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“You’re willing to bet your father’s life on that?” he asked.
Was I?
I looked at Bruno who didn’t look happy in the least.
“I know it wasn’t him,” I said. “I also know, for a matter of fact, that if it was Brad, my father wouldn’t be alive right now. Brad is too skilled to make those kind of mistakes. I don’t talk to my father but once every couple of months. My mother about the same amount of time. I would’ve never even thought to check on them until they didn’t show up for a certain appearance.”
Now Bruno understood that more than anything I’d said to convince him all night.
“That’s true,” he admitted. “That’s also why I was hesitant to believe that it was him.”
“Agreed,” Luke and the mayor, Lynn, said at the same time.
I ran my hand over the back of my neck.
“I have a list of about five people in my father’s inner circle. Brad being one of them. My mother as well. That leaves three men that Brad would’ve entrusted a code to get up to our cabin. Odin Ridgeline, Elton Falls, and Juris Holloway.”
One of them had to be behind it. There was no other explanation.
Bruno started to make a note on a pad of paper in front of him, and for a second, I saw something in him that I wasn’t quite sure that I should ever see in someone that was the ‘right-hand man’ of a mayor.
He looked like a stone-cold killer. Someone that, in my understanding, would be better suited for the battlefield, and not politics.
Which then made me look at Lynn, the mayor.
He was an older man in his late forties. He wasn’t huge, but he wasn’t small either. And he had this air about him that made people sit up and pay attention.
Out of the two men, Bruno was the ‘in your face’ one. But Lynn? He looked like a man that you’d go play golf with on Sunday, and then when I looked at him just right, he also looked like a man that would rip my throat out and then continue to putt the ball as if nothing had happened. As if the blood of his enemies wasn’t soaking the green around his feet.
“Out of the three, which one do you think that it is?” Lynn asked bluntly.
“It could be any of them,” I admitted. “Odin is the security chief. Elton is his campaign manager. Juris is his advisor. All of them had equal opportunity. All of them also have alibis.”
“Sure, they do,” Bruno snorted. “The only thing that you have to do is sort out who’s lying. Which should be really easy.”
His sarcasm was not lost on me.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked.
Lynn turned his gaze to me.
“Nothing,” he told me bluntly. “We want you to go back to work. Go back to living your life. Let us handle the rest.”
“You’re serious?” I asked.
“Deadly,” Lynn said. “The kid of a president, you’re too high profile. If you want to keep working here, you need to keep your nose clean. Stay out of the spotlight, and for God’s sake, don’t do anything stupid.”
I waited for a moment, unsure whether or not I should ask what I wanted to ask next.
Luke took pity on me and said, “I don’t think you visiting her is a bad thing. Hell, I wouldn’t have even known that you were anybody at all. I also was the one to do the damn background check on you.”
Something loosened inside of my chest, but still, a niggling piece of fear stayed with me despite his reassurance.
With one last nod of thanks, I left the room, hopeful and excited for what was to come.CHAPTER 15I’m at that age where I’m permanently unimpressed by a lot of shit.-Coffee CupCAROLINA“So is your new boyfriend coming over for Christmas tomorrow?” Connor drawled.
Remembering Saint’s words from last night, his utter assurance that this was the best route had me stilling my tongue.
“What boyfriend?” I asked, trying to buy time.
I wasn’t really sure why I was bothering to lie to my brother. He’d figure it out eventually.
But, saying that, Saint didn’t want his identity known to the people of Kilgore, Texas.
And honestly, I wasn’t sure that I blamed him.
I mean, what kind of life did he have to live to realize that he didn’t want me exposed to that?
“Saint?” Connor said as he stuffed his mouth full of donuts. “You know, the guy that you banged in the bathroom at the Christmas party? The one that, might I add, our parents were at? Your brother?”
I felt my face flush slightly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
Clayton, who was also dressed for work and stuffing his face full of donuts, looked at me.
“I didn’t even get to go because I had to work, but even I heard about it. It’s all over the station,” he said. “I’m sure even Dad has heard about y’all being together by now.”
