I stir my coffee in the nearly empty café a few hours later, rubbing my temples, trying to process everything I’ve just heard from Nate. A sudden ping from my cell phone makes my heart thud, but I can’t bring myself to look for fear of what I might see pop up on the screen.

Nate pauses, sips of his coffee, and points to my phone. “Aren’t you going to look? Could be important.”

I sigh and pick up the phone.

I just found something. Need to talk now. Urgent.

Shit. It’s a text from Ollie. Christ, what else can go wrong today?

My mind is reeling, and keeping control of my emotions is just about fucking impossible. I’d already demoralized myself enough today by sucking Conlon’s dick to gain his trust. And now I find out that Nate, my boss and the guy who’s supposed to be looking out for me, has been withholding some pretty important details that could have gotten me killed. Jesus Christ, we’re all a bunch of fucking liars.

“Are you sure this information is reliable, Nate? Who clued you in?”

“We’ve been watching Jeff Torres ever since he was fired from the Bureau years back. Before that, he’d been tracking white collar crimes undercover – mainly fraud – and Conlon came up on his radar. He’d been tailing Conlon for a while and got really close a couple of times, but he jumped the gun before all the evidence had been accounted for and blew the investigation wide open. Conlon was able to get his ducks in a row and cover his tracks, so we lost our chance to haul him in. Torres was fired, and that’s when he went rogue. He tried to nab Conlon on his own with some revenge plot he’d cooked up and got burned. Badly. Ended up in prison for the past five years. He was released about a month ago, and it looks like he’s got a team in place for his last hurrah. He plans to steal the embezzled funds before they leave Conlon’s hands. That’s why he approached you and Ollie. He’s evidently got an axe to grind.”

My jaw drops. “And you didn’t think it was necessary to clue me in on any of this until now?”

“It was better that you didn’t know. That’s why I made certain Ollie didn’t divulge any of this. If I’d told you, there’s no way you could have gone in eyes wide shut, and if Conlon suspected you knew anything, he’d have shut down completely and we’d be sitting with our thumbs up our asses instead of being close to taking him down for good.”

I press my fingertips to my temples. “I’ve been working on Conlon this whole time, and I’m so close to getting what we need to nail him. Now you tell me there’s someone else in the mix who can bring down this whole investigation?”

The door chimes ring, and I twist around to wave Ollie over. His panicked expression makes my throat tighten. What the fuck else could have possibly come up since I left the office?

Nate looks up, a confused look on his face. Yep, that’s exactly how I felt when you sandblasted me with this new intel a few minutes ago, asshole.

Ollie slides into the booth next to me and pulls his laptop out of his bag. “Hey, Nate.” He opens the lid, his fingers pecking away at the keyboard like a madman, until a grainy image appears on the screen. He turns to me and points to it, a grim look on his face. “Ari, do you know who that is?”

I peer at the screen and let out a gasp. The image isn’t clean, and the person is partially camouflaged by trees lining the path to Conlon’s estate, but the body, the hair, that bitch smile…they were unmistakable.

Kate Fucking Torres.

My jaw drops. “Holy shit, Ollie…”

“I take it you recognize her.” Nate looks from me to Ollie. “Care to share the reason why we’re looking at this laptop screen?”

“That’s Jeff’s ex-wife, Kate.” I run a hand through my hair and lean back against the sticky wooden chair, not really caring right now that it is, indeed, a very fucking sticky chair; my life has just become a hell of a lot stickier. “Since we’re all being honest here, I recently found out that Jeff Torres is my sister’s future father-in-law. I just met Kate. She’ll be at the wedding tomorrow.” I tap my fingernails against the tabletop. “What is she doing on this surveillance feed, Ollie?”

“The audio is spotty, but she’s been identified on this feed multiple times in the past few weeks. I didn’t know who she was, so I did some cross-checking. And today, I got the full conversation between her and Conlon. Everything came through, clear as day. Kate showed up minutes after you left his house, Ari. And Conlon mentioned something about a meeting with you on Monday, but that it’s a setup, that they need to get rid of you as soon as this money transfer is done so they can cash out and get the fuck out of dodge.”

“Jesus…” I whisper.

“That’s not all. They’re planning to take out Jeff as well, since five years evidently wasn’t enough of a sentence.” He pauses to adjust his glasses and clear his throat. “But that’s not all. Kate was the one who blew the whistle on Jeff, the one who got him indicted. She’s been working with Conlon from way back when Jeff was at the Bureau.”

“But…how? How the hell didn’t he know? Or suspect anything? I just…” My voice trails off. I can’t even formulate words to describe the disgust I feel for Kate right now.

Nate slams his hand on the table. “Fuck! We need to have agents at that wedding, Ari. I can’t take the risk that they won’t pull some stunt before Monday, especially since all three of you will be in the same place. As of now, you and Jeff Torres both have targets on your backs, and we need to be prepared for anything.”

“Nate, I am perfectly capable of handling myself. You can’t have undercover agents crawling around my sister’s wedding, for chrissakes!”

“You’re not calling the shots here, Ariana. You’re too valuable to this team. Ollie’s intel changes everything.” Nate leans in closer. “We have one shot to stop this whole con from going down.”

I nod. “We need to get Conlon talking.”

“Exactly,” Nate agrees. “If we can get something on him, it’ll help move things along.”

Ollie looks up with a smirk on his face after a few more rapid keystrokes. “I think I have a plan.”

“Please make it be a good one,” I moan.

“Oh, it is.” He points to the surveillance images tiled on his screen. “Check it out. Santana Hayes. Do you remember the actress who came to us after she fired her last publicist?”

“Holy crap, yes! She was the one who’d hidden her age because of that soft core porn thing she did. When was that again?”

“Two years ago.” Ollie cocks an eyebrow. “She was fifteen.”

“Which makes her seventeen now.” I clap my hands. “Underage! Oh my God, we’ve got him!”

Ollie cocks his head to the side. “Yep, and in a shitload of positions, too. I don’t think Conlon will want any of this leaked; although, he might want them for his own viewing enjoyment, especially if we threaten to send him up the river. He’ll need some entertainment to get him through that sentence. Sick bastard.”

“Thank fuck.” Nate smacks his hand on the table. “I’ll have agents over there within an hour. We’ll hang this over his head, get him to sing like a fucking canary, and move in on Kate.”

“Wait, you need to do it after the wedding. You’ll have agents there, and they’ll keep an eye on things. Please don’t do it yet. Don’t ruin the day for my sister and Kate’s son. The poor guy has already seen one of his parents hauled off to prison. Don’t make him relive that in front of all of their guests. It’s bad enough Kate is the reason why Jeff was sent to prison in the first place. That’s going to kill him.”

Nate lets out a deep sigh. “Even if I agree to wait, we also need to know when and where Jeff Torres is planning to strike so we can stop him.”

I swallow hard. “I’m supposed to meet him today, but I don’t know how I can gather that kind of information. You’ve been tracking him, why can’t you figure it out?”

Nate sits back against the chair. “I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but this needs to play out. If Torres interferes with the money transfer before we can get Conlon to talk, we lose our shot to blow open this case. I need you to find out exactly what Torres has planned or we risk losing our shot at Conlon. Again.”

“He’s not going to tell me anything!” I slam my hands on the table. Jeff is a fucking ex-con? Fired from the Bureau? Jesus, I knew he was full of shit, but I had no idea just how deep I waded into it.

“This is the assignment, Ari. Plans change, and if you want to rise through the ranks, you’d better learn how to deal with it. I know you’re used to running your own ops your way, but this time, you need to adjust your strategy. That is, if you want the promotion you’ve been working toward.” Nate cocks an eyebrow. “Are you with me on this? Or should I look for another agent to support for Director of the Southern District?”

I grit my teeth. He’s got my ass pinned to the wall. There’s no way out of this mess. If I want that promotion, I need to do what he asks. No questions, no arguments.

And a no-win situation.

“No, I’ll do it.” A pang assaults my chest. “What’s going to happen to Torres if he gets caught before we can stop him?”

“He’ll have a one-way ticket back to prison on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud. But we need to stop that from happening, so get to work. Deliver on your part, Ari, and I’ll make sure you get that promotion. Everyone wins.”

Yeah, but will the prize be worth all of the lies?

* * *

My iPhone vibrates in my pocket as I drive toward Santa Monica after leaving Damon. I ignore it. I know exactly what the call is about.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, this quest is no longer the first thing that springs to my mind. Revenge, rage, vindication…all of it is in the backseat right now. I lean against my car, knowing there is a laundry list of items waiting to be checked off - things I am responsible for delivering, and expectations people have of me.

But at this moment, I don’t care.

What do I care about?

A normal life, one I’ve unconsciously avoided for too long because I could never get out of my own way. I had Kate, but I couldn’t make that work. I have Damon, and I’m damn close to fucking that up and losing him, too.

And then there’s Ariana, who ignites a flame inside of me that makes me want to be better, try harder, and forget the past.

Yes, I want to lay it to rest. Finally. Maybe this whole plan was supposed to be a wake-up call for me. Never being able to make all the moving parts work together. Maybe I’m supposed to let it all go and finally move on with my life. I let out a deep breath, pushing out all of the toxic emotions that have been plaguing me.

It feels good. It feels right.

I’m an ex-criminal, but I can be redeemed. I don’t need to crush this guy to feel whole again.

I already am whole. The pieces are scattered all around me. I just need to put them together.

I can do that myself.

If I ignore them, like I’ve been doing for the better part of my life, I’ll get the revenge I’ve been seeking. But those pieces will disintegrate before my eyes. I’ll have accomplished what I wanted, but will be left with nothing.

That’s not my aim. That’s not why I came back.

Deep down, I know I can’t make up for everything I’ve lost. But I have the chance to make things right in a different way.

I didn’t think I’d wake up this morning with an altered perception of my reality.

Everything I’ve been chasing will give me nothing I’ve been missing.

It’s all right in front of me. And I don’t need an elaborate plan to capture it. All I need to do is embrace it.