Deception (Carrington Hill Investigations Book 1) Read Free

lies… and that’s what they were, some type of sick joke. Garrett took a step toward her with an extended arm. She took a step back, clenching her jaw, and spun on her heel to grab her cell phone from the bar. She speed dialed Catherine’s number.
    “Who are you calling?” Garrett asked in a sympathetic tone.
    Lexi put her palm up , ignoring him as she listened to the phone go straight to Catherine’s voicemail. “Cat, it’s Lexi. I need you to call me back.”
    Garret t’s face softened as if he understood her refusal to believe. “Don’t you think we tried that? We pinged her cell phone and found it on a homeless woman on the other side of town. That was the first thing we did.”
    “Ms. Carrington…”
    She held out her palm, not even acknowledging the intruder. She narrowed her eyes, fighting against the anger building inside her, anger that needed an outlet, and the unknown man who was witnessing her breakdown would do just fine. Lexi pointed accusingly to the intruder, never taking her eyes off Garrett. “Who the hell is he?”
    Garrett placed his palms on Lexi’s arms, rubbing them up and down. “This is Captain Morgan with the Sampson PD.”
    Lexi stepped back with her fists balled at her side. She felt the blood rushing to her face as her heart raced. “The local PD? She’s one of ours. Why aren’t we investigating?”
    Garrett motioned for her to sit on the couch. Lexi ground her teeth together and reluctantly sat down. She was an emotional rollercoaster. Denial had seeped in, followed by anger, and there was no way in hell she was moving on to acceptance. She grabbed Sara’s hand and held it in hers, squeezing as if it was her last lifeline. She needed something to ground her so she wouldn’t go flying off the couch to beat the two men until they told her this was all a big joke.
    “She was undercover . If we go in with guns raised, throwing our weight around, then everything she worked on was for naught. Whoever attacked her will have ample time to get rid of any of the evidence she’d found in the case. These people are rich and powerful, and we’d be held up by their high-priced attorneys and red tape. Lexi, you know how this works.” He lowered to his knees in front of her to look her in the eye in an attempt to drive his words into her muddled brain. He was right, and no matter how much she wanted to refuse to believe it, she couldn’t. “We’ll find her and catch the bastard who did this. We just have to be smart about it.”
    A wave of nausea rolled through her stomach as her mind pondered all of the possibilities o f what might have happened to Catherine. Everything she came up with served to do little more than deepen her resolve to crush whoever was involved. And she would crush the life out of whoever was responsible; squish him like a bug and grind him into the ground.
    Sara pulled her hand from Lexi’s, pushed to her feet, and walked over to the coffee pot. “I like Lexi’s idea better. I say we go in hot and take everyone out who’s in our way.”
    That’s why she loved her friends. Sara had the same idea…but , damn, Garrett was right. All of her training picked the most inopportune times to raise its ugly head. With a deep regret, Lexi moved to Sara’s side. “As much as I hate to admit it, Garrett’s right.” She leaned back against the counter. “We do this the right way and nail the bastard to the wall. He isn’t getting out on a technicality.”
    Captain Morgan and Garrett left forty-five minutes later, after breaking the news. Lexi and Sara weren’t given all of the details they’d hoped for. Having to wait on forensics was going to kill her. Lexi plopped down on the couch next to Sara, sipping water from the bottle in her hand as she tried to make any sense out of what she’d been told.
    Sara leaned forward and let her head drop as another tear rolled down her cheek. “What are we going to do?”
    Lexi rubbed Sara’s back. “We do what we’re good