Chapter 3

"He's what?" Vince couldn't believe what he was hearing. The buster was a cop which meant he'd been right all along, but that left him with another question. "How do you know?"

"We can't talk about this here, is there somewhere more private we can go?" Abby wanted to tell Vince the truth about Brian, she needed to make him understand just how dangerous he was but she knew that the kitchen wasn't the right place to have that conversation.

"Yeah, come with me." Vince grabbed Abby's hand and pulled her through the lounge and up the stairs towards his room. They were half way up the stairs when Dom saw them.

"Hey, V – where are you off to in such a hurry?" Dom had never seen Vince so desperate to get a girl into his room before; he'd shoved past Leon and was practically dragging her up the stairs.

"To finish what we started Brotha." Vince wasn't in the mood to stop and chat to Dom; he wanted to find out how Abby knew Brian and what he was doing there.

As soon as Vince got to his bedroom door, he shoved her inside and locked the door behind them.

"Ok, talk." He could see that he was scaring her but he didn't care, he wanted to know how she knew Brian was a cop and why he was snooping around his family.

Abby hadn't seen such a murderous rage on anyone's face for quite some time and not for the first time since she'd found out where Brian was she felt scared. Only this time she wasn't scared of what she might do, she was scared of the very angry, very big man who had just locked them into his bedroom. Pulling her gun from her waistband she laid it in her lap, "Ok- here's how we're gonna do this. You make one move I don't like and I'll shoot you. You interrupt me and I'll shoot you. You make any attempt to stop me leaving when I've finished telling you what I know and I swear to god I'll fucking shoot you – ok?"

Vince could tell by the look in her eyes that she was deadly serious and moved carefully away from the door, leaving the key in the lock. Sitting down on the floor with his back against the wall he took his own gun out of his waistband and laid it on the floor well out of his reach.

"I won't try and stop you leaving but I won't let you get on your bike, you've drunk too much to be riding that monster tonight. You can stay in here tonight and I'll sleep on the couch, deal?"

"Deal." Abby couldn't help but smile at the lengths Vince was going to, to make himself appear less threatening. He obviously wasn't used to having to barter for what he wanted, usually if he didn't get the information the first time he asked he'd lay in with his fists until he got what he was looking for.

"First off the guy you know as Brian Earl Spilner is actually Brian Michael O'Connor. He's been a cop for about 7 years now. The last time I met him was at my brother's funeral, 4 years ago. David was Brian's partner for 18mths before he died."

Abby felt the tears rising up in her throat and swallowed hard, now wasn't the time to break down and cry for her brother, she had to finish her story and get Vince to leave, then she could cry. Standing up to look out of the window she continued her story.

"There was an investigation after David died and Brian lost his job. A few weeks ago I got an anonymous call telling me that Officer Brian O'Connor was working undercover at The Racers Edge. I've been following him around for the past few weeks trying to work out what he's up to, going on how much he's been hanging around the store I assumed it was something to do with you and your team and the call I got tonight at the races confirmed it. Someone on your team is working with Brian and the police – the FBI know it's your team jacking the trucks so they've offered a deal and it's been accepted.

Vince couldn't believe it, Abby sounded so convincing but it wasn't possible that someone on the team had rolled over and was co-operating with the police. There was no way any of them would do that.

"I know you don't believe me Vince, but it's the truth. I've got nothing to gain by lying to you – I went to the races tonight with every intention of killing Brian but then my cell rang and by the time I'd finished the call Leon was calling 'Cops' and I'd missed my chance."

"How did your brother die?" Vince knew he was taking a chance interrupting Abby; hell she'd threatened to shoot him if he did but he needed to know. "I don't understand how this all fits in with Brian."

"We were executing a search warrant, it was a drugs bust and those are always messy. Brian didn't follow procedure and David got shot. There was a junkie in a room that Brian had declared clear and when David walked past the guy shot him." Abby could still remember the look on David's face when he realised he'd been shot – he looked so surprised, then the pain caught up with him and he collapsed in agony. He'd been dead before the paramedics arrived.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Vince was on his feet and standing right in front of Abby, towering over her despite her heels.

"Up until 2 years ago I was part of the DEA. That's how I've been able to get all this information about Brian. My ex-partner is living with one of the LAPD officers that's working the truck heist case. She knew about Brian getting David killed and told him as soon as Brian was assigned to the case." Abby would always be grateful to Steph for what she'd done – telling Danny went against everything she'd ever learnt as a police officer but she knew that Abby needed justice for David.

"You're a cop?" Vince couldn't believe it – there was a cop standing in his bedroom telling him all about Brian and blowing his cover for him. Either someone was playing some seriously fucked up game with his head or she really did want to help.

"An Agent, Vince not a cop and I'm not anymore. I quit just as soon as I could after David died. I had to finish up some cases and wait for some appeals to go through the courts – as soon as that was all over I quit. Handed over my badge and gun and left."

"If you were there when your brother got shot how come Brian didn't recognise you outside the diner?" Vince was starting to believe her but he still had some questions he wanted answering.

"I thought the deal was you weren't gonna interrupt me?" Abby was starting to get tired, the adrenalin rush of earlier had worn off and she could feel a huge headache building behind her eyes. Moving past Vince she sat back down on the bed, leaning back against the headboard.

"I figured as you didn't shoot me the first time it would be ok to keep doing it." Vince could see how on edge Abby was and he knew that if he didn't lighten the situation at least a little bit she'd clam up and not tell him any more.

"I couldn't shoot you – it'd be a crime to ruin such a sexy body with a bullet hole" Abby had answered Vince before she'd realised her mouth was open and she could tell by the look on Vince's face that he'd heard what she said.

"You think I'm sexy?" Vince's face lit up when Abby told him she thought he had a sexy body. Most people didn't look twice at him if Dom was in the room and even when he wasn't he was always viewed as some kind of consolation prize. Not that he minded as it meant he had a regular stream of girls through his room but just once it was nice that someone appreciated him for who he was, not who he was friends with.

"Yeah, I do, but that's beside the point." Abby couldn't believe she'd called him sexy again, that made 3 times in the past 12 hours! Desperately trying to get the conversation back on track she pulled a photo out of her back pocket and showed it to Vince.

"Because that's how I looked the last time I saw him." The photo showed a slender girl with short blonde hair and brown eyes. "I'd been undercover for months –the search warrant was the culmination of nearly 10mths work so Brian didn't see the real me, he saw me as Abby Stevens, girlfriend of one of the biggest drug dealers in LA."

"So why are you telling me this? I mean how do you know I'm not the traitor in the team?" Vince knew that he had to trust his instincts on this, he was sure that Abby was telling him the truth and as he'd been right about Brian he decided he could trust her.

"Brian got my brother killed and I was told that's he'd lost his job over it and his life was in tatters. I've been lied to for the past 4 years about what happened to him after David was killed and I want revenge. It's as simple as that, I want to get revenge for David's death and if that means screwing up Brian's only chance at becoming a detective then so be it. This is his final chance at getting anywhere within the LAPD and if he screws this up he'll be on traffic duty for the rest of his career." Abby couldn't even begin to express how deep her hatred for Brain ran, he was responsible for her brothers death just as much as if he'd pulled the trigger and it was time that she ruined his life the same way David's had been ruined. She'd planned to kill him that night but the more she thought about it the more she felt that ruining his career was a better plan – that way he'd spend the rest of his life remembering how things were.

Vince moved over and set next to Abby on the bed. He could see how her tired she was and he knew that the stress of the day was gonna hit her in a minute but he wanted an answer to his last question.

"How do you know it's not me that's betraying the team?"

Abby was grateful when Vince sat next to her, it gave her something to warm to lie on. Shuffling down the bed so her head was in his lap she just about managed to answer his question before she fell asleep. "Because the meetings are always on a Friday morning and I know where you go every Friday between 7 and 11am."