Alek walked in, sat down, undid a button on his suit jacket. “That’ll get easier,” he said.
“When?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. When you don’t have to do it anymore.”
I didn’t even have the energy to laugh. He swiveled the chair to look back at me. “You did good.”
“You’re too nice to me.”
“I am, but you did do well,” he said. “However, we have more pressing things to worry about.”
“My job?”
He shook his head. “I wish,” he said. “No. The feds.”
I sighed. “What happened?”
“Nothing has happened yet,” he said. “The feds took Kieran in for an informal questioning and I don’t think he said anything. But he’s going to go to his fixer and his lawyer will advise him to try and pin things on you.”
I bit the bottom of my lip. “I don’t think he’ll do that.”
“He will do it, if that’s what it takes to protect his family.”
I cocked my head, piecing what he said together.
“Not you. Not Rosie. The Callahans,” Alek helpfully clarified.
I opened my mouth to argue, but I thought better of it–even if, on some level, I truly thought Alek was wrong. Kieran…he’d had every chance to hurt me, and he hadn’t taken it. Still, that didn’t change the fact that Kieran was dangerous. Chaotic.Loyal to a fault, and often to the wrong people.
Still, I wasn’t ready to let go of the version of him I’d seen just a few weeks ago…holding me in the shower, washing blood out of my hair, whispering that he’d missed me.
“Have they been back to my house?” I asked instead. “Have you heard anything since they showed up at the ER?”
“The agents haven’t, but someone has,” Alek said. “It’s hard to tell who’s behind it. It might be them scaring you into cooperation, but this kind of harassment doesn’t feel like their style.”
I took a sharp breath. “What do you mean?”
“Phone taps, maybe. They’re not obligated to tell us, obviously.” Alek replied, his brow furrowing. “I didn’t want to worry you, not with everything else that’s happening, but you’re going to find out anyway.”
I buried my face in my hands. “You think they tapped my phone?”
“Nah, that would look bad since you’re DA,” he said. “But I don’t think they wouldn’t do it.”
“It’s not admissible, is it?” I asked, worried they’d heard Kieran and I when he had called me at one in the morning and he’d have to go to prison for phone sex. Which was ridiculous. He would go to prison for a lot of other things...the phone sex was incidental. Obviously, it drew a connection between us, but that wasn’t illegal. Everything else was.
“No, but they’ll know if Kieran contacts you. It paints a connection and makes it easier for them to go after you if you don’t look careful,” Alek replied, as if he could read my mind. “It’s exactly what they want.”
I rubbed my temple, trying to ignore the headache. “I, uh, had phone sex with him the other day.”
Alek stared at me. “Sorry, what?”
“I had phone sex with him the other day. Well, the other night.”
“Goddamn it, Ruby.”
“I shouldn’t have,” I said. “It had just been such an intense day. I wanted relief. I called him and I…look, it spiraled, obviously.”
“I really don’t need to hear this,” Alek said, his voice dry.
