Beta

Savannah's plane touched down in Miami, and she jolted awake. She was surprised she had fallen asleep; she hardly ever did while flying. But, she had been exhausted. Between cramming for any information for the trip and her argument with Tyler, her stress levels were high. Which caused her concussion symptoms to be worse. She leaned her head back against the headrest as the plane came to a stop.

She turned the airplane mode off of her phone and saw she had a few missed texts from Alex, and even one from her sister, who was still on her honeymoon. But that didn't catch her attention. No, it was the missed call from Tyler. Before she even read the texts, she called Tyler. She was intrigued by what he had to say. If he started telling her she shouldn't be going to Miami, she'd hang up on him again.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up, grabbing her bag from the overhead bin while balancing her phone between her ear and shoulder. She was about to hang up when he picked up. "Hey," he said simply, no emotion in his voice.

"Uh, hey," she replied, shuffling through the airplane aisle with her bag to get off the plane. "I just landed, saw you called me."

"Yeah, Benn told me I should," he stated.

"Oh, gotcha," Savannah said as she finally made her way off the runway and into the airport. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was going. Dominic had given her an address for the local FBI that she was supposed to go to. But first, she needed to figure out how to get out of the airport.

She remembered she was on the phone when Tyler said, "Yeah."

This conversation was going nowhere, and Savannah wondered why she had called him back. She decided to throw up a white flag. She didn't want to fight with Tyler the entire time she was in Miami. She'd learned last time that she didn't want to go into something fighting with Tyler. When she ended up in the hospital because of Bartholomew before, her biggest fear was that Tyler wasn't going to want to talk to her anymore because of their fight. While she didn't think she was going to wind up in that kind of trouble this time, it wasn't worth risking.

"Look, Tyler," she began. "I know you don't want me here. And I don't want to fight. Please, just for once, just support me and my job."

The few moments of silence felt like an eternity for Savannah. "I support you and your job," he replied simply.

"But…?" she asked, knowing there was more.

She heard him sigh. "But nothing," he told her. "Just promise you'll call me. Every night."

Savannah smiled. "You know I will," she said, knowing that this was hard for him to let it go. They both were stubborn. It was why their fights blew up so much. But when one of them caved, the other one did as well. "But, I think you'll be a little busy tonight."

"Yeah, Jamie won't let me forget that we have a game tonight." There was a short pause before he continued. "It's why he wanted me to call you."

"Well, even if his reasons aren't right, Jamie's smart," Savannah laughed. "I'm glad you called, Tyler," she said sincerely.

"Yeah?" he asked. She could tell he didn't believe her.

She sighed. "Yes. Tyler, I hate fighting with you, you know that. And I'm really sorry I won't be home when you get back. And I will be following your game tonight. I know you're worried, but let's be honest, I'm probably safer here than I would be at home. At least here I'm not going after Bartholomew, I'm just talking to some people," she pointed out.

"Can we just not talk about work right now?" he requested.

She knew both of them would be better off if they didn't talk about work. "Sure, what do you want to talk about right now?" she asked. She had made her way outside to a taxi. She was going to drop her bag off at the hotel Dominic had reserved for her and then head to the FBI office in Miami.

"I'm bored," Tyler stated. Savannah chuckled at how much he sounded like a child. "You know what I like to do when I'm bored…?" he said suggestively.

"Do you want me to let you go so you can go watch some porn?" she asked straightforward just before she got inside the taxi. She hoped the driver hadn't heard her, but then again, she didn't really care. She was never going to see the taxi driver again. She pulled the phone away from her ear momentarily to give the driver the name and address of the hotel.

"I think you're better than porn," Tyler told her. Clearly he had already forgotten their argument. Or his horny ways just overshadowed his anger.

"Well I'm not there," she reminded him.

"Doesn't mean you can't help in other ways," he responded.

"Tyler," she began. "I'm in a taxi," she lowered her voice.

"So be subtle," he replied, and she could just picture the sexy smirk on his face. It was the same one that had drove her crazy a million times before. It was like he knew how to get her going and he used that to his advantage. "It's something I've never done before…" he trailed off.

Savannah looked out the front window, wondering how far away her hotel was. "I'm calling bullshit on that one," she told him. She knew Tyler had quite the sexual history, and she couldn’t imagine that he'd never had phone sex before. That was pretty tame for Tyler.

"Honest to God," he replied.

"Tyler," she groaned. "You're killing me." She liked being his first with things. That was what had gotten her to agree to shower sex in the team locker room.

"So you're considering it," he pointed out.

Savannah put her head in her hand, embarrassed he had already caught on. "Maybe after I check in to the hotel," she told him. "Wait a minute. What about Jamie?" she asked. The last thing she needed was for Jamie to be around when she and Tyler had phone sex. She knew Jamie put up with a lot with Tyler, but she guessed this wasn't one thing he'd want to be around.

"He's not here right now," Tyler assured her.

"When's he going to be back?"

"No idea. Not even sure where he's at right now. Maybe him and Alex are having phone sex right now," he suggested.

Savannah rolled her eyes. "Something tells me you're wrong about that."

"But, you're still considering it," Tyler pointed out, glee in his voice.

"I'll be at the hotel in like ten minutes. Let me call you back after I check in." Savannah couldn't believe that she was actually thinking of doing this. But, sometimes Tyler deserved to win. On her terms.

"Can't wait," he replied before hanging up. She knew he had a smirk on his face. She rolled her eyes again, just thinking about it. But, she had a smile on her face herself. They fought a lot, but she still loved him. Even when he pissed her off and tried to control her and her job. Somehow, he always got her to back down.

She looked out the window through her sunglasses. It was the classic sunny day in Miami, Florida. If she hadn't been there on business, she would have loved to go to the beach for the day and lay in the sand, getting a tan. But, she needed to focus on the matter at hand. Bartholomew.

The taxi pulled up to her hotel that Dominic had gotten for her. If she wasn't there on a mission, she might have really appreciated how grand it was. She made a mental note to tell Tyler they should come back there on vacation after this whole Bartholomew chase was over and Tyler was in the off season.

She handed cash to the taxi driver before stepping outside. The bellboy tried to grab her bag from her, but she turned him down, wanting to keep all of her items in her own sight. She had lots of files on Bartholomew and connections to him, and she didn't want to chance losing them.

She walked to the front desk, checking in. After a few questions and signatures, she had her key in hand and made her way to the elevator to take it up to the eleventh floor. When she got inside her room, she glanced at her phone to see a voicemail from Dominic. She immediately listened to it. "Savannah, Dominic here. I've got you set up to meet Damian Rodriguez at four o'clock today. I'll send you the address. He's our FBI lead down there. Trust him. Use him. Get the information we need and get back to Dallas."

She looked at the clock on the bedside table, seeing it was just after two o'clock. She had two hours before she needed to meet Damian. She contemplated going over her files some more when she decided she knew that material well enough. She could do more work tonight after she met with Damian. For now, she decided she would call Tyler back.

"Hey!" he picked up on the first ring. His voice made it sound like he was surprised she had called him back. "Did you make it to the hotel?" he asked her.

"Yeah, it's really nice," she commented, walking over to the window and peeking out. It was a beachfront view. "We should come here on vacation sometime," she added.

"You tell me when, and I'm there," Tyler replied.

"So I've got some time…" she trailed off, hoping he got the point she was referring to.

"Oh?" he asked.

"Jamie still gone?"

"Texted me five minutes ago saying he was going to lunch with Demers," he told her.

"You still bored?" she aksked him, shutting the curtains and walking over to the bed.

"Mmhmm," he hummed. "Considered renting some porn. But figured Coach wouldn't be too happy with that bill, and I was hoping you'd call me back. Besides, thinking of you naked is much better than seeing some naked girl on the screen."

Savannah rolled her eyes. "You're such a liar," she told him.

"Trust me, I'm always thinking of you when I'm getting off," he told her, his voice low and growling.

Savannah had made her way to the bed, laying down and propping her head up with the pillows. She couldn't believe she was actually about to have phone sex with Tyler, but here she was. "Lucky for you, I'm usually thinking of you when I have to get myself off," she replied.

"Fuck that's hot," Tyler cursed. She smiled to herself, pleased that her talk was already effective.

"You know we haven't had makeup sex yet," she reminded him. The only good thing about fighting with Tyler was that their sex afterwards was always good, with Tyler usually a little rougher than he normally was in bed.

"You know that's going to be good," he replied. "You better wear something you don't care about on your flight home because I'm ripping it off of you when you walk through the door."

She didn't say anything immediately, and he continued. "And then I'm pinning you up against that wall and getting on my knees. And you'll be screaming my name before I even get you to bed."

She shut her eyes, a small moan coming from her lips. Maybe this phone sex thing was more effective than she thought.

***
Savannah had never thought phone sex could be fun or such a good stress reliever. Tyler had been really good at it, which made her think that this wasn't his first run with it. But, she didn't interrogate him about it. She had been happy with herself when she had talked dirty enough to hear him come over the phone.

Fortunately, they had ended with enough time for her to change clothes and compose herself before meeting with Damian Rodriguez. She had taken an Uber to the FBI headquarters, immediatelly finding Damian sitting behind his desk. He stood up to properly introduce himself to Savannah before motioning for her to sit down across from him.
"So I hear you're involved in the Bartholomew Givens case," Damian began.

Savannah nodded her head. "Yes, I was one of the ones to put him behind bars the first time. I have every intention of doing so again. What information do you have for us?" she asked him.

Damian pulled out a file folder that had to be at least six inches thick. Savannah's eyes widened just a bit, not expecting so much information. "Givens' brother, Sebastian Bartolo, lives in Miami. Well half brother. Same mother, different fathers. Bartolo has quite a past. From the looks of it, Bartholomew and Sebastian separated in their teens when Sebastian ran away from home."

Savannah looked at Damian from across the desk. "So what does that do for our case?"
"Sebastian has had a visitor recently that's shown up more than once in the past couple months. Before that, he really didn't have many visitors. His wife and children have never visited him once," Damian explained.

Savannah was intrigued. She tapped her fingers on Damian's desk, waiting for the reveal, but he paused. "Who's the visitor?" she asked the question hanging in the air.

Damian slid the folder across the table into Savannah's hand. "Odella Givens," he stated.

Savannah kept her cool on the outside, but her heart was racing. Odella had been coming to Miami to meet with Bartholomew's half-brother. What was she up to? Savannah was determined to get to the bottom of it. "When was the last time she visited?" she asked.

"May 5th." That was the day Savannah had received the weird call from her during Shea's wedding. Why had she called Savannah when she was in Miami? There were so many unanswered questions flooding Savannah's mind.

"You have any clue what her connection is to Sebastian?" Savannah asked.

Damian shook his head. "No, we just started looking into her. Sebastian isn't set to get out of jail for another four years. And she just suddenly started showing up and visiting him. It didn't take much digging to find out she was related to him."

"She got Bartholomew out from behind bars," Savannah said lowly. That sentence got Damian's attention, and his head suddenly jerked in Savannah's direction. "I don't have proof," she quickly amended. "I just know she did. She's been calling me," she revealed.

"Calling you?" Damian raised an eyebrow, wanting more information.

"Weird calls. Telling me she has something I want. I know it's Bartholomew in hiding. He has nowhere else to go," she explained.

"Maybe Sebastian is involved," Damian shrugged his shoulders. "That's your job to find that connection, Ms. Decker," he added. "We have our man behind bars, and we'll do whatever we can to help you get yours back where he belongs. Just tell us what we can do."
Savannah fingered the file. "Do you mind if I take a copy of these with me?" she asked. She needed to really pour over the files and read every bit of information inside.

"This copy is yours," Damian motioned towards the file in her hands.

"Thank you," Savannah said sincerely. She stood up, starting to push her chair back in when she suddenly stopped and looked at Damian. "One other thing," she said.

"Hmm?"

"Can I see him? Sebastian?" Savannah requested. She just needed a chance to talk to him herself. Her mind briefly went to how Tyler would react if he knew she was asking to talk with a criminal behind bars in Miami. But, that was her job. And something she didn't plan on discussing with him.

Damian inhaled sharply. "Normally we wouldn't let outsiders in," he began.

"But…?"

"Because maybe it will help you to talk to him, I'll let you meet with him. But, you will have two guards in the room with you. Along with myself."

A small smile spread across Savannah's face. "Deal."

Notes