Chapter 18

Wincing as I sat down in my chair, I almost wished I would've just worked from home today. Since I had to finish the books and take a call with a Los Angeles investor, I had no choice but to go into Oasis. Thankfully, my chair was heavily padded so my sore ass didn't hurt as much as it would've in a different chair. I'd applied the cream Easton had given me two nights before, and had been applying it religiously since.

He'd been a man possessed that night. It'd been unlike anything I'd ever seen from him. Easton was still very much an anomaly to me. One night, he was patient and attentive, then he treated me like a whore and a suspect on another, but of what I didn't know. The questions he asked of me were so out of the norm that I had closed myself off. I knew what a police interrogation was like, but he was no cop. Ayden Santiago was one, but not Easton.

Or was I wrong about that? The men were very close now as I thought about it. Easton also hung out with Chase and Cortland Maxwell who I'd heard were agents with the FBI. I closed my eyes as I tried to think of anything to explain why a Dominant I had come to know so well would treat me the way he had. It made no sense. Even if he was some sort of cop, I had done nothing wrong.

My eyes flew open at the light tapping of my door and I realized I had left it open. Mindy smiled politely at me. "Are you okay, Shelby?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just got a bit of a headache," I partially lied because trying to figure out Easton was an act of futility, so it was making my head throb.

"I can close the door so you're not bothered with all of the outside noise," she offered.

"That would be great. Thank you," I told her.

"Anytime." She then stepped back and closed the door allowing me to wallow in silence.

And wallow I did. Everything was going so wrong lately. I'd had bids in on hotel space in two separate chains in Los Angeles, and one had already declined my offer without me having even submitted a bid. Being turned down for things sight unseen was a new one for me. Back in Carson, and the surrounding areas, my family had been talked about extensively. It'd been another reason I had come to Denver as I'd hoped to start a new life.

Now, I felt like that same girl being turned down for everything I applied for. It'd happened here in Denver too, but not to this extent. Thankfully, the other chain had been polite enough to hear me out later this afternoon. I'd developed a PowerPoint and as I waited for it to load on my computer, I closed my eyes once more.

I needed to land this location because it would do wonders for expanding the Oasis brand. It would not only give me name recognition for something positive in an area where the Prescott name held shame, but it would add to my net worth. It was a win/win. I was just about to smile, but I heard the door swing open.

"What is it?" I asked Mindy. "Is something wrong?"

"Why don't you tell me?" I heard, and my eyes flew back open.

That raspy voice of Easton's had my entire body coming alive, even as I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. I turned toward him. "Why are you here? Did you not get my text message?"

"I did, but I have some questions to ask you," he replied.

"Some questions? Didn't you ask me enough of them the other night?"

"Obviously not the right ones."

I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. I didn't care, either.

"I don't like to be interrogated, so why don't you–"

"It's better to just be honest with me, Gemini."

"My name is Shelby," I retorted not even giving a damn about my sass.

"Is that the only one you go by?"

I arched a brow. "What are you talking about?" He continued to confuse me, even outside of Syn. I shook my head though as it didn't matter why he was asking me something so stupid. "Better yet, I don't even care. I just want you to leave."

He stood there for almost an entire minute as he assessed me. Just when I thought he was about to listen and go, he only went to the door to close it. When he turned around, I pushed back from my desk and was about to get up, but he put his hand out to stop me.

"I don't want you here," I told him.

"It'll be better for you to talk to me than someone else. No one can help you but me, so I suggest you drop the attitude and just come clean with me. I want to know everything."

"Everything? Who the hell are you? And who the fuck do you think you are just barging into my office to–"

"I'm Agent Easton Bradford with the Drug Enforcement Agency."

"The what?"

"The DEA, and you're in big trouble, Shelby."

"I don't do drugs, so I fail to see what you could want or need from me."

"This is very serious. We've been investigating you for a long time."

"Investigating me? For what?" And as his words sank in, everything we had done and said to one another came rushing back like some vicious slideshow. "The entire time you were with me was because you thought I had done something bad?"

I couldn't believe it. The nights of unadulterated pleasure, heart to heart talks, and just basic companionship had been to pump me for information. I could barely believe what I was hearing, much less wanting to accept it. I couldn't, and I wouldn't.

"Not the whole time," he told me.

Tears sprang to my eyes, and since he wanted to come here in an official capacity, I did the first of the only two things I could think to do. "Gemini."

He chuckled at that. "We're not at Syn, nor are we in that sort of situation right now so save your safeword."

"Then I want to speak to a lawyer." I pushed my bottom lip out, not even giving a damn if I came off as a pouter in this moment.

"Goddamn it, Shelby. You're facing serious charges right now, the least of them being a sentence of twenty five years in prison."

"For what? I didn't do anything." I responded passionately.

Being investigated was the last thing I needed. If it got out that I was even being accused of having anything to do with drugs, I'd lose my licenses and Oasis would be shut down. Somehow, that all seemed way worse than jail time. A few of those tears began to fall, and I tried to wipe them away with shaky hands.

"I need to show you some pictures," he said in a more soothing voice.

He walked around my desk, then knelt down beside me. Having his face so close to mine right now began wreaking havoc on my senses, but I ignored his close proximity and focused on the photograph on his cellphone.

At first glance, it definitely looked like me. I saw my car parked in front of the bank, and I watched as I walked to the ATM, only I never used that particular location, especially after someone was mugged there just weeks before. Closing my eyes for a moment before reopening them, I knew who it was and my heart sank.

"Who is that, Shelby?"

My cousin was in a bad spot. What I hadn't known before was that she had been in prison for a short stint twice over the last six years for theft. The last one had been with a prior. Carley had confided that coming to Denver was a way for her to rebuild her life like I had. She even talked of wanting to work at Oasis with me and become a better person. Now, a man I'd known for a short while wanted me to turn my back on her.

"That's me at the bank withdrawing some cash. I didn't know going to the ATM was a crime," I lied.

"We both know that isn't you," he told me to which I just shrugged.

"Where's the crime in banking? Did I barge in and hold the damn place up?"

"You know good and damn well you were not the one at the bank in this video."

"And how can you be so sure?"

He grinned as he rose to his feet. "I know because at the time of this photo, we were at Syn and I was balls deep inside of you. There's also video there to back me up, so I caution you to reconsider lying to me?"

I ignored what he said outwardly, but inside, my core clenched in remembrance. Easton had been so rough with me, and I'd eaten up every bit of it. In fact, I still craved the way he could so easily take control of my body, although I knew it could never again happen for us after all of this.

I wanted to rail at Carley, and I would once I got home, but this photo proved nothing. I glanced up at him and arched a brow. "What does going to the bank have to do with drugs?"

"Keep flipping through the pictures," was all he said.

I scowled but did as he asked. Easton was right about these looking very incriminating. I watched as photo after photo showed Carley looking more suspicious. Still, there was no smoking gun as I'd often heard others say. Perhaps I could find a lawyer to get her off on whatever trumped up charges they tried to pin on her. Only, I couldn't turn her in.

The problem was that I stood to lose everything if I didn't. Did I sacrifice my budding relationship with my cousin? Or destroy my name and business to protect her? A few more tears started to fall, but I didn't try to wipe them away this time.

I kept on scrolling through the gallery, eventually coming up to a series of shots of her handing a small plastic bag of something to a guy who looked to be college aged. I knew what a drug deal looked like because once upon a time, that woman had been me.

"These pictures aren't last night," I told him as I thrust his cell phone back toward him. "None of them prove anything."

"You're right. The last photographs were taken a few days ago. The guy she sold those pills to overdosed shortly after in an alley near Syn."

I gasped before quickly composing myself. "What were those pills?"

Easton grabbed his cell phone, then took a seat in the chair in front of my desk. "It's a new drug similar to rainbow fentanyl, but much stronger. The cases began in Los Angeles, then the deaths started popping up all over the country. Many kids from influential families have died as they are being marketed to young, elite kids."

"How do you know that she... I mean that I am responsible for all of those drugs getting out onto the streets? I haven't even been to California in months."

I had to remember to not give away Carley and had managed to catch myself this time. Easton's face softened all while his eyes narrowed. "A few weeks ago when I was in Los Angeles, I was tasked with taking down a prolific trafficking ring. I'd manage to get almost everyone except a woman who looked just like you who also called herself ‘Gemini' like you do."

"What? I only used that as a safeword because it's my astrological sign. You know I haven't been to Los Angeles in a while. There has to be some mistake."

"The only mistake is the one you're making by protecting whoever this person is. Gemini is bad news and is knowingly responsible for selling poison to children. She needs to be stopped, and only you can help us."

"I don't understand."

"Give this person up, or else you'll be the one hauled into the station and arrested. All signs point to you right now, and you have no alibi."

"I was at the club with you the other night."

"We both know what that sort of publicity would do to a club like Syn. A person has already died outside its door. Do you want Hawke to lose the entire place?"

"N-No," I stammered.

"Then confess to me once and for all, and I'll figure out how to get you out of this. I'll protect you, Shelby. I just need your cooperation first, so for the last time, who is this woman because we both know that she isn't you."