Relentless (Colorado Crimes Book 5)

Chapter 12

Three days later, Natalie was sitting in her new office in Colorado Springs and gathering evidence to prove Noah innocent.

She knew that someone was after him because of the arson and him being run off the road, so she had that going for her.

She also knew that the footage of him always going to the bank was because of the fire station, not because he was depositing fake cash.

And after getting a warrant and looking into his financial records, she was able to see that no deposits were going into his account, so if he really was dealing counterfeit bills, he was getting no money for it. And that made no sense because people only ever dealt bills like that for the money.

Now all she needed to do was figure out who had it in for Noah.

She believed he was innocent.

Most evidence pointed towards that.

If she could see some of his cash, she could prove that it was real cash as well.

Raelyn knocked on the door of her office. "Hey."

Natalie looked up. It was the first time she had seen Raelyn since the day she told Noah the truth. "Hi." She busied herself with sorting some papers and putting them into the new file folders she had bought.

Raelyn sat down across from Natalie's desk. "How are you doing?"

"Fine."

Raelyn crossed her arms. "How are you really doing?"

Natalie stopped messing with the papers. She propped her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hands, "Not fine." 

Raelyn reached across the desk and touched Natalie's arm. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Okay, I'll wait."

Natalie sighed. "I have evidence to prove Noah innocent, but it would be stronger evidence if he let me have some of the cash in his wallet to prove that it's real cash. Then Santiago would believe me and I wouldn't have to worry about Santiago bringing in the cops. But I can't contact Noah because he blocked my phone number. I feel like a terrible person for not telling him the truth earlier, I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I had pure intentions, but I went about it the wrong way. The means didn't justify the ends, I guess. I also miss him. A lot."

Raelyn moved her hand away. "I'm not going to tell you that you did the right thing by lying to him, because you didn't. But I will tell you that you're doing a good job of proving him innocent and Santiago will have nothing to worry about once you present the evidence to him. I can also tell you that I can ask Noah for some of his cash to provide even stronger evidence. And I will say this, you were definitely falling for him, I could tell."

"He won't give the cash to you because he's innocent and he doesn't think that it's a problem." Natalie groaned, ignoring Raelyn's final comment. 

Raelyn shook her head. "Does getting run off the road, shot at, and someone setting part of his house on fire not convey the fact that it really is a problem?"

"I don't know Rae." Natalie pressed her palms into her eyes. "I'm having trouble thinking straight."

Raelyn's shoulders slumped. "You really liked him didn't you?"

"Yeah I did. Even though I was lying to him, I really liked him. And I messed up. And he's never going to want to talk to me again."

"Maybe if I talk to him about it-"

"No, you shouldn't. He'll talk to me when he's ready."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."