Broken Hero Read online

  “Stay away from me,” she said, her palm raised. “I don’t know who the fuck you are.”

  I froze in place. Natalie regarded me with hard eyes for several long moments before turning her attention back to the phone. She hit the play button and set it down on the coffee table.

  “OK,” came Joey’s voice from the speaker. “You got any questions about this arrangement of ours?”

  “Not a one,” I said.

  I remembered the conversation already. It was from the last meeting I’d had with Joey before I met with Natalie for the first time.

  “Then repeat it back to me. Tell me what I’m expecting out of you, big man.”

  I knew what was going to come next, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  All I could do was brace for impact.

  I sighed on the recording before speaking.

  “You want me to meet with your ex.”

  “Say her name for me.”

  “Natalie Mayer.”

  “Good. Go on.”

  “I’m going to interview with her and convince her to hire me and my crew as her personal bodyguards.”

  “Perfect. What else?”

  “Once I’m hired, I’m going to work for you. I’ll feed you information about her, what she’s up to, and most importantly, information about the case.”

  “Very good.”

  Then the recording cut off. The conversation was still fresh enough in my mind for me to know what was next—Joey asked me to repeat what I would get out of helping him. And the answer was that he’d promise not to hurt Ellie. The fucker had made sure not to include that part in his little presentation.

  Natalie shook her head as she swiped through the phone, hitting play again.

  “OK, Garret,” came Joey’s voice through the phone again. “It’s been a few weeks since this shit’s been going down. Tell me what you know so far.”

  “She’s working with two cops with the NYPD—Walker Barnes and Simon Wharton. They’re putting together a case on you, getting ready to bring it to the attorney general…”

  I went on in the recording, telling Joey everything I knew about the case.

  Each word I spoke was like a shard of glass into my gut. Each word was a betrayal.

  When the recording ended, a silence hung in the air. Natalie was dumbfounded. It was the first time since I met her that she had no idea what to say.

  Finally, I spoke.

  “Natalie,” I said.

  She snapped her head toward me and shot a hard glare in my direction, one that seemed fueled by pure rage.

  “All this time,” she said. “All this time I’ve been paying you to keep me safe, you’ve been working with the man who put me in danger to begin with. I can’t fucking believe it.”

  “There’s more to it than you know,” I said. “You have to hear me out.”

  She continued to regard me with the same expression, that perfect blend of rage and fear and confusion.

  “You want to try to talk your way out of this?” she asked. “Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. I should call the cops right now, tell them that you’ve been working with Joey.”

  She’d be well within her right to do that, and I knew it. I hadn’t just betrayed her trust—I’d broken the law. If she wanted to, she could destroy my life with a phone call. And the worst part was that I knew I deserved it.

  “No,” she said. “I’m not interested in hearing another word out of you. For all I know, everything out of your mouth over these last few weeks has been nothing but lies. One after another while you do the bidding of your real boss like the good little lapdog you are.”

  There was nothing I could say in my defense. And again, she was right. I’d lost all the trust I’d earned with her, and without any proof of what Joey had done to Ellie, my words wouldn’t have a single bit of weight.

  Joey had fucked me over, but more than that, I’d fucked myself over.

  “And we slept together,” she said, a shudder running through her body as she spoke the words. “And it wasn’t just sex—it was something else. Something more. At least, that’s what I thought. But that was a fucking lie too, just like everything else.”

  There was venom on each and every one of her words.

  “No,” I said. “That wasn’t a lie.”

  I knew I would regret what I was going to say next, but I had to try.

  “Natalie, I love you.”

  A strange expression crossed her face. For a brief flash, the rage in her eyes melted away and there was something vulnerable, something open to what I was telling her.

  But as quickly as it arrived, it went away. And the anger returned.

  She shot up from the couch and jut an accusing finger in my direction.

  “You love me?” she said. “That’s what you think is going to get you out of this?”

  “I’m not trying to get out of it,” I said. “I’m telling you the truth. For the first time, this isn’t a lie. I love you, Natalie.”

  The vulnerability returned again for the briefest of moments, then was gone just like before.

  “You’ve got some fucking nerve,” she said. “Doing what you’ve done to me and trying to use love to worm your way out of it. What the hell do you think I’m going to say?”

  She clasped her hands together in a mocking impression of a swooning maiden.

  “Oh Garrett,” she said, “it doesn’t matter that our entire relationship has been one big deception. It doesn’t matter that you’ve been working with the man who’s been trying to kill me. What matters is that you love me.” She unclasped her hands and let them drop to her side. “Please,” she said.

  “Does that mean you don’t feel the same way?” I asked.

  More words that I knew I’d regret. But I couldn’t help myself—I wanted to give her some truth, even if she didn’t believe me.

  “It…it doesn’t matter,” she shot out.

  “And there’s more to it than that,” I said. “Joey—he threatened my sis—”

  She shut her eyes and waved her hand in front of her face.

  “I don’t care,” she said. “I don’t care about whatever bullshit is going to come out of your mouth next. All I want from you is to get out of my face, my apartment, and my life. I never want to see you again, Garrett.”

  She pointed her finger toward the door.

  “Now leave. I’m doing you a favor by not calling the cops on you. And that’s the one favor you’re going to get. I suggest you take advantage of it.”

  I took a slow breath, knowing that there wasn’t anything else to be said. She was right that not calling the cops was an act of mercy. Staying any longer might risk her taking it back.

  I backed away and reached the door, the photos on the coffee table seeming to stare back at me, mocking me with my deception.

  “Goodbye, Natalie,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  She continued to glare at me, and I watched her for any trace of that soft, vulnerable expression to return. But it didn’t.

  I opened the door and shut it behind me, the lock firmly clicking.

  I hurried out of the building and made the drive back to my apartment. Once alone, I poured myself a drink and began pacing back and forth as I tried to figure out my next step. First, I was going to make sure that Ellie was safe, maybe even take a flight to the West Coast to see to it personally.

  Then Natalie. She may have hated me, but that didn’t mean I was going to let her go. I might’ve thrown away any chance of love between us, but I’d be damned if was going to let Joey go through with his plans for her.

  Whatever it took, whatever I had to risk, I was going to keep her safe.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  NATALIE

  Three weeks later…

  A tinge of something ran through me as I sat in my office. I was jotting down some notes, pen in hand, when the sensation started in my belly and spread out through my body.

  It was odd. It wasn’t quite nausea, and it wasn’t qui
te pain. But whatever it was, it had been happening more and more over the course of the last week.

  I took a few slow, deep breaths until the sensation went away. And as soon as it did, it was replaced by hunger. Without thinking, I pulled open the drawer to my immediate right and shoved my hand into the plastic container of premium beef jerky I’d picked up that morning on the way to work.

  Red meat had never really been my thing—I was more of a greens-and-sushi kind of girl—but for some reason, meat was all I could think about lately. I popped a strip of jerky into my mouth, chewing it slowly and letting my palate absorb every last trace of its salty, delicious flavor.

  Right as I swallowed it down, a call came in through Skype. The number was private, but I recognized it right away. It was Walker Barnes, my contact with the NYPD. I clicked “accept” and his face appeared on my monitor.

  “Morning, Natalie,” he said, an eager expression on his face.

  “Morning, Walker,” I said as I wrapped my hands around my mug and brought it up for a sip. “I hope you’ve got something for me.”

  The case had been slow going over the last few weeks. We’d been in a scramble ever since I let them know that Garrett—god, I hated even thinking his name—had been feeding Joey information. Our case had to be scrapped as we tried to figure out something new.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “This is definitely worth your time.”

  “Then let’s hear it,” I said.

  “So,” he said. “We got a breakthrough last night.”

  “Oh?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he said with a nod. “We picked up a few scumbags in the middle of a drug-running operation. Got them dead to rights with enough coke to put them all away for a long, long time.”

  I listened, eager to hear what he had for me.

  “Now,” he said, “we’d been watching these guys for a while, figured they were some independent operators. But when we started questioning them, one of the guys decided to sing like a choir boy about how they weren’t as independent as they looked.”

  “And what’d you find out?” I asked.

  “We found out that he was right. They weren’t some group operating out on their own. They were some low-rung guys working for none other than Joey Monroe.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “As serious as it gets. At first we were suspicious, but once we went to the rest of the crew and told them what we knew, they all cracked. They’re a bunch of kids barely out of high school. Not one of them is ready to throw his life away doing time to keep Joey off the hook.”

  “So, what does this mean for me?”

  “What it means for you is that between these guys and what you’ve given us, we look like we’re finally ready to put together a case. If all goes according to plan, we can book Joey for criminal conspiracy charges—”

  “Maybe some RICO Act stuff,” I added.

  He grinned. “The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act? I forget I’m talking with a lawyer sometimes,” he said. “Yeah, you’re right. Might be enough to get him facing some serious time. And if it looks like his position is weakening, we might get more of his guys to flip to our side.”

  Then a pensive expression crossed his face.

  “What is it?” I asked. “You’ve got something on your mind.”

  “Just thinking about you-know-who.”

  I shook my head, the mere thought of Garrett causing rage to boil in the pit of my stomach.

  “You know I don’t like to talk about him,” I said.

  “I know, I know,” said Walker. “But something smells weird on this. Like, more than a breakup, like maybe he knows something.”

  “Still don’t want to talk about it,” I said.

  “And I know that means there’s some bad blood between you two—”

  “‘Bad blood’ is putting it mildly,” I said. “It’s more like rancid, sewage blood.”

  He gave a slight nod, conceding the point.

  “More colorful than I would’ve put it, but really paints a picture,” he said. “But you have no idea how to get in touch with him? I’d love to grill him, find out if he was in on Joey’s scheme. Maybe he has something we could use to lock Joey up.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said.

  “But he vanished into thin air like a cloud of smoke hit with a hard gust of wind? You’ve really got no idea where he is?”

  I shook my head.

  “Nope,” I said. “He took off without warning. I think he was in on it, but I don’t have proof, and it’s not like he’s coming back to turn himself in.”

  It was a lie, one I hated to tell. After that night, when I told Garrett to fuck off forever, I knew after he left that the next move, the smart move, that is, would’ve been to call the cops and tell them every last detail about the betrayal.

  But I didn’t.

  Instead, I waited, gave him time to leave the city and run far away from the consequences of his actions. I hated to admit it, but him telling me he loved me was enough to soften me just enough to go easy on him. I kept that manila folder private, too.

  And the worst part? I loved him right back. Or at least I had before I found out what he’d done to me.

  “You there?” asked Walker, his voice bringing me back to the moment.

  “I’m here,” I said. “Sorry, just got a little dis—”

  Right in the middle of the sentence, however, a feeling gripped me. This wasn’t the “off” feeling that I’d been dealing with. No, this was actual overwhelming nausea, a brief, sudden sickness that made my eyes bug out and my hands shoot to my stomach.

  I let out a moan of pain, ready to burst out of my chair and rush to the bathroom.

  “Hey,” said Walker. “You OK over there?”

  But as fast as the nausea set in, it went away. I put both hands on my desk and took in several slow, deep breaths as I returned to normal.

  “I, I think so,” I said.

  “Good,” said Walker. “For a second there it looked like you were about to unload your lunch onto that nice desk of yours.”

  “That’s how I felt,” I said.

  “Damn,” he said. “Might want to see a doctor about that.”

  I tucked a few stray strands of dark hair behind my ear and turned my attention back to the screen.

  “No way,” I said. “Too much going on to work a doctor appointment into the middle of it.”

  “You ever hear the expression, ‘make time for health now, or make time for illness later’?” asked Walker.

  “Not really much into clichés,” I said.

  “Well, some clichés stick around because they’re true,” he said. “And right now it might seem like a pain in the ass to go see a doctor, but the last thing we need is you being out of commission because you let a bug run wild.”

  There was some sense to what he was saying. Still, I was already so busy that I couldn’t imagine making the time for it.

  “Anyway,” he said. “I’ll keep you posted once I know anything else.”

  “Sounds good,” I said.

  With that, I ended the call.

  Before I even had a minute to myself to collect my thoughts, however, a chime sounded through my office to let me know someone was here to see me.

  “Who is it?” I asked Cecelia, my secretary.

  “The Tank,” came her voice through the speakers.

  “He say what he wanted?”

  “You know how he is,” she said. “Not a word except to the lady in charge.”

  I smirked.

  “Send him in.”

  Moments later the door opened and the Tank stepped into my office, lowering his head as he entered so as not to smack the top of his gleaming, bald head against the door frame.

  “The Tank” was the nickname Cecelia had given to Rodney Delahunt, the bodyguard I’d hired after I’d…dismissed Garrett. And it was a fitting nickname. The man was huge, built like a six-and-a-half-foot-tall rectangle of pure muscle.
<
br />   He was dressed in his usual suit, but it always looked like an awkward fit on him. A man like Rodney would look more natural dressed in a spandex one-piece and leaping from the turnbuckle of a wrestling ring.

  “Afternoon,” he spoke in a gruff voice as he entered.

  “Afternoon, Rodney,” I said.

  He strode over to my desk, his footfalls shaking the pictures on the walls. Once across from me, he clasped his massive, meaty hands behind his back and spoke.

  “Apartment’s clear,” he said. “The other boys got it checked out.”

  “That means there’s no chance of someone hacking into my system.”

  “Shouldn’t be,” he said.

  “Good, because the last thing I need is my system failing at the last second because the assholes who put it in still had access.”

  “Not gonna happen,” he said.

  Rodney wasn’t exactly the most sparkling conversationalist, but that was OK. I hadn’t hired him for his quick wit or how good he looked in a suit. I’d made that mistake not too long ago, and I was still paying the price for it.

  “Good,” I said, sitting back in my chair. “And any sign that Joey’s been around?”

  “Not a one,” he said.

  Silence followed. I waved my hand in a “go on” gesture—Rodney wasn’t the loquacious sort, so additional details always had to be asked for.

  “Apartment’s locked down, and my other two boys are posted outside your place at all times. None of us have seen a thing.”

  “Hmm,” I said.

  I should’ve felt better at this news, but all it made me think was that Joey had something in mind for me, something he was taking time to get ready.

  Before I could think any more about it, however, the nausea returned. I leaned forward and let out a cry of pain as it ran through me. Rodney was at my side in a split second.

  “You OK?” he asked, his big hand on my back.

  “Fine,” I said as the nausea faded.

  Rodney glanced at the coffee on my desk.

  “This been out of your sight?” he asked.

  “No,” I said. “Made it myself.”