Restrained Under His Duty (Dirty Little Secrets 3)

Which I suppose explains why the blackmailer said they wanted the senator to step down by Monday. Obviously, his vote matters. “All right, get me the names of everyone who is against this vote. And we’ll start there.”

“Now that is something I can get.” He spins back to his computer monitor.

Before his fingers even hit a single button on his keyboard, Alex says, “I’ve got the list here.”

A document containing the list of names pops up on the screen closest to Alex.

“Seriously?” Jeff quickly spins in his chair to face Alex, glaring. “How in the hell can you even do that so fast?” When she prepares to answer him, he waves her off. “Yeah, yeah, it’s just what you do.”

She smiles. “You can’t replicate the awesomeness that is contained in this body.”

“Please,” Jeff scoffs.

I shake my head and set to keeping us focused. “We’ll need to start narrowing down this list. I suspect whoever is behind this has some history of violence at some point in his life. The thirst for power often starts young.”

Alex nods, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms behind her head. “It’s hard to believe, though, that anyone would go to these extremes over money. Yes, it’s a good motivator. But I can’t help but think we’re missing something.”

I bob my head in agreement. My instincts tell me the same. “There has to be more going on here than a tax policy, even if that’s a good place for us to start.” I need to find out what it is, because to keep Hadley and the senator safe, we need to discover what is motivating the blackmailer. “Truthfully, I don’t want to follow the path that makes sense. These people seem to be one step ahead of us, setting these false leads for us to follow.” It’s a mistake I won’t make again.

Alex nods. “Sure seems that way.”

I rub a hand across my tired eyes and add, “Until we get this solved, or the police beat us to it, we need to keep a close eye on Hadley.”

Alex’s brows slowly draw together, a puzzled look on her face. “Speaking of Hadley, where’d your sidekick go?”

“Isn’t that a given?” I ask, now confused myself. “She’s at the hospital with her father.”

“Um, no, she isn’t.” Alex turns back to her computer and her fingers begin flying across the keyboard.

A second later, on one of the monitors on the wall, I begin to see shots of the hospital’s hallways, and I realize Alex has hacked into their security footage. The slideshow finally stops at the waiting room.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on the hospital,” Alex explains, drawing my gaze to hers. “She’s not there.”

I move toward the monitor, getting a closer view, and examine the three women and four men waiting in the chairs. None of them are Hadley. I reach for my phone in my pocket and dial Lee. He answers on the first ring. “Lee, it’s Ryder. Have you taken Hadley to the hospital yet?”

“Negative,” Lee replies. “She still hasn’t come down from upstairs.”

“What do you mean she hasn’t come down? I left her over an hour ago.”

“Things were quiet for a bit and then she turned on the shower,” Lee explains. “With all that happened…I didn’t want to rush her…give me a sec.” Then I hear him say, obviously into his ear com, “Shawna, is Hadley still in the shower?” A pause. Then, “Yes, Ryder, that’s correct, she’s showering.”

Of course I know that a shower wasn’t necessary because I’d cleaned her myself. “Please go check on her, Lee.” I attempt to keep emotion out of my voice, and likely fail miserably.

I hear Lee trotting up the staircase, then his knock on the bathroom door. “Ms. Winters?” The silence even from this end of the phone unnerves me. “Ms. Winters, please open the door.” A pause again. “Permission to open the door, sir?”

“Granted.”

“It’s locked.”

I begin to pace in front of the monitors, everyone in the room with me now on their feet. “Kick it in.”

Two bangs later, Lee says, “Ms. Winters—” Then Lee’s breath catches, and his voice is wrought with worry. “There’s blood here on the floor. Hold on. I see it now—it follows into the next bedroom and then down the hallway.” I hear him on the move, breathless. Until he says, “The blood trail leads to the back staircase and out the side door of the private garden.”

The senator’s favorite garden that has perfect access to the side street, where I know for a fact my team hadn’t been positioned this evening. Tension radiates through me so fast, my breath is gone, as I realize whoever shot the senator had likely still been in the house. The police told me they had cleared the house. They’d been wrong.

Lee says, “The blood, sir…”

“What about it?”