Obedience Lessons

Chapter Thirty-seven

Andy's POV

Happy memories of stolen moments with Dylan in my apartment had me smiling like an idiot.

"Weirdo," Bree scorned at my optimism. "Rome's got nothing else on this guy and you're wearing that shit eating grin. You know he comes back today right?"

I shook my head, yes. "Of course I know that Bree. Have a little faith." I started humming to myself, knowing that it infuriated her whenever I did.

Sure, the reports had come back clean on the post mortem of Liam's body but I'd expected exactly that. At least the doctor that had done the report was also an idiot. The entire thing was a clean job, very well documented. But it only had one signature on it. Joseph Taylor. I'd set Louisa on him and was waiting for a report any minute now.

Bree snorted. "You sure can pick 'em, y'know? Couldn't have found one of those boring vanilla kind that has something simple like credit card debt, could you? You just had to find a billionaire with drug lord daddy issues."

I flipped her the bird and continued humming Harry Potter's theme song.

"Ryman is going to want Natalie when he gets back," She said when I kept ignoring her. "Who knows what he's been doing while he was away..."

"We don't need to know exactly, since we have a pretty good guess he wasn't building schools and roads in Brazil. Bree, I get that you're nervous. So am I. But I'm in way too deep now. The minute he realises that we've been digging about him... and he will find out sooner or later, he's going to make a move on me. I'm on a ticking clock here, and I know it."

"And what do you plan to do once you get all the gory details? We don't know who to trust on the force," Bree was cut short by my phone going off.

Fear and anticipation built inside me as I answered Louisa shortly, "Yea."

"Taylor's dead," Louisa responded. "Ryman must've wrapped up the loose ends." Shit. This was bad. This was really, really bad. "How do you wanna play this?"

I counted to five then back to one again. I could still hear Louisa breathing into the phone as she waited for the news to sink in. "Can you get me photos of the body?"

"I'll work on it, but Andy...?"

"Yeah."

"There might not be anything to find." Louisa sighed just before ending the call.

Bree gave me a look that told me she thought we were fucked when I explained the situation to her.

"We're gonna need a confession," I told her. "For that I need you and Natalie."

"Easier said than done. I'm telling you, the guy doesn't trust me. And there is no guarantee he'll run straight to Natalie. He may crave discipline, but we both know he's not a submissive. At least not a regular one. He's too feral. I think he respects only force, and that's why Natalie managed it."

I rose an eyebrow at Bree, wondering if she knew just how right she was. Force. "Can you handle the scene this time?"

"I'm still the instrument, Andy..." Her voice sounded pained.

"I know. That doesn't mean you can't run the scene, the question is if Natalie would let you. And if you are willing." It felt wrong to even have to send Bree in again, but I had no choice. For this to be over, we would need it from his mouth, since there was no concrete evidence.

"I'll work something out with her. At least I'll try." Bree seemed so worried in that instant that I hugged her tightly. It was way overdue anyway. What had I done to have a friend like her, I still didn't know. The woman was fearless and loyal to a fault, even after these few years apart. "You would do the same for me."