Blind Side Of Love (20 page)

Six Years ago

It had been two months, twelve days, and six hours since I had been assigned to this case. I knew it could have been a lot worse. I could have been in some third world country working with ruthless drug cartels instead of over privileged college kids, trying my best to be one of them. So, instead of being Mason Boudreaux, a twenty five year old, DEA agent, who came from a modest family which included my mother, father and sister, I was now Drew Bryant, twenty two year old college student from California who had inherited his family’s fortune after they passed away tragically. The investigation was focusing on Ashton Barrett, who had been on the radar for some time. When the agency had gotten some information that he was starting to branch out to distributing to bigger targets, it piqued their interest and that was where I came in. So here I was at Ashton Barrett’s party, hoping to get some leads while listening to him go on about the girl that he fucked the night before, trying to seem genuinely interested. When the truth of the matter was, I could care less who this obnoxious prick was getting it on with.  My attention was broken from Ashton when I saw the two girls that had just walked in, paying particular attention to the taller one. God, she was beautiful. I looked her over, trying to guess her story, something that I always did when new people piqued my interest. I could tell right away from her stance that she didn’t realize just how beautiful she was. She seemed timid and out of place, standing in the same spot as her long chestnut brown, wavy hair was blowing from the ceiling fan overhead. I looked away, not wanting her to see me checking her out.

Ashton looked over in her direction and I immediately wanted to knock the arrogant grin right off his face. "I have been after that piece of ass since the fifth grade and I will bet any of you dick wads that I will get it by the end of the summer." He took another sip of his beer and licked his lips, still staring at the girl.

"Dream on!" Ashton’s friend, Jack said. "Becca Keeton doesn't give any guy the time of day....especially not you."

"Oh, I have my ways.....trust me." Ashton smirked. God, I wanted to knock this jerk off on his ass so bad. “Watch and learn, Jack,” Ashton said as he approached her.

“Well, well, well, the beautiful ladies finally showed up, now all the rest of these bitches can go home!” he said. He moved closer to her and whispered in her ear. I couldn’t keep from laughing at the repulsed look on her face just before she pushed him away. This girl may have been reserved but she certainly wasn’t stupid. Not like all of those other foolish girls that Ashton had eating out of the palm of his hand. He held his hands up in defense. “Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying?” he said, walking away with his tail between his legs.

My attention was suddenly focused on the guy who just walked in the door, Troy Baker; one of the main guys that Ashton was dealing with. He had a rap sheet a mile long, but nothing was sticking out just yet. He wasn’t the source of Ashton’s supply, there was someone else involved and I was having the hardest time trying to figure out who it was.

“Yo, Troy!” Ashton shouted, handing him a beer.

“What’s up, my man?” Troy responded, totally amped up on something. “You got my stuff?” he asked.

“Of course. You got my money?” Troy pulled out a wad of hundreds from his pocket. “Then follow me, my man,” Ashton said, leading him up the stairs.

“Fuckin’ Ashton, man. His parents have more money than God and he’s got his hand in shit like that,” Jack said, taking a swig of his beer.

“Where’s he get his stuff from?” I asked Jack, knowing that he was buzzed just enough to tell me if he knew anything.

“Well, the rumor I heard was from his old man.”

“His father?” I asked in total shock.

“Well, his dad certainly has access to all the stuff he wants; he’s an orthopedic surgeon. Don’t know how true that is, but that’s what I heard.”

Holy shit! I never in a million years would have made that connection. But it would make perfect sense. His parents were supposedly pillars of the community so no one would be suspecting them to be using their son to be pedaling their wares. Now I had my work cut out for me. I had to get an in with his parents.
How the hell was I going to do this?
Ashton never hung around his house, so it wasn’t like I could use my
friendship
with him as a connection. I was deep in thought when Ashton’s big mouth broke my concentration. He was standing on the landing of the steps swaying back and forth. “I have something to say! I just want to thank everyone for coming to what will be my first epic party of the summer.” His eyes surfed the crowd of people until they finally locked eyes with the pretty brunette that he was trying to get with earlier. “Tonight we are privileged by a very special guest. The ice princess, dick tease, Becca Keeton has honored us by lowering herself to be here tonight. Some of you may remember her from high school. Well, college hasn’t changed her much, she still has that same stick up her ass!”

I looked over at the girl as the rest of the crowd started to laugh. I could see even from across the room that she was mortified.
He was such a fuckin’ asshole.
He continued rambling on as the girl ran out of the house.

As I took a walk out to my car to text over the information that I had learned tonight to my boss, I noticed the pretty girl that Ashton had just humiliated, standing up against a car. Her moonlit silhouette was just as beautiful as the starlit sky she was staring up into. I knew I should just keep walking and pretend like I didn’t see her standing there, but I just couldn’t. I could tell she was upset and I wanted to make sure that she was alright.

“Hey, are you okay?”

She jumped and quickly wiped her eyes before turning around to look at me. “Oh yeah, I’m good.” She mustered her best smile. 

“So do you like looking up at the stars?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do!” she snapped.

“No need to take offense. I just thought I was the only one that liked stargazing.”

She sighed and gave a small smile. “In case you didn’t hear Ashton’s little speech, I’m Becca Keeton. The ice princess or dick tease, take your pick,” she said, extending her hand out to me.

“I’m Drew Bryant.” I took her hand in mine.

“So, are you a friend of Ashton’s?”

“Yeah, college buddies.”  She nodded as her eyes fixated on mine. “Why don’t you come back inside?” I asked.

“Umm….no. I think I’ll just wait out here for my friend.”

I leaned up against the car and stood next to her. “So, Becca, tell me about yourself.”
What the hell was I doing? I had no business getting to know this girl. She had nothing to do with this case.
But I just couldn’t help myself.

“Well, you already know that I’m a stuck up bitch.”

I shook my head and smiled. “I don’t believe one word of it.”

“Well, that’s very kind of you. But you’re going to take my word over your buddy’s?”

“I got a mind of my own. Plus I’m really good at reading people and I can tell you’re not,” I replied in all honesty. Little did she know but I thought Ashton Barrett was a complete asshole as well.

“Well, thank you.” She nervously raked her hand through her hair. “So what’s your story?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you obviously go to Fairfield, but where are you originally from?”

“California.” I still couldn’t get used to saying that. “What about you?” I asked.

“Born and raised in this uppity town my whole life. Finally got away from it three years ago when I went off to college. Columbia. Pre-law.”

I raised my eyebrows; apparently this girl
was
a lot smarter, just like I had thought. “So, how long have you known Ashton?”

She rolled her eyes. “Too long. His parents and mine are really good friends. His dad and mine are both in the same medical practice. His parents are such nice people; I just can’t believe they have a son like that.”

And there’s my connection.

She placed her hand over her mouth. “Oops sorry, don’t mean to be talking about your buddy like that.”

I shook my head and chuckled. “Nah, it’s all good. So –”

“There you are!” The other girl that she had come to the party with shouted just as I was about to ask Becca if she wanted to go out sometime.

“Oh hey!” Becca smiled.

The girl looked at Becca and then at me. “Well, I was going to see if you were ready to leave, but if –”

“Nope, I’m ready!” Becca said all too willingly. “It was great talking to you, Drew,” she said while jumping into the passenger’s seat.

“Yeah, you too.”  I watched as they drove away. Who would have thought that a beautiful woman just may be the “in” that I needed? For the first time since I started on this case, things were starting to look up.

“Over here!” Liz shouted from the bar area of the restaurant. I sat down next to her and ordered a beer. “Please tell me you’re hungry because I put our name on the wait list for a table….I’m starving.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” I was still feeling a little out of it after running into Becca.

“So, how did everything go at the DA’s office today?”

“Okay, I guess.” I took a swig of my beer and ran my hand through my hair.

“Mason, what’s the matter? You are so not yourself tonight. Have you forgotten that you’re not working undercover anymore?” she joked.

I stared off into space before turning my attention back to Liz. “That female prosecutor….the blind one.”

A smile stretched across Liz’s face as she lifted her wine glass to her lips. “Oh yeah, Becca. She just started about six months ago. Love that girl! She is a sweetheart.” I sighed deeply. “What about her?”

“I slept with her.”

She choked on the sip of wine that she had just taken. “What?! When?”

“Six years ago, when I was working on this case. She had close ties with the source of the investigation and…” I took a deep breath and looked away.

"Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight. You slept with Becca Keeton when you were undercover so she thought you were someone else?" I nodded. "Mason, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"I know. I needed to make a connection and she was my in. She was just so beautiful, Liz. I couldn't help it.

"You fell in love with her, didn't you?"

I nodded. "I thought about coming clean with her and giving up everything for her, but I knew she would never forgive me. She would always think that I had ulterior motives. At first I did, but it didn’t take long for all of that to change."

"So, she has no clue who you are?"

"Nope. When she knew me, I was Drew Bryant from California."

"How did it end?"

"Not good. I got pulled off the case when they got all of the information that they needed for the arrests. I told her I was going back to California. I never gave her a reason why. The last memory I have of her was me breaking her heart. When I asked her how she went blind, she said it was a stupid mistake and she was at a really bad point in her life. God, I hope I had nothing to do with that."

"Wow!" Liz said shaking her head.

"Do you know how many times over the years that I wanted to just look her up to see what she was up to, if she ever graduated law school, or if she was married? But I just couldn't do it. The mere thought of her and what I did to her tore me up inside. So I figured if I pretended that she never existed then maybe that would help me forget about her."