Page 36 of Deadly Force

My hands clench in my lap, knuckles white, as a tightness builds in my chest, sharp and suffocating. The question burns through me: do I trust him with this?

Do I?

I breathe out, a shaky, whispered prayer slipping past my lips.Lord, please let this be the right call. Please let me be doing this for the right reasons.

With a final look at Caleb, I begin.

Because if I'd told him everything I knew the day he showed up...

Maybe Eliza would still be alive.

NINE

Caleb

By the time Mateo sticks his head out the motel room door, I’ve got a better handle on the where and the who. Eliza was having an affair with her employer at Sonora Capital Investments. A top-level exec who, from the looks of it, had his hands in something dirty. Brooke had the file in her hands—until she didn’t.

“So she gave you the file, then changed her mind?” I ask.

Brooke sighs. “She panicked when she heard you.”

Right. That tracks. She thought I was the threat. “And she said her boss is connected?”

Brooke nods. “I have confirmation she worked at Sonora. But I never got to find out who her directboss was. Not that it would have mattered. She could have lied to protect herself.”

My mind races. A whistleblower going up against a giant like Sonora Capital would be terrified, and with good reason. It’s not just job loss. These companies don’t play fair. They crush people. Quietly. Completely. And anyone who stands against them ends up alone, broke, and looking over their shoulder.

But would they go as far as murder?

Resolve settles in like a familiar weight across my chest. “We can go look for the file.”

Her expression shifts—gloom traded for the faintest flicker of hope. It’s barely there, but I catch it.

“It’s literally a needle in a haystack,” she says.

Even as I open my mouth, I hear Silas in my head, calm, firm, always practical.Don’t make promises Hightower can’t keep.

But I say it anyway. “We’ll find it.”

“How?”

Before I can answer, Mateo steps into full view, moving quiet as smoke. He gives me a 'we good?’ look, and I throw him a thumbs-up so he can toss the duffels into the back of the Pathfinder.

“When can we go back?”

And just like that, she’s back in the fight.

“We’ll need to be careful,” I say. “Cops’ll be twitchy after last night. You don’t want themassigning a patrol car to you for ‘suspicious activity.’”

Her shoulders stiffen. “How are we supposed to work on Eliza’s case? I need to be out interviewing people.”

“What people?”

“Her professors. Friends. Coworkers.”

There it is again, that flicker of reckless fire in her eyes. She’s still bleeding from the last hit and already wants back in the ring.

“Interviews are going to have to wait.”