Restrained Under His Duty (Dirty Little Secrets 3)

Then the door opens and figures form in the shadows.

I’m sure there’s an appropriate response for watching the governor walk into a room, but my mind shatters me into silence. Is he here to rescue me? But wait, how did he know I was here? Does that mean there are cops here, too? But why is he with the guy who held the gun to my head? And where is the other man?

Slowly the obvious begins to appear, though it’s not until I look into the governor’s face that I admit to myself that he’s definitely not here to rescue me. In fact, he’s here to do the exact opposite.

My silence is swept away with anger that I cannot possibly control. “How could you, Tobias?” I snarl, wishing I could use the rope around my wrists to strangle the life out of him.

Tobias doesn’t even flinch at my words or pay any attention to them as he saunters into the room, stopping directly in front of me. “Hello, Hadley.” His eyes flick to my wrists before they lift to my face again, the side of his mouth arching. “While I do think you look beautiful in ropes, it’s just not as fun this time, is it?”

My breath catches in my throat. “You were the other…” My stomach tightens, desperate to heave the last thing I ate all over him. Because now I know a truth I would never want to admit to myself: I’d been used in a plot to murder my father, and I’d fucked the man who wanted him dead. “Did you…” I can barely say the words. “Did you set this all up?”

“Don’t take it too personally,” he explains without a single hint of remorse in his voice. “It was a necessary evil. You were a means for me to get what I want.” He moves to the spot where the water is dripping and holds out his hand to catch the droplets. “When we learned you attended that club, and so did the congressman, the plan fell very neatly into my lap.”

“You’re disgusting,” I snap at him.

“Perhaps.” He lowers his hand and wipes his palm against his pants. “Or perhaps you were just asking for trouble, being a young woman in a place designed for men.”

Now he’s a sexist prick? I never liked Tobias Harrington, and my father wasn’t particularly fond of him either. But now? Now I know my instincts were right.

I begin to tremble as he shoves his hands into his suit pockets, which makes him look so out of place next to the other guy. It’s like Beauty and the Beast, but this is no fairy tale. It’s my nightmare. “And this plan is?”

Tobias begins to circle around the chair, dragging his finger along my arm. “There’s been talk, you know…” I refuse to move, not allowing him to take anything else from me, as he continues. “Our party needs a candidate to run in the presidential primaries next year. Word on the street was the party was looking to your father, and I was the second choice.”

Of all the things I thought this could be about, this hadn’t even been on the list. “You have got to be kidding me,” I gasp in utter disbelief. “You tried to kill my father so they’d pick you instead of him? Do you understand how insane that is? Jesus Christ, Tobias, why wouldn’t you ask him first if he even planned to run?”

“It didn’t matter what your father thought on the matter,” Tobias says coolly, moving back in front of me. God, his eyes are soulless. “He could have been persuaded. The people wanting him to run are wealthy and have more power than I do.”

I shake my head, trying to understand how a man like Tobias, who has all of California at his fingertips, would do something so insane. Dad lived for politics, but to have the stamina to run for president? I couldn’t see it. Besides, Dad had goals, and running the country wasn’t one of them. He enjoyed a nine-to-five job that kept him home most weeks and his weekends free to spend with Mom in Napa Valley. That’s the guy he was.

I keep the thoughts to myself as Tobias adds, “You know your father. If he thought others needed him, he’d step forward.”

Yeah, that is my dad. He’s nothing like the despicable man in front of me. I carefully word my question to get the answer I need. “So your only other option was to try and have him killed?”

“I tried to have him go away quietly. And when that didn’t work, well…” There’s no remorse in his eyes until he adds, “You shouldn’t have showed up at the house. You should have let your father die there, then you wouldn’t be here. You were never the target.”

First, I sigh in utter relief, knowing from his answer that my father’s made it through surgery and is clearly out of danger. Second, I freeze in fear because now I’m in that danger. “But now I am the target?” I hate to ask.

“Now I’m left with little choice,” Tobias says, stance wide, hands again stuffed into his pockets. “Your father would be a martyr. If anyone had doubts about him before, they’d side with him now. He’d be chosen on that fact alone because he’d make the ideal candidate. The public would love a story of the senator who nearly died but fought back to become president.”

I couldn’t even believe my ears and tried to catch up, to understand Tobias’s plan. “And you think this will force him to retire?”

“It may or it may not.”

I see the firmness in his eyes; he’s already decided. And now I see that all that I’ve done to protect myself and my father in the end is going to cost me my life. “Please explain how you think this will work.” I need to stall. I need more time.

Ryder, my heart cries out.

Tobias’s expression is steady and cold. “It’s doubtful he’ll have the support for president now. A grieving father, his supporters won’t believe he could be one hundred percent focused, possibly have poor judgment after all that has happened, and that will weaken his candidacy,” Tobias says, moving off to the side, allowing the other man to step in beside him. “But, at the same time, I’ve come to a realization that time has run out. I can’t take any more chances.”

My heart slows, which even I realize in the situation is unexpected. It must be fear, I tell myself. It’s the worry for my own life, and the realization that I control absolutely nothing in this moment. “What does that mean?” I ask, locked into a stare-down with the man facing me now.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Tobias says softly, and that’s when my heart doesn’t slow, it kicks up, as he steps back even more. “But your father needs to go away for good. There’s too much heat around all this now, and with the nosy bodyguard digging where he shouldn’t be, I can’t let this go on any longer.”

Time slows, and every movement seems to last a whole minute. Tobias covers his ears as the other man steps forward, and it’s right then that I see he’s wearing a full body coverall.

“No. God. No. Don’t do this!” I beg as he pulls his gun from the holster at his side.

Tobias ignores my pleas and stares at the floor as he adds, “There’s no going back now.”