Smoke and Sin (The Perfect Gentlemen 4)

“Okay, I’ll be the one to say it. She was very likely murdered.” Gus sat at the edge of her chair as though she might jump up at any moment. Her eyes were alive with suspicion. “You don’t look surprised at all. I think Constance was murdered, just like my father. I’ve thought a lot about this. My dad must have known something, Roman. I know what all the police reports said, but I think someone covered up his murder, too. I want to know what happened and why.”

Roman’s breath caught. Damn it. He’d always thought she was brilliant, but damn… She was even smarter than he’d given her credit for. He couldn’t not tell her why her father had died. Dax might kill him later, but in that moment he knew he couldn’t lie. “Yes, I’m here because I believe your father knew something about Constance Hayes’s death…and that’s why someone in the Russian mafia paid your father’s aide to first discredit him. They later leaned on Holland’s uncle to rule that the admiral’s death had been suicide.”

Color leeched from Gus’s face. Suddenly, her hand was in his again. The way she squeezed him, seeking comfort, tugged at his heart.

He stood and pulled her into his arms. “This is why I’ve lied, baby. I don’t want you involved. I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt or… I can’t lose anyone else. Not after everything.”

She clung to him. “But I need answers, Roman. This is far more my fight than yours. I won’t let you keep me out of it. Whatever’s going on has cost me dearly. I lost my father and two of my closest friends. I have to know why.”

True, and he felt guilty every time he thought about the enormity of what they were keeping from her.

“I also know you’re angry with me,” she went on. “And I’m angry with you. But I won’t let you send me back to the manor and put me under house arrest.”

He was fairly certain that would be impossible now. Roman sighed and held her closer, letting her scent wash over him.

Funny how it used to merely arouse him. In the past when he’d inhaled her, he’d thought of nothing except getting her into bed. Now being this near Gus calmed him surprisingly.

No, he didn’t want her in danger. But she had come here of her own free will. He could hardly make her unlearn anything she’d discovered on her own. What point was there in keeping these deep, dark secrets from her anymore…and potentially driving a wedge between them?

“No, you can stay, but we’re doing this together. And we’re going to have a long talk first. I’m going to know everything you know.”

“Yes, it was just as I…” The doctor stopped short, cleaning his throat. “Oh, sorry to interrupt.”

Gus started to break away, but Roman merely shifted his body so he could keep his arm around her.

“My apologies, but when my girl is this pretty, I’m afraid it’s hard to keep my hands off her,” Roman quipped. “You were saying?”

He helped Gus sit before joining her.

The doctor stepped behind his desk, finding his chair once more. He adjusted his glasses as he paged through a file. “Here it is. It’s as I suspected. You see when we move the paper forms to our archives, we have to sign them in and out. Mrs. Hayes’s form was signed out to be scanned, but it was never signed back in. The lad who did our scanning services no longer works here. He was a college student interning for us. I can certainly get you his name, but it’s been six years and he’s back in India now, as far as I know. You’ll have to look him up.”

That would be hard. Connor might have some contacts. “So why wasn’t the file in the computer system?”

“I suppose our intern didn’t actually scan it. Or he did and someone mistakenly deleted it. Normally, I would suspect her son of arranging that mishap, but you’re here on his behalf.”

“My boss had nothing to do with it,” Roman assured.

“Wait, the files must have been in your system at one time because when I ran oppo research during the campaign, Constance’s stay here was one of the things we easily uncovered. Despite the fact that she registered under an alias, her records had to be kept under her real name. I dug that up over three years ago, so the file must have been deleted and stolen since then. Can anyone in your employ look through your computer systems to find out if you’ve been hacked or if any purging of files has occurred?”

“A firm that handles our computer systems now should be able to answer your question. Should I advise our legal department of this?” The doctor looked wary again.

Roman leaned in, adding a hint of menace to his tone. “You lost complex and valuable information about the mother of the president of the United States.”

It never hurt to have leverage.

Gus laid a soft hand on the doctor’s desk. “Doctor… Charles, I don’t think that’s necessary. Please excuse Roman. He forgets about manners sometimes. We all want to keep this situation quiet. Is there any way you would allow our computer experts to talk to your company? Perhaps we can find some answers together. We don’t want to read the sensitive records of your other patients, but we might be able to assist with technical issues. If you’ll agree to that, we can all handle this matter discreetly. I’d hate for the public or press to catch wind of this snafu.”

The doctor nodded, obviously having no idea he’d been subtly threatened. “Perhaps that’s the best solution. I’ll let them know you’ll be calling and that they should give you their full support. I hope the president understands the hospital did its utmost to preserve the integrity of those files and that we’re committed to restoring them. We take our patients’ privacy seriously. This has never happened before. I can’t apologize enough.”

“Is there anything you personally remember about Constance’s case?” Gus asked.

Roman sat back. She had this guy eating out of the palm of her hand. And staring at her breasts, but then if he was in the doctor’s position, he would be staring at them, too. Augustine’s breasts were a national treasure. Actually, they might qualify since he was fairly certain the sight of those gorgeous things had bought the country an enormous amount of goodwill with world leaders.

“As I explained to Mr. Calder, I was secondary on her case. I only really checked in on her when her primary physician was on leave. I recall she was normally a m

odel patient. She was quiet. She liked to spend her time alone, reading books and magazines.”

“Exactly what ailments was she diagnosed with? Alcoholism?” Roman couldn’t remember a time when Zack’s mom hadn’t had a glass of wine or a martini in her hand.

“She was treated for a chemical dependency, yes. But her main diagnosis was paranoid personality disorder,” the doctor explained. “Constance always thought someone was trying to kill her. And if I recall, she had trouble with hearing voices in her head, specifically a baby crying. She believed she’d accidentally killed a child, but according to everything I recall, that never happened. She attended intense therapy sessions, and we tried to relieve the guilt she had no reason to feel. But nothing changed her mind. As far as I know, she believed people were coming after her, seeking vengeance for the child, up until her untimely death in that car accident.”

Roman sat back as the information rolled through his brain. He didn’t want to think about the implications. Wouldn’t think about them until he learned what was true and what had merely been a delusion in Constance’s mind. “Do you know if her primary doctor had transcripts of his sessions with her in that file?”

“Of course,” Doctor Billings replied. “We record all our sessions and save them with the rest of the files.”

So if the files had been stolen, rather than misplaced—a terrible likelihood—Zack’s enemies could have documented proof that his mother believed she’d murdered a child.

The conspiracies began to spin in his head. Had Constance Hayes killed her own child? Had Frank Hayes, conscious that Constance couldn’t bear another, replaced that child with another? Maybe his Russian nanny’s?

Was Zack actually Sergei?

“Do you remember anything else?” Gus asked. “Why was she driving the night she died? How did she escape the facility?”

“I don’t know all the details. I wasn’t there that night. Her death was a heavy weight on Dr. Richards for the rest of his days. But Mrs. Hayes didn’t escape. We maintain strict security standards so that our patients aren’t a risk to themselves or others, but there are several ways a patient can be temporarily granted limited freedom. Most of the time it’s because they’ve been declared low-risk and have completed the initial mandatory lock-in period, so an approved person could sign them out for up to six hours. Family visits and fresh air often cheer these people up, you understand.”