Page 13 of Black Jack (Advantage Play 5)

“Care to expand?”

“I had a hunch that Reed set me up to take the fall for his own connections with the mafia.”

“Which is why you ran.”

“Yes.”

“And we can both agree that was a stupid decision on your part?” he adds with a quirked brow.

I laugh. “Yeah. Very stupid.”

“Good. I’m going to be honest with you. Regardless of who takes the fall for this mess, it doesn’t look good for the Bureau. We had a man that went missing after being accused of having a connection to one of the most ruthless men in the United States. Then, by some miracle, the bastard turns himself in while maintaining his claim to innocence. Less than two weeks later, we receive a shit-ton of evidence that his superior is the mastermind behind the entire ordeal. And while it might clear your name, it has only muddied the waters more for your unit. I’m going to need you to be honest with me. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why did you run?”

“Because I knew I was innocent.”

“Innocent men don’t run.”

“They do when they know they’re being framed by someone with a hell of a lot of power,” I counter.

“Then why did you come back? And where the hell did you go?”

“I wanted to see if I could find any evidence that would clear my name.”

“Such as?”

“I didn’t know,” I answer honestly. “I started thinking back on my work with Reed and how every time he was involved, Burlone would always slip away like he’d been tipped off.”

The chair opposite of mine creaks as Embry leans back and scratches his jaw.

“Hmm,” he hums after a few seconds. “It could just have easily been you tipping Burlone off.”

“It wasn’t. The one time I didn’t include Reed in the operation was the one time we were able to bring in multiple key players in the human trafficking industry.”

“Except Burlone,” Embry points out, unconvinced.

“Who was found a few days later,” I return just as quickly. “And you didn’t see Reed after the raid and arrests. He was…erratic. Emotional. Ready to snap. I noticed it, and I’m sure a few other agents on the task force noticed it, too, and will corroborate my findings.”

“Possibly. There weren’t any of your fingerprints on the phone found in your desk that had initially linked you to Dominic Castello, but it had been wiped down.”

“Reed must’ve wiped it before it was planted there.”

“I was with Reed the night the phone was found. How could he have planted it?”

My shoulders slump. “I…I don’t know.”

“Hmm,” he hums again.

This isn’t going well.

“Does the name Dominic Castello sound familiar?” he asks.

“Yeah, of course. He was supposed to be at the tournament with Burlone, Moretti, Carbonne, and Russo.”

“But he wasn’t. Do you know why?”