
He went to the bedroom and started changing clothes.
I perched on the bed, watching, but decided I should change too. He was pulling on comfy clothes, which okay. I loved comfy clothes. Since moving in with Zeke, that was one thing he’d asked us to do more. Or he asked me to do with him, lounging around, wearing pajamas all day, and goofing off. He explained that everyone did it. It was a basic human premise, to be lazy every now and then.
It was now my favorite thing to do, but only with him. With myself, it wasn’t the same. I got restless, thinking how much money I could be making if I was working, and ended up heading somewhere to pick up a shift. Thank goodness my bosses all liked when I showed up and didn’t turn me away from fear of overtime or something.
But he was pulling on some gym shorts and a T-shirt.
I loved his T-shirts. God. Zeke’s chest could be like a Greek statue, and when he was inside me, raised and holding himself over me, his eyes on me, I about died every time. He had tattoos on one shoulder and chest, a tribal one that wound down his right arm, and it was the hottest thing ever to me.
I was getting all hot and bothered, just thinking about it right now, but Zeke wasn’t noticing.
He was padding barefoot around the room, nodding to himself. He was all hyped on his world domination plan, or his enemy domination plan. One that I thought was the stupidest plan ever.
I pulled on some lounge pants and a tank top and padded barefoot after him as he was going back to the kitchen. He grabbed another beer, some sports drinks, water, and he filled his arms up with snacks. He gave me a lopsided grin, seeing me standing in the doorway. “You look super sexy right now.” He came over, saying, “I need to hack this guy. Save my ass, and then you and me, I’m going to show you the Tour of Europe.”