Rockwell Agency: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “My name is Hannah,” Hannah told her, taking Alana’s arm and turning her around, guiding her toward a seat. “It’s nice to meet you. Sit. Take your shoes off. Can I get you something to drink?”

  “No,” Alana said, even as she sat down in the chair Hannah all but pushed her into. “No—I’m not staying. And I don’t believe you were shot. This is some kind of elaborate ruse to humiliate me, just because I slept with Jake.”

  Jordan didn’t think she could like Alana any less, but apparently she could. “Not everything is about you,” Jordan said, icily. “Clearly nobody has had the courtesy to tell you that before. Allow me to be the first.”

  Alana sniffed at her, her expression still hateful.

  “She wasn’t always like this,” Wes told Jordan, quietly. “Or maybe she was, but she was a much better actress.”

  Jordan patted his hand by way of reply, keeping her focus on Alana. “I’m the one who had Wes call you here,” she said. “And it’s for your own good. There are some things that we’re going to tell you that will come as a surprise to you. Some of them won’t come as a surprise to you. But I can assure you that, even though you’re a raging bitch, I’m trying to do what’s best for you.”

  “Are you going to let her talk to me like that?” Alana asked Wes.

  “Oh, absolutely,” Wes said. “In fact, I highly encourage it.”

  Alana’s mouth fell open, and then she began to work up tears. “You never loved me at all, did you?”

  “God, I hope not,” Wes said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you still haven’t even commented on the fact that I’m sitting here, shot up. And because of you!”

  Once it was about her, Alana’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean you were shot because of me?”

  Jordan decided that she was going to take over this explanation, because the sooner that she didn’t have to talk to Alana anymore, the better. “Last night, at the bar, a woman approached Wes,” she told Alana, drawing the woman’s attention and her vitriol. “The woman had seen him talking to you, and she wanted information. She pressed a gun to Wes’ side and she led him outside, back into an alley. She threatened to shoot him.”

  Alana pressed her hand to her heart. “My God.”

  “You and I left the bar at the same time last night,” Jordan said. “You got into your car and drove away. I went looking for Wes. I found him with the woman in the back alley. I distracted her, and Wes and I were able to get the gun away from her. But when we did, and we thought we were in the clear, a man showed up. He was a large man, and he had a gun as well. He shot Wes in the shoulder.” It was an already edited version of the story, but now she got really vague. “We managed to get away, running through the back alleys. I brought Wes here, and I’ve doctored him. A friend of mine who is an actual doctor is coming by soon to see to him further. We have not gone to law enforcement.”

  Alana was shaking her head back and forth, listening. When Jordan was done, Alana got up from her chair and hurried to Wes’s side, perching herself on the edge of the couch. “Oh, you poor thing.” Alana took the hand of his injured arm.

  Wes winced as she moved his arm, and Jordan felt another flash of anger. She wanted to push Alana’s hand off Wes, but she restrained herself.

  “Alana, don’t,” Wes said, easing his hand from hers. “You didn’t care at all a minute ago, before you knew that this was all because someone is after you. Don’t pretend to care now. Be honest—you’re just glad that we haven’t told anyone what happened, so that the police are not involved and questioning you.”

  “Baby, it’s not—.”

  “Enough with that,” Wes said, motioning her away with his good hand. “You have lost all privilege to call me baby. For God’s sake. The fact that you actually think I might still be drawn into that means that you don’t have a very high opinion of my intelligence.”

  Alana looked affronted. “That’s not fair! I didn’t ask anyone to shoot you!”

  Cutting through the post-breakup tension between the two, Jordan intervened. “Alana, you don’t seem all that shocked that someone might have wanted information about you. Or that someone with a gun [or even two people] was looking for you.”

  Alana shifted her gaze to Jordan, her eyes narrowing. “What would I know about that?”

  “Use your imagination,” Jordan said, dryly. “What possible reason could someone have to want to kill you?”

  Alana sucked in a breath. “You think they want to kill me?”

  Jordan attempted not to roll her eyes, but she didn’t quite get there. “Yes, Alana. We know they want to kill you. That’s why they were shooting people seen talking to you. They’re trying to get to you.”

  “I don’t know,” Alana said, breathlessly. Her hand pressed hard against her chest, as though she was having a difficult time trying to breathe. “Oh, God. I …I don’t know. Wes, you have to help me. You can’t just let these people come after me.”

  Reining in her feelings wasn’t Jordan’s strong suit. She didn’t really believe in editing what came out of her mouth, although over the years she had learned that it was occasionally helpful to do so. This didn’t seem like one of those occasions.”

  “I’m going to be straight with you,” Jordan said, by way of warning. Then she followed through. “I think that you’re a sniveling, manipulative, airheaded, narcissistic woman who is a lot smarter than you pretend to be. And that wasn’t a compliment, lest your narcissism causes you to take it as one. You’re not at all surprised that someone is out to get you, although you may not know that someone is actively trying to kill you. And you may not have known that the person was at the bar last night. But you know exactly what you’ve been doing, and you figured that, at some point, you might have to deal with a few consequences.”

  Jordan paused for a moment, but Alana said nothing, her jaw clenched shut and her eyes furious.

  “This is that time,” Jordan told Alana. “You’re going to have to answer for it now, and Wes isn’t going to rush in and save you. He’s already been shot just for standing next to you at a bar, where, by the way, you pushed your presence on him. Now, me …I could help you. But I’m not sure if I want to.” This part was just Jordan playing hardball with Alana. She wanted to establish quickly who was in charge and who had the power, so she couldn’t exactly tell Alana that she had already promised Wes that she would take the case. “First of all, if someone kills you, it might do the world a favor. I know that I would certainly be glad not to have to talk to you ever again.”

  Alana sucked in a breath, offended, and Wes snorted as he held back his laugh. Jordan ignored both.

  “Why don’t you convince me, Alana? Convince me that you didn’t know, that you didn’t set Wes up, and that you deserve my help,” Jordan said. “Go ahead. Persuade me.”

  Alana stared at her for a long moment, as though deciding what to do. But she wasn’t going to crack that easily. “You tricked me into coming here. Fed me some story about Wes getting shot by people looking for me, and then you insinuated that I somehow brought this on myself, and that I’m a blight upon the world. So, why don’t you tell me why I should believe a word you say, and even if I do believe you, why would I want your help over the police?”

  If she had tried, Alana couldn’t have set Jordan up better to make the revelation that she hadn’t even told Hannah yet—not to mention Wes.

  “Because,” Jordan said with a smile, “I doubt you want the police involved, given that they would surely figure out that you’re involved in a gem theft network and you’ve been stealing from the store you work in.”

  Chapter 18

  Wes

  He had never witnessed a takedown so brutal. Jordan rattled off her speech to Alana as though she had written it down, perfected it, and spent months memorizing it. The words flowed off her tongue, her inflections and her pauses so well-timed that he could hardly believe that she was just going off instinct. He was loving every minute of it, watching Alana’s face gettin
g redder and redder. The best part was that Jordan wasn’t saying anything that wasn’t true, and it was what Alana had needed to hear, apparently, for a very long time.

  Wes was so invested in Jordan’s takedown that when she got to the point, revealing her suspicion that Alana was a jewel thief, he almost didn’t even notice the accusation. But after Jordan said it, the room went silent, and Wes caught back up, really hearing what she had said, and his mouth dropped.

  “Wait—really?” Wes asked Jordan, both stunned and not that surprised at the same time. “Are you serious?” He turned to Alana. “Is she serious?”

  No—she can’t know that. She can’t. Oh my God. What am I going to do?

  Even as Alana panicked inside, she remained relatively calm on the outside. The only betrayal of her true feelings was the tightness in her voice and the stiffness of her posture as she held herself rigidly.

  “Don’t believe a word she says,” Alana said, coldly, glaring at Jordan. “You don’t know this woman from Adam, Wes. Who are you going to believe? Me or her?”

  He’s going to believe her. They all will. Shit! I’m going to be caught. I can’t go to prison—I’ll die in prison. I have to think of something!

  “One hundred percent her,” Wes said, without hesitating. Even if he hadn’t heard Alana’s thoughts, he would have believed Jordan. “Every time. Don’t try to pretend there’s some intimacy left between us, Alana. There isn’t. And I’m getting to the point where I would believe anyone about you.”

  Alana turned her gaze on him, and when her eyes softened it was so obviously deliberate that Wes almost had to laugh. “Wesley …you don’t mean that. I know you’re upset right now. I’m so sorry that you’re in pain. You must be terrified and in shock. But you’re not thinking straight.”

  “It actually makes perfect sense,” Wes said, shaking his head. “Your job at the jewelry counter. I always thought you were so much smarter than that, you know? Not that there’s anything wrong with working at a jewelry counter, but it just wasn’t …you. But of course. Of course, you’re involved in some underhanded, underground scheme. That—that is definitely you.”

  “You don’t have any proof,” Alana said. “There’s nothing that can link me to any underground gem theft network. This is insane! I’m being framed, and I’m the victim here!”

  Jordan got up and went to the stack of papers that she and Hannah had organized earlier. Flipping through them, she pulled out the one photograph that had helped her form her hypothesis. “I was looking you up last night,” she told Alana. “Trying to figure out why someone would want to kill you. I’ll be honest. I figured you’d slept with the wrong man. That’s why, when I found this picture of you on the Internet, I looked this guy up to see if he’s married. He’s not, by the way. But he is rumored to use his work as a collector as a front for stealing high-quality gems and selling them on the black market. That’s when I decided to look up where you work, and lo and behold …you work at a high-end jewelry store.”

  “Holy shit,” Wes said, looking up at Jordan in amazement. “You’re incredible. You are totally a superhero.”

  Jordan sent him a slightly panicked look, giving him a shake of her head. But Wes knew that Alana wouldn’t pick up on what he meant. And he wanted Jordan to know just how amazing he thought she was. Not only was she strong and fast and able to heal people …but when it came down to the nitty gritty of investigative work, she was a genius at that, too.

  “She’s a fool who doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Alana said hatefully, getting to her feet. “And I’m done sitting here and listening to this defamation of my character. That’s a crime, you know.”

  “Actually, it’s only a crime if someone says something about you that’s not true,” Jordan said, “and that something has to be dispersed publicly and have some discernable, quantifiable, and negative impact on your personal life or career. So, what I just said isn’t defamation, most importantly because it’s true. Correct or incorrect, Alana?”

  Alana opened and shut her mouth several times, trying to figure out what to say. Wes watched her, wondering for the hundredth time how he could have been with this person for so long and known nothing about her.

  “It’s true,” he said, quietly. “I can tell by the look on her face. Every word of it is true.”

  “I’m leaving,” Alana said again, this time turning and stalking towards the door. “I don’t have to stay for this.”

  Hannah once again stepped in front of the door, preventing Alana from accessing it. And Jordan moved towards the door as well, reaching out and taking Alana’s arm to turn her to face her. “If you walk out,” Jordan said, her voice steady and calm, “I’ll call the police. I will tell them everything that I’ve told you here today. I’ll turn over the evidence I’ve collected, including the picture. I’ll tell them my whole theory. And I’ll tell them where to find you.”

  Alana glared down at her, but she said nothing. Wes wondered if she really meant it. If Alana insisted on walking out, would Jordan really turn all of this over to the police and risk them asking both of them questions that they couldn’t answer?

  “Or,” Jordan said, smiling insincerely. “You stay. You come clean to us. And we keep you from getting murdered. What would you rather have? A personalized protection force that doesn’t intend to prosecute you at the end of all of this or the police who will find it easiest to put you in jail to keep you from getting murdered then forget you and throw away the key?”

  “Like you could protect anyone,” Alana said, still insisting on sneering down at Jordan, despite the position she was in.

  Wes couldn’t help himself. “Jordan is the best protection that you’ll ever find,” he told Alana. “She looks small, but she carried me. She’s a trained fighter. And so are the people she works with. You couldn’t ask for better.”

  Alana glanced at Jordan skeptically. “You can’t be one hundred pounds, soaking wet.”

  “I wouldn’t suggest challenging me to a fight,” Jordan said. “It won’t turn out well for you.”

  “I would never fight. It’s unladylike.”

  Wes scoffed. “And stealing gems is ladylike? Sleeping around is ladylike? You need to throw your pride out the window, Alana, because this is the best chance you’re ever going to get.”

  Staying means admitting that I’m guilty. I can’t afford to do that. Not with so much at stake. I’ll go see Sal. He’ll know how to help me better than this horrible little woman. I can’t let her or Wes know the truth. I have to handle this on my own.

  “If I was guilty of anything, you would have made a good argument,” Alana said, her nose in the air. “But it’s clear that you’re both making this whole thing up to cover why Wes is really hurt and why you’re really together. I’m not going to stand around and play make believe with you, and if I hear of you telling anyone about your unfounded suspicions, I will sue for defamation.” Alana looked right at Jordan. “And I have very good lawyers.”

  Wes watched as Alana walked out the door and neither Jordan nor Hannah attempted to stop her. The two women exchanged looks as Hannah shut the door behind Alana, shaking their heads.

  “You can’t just let her go,” Wes said. “I thought this was our case, Jordan. We’re in this now.”

  “We are,” she said, walking back towards the couch. “But I can’t force her to accept my help or my protection. Did you hear anything from her thoughts?”

  “She did it,” Wes said, firmly. “She admitted it, in her thoughts. And she’s going to get help from a guy named Sal. I don’t know who he is.”

  Jordan grabbed her laptop and sat down, careful to keep enough distance between them that her movements didn’t jostle him. “Well, let’s find out. Sal isn’t a very common name, now is it.” Jordan glanced up at Hannah as she started typing on her computer. “I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing. I guess she isn’t ready for a bodyguard yet. I didn’t even get as far as offering her your services.”

/>   “That’s all right,” Hannah said. “I won’t be brokenhearted if she never wants my services, to be perfectly honest. Although, Wes, you are a dear, and I would be happy to help you—even if it meant helping her.”

  Wes smiled at Hannah. She was the sweetest person he’d ever met, and he liked her instantly. “Thank you. That’s quite an honor.”

  “But,” Hannah said, looking back at Jordan. “I’m going to run. You can call me if you need me again—if she comes back. I’m sure she will. But until then…”

  “Go,” Jordan said, waving her friend towards the door. “You’ve done plenty. I’ll call you. Thank you.”

  Hannah slipped out the door, and Jordan was still tapping on her computer, searching for Sal. Wes sat there on the couch, staring at nothing and thinking about everything. “I just don’t know what to think,” he finally said, interrupting the silence. “I can’t believe she would be so stupid.”

  “Really?” Jordan asked. “I can.”

  Wes looked over at her, smiling slightly. “Yes, but you’re a genius.”

  “That’s nonsense.”

  “You figured out what she’s doing. I had no idea, and I lived with her.”

  “I’m an investigator,” Jordan said, dismissively. “That’s what I do.”

  Chapter 19

  Jordan

  Kevin Brandon, Jordan’s doctor friend, came by not long after Alana left, giving Jordan some time to do some further work while he saw to Wes back in Jordan’s bedroom. She trusted Kevin to be discreet, and it was a relief to finally have a professional look at Wes’ shoulder. The last thing that she wanted was for his wound to worsen or get infected because she had failed to get him the proper care.

  Part of her wondered if it wasn’t just best to turn this whole case over to the police. There was clearly a gem theft ring waiting to be uncovered, shots had been fired, her client had been wounded, and their one link to the gem theft ring didn’t want to cooperate with them. More than that, their one link was a miserable person to be around.