“I did not.”

“You were framed.”

“I was.”

“And you’re saying it was another cop, a dirty one, who killed this Crowley guy.”

“I am.”

“Holy shit, Brett,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“You know, they’re totally not gonna believe you,” I shared.

“I do know this. That’s why you have to relay this information to Hawk Delgado so he can look into this shit and get me outta hiding. It’s not like I have an office I can’t sit my ass in because I’ve been forced underground, but bein’ smoke is hindering my ability to earn, and I’m not down with that.”

“I don’t know if you know this, but it’s my understanding Delgado’s two best buds are cops. And I’m not tight with the guy at all, but you kidnapped one of his boys’ girlfriends. I haven’t been around him a lot, but he seems to like his boys. So he hasn’t shared, but I’d hazard a guess Hawk isn’t your biggest fan.”

“His business has interfered with mine on a more frequent basis than I’d like so I’m not his biggest fan either,” Brett returned. “But there’s a snake in the grass at the DPD. And when that’s the way, everyone gets bit in the ass.”

At this point, he leaned toward me, putting his elbows to his knees and tipping his head back to keep contact with my eyes.

“And, Ryn, darlin’, I would be sure to remind him, his two best buds who are cops got a seat right smack in the middle of that garden party.”

Well…

Fuck.

Chapter Three

Catch You Later

Ryn

I sat on my bed in the early morning dawn, Taser in my hand, and after getting the fifth “I’m sorry” text from Corinne that I did not reply to, I blocked her ass.

Then I checked my bedside clock, my phone clock, and I did this for the fifty-millionth time.

When it hit six (bedside clock first), and it was finally only semi-rude to do what I was going to do next, I went to contacts, scrolled down to Danny Magnusson and hit GO.

His deep voice was sleepy, and I felt a tinge of envy at the fact it was also all kinds of sexy, when Mag answered, “Ryn, hey. Everything cool?”

“Cisco semi-kidnapped me again last night,” I blurted.

There was zero sleepy, but a whole load more sexy, when he demanded low, “Talk to me.”

“Well, see…”

I trailed off because, shit.

I couldn’t tell him I was headed out to a sex party.

Dammit.

I tried again.

“Okay, well, I was going to see friends after work last night and apparently one of my friends is legal counsel for Brett so when he said he wanted to chat, she set me up to chat.”

“Jesus Christ, are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Where was this?”

“A house in Englewood. But listen, Mag, he’s long gone by now. I got home a couple hours ago.”

Total silence, though after a length of it, I heard in the background Evie asking, “Is Ryn all right?”

“Yeah, baby, give us a minute,” I heard Mag answering. It took a few more seconds I imagined him climbing out of bed and moving away from Evie before he came back to me. “Let me get this straight, you waited two hours to call me after Cisco kidnapped you again?”

“I thought it’d be rude to call earlier.”

Mag said nothing.

“And anyway, it wasn’t that kind of kidnapping,” I told him.

“What kind of kidnapping was it?”

The kind where the bad guy, maybe not bad guy listened, played therapist, shared truths and generally was a pretty decent dude, notwithstanding the gun-to-the-head part, which wasn’t his fault.

“The friendly kind?” I asked as answer.

“Ryn—”

“Mag, he told me he didn’t kill Tony Crowley,” I declared. “He said he’s been framed.”

“Of course he said that shit, Ryn.”

“Well, call me crazy, but honestly, I believed him.”

Mag again said nothing, and I visualized him standing in the condo he shared with Evie working really hard not to call me crazy.

I lowered my voice like someone could hear me when I shared, “He says there are dirty cops behind this.”

“Fucking fuck,” Mag bit off.

Ohmigod.

“Are there dirty cops?” I asked hesitantly. “Do you know?”

“No, I don’t, but that shit is dark and even if there’s zero-point-one percent possibility it’s true, this is not good.”

“I thought the same thing,” I agreed. Then I went on, “He said the cop who got killed, Crowley, was getting close to something. He said Crowley was investigating the bad cops. Brett definitely shared it was a cop who killed him, though not which one. He also wanted me to be sure Hawk knew all of this. He wants you guys looking into it. But now I’m not thinking that’s a good idea.”

“Hawk isn’t in the practice of doing favors for felons.”

“Yeah,” I muttered.

“So, why are you the go-between on this?” he asked.

“Well, because we have a mutual acquaintance, I suppose. I didn’t…” I blew out a breath. “Okay, at first, I was freaked way the fuck out. But he was actually very cool and when it was all done, he gave me a…”

I couldn’t believe I was going to say my next like I couldn’t believe it was happening when it happened.

But it happened.

And when it happened, Brett proved he was good at it.

“Hug.”

“Christ,” Mag clipped.

“It was very strange, but it was also kinda nice because I’d had a really bad day,” I shared.

“Danny,” I heard Evie in the background. “What’s going on? Is everything okay with Ryn?”

“She’s fine, honey, let me get what I need from her and I’ll fill you in,” Mag said to Evie. Then to me, “You said the person who set this up was his attorney?”

“Yeah.”

“Privilege,” he muttered.

“You wanna go after him,” I deduced.

“Ryn, he’s kidnapped you, now twice, and Evie and the others once.”

It was about Evie.

Brett had kidnapped Evie and it had nearly sent Mag over the edge.

He didn’t care that Brett was innocent (maybe) of this (particular) crime.

He wanted him caught.

“Well, her name is Corinne Morton and I can send you her address,” I offered.

“I can find it,” he said. “Is that all?”

He wants me to say hey to your girlfriend from him.

“Yup.”

He paused then asked, “You sure you’re okay? You need us to come around?”

Such a good dude.

“I’ll call Evie later, set up some girl time. I haven’t seen her in a while. Catch her up with life. But other than that, all cool.”

“Sure?”

No.

But that wasn’t Mag’s sitch.

“Yeah,” I lied.

“You said you had a bad day.”