Beautiful Redemption Chapter 14:The Most Convoluted FBI Plot in the World

This chapter is only like 14 pages, but they are 14 of the most confusing pages I have read thus far.

Thomas slams some papers down on Liis’ desk, and he’s really upset that agent Groves might be arrested today. He was compiling more evidence on him, damn it!

And Val’s been in on it (what?) all along!!!!

“I leaned forward, keeping my voice low. “I told you Grove was feeding you bad intel. You sat on it too long.”
“I was compiling evidence against him. That was part of the reason I brought you here. Val was in on it, too.”
I looked to my friend, who stared at the file as if it were on fire.
She was biting her lip. “I didn’t have to speak Japanese to know he was full of shit,” she said. “Wait—are you the language specialist he brought in on this?”
I nodded.”

Wait, if Val was in on the plan to catch the double-agent, why didn’t she know why Liis was there?

Val is sad she didn’t figure it out on her own, and I’m finding this one to be quite the conundrum as well. She knew they were bringing in a language specialist to gather evidence on Groves…Liis just started on their team working closely with Thomas…how did she not start to crack that case? I guess her “superpower” must only kick in when it’s convenient to the plot/Thomas and Liis’ romance.

Sawyer enters the scene and is also apparently involved somehow, but it is very unclear how:

Sawyer blew in, straightening his tie just as the door closed behind him. “I came as soon as I heard. What can I do?” he asked.
Val shrugged. “What you do best.”
Sawyer seemed disappointed. “Seriously? Again? He is my least favorite target. You know if we took a black light Grove’s bedroom room, every inch would be glowing.”
Val covered her mouth, disgusted.

Uh, what exactly does Sawyer do best? Look for semen in the rooms of suspected double-agents? I’ve never been more invested in finding out what role a character plays in a given situation.

Also Travis’ safety depends on the success of this investigation. Of course it does.

Remember how Travis is always beating the shit out of people? Well, Thomas realized that one of these guys that Travis fought in Vegas was the brother of one of Benny’s goons. Thomas’ job at the FBI sounds a lot like an average day on Facebook when you just find obscure connections between people. It’ll be like, “Holy shit, my cousin knows that guy I farted next to in a hallway that one time? Small world!”

Except in Thomas’ case you discover a connection to a mob boss by looking into the men your brother has beaten up. Who knew Travis’ violent tendencies could be so useful to busting a dangerous criminal.

I looked to Thomas, dubious. “You caught a lead on one of your Italian mob bosses in Vegas from the Asian Crime Unit in Washington?”
Thomas shrugged. “I’d call it luck, but I’ve worked on this case day and night since it landed on my desk. There isn’t a fingerprint I haven’t checked or a backlog I haven’t accessed.”
Val sighed, impatient. “You can call it bad luck. The goon was a kid. His name was David Kenji. Travis beat him unconscious one night in Vegas to protect Abby.”

But apparently the connections don’t stop there:

“That’s not in Travis’s file,” I said, looking to Thomas.
He looked away, allowing Val to continue.
Val nodded. “That was intentionally kept out, so it wouldn’t throw up any red flags for Grove. He can’t know anything about Travis. If he passes on the plan to any Yakuza, Travis is no longer an asset to the Bureau.”
“Why would Grove pass on info about Travis’s recruitment to any Yakuza?” I asked.
Val sat forward. “David is the son of Yoshio Tarou’s sister.”
“Tarou, as in the second-in-command of Goto-gumi in Japan?” I said, in disbelief.
Goto-gumi was one of the oldest syndicates of the original Yakuza Japanese gang. Tarou was a prominent boss…”

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK IS HAPPENING??? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Tarou is apparently very dangerous, that’s the most important thing for you to know. Seriously, Val and Thomas keep trying to explain all the convoluted connections and motivations, and Liis just goes, “This is a train wreck.” Like we both give up on this shit, really.

Given 90% of the rest of the book is focussed on Liis and Thomas arguing about Cami and this case is important for like 5 minutes, I’ll spare everyone the pain of going into too much detail. But I think the gist of it is that Groves was basically passing information to anyone with an ear, so they don’t know what Benny knows they know he knows, so they don’t want Groves to get arrested yet and blow everything with Benny.

Also, if Benny realizes they are somehow onto him, they won’t be able to get Travis to work for him and Travis will have to go to jail. The stakes have never been higher.

But then it turns out that maybe Tarou and Benny are now trying to get along even though at first Tarou blamed Benny when he had David fight someone and David died. So now Groves is one Travis Maddox mention away from figuring out the connection between Thomas and Travis. I guess if they’re all chilling, they might casually bring Travis up in conversation for some reason, so the stakes that have never been higher have now been raised.

The gang has to delay Groves’ arrest, but time is running out. But more importantly, Sawyer figures out that Thomas and Liis hooked up.

“I shook my head. “Why the secrecy?”
Thomas held out his hands and let them fall to his sides. “It’s Spy one-oh-one, kids. The fewer people you tell, the less risk you take. I didn’t want Grove to know I had another Japanese translator in the unit. He needed to keep tabs on all the interviews for Tarou, and another Japanese-speaking agent could have gotten in the way. She might have ended up a target just to keep Grove in charge of the Yakuza interrogations.”
“Oh,” Val said. “You needed to protect her.”
Sawyer rolled his eyes. “That’s absurd. He didn’t even know her to want to protect her.” It took him a moment, but when Sawyer recognized the shame in my eyes, his mouth fell open. His index finger waggled between Thomas and me. “You two were…”

Wait how did that help him put the pieces of the puzzle together? He could have just wanted to protect the new hire. But you’re telling me if he hadn’t slept with Liis, he would have just told everyone that she was involved in this?

I shook my head. “It was before. He didn’t know I was here to work at the Bureau.”
“Discussing line of work comes right after name-swapping.” Sawyer cackled. “You one-nighted the new hire, Maddox? No wonder you jumped on her ass at her first meeting. You don’t like surprises. This is all beginning to make sense.”

NO! No it is not.

Sawyer asks if that’s why Liis got the promotion, so Thomas decides to try to beat him up. MADDOX RAAAAAGE!!!!!

Val and Liis are able to calm the violent men-folk down, and Sawyer and Val leave to try to stop Groves from being arrested. This leaves Thomas and Liis to have a deep discussion about how he doesn’t have to protect her, and somehow it’s also about Camille.

“I can shoot a target at eighty-five yards with a twenty-two pistol, I can take down an assailant twice my size, and I deal with your arrogant ass at least twice a day. I can handle Benny, the Yakuza, and Grove. I’m not Camille. I am an agent of the FBI, same as you, and you will respect me as such. Do you understand me?”

I find it increasingly uncomfortable how Liis tries to work Camille into conversations that she has nothing to do with.

Thomas then explains that as soon as he met Liis everything ~changed~ and he knew he couldn’t lose someone else he cared about again. He knows when Liis leaves it will “end [him]”. Ug, this is barfy wish-fulfilment at it’s worst.

Thomas kind of sums up the plot for us, which is actually helpful for once:

“So, now, we have two problems. He’s going to notice when your brother starts working for the FBI. If you want this to work with Travis, we have to get rid of Grove.”
“And we can’t get rid of Grove without Tarou knowing we’re onto him and Benny. The case will implode.”
I stood there, at a complete loss. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to stall. The timing has to be perfect.”

This actually sounds like a metaphor for the relationships in all McGuire books minus the perfect timing part.

Liis tells Thomas he needs to focus:

“Goddamn it! I’m more focused than I’ve been in a long time. When I walked into that squad room and saw you sitting there…I admit it, okay? Knowing I brought you in to expose Grove scared the shit out of me, and it still does. It has nothing to do with you needing protection or you being a female agent and everything to do with the fact that, at any moment, you could have a target on your back, and it’d be my fucking fault!” he yelled the last part, the veins in his neck bulging.

Mmm bulging veins. Those Maddox Bros sure know how to make a lady weak in the knees.

Liis tells him they need to focus on going to the wedding and convincing Travis to join the FBI:

“Thomas’s face fell, defeated. “Just…stay away from Agent Grove. You’re not the best liar.”
“Yet you trust me to convince your family that we’re a couple all weekend.”
“I know what it feels like to have you wrapped up in my arms,” he said. “I trust that.”

I honestly have no idea what anything anyone in this book says means.