The Secret Love Scandal

2

"Good to know you care about my mental health," Samantha said with a sweet smile, "but I really don't give a shit about you."

"Did Neal hit you up again?" Savory's eyes rested on the concealed bruise on Swan's temple. "You think powder and foundation can hide that from someone like me? I've seen my share of abused women."

"Don't try to pick my brains, Savory," Samantha warned, sticking a finger out. "We're not buddies. I'm not the kind of woman who befriends someone who verbally abuses people."

And as Savory was thinking of a comeback, the blonde swiftly made her way to the conference room where the board of evidence was. Evidently, a few blanks had been shaded in. A big red X was pasted onto Machavano's photo on the top of the white board and now, right by his side, Adriana's photo had been blow up and tacked into place. Had to be her ID card photo. She was a few years younger and smiling with a darker shade of brown eyes based on the light.

Samantha found herself guiltily tracing the line of Adriana's jaw until the throbbing began in her forehead and she swore.

"Been gone too long, boss," Will came in and rested his laptop upon the long table in the middle of the room. Jacks followed, another cop who worked along well in IT.

Pouring herself a cup of coffee, black with no sugar, the blonde nodded at him and studied the board. "The Queen of Hearts?" she realized that the black marker scrawl was new under Adriana's name. "Can someone explain?"

"So we did a lot more digging," Will began, "Turns out blokes kept mentioning the Queen of Hearts. The same person who Charlie the eyewitness from four years ago saw coming out of the car. It was a woman. She was dressed in black and wore a shroud. It's only natural that Savory decided that Adriana is the same woman."

Swan wasn't surprised. It was almost as if the lead lieutenant found it pleasing to build on herself by absorbing credit from everyone else's work. Now, for the rest of the day, sparingly snatching a cup of cocoa from the kitchen, she buried herself into a shitload of information. She always refrained from plagiarizing within the office, hoping that doing a little digging on her own would unearth some substantial links that would aid in the investigation. With Machavano off the map now, one would ascertain that the case would grow cold. That the drug cartel would die away slowly. However, a cartel was essentially a corrupt business with a chain of command that eventually would adapt to accommodate the murder of their boss. There would be a lot of shifting around, and then regrettably more bad blood would flow through their veins. People were going to show up murdered on street corners and inside dirty safe houses. Drive by shoot outs as the drug trade spiraled out of control.

Now as Samantha settled back into her chair, the blonde bit into a shiny green apple and frowned at the computer screen. Strange. Terry, a lieutenant friend from Mexico had done something quite under the radar by emailing her copies of case files on the Red X Cartel. Now, as she sifted through them, Samantha realized that he had also sent an entire case file on no other than Adriana Mills. Immediately, Swan pushed all the other paperwork aside and managed to peruse the 20 pages or more for the next four hours without distractions. Because she wanted to discover more. To break the hard shell on Adriana's mind and heart in order to reveal the core. What made her tick? Why was she so forthcoming and so malevolent? What was she hiding behind that façade?

What Samantha did find was probably capable of disarming her from any kind of futile hatred felt from their last encounter. Not that she was going to push what Adriana had done to her under a rock. But now, here were the hurtful and painful facts about a woman who was evidently pushed until she cracked. Degraded until her heart was ripped to shreds. Twisted and torn around every corner of her life. No wonder the blonde saw through those shards of glass buried within the brunette's chest and she managed to catch a glimpse of a very composed and worthy woman.