Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“There are none in my living quarters, I promise.”
“Deal.”
“So we’re doing it? We’re moving in together? What did I tell you about there being a day where you wouldn’t be able to resist me?”
“Yeah, yeah, you were right. I was wrong.”
I cup my ear. “I’m sorry, what? Can you please repeat that? I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
Dylan sighs. “I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in my life, but nothing as big as my first assumptions about you. You’re a good man, Travis West. It just took way too long to see it.”
I run my hand down his jaw, rubbing my thumb over his cheek. “Good thing I’m not with you for your brains now, isn’t it?”
He pushes me off him. “Oh, fuck you.”
I pull him back to me. “The truth is, you didn’t see it because I didn’t let you see it, but that’s going to change. From here on out, you have all of me.”
“I guess this means I should let you call me Rogue, huh?”
I kiss the tip of his nose. “It’s cute you think I was ever going to stop.”
Epilogue
Rogue
THREE MONTHS LATER
“How does it feel to be back in the field?” Courtsen asks.
We’re both pressed against a boundary fence in an alleyway in South LA, wearing Kevlar vests, our guns at the ready, waiting for the go-ahead to bust through the gate to the suspected meth lab on the other side.
“It’s not the field that bothers me so much but being on a new team and proving my worth. Not everyone in my old squad was happy with what went down.”
“Assholes,” Courtsen says. “You brought a dirty agent to justice.”
“And accused two others in the process.”
Evans and Fields claimed they were only following orders and had no idea what was going on, so they walked away with their jobs and reputations intact, but I’m not entirely convinced. And when I said as much, the rest of the team turned on me because we’re supposed to protect our brothers in blue.
I honestly think the only reason Walker did go down was because Hale stepped up. The validity of the poor-quality voice recording Trav handed in was brought into question, but with Hale’s testimony and Jon Rowling turning on his own godfather to cut a deal, there was no way Walker was getting away with anything.
Jon’s testimony did, however, open a wider investigation to everyone Walker was connected with. Jon claims it was Walker who told him to kill Keane if he was short. Walker was calling all the shots and was one of the top dogs, a huge drug lord inside a drug ring that’s connected to multiple cartels. Not that the cartels knew about that, though. Allegedly. If they knew they were being pitted against each other for negotiation on price for distribution, Walker would have a whole lot of enemies coming for him. Jon’s claims are being investigated as we speak, but it seems we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what Walker was involved in. It’s now up to the DEA to uncover it all.
It’s like we’re back at square one. We got one bad guy out of countless, and because I spoke out, because it was me who set off the chain of events, my teammates could no longer trust me all because the bad guy was one of us.
It’s that kind of bullshit I joined the force to stop. In the end, our superiors decided to transfer me. My new team has been great so far, but it’s taking a while to build trust because I can’t get a read on any of them. Courtsen seems to be the only one who’s approachable and nice, but the ones who are cold and distant are like that toward everyone, not just me.
It’s still hard to get a sense of where I belong on this new team, but I’m willing to put in the work. I’m not done being a DEA agent.
“If those two are really as innocent as they claim to be, they would be happy that they didn’t have any charges laid against them and got to keep their jobs. They wouldn’t be pissed at the guy who pointed out they were there when their SAC was arrested, working on his side.”
I shrug. “It is what it is.”
“You don’t need to worry about us. A few of the guys can be standoffish, but they’re all professional where it counts.”
That makes me think about Trav and his team. They’re closer than professional. They really are the definition of brothers in arms. There’s so much trust between them, which means they’re a unit.
That’s what the DEA is missing—being more than friends with colleagues. Being closer than family. People can say all they want about law enforcement being like family, but when you’re only family from the time you start your shift to when it’s over, it’s not the same.