Restrained Under His Duty (Dirty Little Secrets 3)

Ryder

I’m so damn tired when I enter the elevator and glance at my cellphone. I read the texts from Alex, updating me on all she’s discovered about the governor and his goons. While I appreciate her hard work, what she’s telling me are things I already know from the police department. I brace against the elevator wall as it whizzes up to the fourth floor, and I fire off a reply: Keep digging. Get me something that will make Tobias shake in fear.

Consider it done is her reply.

When the elevator doors open again, I stuff my phone back into my pocket and my feet drag against the tile floor on my way down the hallway. My stride is slow, and the weight of my body feels far heavier than I am. And that’s not all from exhaustion. I’m not where I want to be in the least. Before, that wouldn’t have mattered to me, because my duty would have been with the senator. But now I want to be with his daughter, not here.

There are a thousand things I wanted to say to Hadley. I wanted to claim her, making her mine, telling the world to fuck off so I could have her all to myself. I wanted to take her a moment ago like she begged me to, fulfilling all of her needs.

But I can’t make her those promises. Not yet. And I refuse to hurt her by offering things I cannot deliver on. Goddamn it, she’s been through so much. The car accident with her friends, the attempted murder of her father, her abduction, and being held at fucking gunpoint. I can’t be another plot in her story that doesn’t end well, and I can’t continue to be torn between what my mind and my heart want.

Something’s gotta give.

That’s what brings me to her father’s hospital room.

When I enter the room, I find Hadley’s mother sitting in the navy blue plastic chair by her husband’s bed, reading a book. Hadley’s the spitting image of her mother. Same hair color. Same eye color. They even share the same body shape. The only difference is her mother has her hair cut in a short bob.

Since she doesn’t notice my appearance, I glance at the hospital bed, finding the senator is reading documents lying on his lap. Obviously he’s back to work, which isn’t exactly a surprise. While he’ll rest more to heal, he’s not the type of guy to sit around and watch television all day.

I knock on the door, and Mrs. Winters’s head lifts and a warm smile immediately crosses her face. “Oh, Ryder. Hello.” She places her book down on the bed and moves to me quickly, throwing her arms around me in a fierce hug. “There are no words to possibly thank you for finding Hadley. The thought of what the governor could have done—”

“It was my pleasure, ma’am,” I interrupt, not allowing that thought to continue more than it should. This family has already been through enough. Besides, my finding Hadley hadn’t been out of duty; it had been something so much more, and something I don’t want to be thanked for.

When she releases me and steps back, she asks, “Is Hadley awake now?”

“Yes, and I’m sure she’d love a visit.”

“Oh, how wonderful. I kept checking on her, but the nurses said they’d call as soon as she was up.” Mrs. Winters moves back to the senator and kisses him on the cheek. “I’ll be back soon, dear.”

“Don’t rush,” the senator says with a smirk. “I’m not going anywhere.”

No, he likely wouldn’t for a while. Even though he’d done incredibly well during surgery and no vital organs were hit, he’d still been shot and needed time to recover. Not something I intend to tell a man like Gary Winters, however.

I stay off to the side as Hadley’s mother approaches me, giving me another one of her warm smiles before she leaves the room. After she vanishes into the hallway, I enter farther into the room, stepping next to the senator’s bed.

Gary gestures to the seat his wife had been in. “Take a seat, Blackwood. You look ready to fall over.”

“I feel about ready to, sir.” I drop down into the seat, angling the chair to stretch out my legs next to the bed, and I lace my hands behind my head, craving my bed and sleep in a very bad way.

The senator removes his reading glasses, gesturing to my face. “Did you get those injuries tonight?”

I nod, lower my hands, and cross my arms. “Believe me, he got worse.”

Gary’s head cocks, eyes become inquisitive. “You killed that man tonight, did you not?”

“Yes, sir.”

The senator chuckles. “Well then, yes, he got worse.” I laugh with him, but quiet down when he adds, “Do we know anything more about this shooter?”

I report what I learned from the police department while I waited for Hadley to wake up. “His name is Viktor Sokolov. He’s never been on our radar, but from what the investigator told me, he’s been on the FBI’s most wanted list for some time. Tobias Harrington found himself quite the popular hired hitman out of Russia, along with another crony to assist him, apparently.”

“Jesus Christ,” the senator growls, rubbing a hand across the stubble on his face. “The media is going to have a heyday with this.”

I nod in agreement and explain further, “Though it looks like this is as far as it went. There’s no evidence that my team could find that anyone else was involved.”

“I’

m glad to hear it. Finally this shitshow can come to an end.” He gathers up all his papers and places them neatly on the bedside table before addressing me again. “The police have come to see me three times. I’m sure they will come again and more should develop from that.” I nod agreement again, and then his expression softens. “With that out of the way, tell me: How is my daughter doing?”