Page 63 of Break Me Not

“She's the police commissioner's ex-wife,” he said, a little louder than necessary. “Chief will have our balls if she mentions anything.”

With that, it finally dawned on his partner’s mind that picking a fight with Parker wasn't a good idea.

But that only made me angrier because Parker wasn't my partner. She was doing this to get leverage over me while also making it glaringly obvious that I couldn't handle this by myself.

They mumbled to themselves a little before my assistant walked them out. We watched as they went with their tails between their legs.

“You've been watching me,” I told Parker, not willing to admit just how much her intervention helped me. “Not surprised. When you want something, you don’t stop until you get it.”

She turned to me with a smile that showed off her teeth, and they looked a little sharper than usual.

“See? Now you're getting it!” She handed me a business card. “Here, it looks like you'll be needing her. You have my number, so you can just send me a message if they come back for you, but honestly? Even being that guy’s ex-wife is a lot less powerful than being this lawyer.”

I took the card, barely registering the name.

“I don't need a⁠—”

“By the way, your partners—Ax and Sloan, is it? Yeah, they use her.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up. No one should know about the relationship between me and the club. I kept a lot of it on the down-low, given their other dealings. But somehow she found out.

Dangerous.

I looked up just as Parker was nearing my office door. My assistant was by her side, refusing to look her in the eyes. She turned back to me with a devilish smile.

“Again, you have my number.”

I stood there in shock, not really knowing what to make of Parker. But, just in case, I added the lawyer's contact information to my phone.

One more stop. One more stop, and then I could finally see Liz.

After the day I’d had, all I wanted was to see her. And we had a… date tonight.

Being with her helped me forget about everything else out there. It was like I could truly switch off my brain and let myself be used by her. It was so easy to fall into her instruction. Trusting her came easy—I just hoped that I could gain her trust as well.

And meeting some random information broker in a dingy parking lot is not the way to make that happen.

My nerve endings were on fire. I was standing outside my car with my hands in my pockets and looking over my shoulder every few seconds.

“God, at least try not to look like you're doing anything illegal, okay?”

I jumped at the sudden voice right next to me.

Looking down, I saw a girl in a jacket with her hoodie up. Her short black hair peaked out a bit, but her face was covered by wide sunglasses.

“Are you⁠—”

“Yep.”

She shoved a file into my chest, and I grabbed it with both hands, realizing it was noticeably light.

“This is not like my usual clients. This one is… boring, and kind of dumb.” She sounded annoyed, like she was bothered I’d given her this assignment to begin with.

“What's his in with the police?”

“High school friends,” she said before she looked up at me over her sunglasses. “The worst thing he's doing is drinking himself into a stupor and gambling all his money away. Recently, he paid someone on the dark web for an AI-generated video. I'm guessing you saw it already?”

I nodded.