Bitter Root (31 page)

“Umm-hmm.”

“Think we could do that again sometime?”

“I’m sure we can work something out.”

Adi kissed her then, the wondrous softness of her lips captivated
her.
I could kiss you
forever. I’d never get tired of your lips. They are the softest thing I’ve ever
felt.
When she moved away from Griffith, she had a pensive
expression on her face.

“What is it? Why so serious?”

“That email? It was a friend of mine in the DEA. He wants me to
meet with him in an hour,” she said.

“It’s the middle of the night, isn’t it?”

“Not really. It’s five thirty. I need to go see him. Would you
come with me?”

“Why? What’s this about?” Adi said.

“It’s a long story, and I’m afraid it’s going to upset you, but I
think you need to know about it.”

“Then tell me.”

“I really don’t want to talk about it until we’re with my friend,
if that’s okay. He has more facts than I do. Can you trust me on this? I know
it’s asking a lot, but this is important.”

Adi considered what Griffith was asking.
This has to be about J.B. What
else could the DEA and Griffith have going on that would upset me? Am I ready
for this?

“Is T’Claude coming?”

“Not this time. Just us. Contacts don’t like a bunch of people
showing up,” she said.

“You’re asking me to trust you, and right now that’s hard. I
trusted you to listen when I asked you not to dig into my past. You didn’t. I’m
sure you had your reasons, but the danger you put me in, put us all in… You
don’t even know.”

“You’re right. I didn’t listen, and I broke your trust. I’m so
sorry I did that. I was thinking about the consequences to me and not about you,
and that was not only wrong, but selfish. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“I’m trying, but asking me to trust you without giving me any
information is really hard to swallow. I want to, but how can I?”

“It’s different now. I’m not chasing a story and I’m not thinking
about how this can help me. All I’m thinking about now is you. Mike can help
you, and that’s all I care about. Later, if I can write about it without
hurting you, then maybe I will. But I’ll talk to you about it first. I love
you, Adi. I love you so much.”

Adi wanted to say it back, to tell Griffith she loved her too,
but she was so mixed up right now. The best she could do was to trust her again
and hope it wasn’t misplaced this time. “Okay. Where are we meeting him?” She
saw the slight disappointment in Griff’s eyes and knew it was because she
couldn’t say the words yet. But she wouldn’t, not until she was really sure.

“At the local DEA office. It’s in Metairie, so we need to take a
cab.”

“We have to tell T where we’re going. He’ll be crazy with worry
if we just disappear,” she said.

“Yeah, of course. Let’s shower, then we can call him. It’s
awfully early.”

“A shower sounds great. Um. You first?”

“How about we take one together? There’s plenty of room,”
Griffith said with a wicked grin.

“Okay.” For some reason Adi was incredibly nervous.
Get it together. It’s not like
you’re strangers or something. You just spent the night wrapped in her arms,
naked. Come on, grow a pair.
She hurried into the bathroom and
adjusted the water. Griffith walked up behind her and ran a hand up her back.

“It’s okay, you know. I promise not to bite.”

“I’m such a wuss…I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not. This is all just new to you. Relax, it’s all
okay. Just enjoy it as it happens. Don’t overthink it.”

Adi turned and opened her arms. Griffith slid into them and
kissed her, lightly at first, and then with more passion. She backed away and
stepped into the spray of the shower, holding out her hand. Adi let herself be
led under the warm water.

The press of Griffith against her back was sensual and erotic at
the same time. She felt little jolts of pleasure ripple through her. And then
Griffith was soaping her hair and her body. The wet slip of her breasts across
Adi’s back was making her crazy. And then she ran her palms over Adi’s breasts,
and the sensation of her nipples tightening made her moan. She felt Griffith
gently pull on their tips and twist them slightly. It was too much. She turned
and captured Griffith’s lips, then ran her own hands down Griff’s firm backside
and cupped her cheeks.

Then she lifted her, sliding her wet center down the hardness of
her flexed thigh. Griffith threw her head back and moaned, giving Adi perfect
access to her flawless neck. She kissed the perfect skin and pulled gently at
it with her lips, careful not to leave a mark. She lifted her again and
repeated the motion against her hard muscle, her own body reacting as Griffith
moaned again.

“God, Adi. Take me. Please. I need to feel you inside me.”

She leaned Griffith against the wall of the shower and slipped a
hand between Griffith’s legs. She tenderly parted the folds of flesh with her
hand and slipped one finger into the slick warmth.

“More.”

A second finger followed, and she began to thrust into her. She
pushed her thumb across Griffith’s rigid clitoris as she moved into her, and
Griffith cried out in pleasure. Her moans came in time with Adi’s thrusts and
then the crest as euphoria met rapture and she fell against Adi, completely
spent. Adi’s heart felt like it could burst. She felt so completely powerful in
this moment, with Griff helpless in her arms.
This
is trust. This is what I need to have from you, and give to you. To be this
open and vulnerable with you. I love you, Griffith.

Adi held her until she recovered, treasuring the experience, and then
they finished their shower in earnest. When they were dressed, Adi called
T’Claude to let him know where they were going. He wasn’t happy about being
left behind, but understood the necessity. They promised to phone when they
were on their way back to the hotel.

The cab ride to Metairie seemed to take forever as Adi considered
all the possibilities of what was about to happen. The glass tower that housed
the DEA office was imposing and daunting. She didn’t have much experience with
high-rises. In fact, the hotel was her first. This building made her feel small
and vulnerable.

“Are you sure this is the place? It’s so huge,” she said.

“This is it. Come on. They aren’t nearly as big and scary as they
look from the outside, when you’re inside. The office is on the eighteenth
floor.”

The feeling of heaviness that hit as the elevator ascended shook
Adi. She glanced at Griffith, who seemed undisturbed.
Must be normal. I wonder how it
will feel going down?
Once again, she was reminded of the different
worlds they inhabited
.
She
didn’t want to think about where they’d go when this was over. When they
entered the office they were met by a man in a suit.

“How may I help you?” he asked.

“We’re here for a meeting with Mike Hague.”

“Okay, give me a second to verify.” He looked at his computer for
a few seconds. “Ms. McNaulty? I’ll need to see your identification, please. And
yours as well, ma’am.”

They handed him their licenses and waited. He scanned them into
his system and handed them back.

“Right this way.”

They followed him into a good-sized conference room, and Adi’s
anxiety rose another notch.

“He should be with you in a minute. Can I get you some coffee or
something else to drink?”

Griffith looked at Adi, who shook her head. “No, thank you,” she
said.

The chairs at the long table were comfortable, and they didn’t
have long to wait. The door soon opened, and a large, bearish man entered.

“Griffith, Ms. Bergeron, hello. I’m Mike Hague.”

“Mike. Good to see you again.”

“Likewise. Ms. Bergeron? I didn’t expect you this morning, but
I’m glad you decided to come. Thank you.”

“It’s Adi. And you’re welcome.”

“I don’t know if Griffith spoke to you about our current case.
We’ve been following the movements of J.B. Nerbass for the past eight and a
half months. I understand you’re familiar with him?”

Adi shivered. “Yes. He’s my stepfather.”

“That’s what Griffith said. You do know the nature of his work,
right?”

“You mean his drug trafficking? Yes.”

“Good. We’ve built a scenario and I’d like to run it by you. Is
that okay?”

Adi looked at Griffith, but she wouldn’t meet her eye.
What’s up with that? Why is she
not being upfront with me? She said I could trust her.

“Okay…I guess that’s fine.”

“Good. Griff wasn’t sure you’d be willing to help us, but we have
to ask.”

“Wait. How am I going to help you? What are you talking about? I
thought I was just giving you some information or something?”

“It’s like this, Ms. Bergeron…Adi. We need a way to get your
father to say something that incriminates him and ties this thing up nice and
tidy. I think you’re our solution. We want you to confront him and get us the
kind of information we can use to put him away for good.”

Adi felt her blood turn cold.
Confront
him? I don’t ever want to see him again. I spent my life hiding from him. What
exactly are they expecting?

“Don’t worry. You won’t be in any danger,” he said.

“How can you know that? You’ve no idea what you’re talking about.
I can’t do this,” she said. She started to get up, feeling the need to run.

“Hold on. Let Mike tell you what he has in mind. If you can’t do
it, you won’t, but hear him out,” Griffith said. She placed her hand over Adi’s
and said, “Please, Adi. It might be the only way you get your life back.”

Adi sat back down and turned her hand over so Griff could slide
hers into it. “Go on.”

“It’s really fairly simple. You arrange to meet with him in a
location of your choosing. We’ll have all possible routes to and from watched.
You’ll be perfectly safe. All you have to do is engage him in a conversation
about his business. He’s been looking for you for a long time. I’m sure he’ll
be happy to see you.”

“He won’t. He knows how much I hate him. How much I hate what his
drugs do to people. He won’t believe a word of it.”

“Why is he still looking for you, then?” he said.

“Trust me, it’s not for a reunion. He wants me dead. Looking for
me is his safeguard against my surfacing and sharing what I know.”

“What do you know?”

“I…it’s complicated.”

“Try me. I’m pretty good at figuring things out,” he said.

Adi looked from Mike to Griffith. Sweat ran down the line of her
back, and she felt nauseous. Griffith gently squeezed her hand, lending her
strength.

“It’s okay. You can trust him,” she said.

“Anything you tell me is just between us at this point. If it is
something that incriminates Nerbass and we can use it, that might change, but
you don’t have to worry, regardless. You’re completely safe here. As far as the
DEA is concerned, you’re an informant. I can guarantee you won’t be charged
with anything by us.”

Adi felt Griffith slide her arm around her shoulders. She leaned
into her, wishing this wasn’t happening. Griff was right, Adi wanted a real
life, and she knew J.B. had to be stopped, had to pay for his crimes, but she
didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Not confronting him meant running
again, and this time she would be running from those who loved her. She’d spent
the past eight years afraid.
No
more.
It was time to stand up to him. She took a deep breath and
willed the tension out of her body. Her voice caught as she started to speak,
but she made herself keep going.

“When I was eleven, he made me shoot a man. I didn’t know what he
was going to do, and I couldn’t stop him. I would never have pulled the trigger
if I had a choice; he put his finger over mine and forced it. It was the worst
thing I’ve ever experienced. And then—”

“What man? Did you know his name?”

“Yes. Ransom Prejean, our neighbor.”

“Good. Let’s stop and do this properly. We need this on the
record to be able to use it against him. Come with me, please.”

He led them to an interview room and asked them to wait. Adi felt
her stomach cramping.
What
I wouldn’t give for a Coke right now. Why am I talking about this?
She
looked at the door, wondering if he’d locked it behind him.

“It’s okay, you know. You aren’t in any trouble, I promise,”
Griffith said.

“How can you know that? They could arrest me. I just told him I
killed a man.”

“Seriously? You were forced to pull the trigger. And the other
stuff? You were a child, forced to do what you did by a parent—again, not your
fault. Even if they did press charges against you, there’s no way you’d be
convicted. What’s the worst thing that could happen?” she said.

“I could end up in a jail cell.”

“Okay. Let’s look at that. If, which isn’t going to happen, you
are arrested, then what?”

“I don’t know.”

Griff took a deep breath and nodded. “Here it is, Adi, the big
scary truth. If you are arrested, they bring you before a judge for
arraignment. You make your plea and we get you bonded out. Worst-case scenario,
you spend a night in lockup. The hardest part is over. You’ve finally opened up
about J.B. and the things he made you do. Everything from here on means dealing
with your past head on, instead of letting fear keep you from living. And
that’s better than spending your life running.”

How could
you possibly know that? There’s nothing easy about any of this. I want to
believe you, but I can’t.

She dropped into the hard-backed chair and waited with building
dread. When Mike returned he had a second officer with him to take notes. It
wasn’t an easy thing at all, but she got through her memory of the day Ransom
died. They asked her about the years after, and she told them about all of it.
The beatings, the bodies, the oil rig and the man there. She told them about
the way J.B. arranged to ship his drugs and how he recorded the transactions.
The questions they asked were reasonable, and she was surprised when she
actually did feel the tension start to fall away.