Tell Him I Love Him

9. You Two Are Over

Lucy should have remembered that undercover cops are great liars, but her mind was racing at Noah's words. The little voice in her head made her worry that she had hurt Tim, which made her eyes sting with unshed tears.

She turned away from Noah to face the ocean. The water was a beautiful deep blue hue, and that used to be her favorite shade until the first time she saw Tim smile widely causing his eyes to brighten to the most radiant light blue she had ever seen. That is now Lucy's favorite shade of blue. It might even be her favorite color.

Lucy wanted to see that blue in his eyes. She wanted to be the one to make him smile again. If he was trying to end their relationship, she was not going to let him go without a fight. "I don't care if we don't have enough evidence yet. I want out. I want out of this operation right NOW!"

"You don't mean that," Noah insisted and crossed his arms while staring at her back.

She finally turned to face him with hurt and pain in her eyes, "I do! This operation has already taken more than half a year of my life, and I won't let it take away the most important relationship in my life!"

"Come on, Lucy. You're not thinking clearly. Remember your training. We've come too far for you to turn back now. Make it all worth something and rescue the kids that are being taken away from their families and sold to bad people."

"But, Tim..."

"How do you want me to explain how you pulled the rip cord on this operation? What should I put in the report? Lucy was missing her boyfriend a lot, so she left?" He scoffed.

"It's not that simple! Tim asking for a break isn't like him. Something's WRONG."

"OR just respect his request for space and talk to him once you finish this assignment."

"I don't want to," she whined.

"Grow up, Lucy! Get your head in the game and focus."

It was unfortunate that the detective was making a lot of sense. She had work to do, but TIM. "I want Tim back on this op. I'll stay under as long as he's part of the team. I trust him to back me up. More than I could ever trust you."

"Fine," Noah sighed. "Just tell me about the intel you've gathered."

"I've got invoices going back 2 years with the shipments that Condor has been falsifying to smuggled the kids. This is the stuff we need to establish a pattern. Based on all of this, in 3 weeks, there should be a new shipment of 15 kids from Paraguay. Condor trusts me now. She'll tell me where the delivery will arrive, and then we can set up a sting, so all of this will be over."

"Condor trusts you?"

"Yeah, turns out we've been friends all along. The person whose in charge of this whole damn thing is Monica."

"Monica? The woman who owns the bar?"

She nodded. "That's why the goons all hang out there."

"How did we not see this before?" He wondered. After all of the research and time Noah had devoted to shutting down the child trafficking ring, Monica had never been in consideration as the mystery boss.

"My gut told me I couldn't trust her. Turns out, it's because she's the secret mastermind behind all of this."

"Well, damn. Keep Monica close. Find out what you can about the next shipment."

"I will, but you have to keep up your end of the deal. Tim has to come back. I want him back." Lucy meant it in every way. She wanted him back on the operation, back as her boyfriend, and back in her arms.