Criminal Detective

The Good Samaritan

Claire looked between the three men and two stared back at her, while the hot guy tapped at the screen of his phone. As they all remained silent, her mind raced with different thoughts as to who they could be and what they wanted from her.

Could it be people from her life before?

Regardless, she knew she was in trouble and thought mostly on ensuring her survival at all cost. If, of course, her life was suddenly on the line.

Which already seemed possible after she glanced at the guard's gun.

She took a deep inhale, breaking the silence as she glared at the model man.

"Who are you?" She asked "And, what the hell is going on? I didn't do anything, okay? I swear..."

"I'm Roberto Gonzales." He smiled as his eyes remained fixed on his screen "If I'm not mistaken you used to work for Adkins, correct?"

Mr Benson Adkins.

The founder/manager of ChickLit.

The 54 year old business tycoon was what people would refer to as an "over night success" There was no word of warning or hint to his coming success, as he seemed to take the world suddenly by storm. Only three months after the origin of his all girl music group, Benson's net worth had sky rocketed to over a billion dollars. His influence was strong and his goal orientation even stronger as he went on to drive his girl's to some of the biggest wins in the industry.

Gold certifications, awards and award nominations, selling out the biggest stadiums and halls in the world, and so much more.
Benson was a business man who knew how to do business, he was someone who had the grit needed for a man or anyone at that to succeed and stay relevant. Despite his success and notable recognition in the world, little was known about him. Except, of course his chubby features and sparkling green eyes and also, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Claire could account to that fact.

Claire could also account to the fact that despite how much he made the success of managing the girl group look like that was where he got his finances from.

It wasn't.

There was a whole lot more that happened in the background and Claire amongst a group of other detectives were all a part of it.

She remained silent and his hazel eyes peered into hers.

"Please, correct me if I'm wrong"

"How do you know that?"

"Because, I do"

"I didn't work for him directly. So, I don't know-"

"But you did work for him, didn't you?"
He said, shrugged, then flashed a charming smile at her while her eyes remained on him.

There was no lie about it, if Claire had met this man under any other circumstance she would've fawned over him. Roberto was the striking image of every character in a romance novel that all the ladies wanted. Beautiful hazel eyes, a chiseled jawline, a beautiful face covered in black stubble, and his disheveled hair that he was still surprisingly able to pull off. Roberto was dashing.

But, he was equally dangerous.

"Even if I did... What does that have to do with why you are here? Are you detectives? Cause, I already served my time"

"Well, you did a whole lot of dirty work for him, didn't you? Some of which involved a whole lot of money laundering. Some of that money which sadly, belonged to me"

Claire's pupils widened which made his smile deepen.

"You may have paid your dues to the country but you haven't to me, mica"

"Oh" She said then gulped in realization.

"Don't worry though, I'm not here to hurt you. I would've but you're of very good use to me"

"Well, lucky me" Claire thought to herself.

She arched an eyebrow then asked "How?"

He sighed "Well, one, you are a detective, which is what I need at the moment and two, we both want the same thing"

"Which is?"

"Adkins's downfall"

"And, what makes you think I want that?"

Roberto looked at his guards then laughed hysterically which made Sarah's door open wide. Claire's pupils widened as her eyes landed on everyone in the room.

"Claudia? What are you still doing here? It's time to go home" One of the guards reached quietly for the gun in his holster which made Claire's eyes widen even further.

"It's nothing, I'm just..."

"I just moved into town. Claire's kind of my only friend here, so, I thought it'd be fair to let her know I had arrived. I asked her for the address of this place telling her I was going to come one day but decided to surprise her immediately" Roberto chuckled with his eyes shut "Didn't realize I was making her stay past her time, I'm sorry"

Sarah's face brightened a bright red as she stared at Roberto before she cleared her throat.

"It's fine, it's fine. It's nice to meet you?..."

"Roberto"

"I'm Sarah" She muttered obnoxiously. Roberto nodded at her and her face blushed an even brighter red than before "Well, I'll leave you guys to it" She said, gave one last lustful glance at Roberto, then got into her office. The guard took his hand away from the holster which made Claire breath out in relief.

"Your boss seems to like me" Roberto stated as he stared at the door and Claire frowned at him.

"What exactly is hysterical to you about my question?" Claire asked.

Roberto looked away from Sarah's door and back at Claire with a small smile.

"I know it's a white lie"

She frowned "And how do you know that?"

"Because, despite the fact that you killed your partners for exposing you and your team to the police. You still gave the feds useful information to put Adkins down"

Claire's stomach churned.

"How does he know that?" She thought to herself.

Claire ensured that information which concerned the murder of her partners and also what she told the police remained behind closed doors. Because, if it ended up in the wrong ears, she might as well had dug her own grave.

And, she was successful enough to keep everything hidden, so hidden that even Adkins informants couldn't and wouldn't ever find anything about either of the two situations.

So, how did this Mexican hottie know?

Or at least, how did he know some of it?

She pinched the bridge of her nose with an exhale as they all remained silent.

"I wanted to before, yes. But not anymore. He's a powerful man. I already tried and it failed. I'm not willing to try again"

There was that but she also no longer wanted a part of that life anymore. That dangerous, always look at your back, sleep with a gun under your pillow lifestyle. It was tiring and she wanted to change all that now that she got out.

But, it seemed it would be much harder to dust her past off her hands than she had actually assumed.