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“You’re convinced it’s Ford, aren’t you?” he asked as he moved to sit beside her.
She rubbed at her forehead wearily. “He had the most reason. I didn’t know until after I returned home that Father even kept a journal. I was going through his things when I found several of them in a hidden safe that only myself and my parents knew about. The last week he was alive there were several references in his journal to business dealings he’d had with the four men we’re investigating. There was something shady about them, he noted. The last entry was titled ‘Who the Hell Is Warbucks?’ ”
He slid her a surprised look. “You haven’t told anyone else about this?”
She shook her head as she stared down at her hands in her lap. “Father never believed that any of his friends could possibly be a killer. I’ve always suspected Ford had his wife and daughter killed. Father and I argued about it often and loudly. He never believed me.”
“But you were certain,” he said.
“His wife was leaving him, and Anna went with her. Ford used to hit them. The last time, he beat them severely. Mathilda was trying to protect her daughter, and they were murdered as they tried to escape. Who else would have reason to kill them?”
“There was no evidence they had been murdered,” he pointed out. “The official report is that the car skidded on ice.”
“There hadn’t been snow for weeks.” She sighed as she leaned back and stared up at him. “Orion’s handler confirmed to me that he’d been hired for the hit.”
“Did you ask him about your parents?” He watched her more closely now. He knew she’d made contact with the handler; he hadn’t known how in-depth that contact had been.
She shook her head. “I haven’t been able to find him. Someone hid him, and they hid him well.”
John knew exactly where the handler was, and he made a mental note to get the answer to that question. If Ben Serborne had somehow suspected who Warbucks was, then Orion would have been called in. It made sense. Just as it was beginning to make sense why Orion had been given orders not to kill Bailey.
Until she became a personal risk, she was still a part of a very elite group. A group known for its loyalty to one another. Once it was proven that Bailey would strike against them, then she would be in danger as well. If they didn’t identify and eliminate Warbucks during this mission, then she would never be safe again.
“Would he have confronted Warbucks without letting you know something was wrong?” John asked curiously.
“Of course he would have.” Her smile was sad. “Father would have never told me, because he knew I would have done something about it. He hated my job and the danger involved in it. It was something else we fought about.”
As John knew he would protect his own daughter if he ever had one.
“Your father was on to Warbucks, then. It would make sense. He was a closely knit part of the group. They could have been courting his membership if it’s a group, or his help if its an individual.”
“Or he could have been checking into something himself,” she breathed out roughly. “Father was an armchair inve
stigator. He loved solving puzzles and he was incredibly nosy. He could have become curious about the wrong thing, or the wrong person. Which makes more sense.”
John could hear the grief in her voice, the need for answers, for vengeance.
“Warbucks has stolen so much from me,” she went on. “My dearest friend. Anna and I were like sisters. My parents.” She shook her head. “Trent.” Her gaze deepened as she stared back at him. “I can’t let this go, not until I find him. I won’t let it go.”
He reached out to touch her cheek, needing a connection to her, to comfort her. She had no idea how deeply she was entrenched in his heart.
“He won’t take anything more from you,” he promised, hearing the roughness in his own voice, the need. “I won’t let him, Bailey.”
It was a promise he meant to keep, even though realistically, he knew it could be beyond his own control.
She shook her head at the promise. “Tell me, John, what happens when this mission is over?”
“What do you mean?” He had a bad feeling he knew exactly what she meant.
She moved then, slowly, sinuously, like a lazy cat shifting in the sun until she was moving over him, straddling his lap as he leaned back, his hands cupping her ass until he could grind her against the hard length of his cock beneath his jeans.
“What happens when we’ve identified Warbucks and neutralized him?” She leaned forward and touched her lips to his. “You’ll leave.” It wasn’t a question. “You’ll ride off into the sunset and the next time I see you I probably won’t even know who you are. I’ll look for you in every man I meet. In every kiss I share with another. Because you can’t stay, can you?”
He stared back at her, wishing he could deny it.
“Warbucks will have taken you away from me. Because of him, you came here, to me. And once he’s gone, there will be no reason for you to be here any longer.”
Because the mission would be over. Because he had sold his soul for vengeance against the shadowy traitor.
