The Boot - Next Steps (Book 2)

Chapter Six

A/N: This book is flopping and I lack motivation :) but for the few of you who like this book, I will try to write more chapters

TRIGGER WARNING! MENTIONS OF SA AND R*PE! PLEASE SKIP THIS CHAPTER IF THOSE TOPICS ARE TRIGGERING TO YOU!

AARON

"Wait, Isabel as in-"

"Tim's ex-wife, yeah," the woman, Isabel, finishes my sentence, her head bowed in... either it's shame or embarrassment, or maybe even both. Which one? I'm not entirely sure.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hiss. "Oh, f*ck. Tim's already looking for any reason he can find to beat my ass, if he finds out that you're here, in my girlfriend's house..." My hands go to my head, fingers anxiously playing with my hair.

"Why does Tim want to beat you up?"

I roll my eyes, annoyed that she hadn't already put two and two together. "Because I'm dating his sister."

"Ah, I see."

"I don't want to ask you again. What are you doing here?"

Isabel groans, pushing herself to her feet. "I'm here because I'm in trouble."

I cross my arms, narrowing my eyes at her. "What kind of trouble?"

"The bad kind."

"Are you sh!tting me right now?"

"Excuse me?"

"Last I checked, there isn't a good kind of trouble."

Isabel glances warily at Genn as if asking for approval. "Go ahead," Genn nods. "You can trust him."

Isabel sighs. "I need you to promise not to tell Tim."

"I can't make that promise."

She groans. "Do you want to know or not?"

"Fine, whatever, I won't tell Tim."

"Promise."

"Seriously?"

Isabel raises a brow.

"Fine. I promise that I won't tell Tim," I huff.

Isabel takes a deep, shaky breath. "A few days ago, I bumped into someone I knew from my undercover days."

"Did she recognize you?"

A/N: I can't for the life of me remember Isabel's undercover name (if we even know it at all) so I just made something up

"Yes. But luckily, I know her from one of the ones where I didn't have to reveal myself. As far as she knows, I'm Kylie, not Isabel."

"Is she dangerous? Are you needing police protection or something? Has she done anything illegal that you can prove? If so, we can arrest her."

Isabel shakes her head. "No, she's mostly harmless."

"Mostly?"

"She was arrested a while back for breaking and entering and armed robbery. Served a five-year sentence and was released on good behavior. She's about a year and a half into her probation. So far, she's stayed clean. I genuinely think she's trying to turn her life around."

"What's her name?"

"Emiliana Jergesen."

"Jergesen... why does that name sound so familiar?" I think for a moment. "I think I heard someone talking about that case a while back."

"Yeah. She has a daughter, too."

Something about this timeline just doesn't add up. I tried and failed to come up with the words that I wanted. "H-How?"