The Billionaire’s Commitment
by MacKenzie Stowe
Copyright 2023 MacKenzie Stowe
"That has to be one of the sexiest things you have ever done and I can name fifty others right off the top of my head."
Zoe:
I came to New York to forget my past, but instead I walked right into it.
Brody was not a man I ever thought I would see again. Nor did I expect to find him so attractive. Now he thinks he needs to protect me. And I let him.
If only I could protect my heart as well as he is protecting me.
Brody:
I thought I had lost my chance with Zoe, but fate had other ideas. She is in trouble and I will do whatever I can to keep her safe.
Even if it means I have to stay close to her side.
Especially if it means that.
Now that I have her in my life, I’m going to find a way to keep her there forever.
The
Billionaire’s Commitment
is a friends to lovers steamy romance with plenty of heat with a guaranteed HEA and no cliffhangers.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Brody
“You were the one who decided to teach the kids how to play soccer. We all just assumed you knew how to play,” Logan said to Eric
Eric laughed and didn’t say anything. “They learned quickly,” Eric said.
“Don’t you mean you learned quickly?” Logan asked, and Grace, Eric’s fiancé, laughed.
“I’m sure Eric did a fine job,” Grace said.
“As I do with everything I put my mind to,” Eric said and gave Grace a knowing look.
“Don’t I know it,” Grace replied.
“More information than I wanted about either of you,” I said.
“Then don’t listen,” Eric said.
“Touché,” Logan said, and we all laughed.
I leaned back in my chair and watched my friends, my brothers, my fellow soldiers in arms and couldn’t keep the smile off my face. They had come a long way since we had left the Navy SEALs a little less than two years ago. I never would have thought our lives would turn out the way they did, but I was glad they had.
It was good to see Eric laughing and having a good time. He had always been the most reserved of the three of us. It was partly out of necessity as the leader of our group, but also it was how he was. He was a good leader, but he was an even better friend. I
would do whatever he needed and follow him wherever he needed me to go and had.
That had included moving to New York City. I never thought I would end up there. I had grown up on six hundred acres of land where my family grew hazelnuts. I was used to open spaces, not seeing a neighbor for miles, and not having to talk to a lot of people. I should have gone home when I was done with my tour and helped my sister and her husband with the farm, but Eric had needed me more.
It was a decision I never regretted. I was still adjusting to life in a concrete jungle. I had never lived alone, so when we moved to the city, Eric and I found a place together. It had worked for us, and it allowed me to keep an eye on him.
All that changed when he fell in love with Grace. They were living together and set to get married in the spring. I missed having someone around, but I was finding I liked and needed the solitude of my own place. I needed to get away from everything sometimes, if even for a little while.
It had been Logan’s idea to open up the bar and one I had been all for. We needed something to do, something to keep us all busy, and it seemed like the perfect idea. Eric had been skeptical at first, and I was sure it was because he thought Logan and I should have been doing something else. We didn’t, and we weren’t going to leave him. The bar gave us the perfect excuse to stay.
I never thought I would still be there almost two years later. I thought the reason that Eric had come to New York would have been solved by now. It hadn’t, and even if he was more grounded, even if he looked happier than I had ever seen him, he wouldn’t rest, and neither would Logan or me. Not until the man who killed his sister, Lauren, was brought to justice.
She had been living in the city while we were overseas when she was murdered. Eric had been devastated, not only because his beloved little sister was dead but because he hadn’t been there to
protect her. He had needed to do something, he had needed to find the killer, and the only way to do that was by coming to New York City.
It didn’t surprise Logan or me when Eric said he was going to the city. I think we surprised him when we said we were going to join him. The rest is history, or at least we are trying to make it that way. He had done as he wanted, and he had found the person who we think killed his sister. The problem was that we didn’t have any concrete evidence. We hoped we would eventually, and Eric was working with an excellent security firm that dealt with private investigations to help get to the bottom of it. He also recently had gone public with the story, increasing the interest in the murder, and our bar, for better or worse.
He was making some headway but not nearly enough. It was while he was looking and running the bar that he met his future wife. Grace was Lauren's best friend; the women had met in college. After her failed divorce, Grace came back to New York City and started working in the bar. She and Eric had clashed from the beginning, but I could see it was because they were attracted to each other and were fighting it.
It was understandable, they were both grieving the loss of a loved one, and it felt wrong to get involved. Their attraction to each other couldn’t be denied, and they fell in love. Grace still worked at the bar and helped me with advertising and promotions while Eric ran things from the back.
They would never forget Lauren, and Eric still needed the closure of having her killer brought to justice, but he was more centered now that he was with Grace. Greif brought them together, but it also allowed both of them to heal.
I was happy that he and Grace had found each other. They both needed someone, and they were perfect for each other, almost as perfect as Logan and his girlfriend, Amber, were together. They had met when Amber had come into the bar one night. Logan had
ended up going home with her only to find out she was the defense attorney for the man we suspected killed Lauren, Samuel Denton. They clashed a little in the beginning, but they found their way to each other and were living a perfectly happy life together. If I knew Logan, and I knew him better than just about anyone, there was going to be a proposal happening soon.
Logan had a tough childhood and had seen his parents go through a bitter and horrible custody battle over him. It had left him wary of getting involved with anyone or even considering having kids. I could see that Amber was making him see he wasn’t his mother and he could be in a good and loving relationship.
We certainly didn’t come to New York City for them to find the love of their lives, but it was a happy accident. I was one who believed in fate, in that there was something or someone who was guiding us all to where we needed to be. It was why we had opened the bar and why Grace and Amber had come to it. Everything was working out the way it was supposed to, and with the trial of Samuel Denton coming up soon, we could hopefully get him behind bars.
He hadn’t been charged with Lauren’s murder but a lesser charge. We had to take the wins while we could and hope that it would give us time to find more information on him and what he was doing the night that Lauren was killed.
The bar kept us busy and gave us a purpose, but it was more than that. It was a way to make sure that women felt safe, to make sure that what happened to Lauren never happened to another woman. It helped that it was run by three former Navy SEALs, and Logan guarded the door like he was protecting the most precious of cargo. In a way, he was; we wanted women to feel they could come and be whoever they wanted, do whatever they wanted in a bar and not worry about being harassed or asked to do something they didn’t want to do. It had helped us be mildly successful and kept the doors open.
Not that we needed the money, but it allowed us to use our money to do other things, like charity work or keeping my family’s farm afloat if we needed to. I had been putting off going back to see them. I missed my nieces and would love to see them, but I knew Eric still needed me around.
Though as I looked at him and saw how content he was with Grace, I was wondering if he needed me at all. I had come to the city to be there for him, and I would stay until I felt he was as good as he was going to get. I was still holding out hope that Lauren’s killer would be brought to justice. I just hadn’t thought about what would happen when he was and what I would do after.
“I didn’t mean it literally,” Eric said to me.
“Mean what literally?” I asked and brought my attention back to the conversation.
“You didn’t need to tune us out like that. Where did you go?” Logan asked.
“Just lost in thought and thinking how lucky my friends are to have two such great women in their lives.”
“Speaking of which, where is your much better half?” Eric asked Logan.
“She’s her own person and not my half. Though I would agree with the better part,” Logan said.
“Is she coming by tonight?” Grace asked.
“She should be; she was finishing up at work. She said she wanted to come by and have us meet someone.”
“Did she say who it was?” Eric asked.
“No, she was vague about it. I figured I could ask some questions, but she wouldn’t answer them, so I’ll find out with the rest of you.”
“Spoken like a man who knows and understands how women work,” I said.
“Or spoken like a man who knows the woman he loves,” Grace countered.
I nodded but didn’t say anything. I was glad my friends found the women they should be with, even if it meant they spent more and more time with them, and I saw them less and less. Sure, we hung out at the bar a lot, and I knew if I needed them, they would be there for me. I just didn’t need anything. Or the one thing I was hoping to find, I hadn’t yet.
Dating in New York City, or anywhere for that matter, was never easy. It was even harder for me as I wasn’t good at talking to people and never felt like I really belonged in New York City. I didn’t see the point in getting involved with a woman if I was going to leave the city eventually.
Though the more I saw how happy my friends were, the more jealous I got, and it made me rethink my dating strategy. My success on dating apps had been limited to short conversations that never went anywhere. I just hadn’t found one that I was interested in, one that I would look at and know instantly that she was the one for me. I was beginning to wonder if a woman like that even existed.
“There you are,” Logan said.
I turned in my chair to see Amber walking towards Logan. He opened up his arms and pulled her to him, kissing her passionately and causing a few patrons in the bar to make some cat calls and hollers. I barely noticed them as I looked to the door and to who had walked in with Amber. My heart skipped a beat as I looked at her.
It took me a second to comprehend who I was seeing and that she was really there. She was just as gorgeous as I remembered her, if even more so. She had always been petite and didn’t look to have grown over the five-foot-five inches tall she was in high school. Her body had matured and changed and had curves in all the right places. She looked professional in her knee-length black skirt and green blouse, but it only showed off how sexy her
body was, at least to me. Her black hair was shorter than I remembered, but it suited her as it framed her face and her high cheekbones and pointy nose. I couldn’t see her eyes, but I knew they would be the same ice blue.
I found myself standing up and moving towards her. Her eyes darted to me and then to Amber, who was talking to Logan and everyone else. I didn’t pay them any mind as all I could think about was walking up and talking to her. I still didn’t believe that she was there, and until I talked to her, touched her, I wouldn’t believe she was.
I only got about two steps before she shook her head, said, “This is a mistake,” and walked out of the bar.
I turned to look at Amber, who was glaring at me. “What the hell did you do to scare my friend away?” she asked.
Chapter 2
Zoey
I tightened my jacket around my body as I walked out of the bar. My head was down, and I hardly looked where I was going. My only thought was getting as far away from the bar and my stupid idea as possible. I knew who was going to be there when I walked into the bar. I just hadn’t counted on him looking sexier than I remembered or for him to look at me like he hated me. It had seemed like a good idea before, but all it took was one look from Brody, and I knew I couldn’t go through with it. The best thing I could do was walk away like it never happened.
“Zoey. Zoey! Wait,” Amber called from behind me.
If I had been a stronger person, I would have just kept walking, but I was never rude to anyone, even if they had put me in a situation I didn’t want to be in. I stopped walking and took a few deep breaths. By the time I had taken my third, Amber was standing next to me.
“Are you okay? I’m sorry about that,” she said.
I looked at her and wondered if she had lost her mind. I was the one who had run out of the bar like the devil was at my heels. I was the one who said I would talk to her friends and boyfriend and had turned and run away like a scared little girl.
“You have nothing to apologize for. I’m sorry. This was a mistake,” I said.
“That’s all on me. I should have warned you. I forget how intimidating they all can be. I should have told you that Logan and his friends are all former Navy SEALs. They can be a bit daunting to come up to at first, but I promise you they’re the nicest and sweetest guys you’ve ever met.”
“They certainly didn’t look it,” I admitted.
“Brody is very protective of everyone he cares about. I’m honestly not sure why he stood and looked at you that way. I’ve never seen him do that to a woman. I hope he didn’t scare you too much.”
I didn’t know how to tell Amber it wasn’t that he scared me; he did something else entirely different when I saw him. It was the same when I met him years ago. There was an instant need, an attraction to him that I had only felt towards him. I wasn’t scared by the man at all. I wanted to walk up to him, throw my arms and legs around him, and see if he could take me up against the nearest wall, something I never had done or would ever think of doing with anyone but Brody.
It didn’t help that the look that he was giving me made me think it was the last thing that he wanted to do with me. I had thought the attraction, that pull I felt towards him, would have dissipated after all these years, but I had been very wrong. Just like I had been wrong to come and talk to him.
“You tell me they’re all intimidating in one sentence and then ask if Brody scared me off?” I was worried she had seen more in my look and my reaction than I wanted her to see.
“Yeah. I wanted to know if it was him that had you running for the door or what you were going to tell them?” Amber asked.
“A little bit of both,” I admitted, and a short laugh came out of my mouth.
“I get it. This isn’t what you normally do. It wasn’t what you thought you were going to be doing, but I admire that you are. It’s a big step for you to come and talk to them. Your boss didn’t believe you, and you don’t think anyone else would. It was good of you to even talk to me. I can understand that you didn’t think you were going to be talking to three guys who look like they could crush a tank with their bare hands.”
“Is that what they do for fun on the weekends?”
“Usually just small cars, and only if they’re bored,” Amber said with a smile.
Her comment made me feel a little bit better, and she was trying to reassure me. I didn’t know how to tell her it was more the man and talking to him that scared me, not the information I had. Her comment about my boss not believing me just reminded me that I was on a fool's errand.
“This is insane. They aren’t going to believe me. I hardly believe myself. I’m sure I’m just wasting your time and theirs.” I turned and walked away from Amber, but I didn’t get two steps before she put her hand on my arm and stopped me.
“Can we be the judge of that? I don’t think you would have come to me if you didn’t think you had something. I think you do. Just because your boss is too busy or thinks you’re too small-minded to know what you have, that’s her problem, not yours.”
“She has a lot more experience in this than I do. What if she’s right and Blackwell is just pulling my leg to try and get a reduced sentence?”
“He wouldn’t be the first nor the last. There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to look into it. Eric has been trying to get information on his sister’s death for years now. Any information you can give him would be helpful.”
“Is he going to go and talk to Blackwell himself? I don’t think that would be wise,” I said.
“Nor do I. I wouldn’t think Brody or Logan would allow him to do it alone.”
“That comment doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“I was joking. Sorry. Once you get to know them, you will understand where my sense of humor is coming from. They’re a lot when you first meet them, but I think once you get to know them,
you will see they are kind, reasonable, and funny guys, especially Brody.”
“Can’t you just tell them what I told you?” I asked.
“They’re going to have questions. Eric will probably want to bring in Sean, the guy who he’s using to look into Lauren’s death, to ask you some questions too.”
“Great, lots of questions I don’t have an answer to.” I looked to the sky. It was late, and I knew I should be getting home. I had a busy day at work the next day, and I liked to get home and settle in for the night.
“You may or may not. It doesn’t hurt for them to ask or you to tell them what you know. Sean is very good at what he does, and he might know the right questions to ask Blackwell so we can get the right answers. He might know how to get your boss on board so we can get those answers.”
“It still seems like a long shot.”
“Possibly. But we won’t know until we try. I think you have something. I think the guys will too. If I’m wrong, I’ll buy you dinner.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I said.
“Come on. You said you were new to the city. It’s always good to have friends. Have you made many since you came to town?”
I hadn’t. I had taken the job at Project Reform because I wanted to help people, and my sister had convinced me that New York City would be a great place to go. It fit into my five-year plan, and after a disastrous breakup, it seemed like a good idea to get a change of scenery. New York was certainly different from living in the suburbs outside of Oregon.
So far, the city has been too much for me to handle. It was enough for me to get to work in the morning and then go back home. I had gotten comfortable enough that I could go to the
grocery store and do other small errands that I needed to. I had not ventured out and explored the city, nor had I made any friends.
“Work keeps me busy,” I stated and hoped she wouldn’t pry.
“I understand that sentiment, but friends and people you can count on are important, especially in a city as big as this one. Really, you’re doing me a favor by coming and talking to my friends.”
“And boyfriend. You didn’t tell me he was so good-looking,” I said.
“Really? I didn’t tell a smart, sexy woman how hot my boyfriend is? I wonder why I did that,” Amber teased.
“It’s easy to see how much he loves you and you him. There was enough heat from you two to warm up the entire city for a year.”
“Thanks,” Amber said and blushed. “You don’t know me, but you must have done some research on me before you came to my office. I’m a good person. I believe in justice for everyone just like you do. I believe everyone deserves to have a fair trial. If someone is guilty, then they should pay for their crimes. No one should ever go to jail because they weren’t given a good defense, nor should they go free because of it. In order for our legal system to work, you have to trust both sides, and I do. Which is why I think we can work together.”
“With your boyfriend and his behemoth friends.”
“Behemoth. They will love that you called them that.”
“Please, don’t ever tell them I did.”
“Don’t worry. Your secret's safe with me, or at least that one. You need to do this; I know you do. It took a lot of guts to come to me. I’m sorry the guys freaked you out a bit. If I were in your shoes, I might have done the same thing.”
“You don’t look like you have run from anything in your life.”
“I ran from Logan. Once.”
“Why would you do something as stupid as that?”
“Long story, but I didn’t stay away for long. He came crawling back to me, and then I crawled back to him. It all worked out in the end. That isn’t the point. The point is I think you should go and talk to them. I will be right by you when you do. If at any time you feel uncomfortable or you don’t want to be there, just tell me, and you can go.”
“You think this might be something? Something that could help them and Lauren?”
“I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t. Trust me,” Amber said and put out her hand.
Her gesture was more than just going back into the bar and telling her friends what I knew. It was also trusting her that I could trust them. I wanted to, I wanted to go and see Brody again, but I wasn’t sure if I should. I felt like if I took her hand, I was going to be going down a path I shouldn’t go down.
My life was simple; I was doing what I wanted to do in a city that needed my help. I might not like the city, I might be wishing I had stayed home at least twice a week, but I had made the commitment, and I would stick to it. I didn’t need to have a distraction like Brody or to get involved in a murder investigation.
Going and talking to her friends would do all of that. But, I had wanted to make a difference; I wanted to help people. If what Amber was saying was true, I could have information that would help a man put his sister to rest. How could I say no to that? If I had issues with Brody, that was for me to deal with.
“It’s just a conversation. I’m not committing to anything,” I said tentatively.
“Exactly. I’m not asking you to. Just tell them what you told me. We can then decide together what to do next.”
“Are we still on for that dinner either way?”
“Definitely,” she said and smiled at me.
Chapter 3
Brody
“That might be one for the record books,” Logan said.
“Impressive,” Eric said and gave me a look.
I knew their comments were coming; I had expected it. If the roles were reversed, I would have done the same thing to them. It didn’t mean that I liked it or took it lying down.
“Are you talking about how sexy I am and how you two don’t measure up? I thought we had established that I’m the best-looking of the bunch. Why are you two surprised?” I asked.
“Ha,” Grace said, and Eric patted her on the hand. She smiled at him.
“You wish. What the hell was that, man? I’ve never seen a woman turn tail and run on you that quickly. When did you meet her, and why didn’t you tell us about her?”
“I have no idea what that was,” I said. I didn’t know how to tell them how I knew Zoey or where we had met. I certainly didn’t know why she had run from me the minute we made eye contact.
“Definitely one for the books then,” Logan said.
“Why was she here?” Grace asked Logan.
“I have no idea. Amber just told me that she was going to come by tonight and wanted us all to meet someone. She didn’t say anything more.”
“Do you think she was trying to set her up with Brody?” Grace asked.
“That crashed and burned before it even got to the starting line,” Logan said with a laugh.
“We don’t know I was the one who scared her off. It might have been your ugly mug, or maybe Eric smiled at her. You didn’t do that did you?” But I had a feeling that wasn’t the case. I had seen the recognition on her face before she had run away from me.
“Eric has a lovely smile,” Grace said, defending Eric.
We all looked at him, and he smiled at us. Logan and I laughed while Grace shook her head. “Okay, he has better smiles than that one.”
“Ones only you see,” Eric said and winked at her.
“Too much information,” Logan said, but he smiled as he said it.
“Are you going to go after her?” Grace asked.
“Me or Logan?” I asked.
“Good point,” Logan said and stood up. “Maybe I should check on them. I always had a way with women and could smooth things over, certainly better than Frankenstein here,” Logan pointed at me.
“I’m standing by that it might not have been me that scared her away.”
“Hey guys,” Amber called from the doorway.
We all turned to look at her, and my eyes immediately fell on Zoey. My breath caught in my throat, and I felt like I had been hit in the gut. I had wondered if the attraction I felt had been in my mind, that I was just remembering how I had felt about her. But all it took was looking at her again to know it wasn’t like that at all.
I immediately saw us together, going on dates, taking a vacation together, hanging out at the bar with my friends, spending time with our families, and babysitting my nieces. I could picture it
as clear as day. I saw myself proposing to her and her saying yes, us buying a house, and the kids we would have.
There had been women I had dated, even loved in my lifetime, but I had never thought about any of that with any of them. I had crushed on Zoey when we were younger, but I had never had the thoughts and feelings that I was having about her now. I wasn’t sure what had changed. It was just there. I wondered if this was how Eric felt when he was with Grace or when Logan first looked at Amber. If so, I didn’t know how they could breathe when they were around them, much less talk to them.
I stood dumbfounded as they approached. When none of us guys moved, Grace came out from behind the bar and extended her hand to Zoey.
“Hi, I’m Grace. Are you a friend of Amber’s?” she asked.
“Not yet. I’m hoping to be,” Zoey said.
“This is Zoey,” Amber said and looked at Logan first, then me, then Eric. Her eyes held ours a little longer than was necessary, and the look she gave us told us to be nice to the woman.
“Hey, Zoey. Nice to meet you. I’m Logan,” Logan said, and then he pointed at Eric and said, “This is Eric,” and then at me and said, “And this handsome devil is Brody.”
“Hi, he, hello—” I stammered.
“Can I get you a drink?” Eric asked and walked behind the bar.
I looked over at Logan, who exchanged a confused look with me. Eric wasn’t one who liked to be behind the bar; he was happier and better served by being in the back office.
“A beer, whatever you have on tap would be great,” Zoey said and moved towards the bar.
Amber stayed at her side, and as they came to the bar, she stood between Zoey and the rest of us. I wasn’t sure if it was to give
Zoey some space or if she wanted to keep us away from her. It didn’t matter; I couldn’t stop staring at Zoey. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Eric poured her a beer and did the same for the rest of us.
We might own a bar, but Logan, Eric, and myself weren’t ones who drank a lot, certainly not Eric. By him giving us all a beer, he was trying to convey a friendly atmosphere. He wanted Zoey to feel comfortable around us. Logan took his glass and lifted it up; we all did the same.
“To new friends,” he said, and we touched glasses.
We took a sip, and then I put my drink down. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Zoey. She took a tentative sip and then another before putting the drink down. I got the impression she would have gladly downed the whole glass if she could, and I wondered if she might want something stronger. She had never been a drinker when we were in high school; she had always been a rule follower and never got into any trouble. I wondered how much of her had changed since we lost touch.
“What brings you to New York?” Eric asked.
There was a reason why Amber had brought Zoey to meet us. Zoey said they weren’t friends yet, and I didn’t think it was as Logan said to set me up with her. However, I would have been perfectly happy if she did. The only reason I could think that she would be there was because she had information about Lauren. Eric had to know that too. I was surprised he was trying to make small talk with her unless he was trying to put her at ease.
“I came to New York to work as an intern for Project Reform. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it. We work with people who think they are wrongly convicted or people who just need legal advice and can’t afford it.”
“You’ve done some good work. I heard about Travis Grey getting released after fifteen years in prison.”
“That was before I started working there, but yes, that was our organization. I help with interviewing potential clients, answering calls, and anything else they might need me to do.”
“Any work that you do is beneficial. I’m sure they appreciate you being there and helping out,” Amber said.
“I like being helpful. I got a degree in philosophy. I’m going to become a lawyer, but I wanted to take some time and do paralegal work before I went back to law school. I wanted to figure out if I wanted to, and it seemed like a good way to decide.”
“Smart of you. I know a few lawyers who hated being a lawyer once they got in the field. Do you like the work?” Grace asked.
“Yes. It’s daunting, and there are so many people and so much work that needs to be done. I like staying busy, I like feeling useful, so I don’t mind it. I really like talking to people and hearing their stories. There was one that came in the other day, and it caught my interest.”
“That's why she’s here,” Amber volunteered.
“Great, why don’t you let her tell us why?” Logan said.
“I am,” Amber said.
“You’re trying to take over,” Logan replied.
“I am not,” Amber said.
“You were saying,” Eric said to Zoey before he glared at Logan.
“There was a man who came in to see me the other day. He had been accused of shoplifting, and he said he didn’t do it. He was worried because it was his third offense, and he knew if he got another conviction, they would send him away for a long time. He swore to me he didn’t do it. He wasn’t even at the store when it happened.
“I wanted to believe him; that’s kind of what our organization is all about. I told him I would look into it for him and to come back in a couple of days. We have some investigators that can see if someone has a case. We want to help as many people as we can, but we can’t just help someone who walks off the street if we can’t do anything for them.”
“What did you find?” Logan asked.
“There is surveillance footage of him not only at the store at the time but also of him stealing the food. He did it, there’s no doubt, and when he came in, I told him as such. I showed him the footage the district attorney had, and I suggested he talk to one of our lawyers about maybe seeing if he could work out a plea deal.”
“He would have been smart to take it,” Amber said.
“I thought so too. I explained everything to him, but he didn’t want to talk to a lawyer. I got the impression he didn’t trust them; he said something about how they were the ones who got him into trouble in the first place. Anyways, he said if I couldn’t help him with my case, maybe he could work out another deal. He said he had some information about a case that had made the news recently,” Zoey said.
“Lauren’s?” Eric asked softly.
I knew that was why Zoey was there, but still having her say it and the look on Eric’s face were hard to take in. When we came up on the two-year anniversary of Lauren’s death, Sean suggested that we make a public plea and see if anyone had any information on what happened to her. He was able to get some news outlets to cover it, and the story trended for a while on social media. It was a great public interest story as it had a local business, former military, and a murder. The city ate it up. It actually helped boost our business as people wanted to help out. We did get a few tips, but nothing that panned out, and I think Eric had given up thinking we would get anything.
“Yes. He said he wanted to get immunity, and he could tell me who killed Lauren.”
“Did he have any proof?” Amber asked.
“He said he would only give it to me if he got an agreement. I immediately went to my supervisor. She blew my story and the whole idea off. She told me she heard the same thing all the time. She told me to not get so easily persuaded by a person who is facing jail time. She told me they will say and do anything in order to get out of it, including lying to anyone who would listen.”
“But you didn’t let it go, did you?” Eric asked.
“No. There was something about the guy that I trusted. I might be new, but you learn pretty quickly when someone is lying or if they aren’t. I didn’t think he was lying. He was scared about going to jail, but I honestly think he had some information.”
“Did you talk to him? Did he tell you anything?”
“That’s why I’m here. I told him I needed something to go with, not just a promise of something. I asked him to at least tell me when he knew, and I could try and help him out. He said he had been in a holding cell with a guy, and he had bragged about killing a woman. Well, he used another word, but I won’t say it. Mr. Blackwell said the guy was going off about how he couldn’t trust women and how you had to put them in their place. The guy then said how he thought he had found the perfect woman and had followed her for days. When he tried to talk to her, she pushed him away. It was then that he said he had to teach her a lesson. He said he stabbed her in the back like the witch that she was.”
“Did he say who the woman was?” Eric asked slowly.
“Yes. I’m sorry, but he said it was your sister, Lauren.”
“There has been a lot of publicity about this; he could have just been saying it to get our attention. Why did you come to Amber? Why are you here with us?”
“It’s because of the man he was talking to. I went to Amber because she had been the defense attorney assigned to his case. Samuel Denton,” Zoey said.
