Jewel in the Rough by Elle Keaton

Author:Elle Keaton [Keaton, Elle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dirty Dog Press LLC

Chapter 7

Teagan

The going’s getting narrow…

* * *

Too used to the man’s clumsiness to be surprised by it, Teagan bent to retrieve the cell phone while Benny scrambled back to his feet. Teagan hadn’t meant to startle him. And it was concern that had Teagan checking the screen for damage, but instead of a crack, he found a missed call from a number Teagan was very familiar with—one from his past life. The life he had before taking a career-ending bullet to his thigh.

“Why is Tristan Brown calling you?” His voice came out rougher than he intended, but shock had him reverting to his more asshole-ish behavior.

Lurching toward him, Benny tried to snatch his phone from Teagan’s grasp.

“Tristan who? Don’t stick your nose into my business!”

“This cell phone number,” Teagan ground out, waving the offending gadget in front of Benny’s face and refusing to relinquish it, “belongs to a member of the Gang and Narcotics division of the LAPD. Why the fuck is Tristan Brown calling you?” Tristan was also Teagan’s closest friend—or had been. The one thing, the one person, he missed the most from Los Angeles.

“Oh, that.” Benny’s hand dropped to his side as he stopped trying to retrieve his phone and instead bit his lip, looking everywhere but at Teagan. Teagan suspected whatever came out of Benny Brambilla’s mouth right this minute would be complete fabrication. “Tip. Hotline. Yes, that’s it. Uh, a friend of mine thought he saw something and—”

Teagan tuned out Benny’s jabbering as he tugged his own phone out and pocketed Benny’s. He swiped his thumb across the screen and pressed ‘Tris’ in his favorites.

Within seconds, Tristan’s deep voice came across the line. “Long time no chat, my friend. How’s the dairy business?”

Guilt for not returning Tristan’s recent phone calls surged, but Teagan struggled with not being on the force any longer, and Tris was a reminder of the life he’d been forced to give up. Today was especially hard because it was the anniversary of the shooting.

“It’s a lot of cow shit.”

“Not a surprise. Why are you really calling? Not to finally talk about what happened and the fact that you left without saying goodbye?”

Even after a year of silence, Tristan knew him far too well.

“Why are you trying to reach Benny Brambilla?”

The was silence on the line for a heartbeat. “Brambilla? Probably because he’s the most solid witness we’ve ever had against Talache. Not dead yet, as far as we know, so that’s a plus, too.”

“An actual witness?” The task force where Teagan had met Tristan had been working for years to take Talache down, but the creep always got off on a technicality, or witnesses to his crimes disappeared and were assumed to be buried somewhere in the desert between LA and Vegas.

“Yep. In Vegas. Talache is going down this time—if we can get Brambilla to testify. The guy refused witness protection and disappeared on his own. If we don’t find him first, Talache’s people will, and the outcome will not be pretty.

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