21. Rhett
Rhett
A na is exquisite, powerful, sitting in the chair across from her father. Her long legs cross over each other, shifting her tight black skirt higher, and— Fuck me , I have to stop blatantly staring at the senator’s daughter while he’s right fucking there.
I stand by the side of the room, merely observing, as she’s come to them with her demand and I’m sure to be involved.
“Look at her hair, Archibald!” Ana’s mother cries. I’ve never heard her address her husband by his full name.
Her father says, “It’s lovely, darling, really. But it’s ... bold.”
Ana smiles at that and my chest beats with pride. It makes my soul fucking soar to watch her come into her confidence, which could shake a room. The bastards who traumatized her in the maze didn’t get to make a victim; they made a goddess.
“You should have asked us first. What is the press going to make of it?” her mother goes on, pacing.
She’s beginning to grind on my nerves. Ana looks damned incredible and she made herself. That’s all that matters, not some tabloid gossip.
“I came to say I’ll be going to New York next week. Liam invited me to the charity gala,” Ana informs them.
“I cannot allow that,” her father says immediately.
“I wasn’t really asking,” Ana counters, growing irritated.
She has every right to be.
Of course, Ana doesn’t know the threats made against her life. The night of the maze ... I’ve not felt a terror like that since Christmas Eve three years ago. The helplessness in those minutes it took to find her ... I never want to feel close to that helpless terror again.
I crossed the final line with her last night that I swore to myself I wouldn’t.
But it was inevitable. Not because she’s stunning.
That’s obvious to anyone. No—what draws me to Ana like a moth to a flame is her spirit, her kindness, and what I can’t stop reaching for is something so much deeper I want to protect it with every fiber of my being.
Ana deserves far more than what I could ever offer her.
But for now, for the rest of this post, maybe the pretense will be worth the wound of leaving her at the end.
“I’ll be accompanying her,” I interject. “And she’s agreed to have two plainclothes guards trailing us at all times.”
Ana casts me a glare. She agreed to no such thing. It’s damn adorable. New York is stunning at this time while it prepares for the holiday season. I’m excited just thinking about watching her joy in the city.
My cell rings before the senator can voice the protest lining his face. I check the ID.
“I need to take this.” I excuse myself.
Ana can handle herself against her parents, and I’m sure they’ll cave.
“What have you got for me, Allie?” I say, mindful of my volume while scanning the hall.
“Oh Rhetty, you are going to owe me a mansion in the Bahamas,” she practically squeals.
“Doesn’t your family own one of those?”
“I want my own!”
I smile, picturing her delightful face.
“We struck big—very big—with what you found in that house. We’ve never come this direct to Uncle Fuckface before.”
One thing I love about Allie is that she never uses my uncle’s name. I don’t mind it—I use it myself—but I don’t know what I did to deserve her love and loyalty.
Catching a glimpse of Ana through the sightly open door of the office I’ve strayed from, I wish pitifully that they could meet.
That Ana could know all about me without it putting her in a difficult place of conflict considering who her father is.
If he knew about me ... what I did to get this position with his daughter .
.. I don’t think I’d even make it to my jail cell.
“I don’t have a lot of time,” I tell Allie. “Are you saying Rolf Sullevan has had direct contact with Lanshall? Is it just a sick, predatory ring and he’s the customer?”
“That would be a plausible guess, but no. You were right. That was a stop house. But it’s the last stop. Meaning Sullevan must be in charge of escorting them from there, likely to a new state, and selling the victims.”
My fist tightens. Sick fucks, using people as currency.
Allie goes on. “But here’s where you’re going to be super pissed, and I need you to promise you’re not around breakable things that might blow your cover.”
My heart speeds up. “Ana’s hit?”
“Yes. I recognized the code work from what I saw when I hacked the server to get you the intel in the first place. It was used in the documents you found in her safe. I can’t be certain—I mean, not one hundred percent sure—but my guesses are usually pretty accurate?—”
“Allie,” I plead. Fuck , it’s both torture and a win to potentially be closer to the source that sent out a hit on my little bird.
“It might not be Rolf Sullevan, before you lose your shit and do something completely stupid. The home belongs to him, but it’s been leased for more than five years. Someone called Matt Heizer.”
Recognition flashes in my mind. “Did Rix send you what I found in Sullevan’s hotel room in Cali?”
“No . . . Should he?”
“There was a credit card. That’s the name that was on it.”
“I don’t know the name. I take it Rix hasn’t found anyone in the databases.”
“Call him, please. Check everywhere you can. This could very well be our guy.”
“So not Sullevan?”
“The men at the top don’t like to get their hands dirty. If Sullevan is orchestrating, this guy is our confession.”
“Makes sense.”
I ask her what’s been nagging on my mind. “Have you ever looked into Liam and Matthew Forbes?”
“Of course. I’ve found no trace of anything bad in their history. All records check out, nothing suspicious.”
It should be a relief, but I can’t settle.
Ana’s clearly close with Liam, and I can’t deny there’s a note of ugly jealously as I wonder if there’s any romantic or sexual history between them.
Then there’s his brother ... who isn’t subtle in his eyes for Ana, but she doesn’t respond to him with the same genuine enthusiasm as when she was on the phone with Liam. It doesn’t make sense.
As I stare at the flicker of Ana and imagine their potential brotherly tensions over her, I have to remind myself none of it matters.
She’s mine. Thoughts of last night twitch my cock.
She wrapped so damn perfectly around every part of me that it took everything in me to see her walk out of her room this morning dressed in red and black and not fuck her against the hallway wall.
I have no care for decency with this woman.
There might come a time when I’ll have to let my little bird fly away from me, but I’ll never lose track of her.
“He’s harmless,” Allie adds, snapping me back to the conversation.
I frown at the wall. “Do you know him?”
“Who, Liam? No. Well, I know of him, I guess. When we were kids.”
Her nervousness piques my curiosity.
“How young?”
“Unimportant, Agent Kaiser. Focus on yourself.”
“I need you to look again,” I say firmly. “Into why Liam is in New York. I’m heading there with Ana next week.”
“Ohh, how is the babysitting going? Has she driven you up the wall yet? It’s not hard to do.”
I’m going to drive her up a wall. Soon, if I have my way.
“She’s . . . surprising.”
I shouldn’t have said anything. Allie gasps. “In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never had such a tone talking about a woman.”
“You read too much into things.” I dismiss her.
“I wouldn’t be good at my job if I didn’t.”
“Is that all you have right now?” I ask.
“Is that all! You have no idea how hard it was to dig into someone as guarded and prolific as Rolf Sullevan. I think there’s more to find, but it’ll take some time. Oh, and tell Rix I’d like my new Gucci bag in beige. I got the information first. We made it a race.”
“Again, can’t you just buy yourself these things?”
“Treats taste so much better when victory delivers them.”
I huff a laugh. “Thank you, Allie,” I say, hanging up just as Ana comes strutting out her father’s office.
From the triumphant grin she bares to me I guess she’s succeeded in her persuasion. It takes every effort not to draw her to me when she’s close enough, but for all her parents know, any touch we share is merely in aid of our relationship ruse in public and inappropriate elsewhere.
If only they knew.
“I did my part. Your turn,” she sings to me.
“I think my persuasion techniques are smoother than yours. I won’t be long.”
She folds her arms at my arrogance. “I’ve already done the majority of the work—he’s just going to badger you about the security detail.”
“Like I said, I won’t be long.” I risk slipping my hand across her face as I pass, needing to touch her so often it’s concerning.
Back in the senator’s office, he sits with his chin in his hand, a faraway look of concern on his face. His wife has left too, and I close the door behind myself.
“I don’t like this,” Senator Kinsley mutters.
“She’s a grown woman—she needs to be able to live like one. If I may observe, sir, I don’t doubt she’s capable of handling herself and staying out of trouble, and I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“She speaks very highly of you,” he says, assessing me. “Above that, I can’t help but notice a change in her since you arrived.”
I’m not afraid of his judgment, nor what he thinks of my skills. But when it comes to his scrutiny about the kind of influence I’m having on his daughter, yeah, I’ll admit, I’m sweating a little.
“She hasn’t made it easy, but she’s a strong-willed woman and I can only admire that,” I say.
He yields a tender smile of agreement. “I’d like to think I can trust you with something so highly sensitive and serious regarding my daughter.
Truthfully, I’m at a loss for how to deal with it.
I’m confiding in you personally—not as secret service, but as someone who can help keep Ana safe without the knowledge of this getting out to anyone. ”
I think I know what he’s going to say, and it’s about time he told me.
“Of course.”
The senator unlocks a drawer and pulls out a box that must have been put in there after I searched it. “Ana has been in danger since your placement. I hired you and an extra security detail to help, but I fear it’s something far out of my means and I can’t keep quiet anymore.”
When he removes the lid, I know exactly what it is with a flush of fury over my skin.
“I think you know what this is.”
Ana’s hair. There’s a sick, twisted bastard on the loose making a mockery of her, and I’m itching for his throat.
“Did anything else come with it?” I ask, already trying to piece things together with what little knowledge I have. “When did it arrive, and from who?”
He hooks a brow as if he wasn’t expecting my quick interest, but he’s severely underestimated how seriously I’ll take anything regarding my little bird.
“It came a few weeks ago,” he informs me, and I have to refrain from releasing the glare twitching my eyes. “Admittedly, I confided in a particular ... unorthodox private investigation company I hoped would have found them by now, but they didn’t get anywhere before they dropped the case.”
I know everything, but I act engrossed and attentive.
I imagine Ketos got one lead toward Alistair or someone like him involved in this and backed the fuck away.
Honestly, I debated slipping Xoid’s card in a place he’d find it and become curious, but technically we’re already all over this shit, and there’s no benefit to having the senator in the know.
At least I thought we were all over it. Now I know he’s been sitting on this particular lead for weeks it will be near impossible to pick up the cold trail. It’s a missed opportunity, and that has me wanting to wreck this office.
I breathe and compose myself.
“It only came with this note.” He slides a creased piece of paper across the table.
It reads three words. Three words that steal my vision from rage for a split second.
My little bird.
The paper is lost in my fist before I can stop it. It’s at risk of becoming dust in my palm.
“Does it mean something to you?” The senator straightens at my reaction.
“I’ve joked about it with Ana,” I say, trying to rally a response for him, when really I want to march right out of this room and get Rix on the phone. “It makes me believe someone’s been following us.”
But how, where, and fucking when?
I try to think of every instance where I’ve called her that, who could have been around to overhear me, but there are far too many names battering my mind.
“I feared as much. It’s why Ana has you and her plainclothes guard. I can’t put her under lockdown.” Kinsley sits with a sigh of exasperation.
I pity him, understand him. The concern of a father is heavy on this expression. I don’t know how to tell him on my watch Ana is as safe as she could ever be, even if the damn FBI were involved.
“On my life, sir, she’s safe with me.”
He doesn’t know who I am or what I’ve done. He can’t fathom the lengths I would go to for his daughter.
I don’t need him to.
Whether I’m by her side or having to stalk her for the rest of her life, the only way Ana won’t have my personal protection is if I’m dead. For the first time in so long it strikes me with pain and guilt—so much soul-tearing guilt—to admit ...
I want to be alive for her.