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I pushed past Fitz and followed Cabot inside. I took the stairs two at a time and entered the room across the hall from Lake’s bedroom. I’d assigned myself the closest room in case I needed to get to her quickly, but now I was sneaking into the house and up the stairs like a teenage boyfriend in case she caught me smelling like decomposing bodies. I could use the shower time to think of a way to tell Lake all that we knew about the man trying to kill her and hopefully find out how many people had the knowledge and funds to hire The Wraith.
CHAPTER 13
LAKE
Ifound myself back in the library after the epic fail of trying to help with Robert’s list of possible suspects. I tried to help, but of his rather lengthy list, I’d only recognized three names and was more than shocked to find out that he considered them enemies or possible suspects. I didn’t even remember leaving the makeshift command center, my head trying to make sense of the sinking feeling in my heart. I knew what it was, but I wasn’t ready to admit it.
Finally, looking around the large book-filled room, I let a single tear escape from the ocean pooling in my eyes. It had never been as obvious as it was in that moment that I didn’t know a single thing private about my own father. I knew less than the public when it came to his acquaintances. It gutted me to realize that, with all of the danger I was in, I really had no one to turn to when it came to family. Sure Robert had gotten me protection, but beyond that, he’d just shipped me off and swept me under a rug somewhere. I didn’t even want to think about his irritation at having to explain his neighbor’s house in the Hamptons being used for anything nefarious involving him. Image was everything after all.
The vibrating from somewhere in the room, pulled my attention from my self pitying thoughts and I turned, trying to follow the noise. My cell phone was still sitting on the small table between the two wing backs and I hurried over to it. I’d never been so long without my phone and wondered what it was about this entire situation that had me completely forgetting my former lifeline. Scout’s name was illuminated on the screen and I accepted the call, unable to even get a word out before she was speaking, sounding rather rushed.
“I’ve been trying to keep up, but in three days I’ve already contemplated hiring myself an assistant. I don’t know how you stay so on top of these organizations. Not to mention the amount of people who want to attach your name and get pissy with me when I explain the stipulations.” Scout was complaining from her end of the phone, but I knew she was covering deep anxiety over the situation I was in. Since finding out about the text and the watcher, she’d been in a cyber toe-to-toe with Jack trying to uncover how someone managed to spoof an entire person that was now gone.
I had asked my best friend to turn her attention to my causes instead, hoping a bit of philanthropy might take the edge off Scout being unable to help identify my tormentor. In all honesty, the one thing I hadn’t wanted to change in my life was the work I did using all the money Robert Harrington thought I was wasting by being an emotionally stunted party girl. He was completely unaware of the fact that my passion lay in helping others and making life better for those deserving of a hand up. Millions had gone into charities from soup kitchens all the way to scholarships. If there was a person in need, I liked being behind the scenes with my father’s money to make sure they were taken care of. I’d never wanted his money and I had plenty of my own. But Scout had a point, my days were always so packed with one charity or another that for someone who hadn’t adapted, it could be intense. I’d needed the constant grind of work, charity, and dancing to keep me out of my head. Scout was emotionally healthy and didn’t need the vice of distraction, so this had to have been hell on her.
“You may need two to keep up,” I chuckled into the phone as I paced in front of the chairs, grateful for the distraction of this phone call.
“Thank you for underlining the point that you do too much. I can’t keep up for you while tackling my own work. Hell, I don’t even know how you keep up with your work when you’re doing all this. And I have no idea how your name is little more than a whisper between those whoneedto know.” Scout had never quite believed me when I said I kept a low profile when doing the charity work, but now she was seeing for herself that those really interested in helping, didn’t mind keeping names out of it. The trick was not falling for the ones only looking to collect celebrity names to attach to their organization.
I felt my heart crack as I came to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to keep living life like normal with my new situation. Too much depended on who knew what, and the secrets I’d been holding onto for so long, would come to light. Robert would take any good I’d ever done and parade it around for attention and praise as if he’d been the one doing it for the past 8 years.
“I don’t want it to mess with your work, Scout. I’ll email everyone tomorrow and explain the situation and silence. Let’s just hope the guys figure this out quickly, so I can salvage some privacy after the dust settles.”
“They’d better!” The tone of her voice was evidence enough that Scout was pissed about being sidelined on the investigation. She had talent for sure, and I didn’t want her hacking her way into Remington’s files to see what had been discovered. Mostly I was afraid she’d be discovered by Jack and end up in some cyber warfare with him. “How am I supposed to deal with the fact that I can’t be there with you or for you and have to rely on men who couldn’t even sniff out a false identity!”
Trying to calm the incoming hysteria from my friend, I gave her a soothing shush before trying to put it as honestly as possible. “If you were with me, someone could get to you to lure me out or hurt me. Of everyone in my sad little life, you mean the most and I’d walk into a shootout for you.” I paused, my heart breaking even more when I heard her soft sniffle on the other end. “Not to mention Ryan would probably kill me with his bare hands if I did something to take you from him,” I continued. Her fiance was a mixed martial artist, a giant of a man at six and a half feet, and shoulders so broad, he had to turn sideways into doors at times. The oddest couple for sure, but they balanced each other in a way I’d always envied. He was the brute to her brain though she swore he was sharp as a knife in the brains department as well. I’d never been able to pull much out of the beast of a man, his nods and grunts the majority of his communication with the outside world. But there was no doubt he’d shatter just as much as me if something happened to Scout. So, I’d made her vow to keep out of the investigation, instead helping me with the foundations until I could free up time and space to take it back.
“You know he loves you and is worried about you too, right?”
The question took me by complete surprise. I’d assumed Ryan had only ever tolerated me due to my relationship with the woman he loved. It never occurred to me that he would give a single fuck about the complete mess of my life. “He is?” My voice was a small tremor escaping my numb lips.
“Of course! He was ready to steal you from an entire security team to bring you back here and protect you himself.” She let a wet laugh escape. “I told him that it wouldn’t work since you’d probably run away just to get out of DC.” At that we were both letting loose a pathetic attempt at a chuckle.
“Yeah, tell him to save the heartfelt kidnapping for when you guys are in Fiji or something just as tropical and nice.” We both knew there was no truth to my words. I would never let the people I loved close while there was so much danger. And damn, my family tree had grown an extra large and scary branch in the name of Ryan Conway.
“Want to stay on the line while I fall asleep like a high school couple?” The yawn behind the joke let me know she didn’t want to leave me, but she was exhausted.
“No, you go cuddle up to your monster and I’ll get back to trying to hunt mine.” We said our goodbyes and I disconnected the call, watching the screen of my phone switch from the call screen back to my lock screen with a small sigh. Turning, I jumped near out of my skin to see Decker standing in the doorway.
He looked… good. Hair damp and slightly mussed, Decker wasn’t wearing the crisp black suit that refused a single wrinkle. He was wearing jeans and a black henley t-shirt that stretched over his chest in a way that had my skin prickling with desire. I’d known he was devastating in a suit, but regular jeans and a t-shirt had me near drooling. His normally shined to perfection shoes were traded out for boots that looked like they’d seen him through many hard days. It took far too long for me to realize I was just staring at him slack jawed before I even thought to look away and compose myself. How could I? He was standing there, obviously freshly showered, looking like the vacation version of himself for once.
“Who are you emailing with explanations? And who the fuck is Ryan?”
My eyes shot to his face as he spoke, heat rising in my face. I hadn’t been meaning to check him out, and, honestly, whatever he’d asked was completely lost on me as my body hummed to attention on the slight gravel in his deep voice. He looked as tired as I felt, and I shrugged off my answer. “No one really, just stuff to take care of. And he’s a friend.”
I don’t know what I’d expected after my distracted response, but it hadn’t been for him to charge across the room and stop directly in front of me, hands clenching and unclenching. I had to crane my neck to keep our eye contact and could feel the barely leashed energy crackling just below his surface. Decker Mullins was a timebomb, and I was worried I’d just lit the fuse.
“It’s time to drop the bullshit and put all your cards on the table, Ms. Harrington. You’ve got a lot of secrets for a woman with supposedly little depth. Your father isn’t in the crosshairs of hired hitmen, and we aren’t digging up neighbors next tohishome in DC. So start talking. I can’t keep you safe when you’re only giving me bits and pieces. Who did you piss off?”
It felt like the world had completely fallen out from beneath me, at the same time dropping an ocean of ice water down my back. Was it possible to be freezing and burning up at the same time? The word ‘hitmen’ rang in my ears over and over like a scratched record, stuck on one word.
Someone had been hired to kill me? I couldn’t even begin to think of anyone who hated me enough to do that. Hell, I’d barely registered how toxic Bailey and Monica were until it had been thrown in my face. I studied the lines of his face, hard and angry and unyielding. I’d only spent a half of a second on the word “hitman” when the rest of his words sank in. Digging neighbors up. The Pasternaks were dead.
I could see Lilian in my mind, smiling and doting on me since the day my parents had purchased the seaside home next to them. Henry always jokingly added the names of lakes to the end of my name. I was Lake Michigan, Lake Tahoe, and Lake Huron as he played with my name through the years. I’d pretended to hate it, but they’d been such cool old people to my child’s mind and better, they treated me like their granddaughter every single summer. True care and affection that I’d needed after I’d turned 13, and visits with both parents had turned into just me and the nanny of the month, escaping to the sea for the summer to try and cope with the loss of both parents.
They’d been there, open arms and hearts for a girl who just wanted to feel loved. They were gone, and the devastation of that news had only cut me more deeply with the brutal delivery of it from a man who knew nothing of my relationship with the neighbors that had apparently been murdered.
Holding back a sob of pain, I stomped to the same drawer that hid my degree, shoving it aside to grab the handful of cards I’d kept. I crossed the room back to Decker and smacked the cards into his chest. Immediately his hand shot up to hold the cards to him before collecting them and starting to sift through the pile.
