Page 78 of Crash Course
"Ha! You know it, babe. Let’s go. My truck is up on five."
By the timeCruz arrived home and parked in front of the Annex with Cilla right behind him in her sexy as hell—and tamper-free—Quattroporte, it was nearly seven.
At the Annex entrance, he pressed his hand against the security pad and held the door for Cilla before escorting her into the Theater where Zeke and Rohan sat at the conference table.
"Hey, guys," Cruz said, trying and more than likely failing to not sound pissy.
Spotting Cilla, the two of them shot up from their chairs—good Southern boys, right there—and Zeke gave Cruz a little extended eye contact, more than likely telling him you-could-have-warned-me-sooner-than-thirty-minutes-ago about their client visiting.
After the ultra-awkward conversation in the kitchen about Cruz drowning in estrogen, he’d avoided being alone with Zeke and continuing the convo regarding empty whiskey bottles.
Fucking nightmare, that.
Now, the silence in the room lingered and Cilla took control by clearing her throat. "I’m sorry to barge in."
Ro flashed a welcoming smile. "Not at all. Sit. We’re sorry about the . . . you know."
"Thank you. Hopefully, it was just a scare tactic. I have a couple of big cases coming up. Your brother was terrific in getting guys over there. They took prints and such."
Cruz gestured to the other side of the table and she reclaimed the chair she’d occupied for their last meeting.
"Hope you don’t mind," Rohan said, "Cruz gave me the garage info and I was able to look at the security video."
Little brother worked quick. Although Cruz knew this. "What you’d find?"
"Nothing that’ll be of help, unfortunately. Someone in a hoodie, looks like a man by the gait, but he was smart. Kept his head down, hood pulled forward. Unless Ash can grab other video from businesses on the street and see where the guy went, I’m not sure it’ll amount to much."
Cilla nodded. "Rohan, thank you for doing that. I appreciate you trying."
"Sure thing. This pissed me off. Nobody should pull stunts like this."
"I agree, but unfortunately, it happens. When I was a prosecutor, it happened more often, but even now, people resort to things like this. Particularly if it's a high-profile case, which I currently have two of. People don't want celebrities getting off easy and they take their frustrations out on me. Threats aside," Cilla said, "my father isn’t happy with me."
Zeke winced. "Sorry about that."
"Why? You did your job. Now I have to figure out how to proceed. Based on our collective research, my father is aware there’s a contamination issue."
"Well," Ro said, "we don’t have proof ofthat. We only know of these isolated properties."
Cilla, bless her beautiful heart, gave his brother a you-poor-misled-child look, and that? Hilarious.
Cruz snorted, drawing the attention of both his brothers. He jerked his thumb at Cilla. "This woman? I might love her. Just so you know."
This actually got a laugh out of Zeke—score one for Cruz. Cilla shook her head, clearly questioning his said love. Who could blame her? The fact that he’d even said it shocked the shit out of him.
Gaze still on Rohan, Cilla cocked her head. "How do we find out if other properties in town are contaminated? Or, heaven help me, the water system. We know the streams we took samples from contain PFOA and PFAS. It could have seeped through the ground into wells."
Cilla was right. Rohan and Cruz had come across case after case where runoff from chemical plants leached into a town’s water supply via the ground.
"EPA, maybe," Zeke said.
Cilla made a humming noise. "That would mean reporting Randolph Industries. I’m not ready for that yet. I know how that must sound. That I don’t want to turn in my father. It’s not that. Well, yes, partially it is. I don’t want to rush this, though. The impact could be devastating to not only the company but its employees. I want to be sure of what we have."
"Plus," Cruz added, "we can’t. We signed an NDA."
"I’m not worried about that," Cilla said. She shifted back to Zeke and Rohan. "There are whistleblower laws. I need to brush up on them, but I think that if I’m the one talking, it'll leave BARS out of it. Before I do anything, I’d like to know how bad it is."
Cruz snapped his fingers. "I remember reading something. If a water supply is tainted, the town has to alert the residents."
