Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
She was still digesting what he’d told her, but she didn’t have any doubts in her mind about her feelings for him. Best friend. Now lover. No more secrets.
Knox wanted another four years on the job, which meant he needed his dad to win the White House, and then after, he’d have to level his father with the news about the teams.
She didn’t envy his position, but she’d fight like hell to support it.
“Thanks for keeping my parents safe tonight,” Knox said to Rodriguez before approaching the desk where Jessica sat working.
He’d changed into jeans and a gray tee before they’d come to the suite, and Adriana had traded her dress for khaki pants and a yellow T-shirt.
Rodriguez fiddled with the collar of his tuxedo jacket, a touch red in the face, as if exasperated by the fact he was taking part in some clandestine meeting. “I don’t know how you’ve all managed to talk me into being here, but—”
“Your job is to protect my family,” Knox cut off Rodriguez, “which is what you’re doing.”
Rodriguez reached for Adriana’s elbow when she walked past him, and he surprised her by whispering, “Your speech tonight, I was at a loss for words.”
She nodded, forcing the emotion to remain put for now. Her body was still Jell-O after her multiple orgasms from Knox. And her mind was mush after discovering the truth.
“Well.” He let go of her and held his palms open. “You ready to tell me your plans to find the real assassin and why I’m withholding information from the deputy secretary?”
“Our main suspect is Glenn Sterling, but we’re not sure if he’s working alone.
” Knox picked up a notepad off the corner of the desk and handed it to Rodriguez.
“That’s our list of suspects.” He left out the part about the suspects having once been part of a black ops group with his mom, though.
She supposed that’d remain classified intel for now.
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say it’s not a coincidence Sterling got himself assigned to this investigation. ”
Rodriguez lifted his eyes from the notepad. “He hasn’t done anything to interfere with the case, though. Not that I’m aware of, at least.”
“He’s probably not here to obstruct but to learn. To make sure he doesn’t get pulled into the limelight by Nina Hilton,” Jessica chimed in.
“The wife of the Liberation Defense Force?” Rodriguez handed the notepad to Knox and tossed his jacket.
“You know of her?” Adriana asked.
“My people made the connection an hour before the ball started tonight,” he replied while rolling his sleeves to the elbows. “Both Ike and Chelsea have connections to that militia. Aaron, too.”
Adriana’s stomach dropped. “Please tell me no one informed Glenn of this.” Jessica had said Special Agent Quinn had promised not to share intel, but Adriana hadn’t anticipated the Secret Service might discover the truth on their own.
She should have known better . . . they weren’t the Secret Service for nothing.
“They’ve been ordered to keep all intel privileged,” Rodriguez explained. “No one outside Secret Service.”
She touched her chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
Chen. Calloway. The rest of the guys. She trusted them.
“But you now have my full attention,” Rodriguez said.
“We believe Nina’s really calling the shots at the compound.
She flew to D.C. thirteen weeks ago and checked in to a hotel there,” Jessica shared what they’d learned.
“I’m working on getting eyes on where she went and who she met up with, but my money is on Glenn.
And then, after she left D.C., a plan to kill Knox’s mother—not his father—was put into place. ”
Rodriguez held a palm in the air. “Say that again.”
“We think Glenn orchestrated it to look like someone was gunning for my dad, but it would, in fact, be my mom who got accidentally killed in the crossfire,” Knox explained.
“And why would Glenn want her dead?” Rodriquez jerked his head back in surprise. “Aren’t they friends? Hell, they’ve known each other for forever from what I read.”
“When Nina’s uncle passed away, she inherited his ranch as his only living heir.
At the time of her mother’s death years prior, her brother, Nina’s uncle, was the only living relative, so he received her belongings.
” She paused. “It’s possible Nina recently stumbled upon something that’d give her a reason to have a grudge against Kathleen Bennett, Glenn Sterling, and the other names on that list,” Jessica said, keeping her voice even.
“We believe Glenn didn’t want the truth to come out, though, and he was willing to do anything to prevent it from happening. ”
“This is insane,” Rodriguez snapped out.
“That’s all we can tell you for now,” Jessica responded. “The rest is classified.”
“You’re really going to pull the classified card with me?” Rodriguez’s arms fell lax at his sides. “You’re civilians.”
“Nina made multiple calls to the same phone number after she made contact with Glenn. To an untraceable burner,” Knox went on, ignoring Rodriguez’s words. “Her last call indicates she’s gonna go off-script, and she has evidence of some kind that could prove damning for the deputy secretary.”
“And how the hell do you know this?” he asked.
“Because we have a man inside her compound,” Jessica spoke up. “We’re civilians, we can do things you can’t.”
Since the world thought they were civilians, they could get away with things that wouldn’t fly with the U.S. flag on their arms. But the flag was still there—an invisible one.
“You mean illegal activities,” Rodriguez said with a shake of the head, and Adriana could feel his eyes on her. He was trying to figure out why she’d gone along with such tactics.
She couldn’t look him in the eyes, though. She wasn’t in the room as Secret Service right now, she was there as Knox’s best friend.
“Quinn’s calling,” Jessica announced, offering Adriana an escape from Rodriguez’s heated stare. “Maybe she has news.”
“I’ve got teams on their way to Abilene and San Angelo, and they’ll be on standby awaiting orders,” Quinn said once Jessica answered.
“You planning on going after Nina?” Rodriguez asked. “We can’t arrest her without more to go on.”
“We’re working on a plan for Nina,” Knox interrupted. “But like you said, we’re civilians. We don’t have to play by the same rules.”
“Like hell.” Rodriguez closed in on the desk to face Knox as he stood alongside where Jessica worked. “I’m not losing my job over this.”
“You mean to tell me you’ll take a bullet for my dad, but you won’t ensure the bullet is never fired in the first place?” Knox shifted his focus to the computer a moment later. “What are you looking at?”
“I’m still trying to see who else Glenn’s been meeting with since Nina’s first approach,” Jessica said.
“Can you pause there and zoom in?” Knox leaned forward. “She looks familiar.”
“What do you see?” Adriana circled the desk to get a look.
Knox’s brow scrunched. “Is that who I think it is?”
“What’s going on?” Quinn asked, and Adriana had nearly forgotten she was still on the phone.
“We’re looking at footage we caught on a bank camera across the street from a hotel where the VP pick Leslie Renaldo was staying in D.C. three months ago,” Jessica said. “She’s getting into the back of a town car.”
Oh, God. Is Lyle’s VP candidate part of this?
“And why is that relevant?” Quinn asked.
“Because I’ve been tracing Glenn’s whereabouts, and the town car she’s getting into is his,” she answered.
Knox pointed to the screen. “Look at the time and date.”
“A day after Nina showed up in D.C., Leslie met with Glenn,” Adriana whispered. “What the hell is going on?”
Jessica worked quickly at the keys and popped up flight information a few minutes later. “I’m thinking their meeting can’t be a coincidence.”
“Does that mean Nina went to Glenn or did Nina go to Leslie Renaldo first?” Adriana asked, not sure what to think.
Knox peered her way. “I don’t know.” Confusion touched his words, an echo of how she felt.
“Keep me posted,” Quinn said after a few seconds had passed, allowing everyone to digest the intel.
“I’ve got agents I trust watching Glenn and the other names on that list you provided me.
If they make any suspicious moves, I’ll know about it.
Do I need to assign someone to Leslie Renaldo as well? ”
Rodriguez hung his head.
“If possible, yes,” Knox answered.
“Thank you,” Jessica replied. “We appreciate you trusting us on this. I know it can’t be easy, but—”
“I’m after justice,” Quinn interrupted. “I’ll take all the help I can get to do that. Let me know when you’re ready for my agents to roll.” And then she ended the call.
“I don’t know if I can do this.” Rodriguez turned his back to the room.
Adriana rounded the desk to stand before him. “You trust me, right?” She reached for his arm, and she could feel Knox’s eyes on her back as she spoke to her boss.
“Of course I do. But you’re also friends with the Bennetts, which means your judgment has been compromised.”
Before she had a chance to refuse Rodriguez’s statement, she overheard Knox talking to Jessica in a low voice.
“I need to get to Texas,” he said.
Adriana whipped around to face him. “I thought you were going to stay here.”
Knox leaving wasn’t part of the plan, and like hell she’d let him go without her.
His knuckles bore down on the edge of the desk. “We still need to find a way to get my man out of that compound and take Nina into custody.” He peered Rodriguez’s way. “Can I count on Secret Service to watch over my parents while I’m gone?”
“You should know the answer to that,” Rodriguez said in a near whisper.
“Could you keep an eye on Jessica and Adriana as well?”
Her stomach twisted at Knox’s words. “No,” she sputtered, her cheeks heating. “No more protecting me. You’re not going to run off to Texas and leave me here. If you go, I go.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. She was ready to go head-to-head with him, but maybe not in front of Jessica and her boss.
“No damn way.” Knox looked at Jessica next. “And before you say you’re coming—”
“I’m not.” Jessica’s hand settled over her abdomen, and Knox’s jaw locked tight as he nodded.
There’d be no stopping him from going, and Adriana knew it. Once he made up his mind, it was set.
If there were even the slightest chance his team needed him, he wouldn’t back down, because that was the kind of man he was. She’d witnessed his grief last night. Heard his words earlier.
“How fast can my dad’s private jet get me there?”