Shadows Redeemed (Garrison Security Innovations #4)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

SAGE LEANED OVER THE pool table, her brow furrowed in concentration as she lined up her next shot. Just before she took it, she held her breath, and then gave the stick a quick jerk, only releasing the breathe she held after she heard it hit the ball. The crack of the cue ball against the solid red ball echoed through the dimly lit interior of Haggerty’s Pub. Standing straighter, she held her pool stick in front of her with both hands and watched as the balls bounced around the table, the red ball cracking a couple of others before finally coming to a stop against the side bumper. Shit!

“You just aren’t having a good night.” Gage shook his head, chalking his pool stick in preparation for his next shot. “Where is your mind at?”

She shrugged. “Just having an awful night.” She moved out of the way, taking her seat at the high-top table they always claimed when they were there.

Usually, she loved these nights—hanging out with her security team, trading friendly insults, and enjoying a few beers and a couple of shots. Tequila, of course. But not tonight. Tonight, her mind couldn’t stop thinking of Parker’s phone call, his pleading for her help still ringing in her ears, help she simply couldn’t give him.

She lifted her beer and took a long, slow swallow, trying to wash the memory away. It wouldn’t lead her down a happy path, and she knew it.

“Everything all right?” Elvis leaned on the table, his hands wrapped around his beer bottle, his warm brown eyes studying her with concern. “Gage was right. You seem off tonight.”

She opened her mouth to deny his observation, to claim she was fine because, if she were honest, she really didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole with her friends. However, maybe it was the beer loosening her tongue. Or the fact that after hanging out with this team for the past few months, she trusted them with her life. Whatever it was, she shook her head and shared what she had wanted to forget, if only to get it off her chest.

She blew out a weary sigh as she ran a hand through her red hair, leaning back in her seat. “Someone from my past called today, asking for help.” She shook her head as she dropped her gaze to her hands. “He needs help to prove his brother didn’t do something everyone else thinks he did, even the New Orleans Police Department.”

“And what? You think he did it?”

She thought about it for a moment, her lips together as she chewed over the arguments in her head. “It’s not that I don’t believe him. It’s just…” She took a slow breath in, trying to settle her thoughts. “There’s history there, and it didn’t end well.” She left the part out of how Jacob admitted last time that he actually did what they accused him of.

“Sage, your turn again.” Gage gestured to the table as he stepped back, grabbing the square chalk off the table’s rail.

She gave a nod as she told Elvis she’d be right back, thankful for the break in conversation. Sliding off her chair, she grabbed her pool stick and headed for her next poor shot. She should have simply sat this game out.

The dim lighting and well-worn wooden floors gave Haggerty’s its signature cozy, lived-in feel that drew Gage and the others to it. Vintage beer ads and black-and-white photos celebrating Biloxi’s colorful history adorned the exposed brick walls, and the gentle sounds of conversational chatter and clinking of glasses provided the soundtrack that soothed anxious nerves from a rugged day out in the world. At least, that’s what it usually did. But not tonight. Not for her.

After a quick glance at the spread on the table, she leaned down to take her shot. The crack of the cue ball against the pair of balls lined up for her echoed through the pub. She stood straight, gripping her stick as she watched the balls sail across the table until the solid blue made it into the corner pocket with a satisfying clunk. Finally.

“There you go,” Blaze shouted from where he leaned back on the wall, a Guinness in his hand. “The lady is back.” He winked at her as his girlfriend, Melinda, gave her an impressed nod.

Sage smiled at them both, her eyes darting around the felt surface to plan her next shot, even though her mind was somewhere else completely. Tucking an errant strand of her curly red hair behind her ear, she moved around to the other side of the table with the practiced grace of a lioness stalking her prey. The jukebox transitioned to a raucous Irish punk ballad as she settled into her stance once more, squinting one eye to zero in on just the right angle. With a smooth stroke, the stick connected and sent the cue ball on its merry way, only to have the ball hit the pocket, spin once, and then shoot back out onto the table. She could only stand there and sigh, still bent over the table.

Some groaned as others laughed, Gage teasing her about gripping her stick too hard.

She rolled her eyes as she moved over to the high-top once more, leaning the pool stick against the back of her chair as she sat down and reached for her beer. “I really should let someone else play this out.”

Elvis gave her a pointed look. “You talking about the pool game or your friend in New Orleans?”

She sighed. “That’s the question, isn’t it?” She grabbed her beer and took another sip. “A couple of years ago, I dated this guy, Jacob Franklin. He was a few years older than me and a rising star in the NOPD. Did a lot of undercover work. I was just starting Silver Investigations, which is kind of how we met. I had just left the guy who had been teaching me the ropes to start my own firm, and this lady came in asking me to find someone whom she claimed had taken advantage of her. My investigation led me to Jacob, but undercover Jacob. There were rumors of him accepting bribes and planting evidence to protect the Broussards, a pain-in-the-ass family in New Orleans, but he assured me it was all part of his undercover assignment.”

Her mind drifted to their nights alone, cuddled up on the couch or in her bed as he assured her none of it was true, and it was all a part of his cover. She fell for him hard, and when the NOPD went after him, accusing him of working for the Broussards, she did everything she could to defend him and prove him innocent, almost ruining her investigation firm’s reputation in the process.

“Eventually, they dropped the charges for lack of evidence, but something about the whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. Jacob was reckless, brazen, and to be honest, sometimes, I had doubts about his innocence. It seems I was right to doubt. He finally admitted he screwed with evidence—but after they cleared his name and welcomed him back to work. Now, two years later, the same accusations and drama are surrounding him?” She shook her head. “That’s not a coincidence.”

Callen and Hawk joined them, concern on their faces, having heard part of Sage’s story. Neither said anything as they stood there, hands in their pockets, giving her their attention.

She shook her head again as she glanced at each of them. “That’s the problem. I just don’t know if he did it or not. If he’s innocent, then someone is setting him up. But why? Why him again?” She felt herself wavering, despite her determination to leave that part of her life behind.

“The question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you want to find out.” Callen held his beer in front of him, one hand in his pocket. “If there’s a doubt, and you used to care for this person, do you want to leave his fate to people who are apparently out to get him?”

Sage didn’t answer right away, sipping her beer as she churned over the question. She didn’t disagree with Callen’s line of thought, necessarily. She simply knew the emotional roller coaster she had endured the last time this happened. Did she really want to put herself through that again?

“Sage, your turn again.” Gage cocked a brow at her, smirking.

“Here.” She handed her pool stick to Hawk. “Make him hurt.”

Hawk scoffed as he took the stick in his thick fingers. “My pleasure.”

Sage grabbed her drink as she slid a little lower in her seat, closing her eyes as a memory drifted across the screen of her mind. She was seated at her desk in her bedroom, poring over notes on her own investigation into Jacob’s case. Nothing made sense, and she could feel her mind going numb with the effort to find at least one key piece of evidence that would exonerate him after the NOPD’s disastrous sting operation. However, nothing made itself known to her.

A pair of brawny arms wrapped around her from behind, pulling her close. She could smell Jacob’s familiar cologne, feel the warmth of his body pressed against hers as he nuzzled into her neck. “Come to bed, sweetie.” He placed a tender kiss below her ear in that spot that always made her shiver with need. “You’ve been at it for hours. Those notes will still be there in the morning, and they’ll say the same thing they do now.”

She couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips, leaning back into his embrace. “I know. I just… I want to get you out of this mess so we can move on with our lives. Together.”

“And we will.” He turned her chair around so they were face to face, that roguishly handsome grin of his making her heart flutter like a love-struck teenager. “I’d be lost without you, Sage. You’re the only one who’s never given up on me.”

Cupping her face in his callused hands, he brought their lips together in a searing kiss that made her head swim. Back then, she truly had thought nothing could tear them apart. That the power of their love and determination would eventually prove his innocence to the entire world. Of course, she had been proven devastatingly wrong over the following months as the investigation spun out of control. Eventually, it would see their relationship explode, but that night… that night, she had been so assured of their unbreakable bond that she thought they would last forever. And that sense of memory pulled at her heart now, as powerful as it had back then.

Opening her eyes, she spotted Callen watching her, one brow cocked. Unlike Elvis, who cared for people but focused more on his next conquest, Callen had always been the most perceptive and in tune with the deeper undercurrents of emotion.

“What?” She shifted in her seat under his gaze, gripping her beer tighter.

“You’re still in love with him, aren’t you?”

She blinked, the vulnerability of his words hitting her like a physical blow. Was she? After all the betrayal and agony Jacob had put her through? It seemed laughably impossible, and yet…

Letting out a shuddering breath, she shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t know what I feel right now. I mean, a part of me will always care for him. He was my universe for a while. However, the bullshit he pulled in the end… I still believe there’s good there, but I also think there’s some hidden darkness there as well. I think he made some bad choices because he was in too deep before he knew what was happening, and he just couldn’t make a u-turn. Jacob had a strong stubborn streak.”

She fell silent, feeling the weight of the guys’ eyes boring into her. Blaze had found his long-lost love just a few weeks ago. All right. Maybe not that long-lost. But someone from his past returned to make his life brighter as he fought to save her sister. Dane and Gage had done the same thing—found a second chance with someone who had slipped from their fingers. Could this be her second chance with Jacob?

She growled, not sure she liked that trail of thought, either. Still…

“If I don’t at least look into it, I’ll never be able to let it go.” She spoke out loud, but she mainly talked to herself, arguing out what her heart was telling her to do while her mind said to ignore Parker’s call. “I’ll always wonder what if, and that path will just lead to more heartache.”

Pushing off from the table, she moved to the dartboard, grabbing a handful of projectiles and weighing them in her palm. “What if Parker’s reaching out is some sort of sign? Whether I like it or not, mine and Jacob’s paths were always going to cross again. If I can finally get some answers… some closure one way or the other… then I can move forward. For real this time.”

With that, she drew her arm back and let a dart fly, watching with satisfaction as it thunked into the center ring of the board. She couldn’t shake the feeling that this was meant to be, that Parker reaching out was actually handing her an opportunity— possibly her last chance to truly cut ties with Jacob once and for all. Or maybe…

Either she would prove his innocence, allowing them both to regain the future they had once mapped out together. Or, more likely, she would expose him as the dirty cop everyone made him out to be. And she could finally let him go, baggage and all.

As the guys stared at her in silence, she tossed another bull’s eye, a fierce look of determination etching across her delicate features. She turned, shrugging. “I guess I need to take some time off. Looks like I’m going to New Orleans.”