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Biting back my frustration, I went to the kitchen to refill my coffee. It had been the first full day I could dedicate to my search, and I was already going stir crazy in this apartment. When I sat back down, I was no more relaxed than before.
Combining her name with the senator’s brought up nothing, but that wasn’t a surprise. I’d assumed that was a shot in the dark. Whoever this was, she could bring about his downfall. The issue was that someone had workedveryhard to make it impossible to connect the dots.
How did the Syndicate think I could figure this out if they couldn’t? Was I missing something obvious?
As far as I knew, the Omega Syndicate was supposed to be helping me, not giving me useless leads that I couldn’t make sense of. It wasn’t like I could just contact them.
Wait… could I?
The unassuming black phone was sitting on the desk beside me, but my hesitation to contact them was strong. They’d put me here, threatened and blackmailed me, and given me little to no help thus far.
As I tapped the screen, a missed text popped up.
UOS: You’ve done well, Bailey. We’re always watching and have seen that the senator has taken a liking to you. We hope our little present will prove useful.
The fact that they were offering any praise was reassuring, but I couldn’t help the annoyance that surfaced at the mention of the ‘present’ they’d left me.
Me: If by useful, you mean useless. I’m finding no paper trail. I know that this is a secret mission, but I’m not exactly a world-class hacker. How am I supposed to find information on someone that you can’t get records on?
I was unsurprised when no response came back.I guess they didn’t appreciate my snark.Tossing the phone aside, I went back to my search, but no combination of names, area, dates, or even variations of the name were helpful. I even went as far as searching births in North Harbor on that exact date. It took a bit of work to separate boys from girls, then I dug further into certificates that held no father’s name.
Yet again, a dead end.
Why give it to me if it wasn’t something I could reasonably find? It wasn’t like the Syndicate had handed over a high-tech encrypted computer or anything to help me. That was the crux of the issue. They weren’t going to hand me anything. It was up to me to use what little resources I had to succeed… or die trying.
So far, I hadn’t been able to dig into anything on Burke. I knew what the public knew, and that was about it. I’d have to step up my game and dig deeper if I wanted to figure out what all of this meant. They had provided a lead, but now I had to find a way to connect the dots.
Paranoia had me worried someone would find this one small shred of evidence I had, despite no one but the Syndicate and the office knowing where I lived.
The phone they’d sent was supposedly secure, so I took a picture before throwing the print-off in the sink and lighting it on fire. As the flames burned, I couldn’t help but wonder just how deep this journey would take me.
For now, I had to focus on being Bailey, the good little omega who just wanted to help the senator’s campaign and believed in the cause.
A knock on the door had me freezing. Had someone smelled the fire? My chest tightened, and my pulse thundered in my ears when the knock changed from casual to insistent.
I kicked off my shoes and tiptoed to the door, peeking through the peephole to see who it was. When I saw Cyrus leaning against the wall in the hallway, I let out a breath of relief.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I opened the door. He stepped forward until he was looking down at me. I swallowed hard, suddenly feeling like prey.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He cursed after he took a deep breath, then he reached out, his hand gently grabbing around my wrist. It took me less than a second to figure out why he was reacting this way.
Fuck me three times. Another mate?!
His scent wrapped around me, and I instinctively leaned into him. He smelled of cigars and subtle mint, understated and masculine and dignified. His fingers dug into my hip as he pulled me even closer.
“We can’t,” I told him. “They can’t know.”
“Who can’t know?” He was so close and his amber eyes seemed to darken with anger. It was so intense I forgot how to speak, let alone breathe.
“Answer me, Bailey,” he demanded in a gruff voice.
I was unable to avoid the alpha’s command, finally finding my voice to utter an answer.
“The office. Senator.” My answer was disjointed, but he understood.
No man had ever affected me the way they did, the deep rumbling voices, alpha pheromones, and intensity had effectively stolen my ability to speak well.
“They don’t have to know anything. Our business is our business, omega.”
