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Robert:Ignoring me as well is rather childish. Call me.
Robert:Between you and Dominic I can’t get a single fucking answer.
With a huff of frustration, I tapped on his number to call. Better to do it now before he threatened to cut me off and really pissed me off. The phone rang twice before his cold voice was snarling through the phone at me.
“I have been trying to get ahold of you and Dominic for over a day now. What the fuck is going on? I sent him to Quantico but since those agents refused to let him in, he’s been silent.”
“Why the fuck would I know what’s going on with Dominic?” I asked, my voice holding all the care I had for the man in question, which was absolutely none.
“Watch your mouth when you speak to me.” I wondered if I could screw up my vision with how hard my eyes rolled. “What’s going on?”
“All I know is that this has nothing to do with you, so you're off the hook. Go back to kissing ass on Capitol Hill and pretend like I don’t exist, as usual.”
“Control your bitchiness and explain.”
“Someone wants me dead.” I was distracted from saying any more by a buzzing from my phone and looked down to see the icon of the messaging app that had only been on my computer previously.
Scout hadn’t just updated the app, she’d made it accessible from a phone for convenience. Sparing a quick glance at the day, I felt warm contentment flow through me at the idea that I’d be seeing her today.
“Huh, someone’s here. I have to go.” I heard his words even while holding my phone away and was fighting back curses that he’d been the first to hang up. Yeah some petty behavior with him would never change. In my defense, I’d told him someone wanted to kill me, and he’d been more interested in a visitor.
I tapped the icon telling me I had an incoming call from Scout and watched as it connected to… no one. It looked like a hotel room, and I wondered if she’d popped up to grab something while waiting for it to connect. Well, I really wanted to wonder that, but my heart was already pounding out the familiar beat of dread.
“Scout?” I called out, unease filling me. The image blurred as the camera angle was turned, stopping on a sight I would never get out of my head. Ryan was in the doorway between the bathroom and the rest of the hotel room, crumpled on the floor, motionless. There was blood pooled around his body, but the wet red letters on the wall next to him were still dripping down the wall as I tried to hold in a sob.
Check Your Email
“Fuck,” I whispered just loud enough to catch Evan’s attention. When he was within reach, I shoved the phone into his hand and dove for my computer on the coffee table.
“Oh, shit,” his words were lost in the haze of panic as I tried over and over to get my password into the impossible box that would unlock the damn desktop. I could hear him saying something to someone, it sounded like orders, but I was more concerned with getting to my emails, hoping it wasn’t proof that Scout had been killed too.
I’d finally managed to unlock the computer and was clicking into my email when the laptop was snatched from in front of me. I looked up to see Jack setting it on his lap before clicking away.
“Give it back,” I choked out.
“Not going to happen. If this is another video, you’re not being exposed to that.”
“Anothervideo? What video?” I could hear the question, but it sounded so distant that I was afraid I was slipping back into the black of another disconnect from reality. I was well past stressed into barely treading water.
“Fitz and a team are on their way to Scout’s hotel. Police and ambulance are already on the way.” He looked up at me. “Lake. She was supposed to be here in twenty minutes. The chance that she was even around for this is unlikely. My team is downstairs right now tracking her movements since last night.” He looked back down at the screen and clicked. After a grand total of five seconds surrounded by silence, I felt the rubber band that was my calm finally snap.
“Well?” I screeched.
He looked up at me with an expression that was both confused and relieved. “It’s just the copies of the letters sent. Nothing new. No idea why these were sent.”
“Not like you guys let me read them anyway.” I sniped while trying to calm my heart rate.
Evan and Jack shared a wide-eyed look before my laptop was tossed carelessly to the couch and both men were heading for the door. I stood as well, wondering what they caught on to that I’d missed. It only infuriated me more that it was my words that had caused some big revelation and no one was telling me anything.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Only someone within Robert’s camp would know you didn’t read those fucking letters.” I’d seen Jack happy, surprised, irritated, and all the emotions in between since meeting him. He wore his emotions on his vintage t-shirt sleeve. But I had never seen him murderous. Until that very moment.
Jack opened the door first and the sound of a gunshot echoed through the room. Time slowed as I watched Jack fall back into Evan, both men going backward toward the ground. I heard the sickening sound of skull meeting wood as I watched Evan’s head slam into the side table, splintering wood surrounding him as he lay motionless. Jack was unmoving as well, blood pouring from his Pac-Man shirt, over his heart.
My mind was slow to process the scene in front of me, and when it finally clicked, my head shot up to meet the judgemental eyes that had held nothing but contempt for me for 13 years.
“What the fuck?” It was a strangled attempt at a question, but it was the best I could do as Dominic Parker casually stepped over the bodies of the men laying motionless between us.
