Chapter 17

I'd gone straight home from Syn and started to watch the countless hours of footage Bob had forwarded to me. He didn't realize I had any affiliation with the suspect, and it was for the best. If he had even the slightest inkling, he'd pull me from the case and assign it to another agent who would've already made their move. I made mine on her, although it had been a different kind of one. Even hours later, all I could seem to concentrate on was how she felt in my arms while her pussy squeezed my cock. I also remembered the way she cried with one breath from each lash, but begged for me to continue with her next.

I'd fantasized about marking her in that way often, and even before we had officially met. I never imagined I would need to do it in the way that I did, and for the reasons I did. Shelby had basically given me nothing to go on, even when deep into subspace which led me even more to believe in her innocence.

"You're acting like a damn fool," I said out loud as I stared at several days worth of footage of her.

That bright red hair and sexy body consumed my waking thoughts, and it was something I would recognize miles away. Beyond the exterior, I thought I knew who she was inside, but if my boss was right, I didn't know her at all. Nothing was making any sense to me right now. She was on camera, but there had to be an explanation that no one had thought of to this point. My goal was to find it, then clear her name.

For what, though? Other than her freedom, it wasn't as if we could ever have anything together. With my line of work, I was often forced to go undercover. Sometimes, these missions would take weeks or months. Other agents on my team had even done some which took them years. I couldn't expect Shelby to put her life on hold for me. And all that assumed she even had a life to sacrifice.

Tapping my pen against the top of my desk, I continued to scrutinize the footage. Agent Loundes had been the one tailing her all this time, and while I had questions for him, I couldn't ask most of them without becoming suspicious. Shaking my head, I was about to head off to bed for a nap, but my cell phone chimed indicating I had a text message.

It was late, so I picked it up to see what could be on it. Immediately, I saw that it was Shelby and my body responded right away. My cock got hard and my pulse accelerated. I opened it up, then scowled. She'd had enough of whatever was going on between us and had ended things with me. I should've been happy as it would allow me the time to focus on trying to clear her name, but the finality was the last nail in the coffin. I'd been telling myself things between the two of us were over, but I never believed it until her second text message came through.

"Gemini," I muttered under my breath.

The very woman we were searching for in California used the same moniker. She also was a spitting image to Shelby who used the same name as a safeword. If she had known I was DEA, I might've considered that as part of her arrogance, but she had no idea what I did. Because of those missions, my occupation was kept quiet, especially at places like Syn.

"Who are you?" I continued to stare at her face. She was paranoid in this particular frame, and as the video streamed on, she was also very nervous. I'd witnessed something similar last night, but it had been for a different reason.

Another text message came through, and I grabbed my cell phone hoping it was Shelby about to rescind her previous messages. When I looked down at the screen, it was Loundes instead.

Are you up, Bradford?

Yes

I'm in the area. Care if I stop in?

I did, but since I was having no luck with this case on my own, another set of eyes couldn't hurt.

No, come on. I'll have the doorman let you up.

I then called downstairs to let Joe know I had a guest arriving soon. Security wasn't as detailed during the day, but between midnight and 6 AM, it was almost like trying to enter Fort Knox. As I awaited Loundes' arrival, I began to go over every single piece of evidence in this case, coming away still with more questions than answers. I'd already spent countless hours reviewing everything.

In addition to photographic and visual evidence, there were also audio recordings, but those were grainy at best. The voice sounded very familiar, but also very foreign at the same time. I'd done everything to try to clear it up, but finally sent it to the forensics team. Thus far, all Helen could suggest was that the suspect could purposely be disguising her voice. While that could be true, something in the pit of my stomach told me that she wasn't.

If this was actually Shelby, she would have no reason to suspect anyone was on to her, so why go through the effort. She was smart, though. Brilliant, even. I saw her transcripts from college, and she graduated on the Dean's List. If she had resorted to trafficking drugs outside of her own successful spa franchise, she might've been covering her tracks just in case.

It still made no sense to me. I got up and walked to the kitchen to grab a bottled water when I heard a knock on my door. I walked over to unlock it, then opened it for Chris. "Come on in, Loundes. I have a few questions for you."

The agent followed me into the living room and after I offered him a water, he declined it, then pulled out his own laptop. "Okay, but I need to show you something. I think Gemini is about to make a move, so we need to act fast."

"A move?" I asked. That would be quick.

"Yeah, look at this footage from earlier tonight."

I scooted closer and watched as Shelby drove to the bank. It was dark outside and could've very well have been after she'd left Syn. Having already requested exterior footage from Ryder, I knew exactly what time that had been. Usually, I'd only be given access to something like that with a warrant, but seeing as I was trying to help Hawke in the midst of cracking this case, it was given to me without opposition.

"Is this time stamp right?" I asked when I noticed it in the bottom left hand of the video.

"Yes."

"And it's Mountain Daylight Time and not Pacific Daylight Time?"

"Of course. Why would it be Pacific?"

"You did just come back from California."

"Does that hour make a difference?"

"No," I lied, although it made all the difference in the world.

If the woman was at the bank at the time this video indicated, it couldn't have been Shelby. Right around the time this woman was cleaning out the ATM machine, my submissive was coming on my cock. I wanted to jump up and proclaim her innocence for her, but that would open up questions I didn't want to answer right now, especially to this agent.

"And this was tonight?"

"Yeah. You're acting weird, Bradford. Is there something wrong?"

"No, I'm just a bit tired and trying to wrap my mind around everything. Could you send this to me? I'd like to look at it after I've gotten a few hours of sleep."

"You do look like hell, so you probably need it," he told me and I flipped him off.

He chuckled, but then pulled up our secure email site, and seconds later, the notification of new mail came through. "Let me examine this new evidence and we can meet back up later to go over it."

"Sure thing. You really do need to try to get some sleep, though."

"I will," I assured him, and Chris left right afterward.

I moved back to my laptop and tried to ignore my uncontrollable yawning, but Loundes was right. I did need to get some sleep. I was sure Shelby was doing the same right now so there would be nothing to miss. I could look at this evidence in a few hours. Only as I reached my bedroom, something didn't sit right with me.

My mind was a wasteland at the moment, so I pushed those concerns away. I undressed, got into bed, and only managed to sleep for about three hours before I awakened. Since my body and mind were still tired, I made a pot of coffee, then returned to the video the agent had dropped off.

Again, Shelby pulled up to the bank and withdrew some money, but as she was backing away, one of the bills slipped from her hands. She was wearing some dark pants and the same sweatshirt she had on at Syn. As she bent, something caught my eye. It was a flash of color. If it had been red, it might not have piqued my curiosity too much as she was likely to have several reddened welts on her body after our scene.

I ignored the time differences and chose to focus on the woman. Freezing that frame, I zoomed in and saw something purple, blue, and pink. While those colors could be indicative of bruising, the colors in this shot were so vibrant. I took out my cell phone and snapped several shots of it, quickly realizing that this was a tattoo. Shelby was terrified of needles, and she had no tattoos. While some people could lie about them, I knew she hadn't. Hours earlier, I had saved every inch of her sexy body to memory, and there were no tattoos anywhere on her hip.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you had a twin," I said to the woman currently bent over.

I restarted the footage, eventually stopping and starting it on various places. That was definitely a tattoo and not Shelby. Relief flooded me until I realized there was also fear. We'd already looked at immediate family and she'd been an only child. She had no twin, so I had no explanation for what I was seeing. Without something concrete to clear her, Bob would continue along this trail until she was eventually apprehended and arrested.

I loved the sight of Shelby in handcuffs, but when at my mercy and not that of the Denver Police Department. I had to have something else that could be used to contradict this video, and that was when I remembered that I had requested and watched the footage of Shelby leaving Syn.

Outing a member there was the last thing I wanted to do, but then again, letting an innocent woman go to jail for twenty five years was as well. I also pulled up the other video from Ryder's email, then rewatched it. Shelby had kept her head down as she exited the building and rushed over to a waiting car. It wasn't her own, and she was wearing jeans instead of dark exercise pants.

Her hair was also tousled, and she and I both knew why while the woman at the ATM was put together very well. The mystery woman was at the bank during the same time Shelby had been at Syn. That could be corroborated with video showing the time she arrived and the time she left. These two women were not one and the same. Could someone be framing Shelby?

It sounded as farfetched as Shelby having a twin when we both knew she did not. There was only one way to get to the bottom of this. I needed to know more about her house guest, and Shelby in general. I'd go about getting answers differently this time, and I would not fail.