Seduction in Session (21 page)

Of course he was. “Well, there’s not a lot I can do. He’ll come back in a few weeks. This isn’t the first time he’s bugged out.” She winced. “I left my copy of the investigation in his apartment. Damn it. He won’t let me keep it on my system. He claims it’s too important to let the hackers find. I have a key to his place. I think I’m the only person in the world he trusts. God, I hope he doesn’t have the place booby-trapped.”

She was going to have to go in because she couldn’t leave that data behind. Things were starting to happen.

“Don’t go anywhere without Connor,” Kiki said.

The minute Kiki said the words, she figured out how to get what she needed. Guilt hit her hard, but she shoved it down because there was a greater good to be served. If she played her cards right, Connor wouldn’t even know she’d ever left the apartment at all. “I’ll leave it to him. He’s the expert after all.”

He was the expert who would very likely agree that the best time
to break into a place was late at night when no one was around. He would never take her in with him, simply lock her in the condo until he was done.

Connor would be so mad if he figured out what she was going to do.

Kiki gave her a hug. “I think letting Connor handle everything is the best way to go. I’ve got to get to work. Call me if you need anything. And I’ll talk to Tom.”

“Thank you.” No matter what, they’d been friends since childhood.

She locked the door behind Kiki and tried to come up with a way to tell Connor she firmly believed the president had arranged for his wife’s murder.

*   *   *

C
onnor locked the bathroom door and opened the letter, suspicion playing in his brain. Freddy wasn’t without resources. He’d read the man’s dossier. Just because he believed in aliens didn’t mean the man couldn’t get it right from time to time.

He could hear the mumble of Lara’s conversation with Kiki out in the living room. Lara was likely explaining that her new lover was paranoid and that Freddy would never hurt her.

Of course he couldn’t agree with her or tell her the Russian mob was after her. That would require far too many explanations he wasn’t in a position to give, especially since he didn’t know precisely who was behind the hit.

Besides, being a paranoid freak allowed him to do things like “inspect” the letter meant for her. He was sure Freddy had told Kiki to deliver it as quietly as possible, but he’d misjudged the girl. Kiki was the kind of woman who actively looked for authority in her life. For all her Bohemian charms, she wanted the world to have rules that made sense and a strong leader to guide her. It was very likely how she’d gotten involved with a married congressman. If he was strong and
charismatic, she’d probably believed whatever the fucker told her. So she’d come straight to Lara and hadn’t thought a single thing about passing Freddy’s missive to her in front of Connor.

Lara herself was another story. She usually bucked authority in her own peaceful way. He wondered if Lara would have surrendered Freddy’s letter so easily if they hadn’t slept together the night before. Sex seemed to put her in a deeply cooperative mood.

Or not. If he hadn’t exited the bedroom at the right moment, Lara would have opened the door herself, and this letter would now be in her hands. His game would probably be over.

Connor tore open the envelope. Yep, there it was. Somehow the fucker had found a picture of him from the Yale newspaper taken during his senior year. Those photos were supposed to be history. All pictures of him had been removed from the Yale database. Of course the Agency couldn’t stop people from scanning their hard copies in. This photo showed him standing next to Zack as they walked out of the student union. They were both younger, but their faces were clearly depicted, their identities obvious.

Your bodyguard is one of them. There were six. Crawford, Bond, Spencer, Sparks, Calder, and Hayes. I think your guy is actually named Connor Sparks. He’s here for our data. He will protect the president at all costs, including killing us both. He works for the shadow government. He’s the one Hayes would hire. There’s almost certainly blood on his hands. I have to leave. I can’t stay with so many of them around. They were in your apartment last night. I watched them go in. I’ll pray for you, Lara. Fight the good fight.

Freddy.

Fuck a duck. He was going to have Roman’s ass. The asshole had sworn they would be quiet as silence and as undetectable as air. They weren’t supposed to leave any fucking witnesses.

What was he going to tell Lara? He couldn’t show her the note, but he also couldn’t destroy the entire contents of the envelope. He needed to use Freddy’s paranoia against him.

Connor very carefully tore the picture, deleting himself entirely. He folded his half of the photo and the note, then tore both into tiny pieces before flushing them down the toilet.

It was all he could do for now. Connor couldn’t deny that Freddy had figured out who he was quickly and couldn’t forget that the man would be back.

This missive also told him that Freddy was investigating Zack for some reason. That meant Lara was helping him, and he couldn’t have that. She needed to stay as far away from Zack as possible.

Things were getting complicated, especially his feelings for her. She was a weakness and he’d never had one before. Sure, he had his friends, but they were all savvy and played things safe. Lara was reckless. She seemed convinced that she could save the world.

Connor knew the world would eat her alive and he couldn’t let that happen.

He opened the door and walked back out, wishing like hell that Kiki and Tom hadn’t shown up.

“Is everything all right?” Lara was standing in the living room as he walked out. “Kiki left. I locked up and warmed breakfast.”

He’d been looking forward to it. Now he was going to have to force himself to eat. “Good. I’m starving.” He handed her the envelope. “Nothing scary. Just an old picture of the president. Why would he send you that?”

She opened it and looked down at the picture. “I’m not sure. He printed this. It looks like the source might have been a newspaper, but this came from his printer.”

“Maybe he found it on the Internet. Hayes looks young in that picture.” It had been snapped before Joy died, back when the hair at his temples hadn’t been threaded with silver. Zack joked that his bit of gray made him look older and more competent to voters, but Connor
remembered the day he’d first seen those signs of aging in his friend. It had been at Joy’s funeral, as though his grief needed a physical outlet.

“I wonder where it was taken. I’ll have to research it. If he left it for me, it must be a clue. Hey, you know the president, right?”

He hated lying to her. He tried to work his way around blatantly lying. “I’ve worked with him a bit.”

It was true. He’d worked with Zack since they were lab partners in chemistry.

“Do you know Roman Calder as well?”

Shit. He took a sip of coffee. She’d refreshed it like the good hostess she was. He reached out and pulled her close. He knew how to distract her. “I know who he is. Kiss me good morning.”

Her whole body softened against his. She responded as if she’d been made specifically for him. “I already kissed you good morning. If I remember correctly, I did more than kiss you.”

“Kiss me again.”

She rose up to her toes and pressed her lips to his. Every single time she kissed him he felt it in his gut, in his dick, in his flipping chest. He was in deep with her, but he couldn’t make himself get out. He gave her a moment and then sank his hands into her hair and took over, delving deep inside her mouth. Arousal warmed his body. God, he couldn’t seem to get enough of this woman.

After a moment he pulled away, briefly kissing her nose before he took his seat and grabbed his fork. “So what was Freddy working on? Why did he bug out?”

Connor hoped Freddy had actually left the area. It would make his job so much easier. He needed to separate the guy from Lara, and he didn’t like the idea of having to silence a disturbed vet.

Eggs. Real, from-a-chicken eggs. Sure they were scrambled with god only knew what kind of vegetables, but compared to her tofu, it was like heaven. His appetite resurged.

“He thought he saw a big group of men in black. You know, the kind who silence people with too much knowledge.”

“I’m well aware of the term.” Hell, half the time he was the boogeyman and he did, indeed, wear black. The color not only blended in with the night, it hid bloodstains well. “So he saw a couple of dudes in black suits and decided they were here for him?”

The eggs were cooked perfectly. He didn’t even mind all the veggies.

“That’s how his mind works. But Kiki thinks he might have seen Roman Calder in the building because she saw the guy in the lobby on a trip back from the drugstore really early this morning.”

He was going to kill Roman. Had his old pal forgotten the whole op was supposed to be secret? Had he just run around chatting up people in the hallways? “Why would he be here? Although if he was, he would likely come with a security detail. That would explain the men in black.”

She settled in across from him. He loved how pretty she was with no makeup on and her hair in a messy bun. “That’s what I thought. I don’t know why he was here. There are a couple of congressmen who keep apartments in the building. There’s also a former model on the fifth floor. Do you think he’s having a fling?”

“Could be.” At least she wasn’t buying Freddy’s theory.

“I might look into it. It’s a juicy story. Of course, Freddy also told Kiki you were one of them. In fact, he thinks you not only let them into the building, you allowed them into my condo last night.”

And just like that his appetite was gone. What else had Freddy told Kiki? “Really? I’m working with the president’s chief of staff? I need to figure out where that paycheck is going.”

“I happen to know you weren’t running around with a big group of men in black last night. You were busy.” She smiled. “Freddy is suspicious of any new person in his life. I still don’t think he’s the one stalking me.”

Connor shrugged, unwilling to give her an answer. “Why would he think men in black are dangerous? Is it the alien stuff?”

“Actually, I was going to talk to you about that.” Her cajoling voice put him on edge. She wanted something from him. He was starting to learn her tells. She only used that sexy voice on him and that was very likely why it would work. If he could give something to her, he would. “I told you we’d been investigating a possible story.”

“About the president.” Somehow he couldn’t see Freddy working with her on an innocuous article about the president’s lovemaking prowess.

“Yes. We were investigating a theory last week before you arrived. This was something Freddy has been working on for months. He found some supporting footage and actually traveled to three different states to get copies of the original, unedited tape. I have no idea what he paid for it, but he kept it off the Internet. He had it on a hard drive and I’m sure he took that with him, but I finally convinced him that if I was going to be able to write a convincing story about this theory, I would need a copy of whatever he’d acquired. He was making me a thumb drive so I could study it, too. I left it on his coffee table along with my notes. I need to go get that.”

Connor had to admit, he was interested in whatever this “story” was, but he couldn’t let her into Freddy’s place until he was sure there wasn’t some massive poster with his real name and job title on it. “You want to break into a paranoid ex-military man’s apartment to get a flash drive?”

“Yes, but you should know I think he might have the place booby-trapped.”

He sighed. “Well, it’s not like I had anything better to do today.”

“Good, because I have a plan.” She hopped up, then chose the chair beside him, sitting so close her knees were touching his. “But we can talk about that later. First you can yell at me because I might have invited someone over without talking to you first.”

“Who?” He was well aware his tone could have iced over the room. Jealousy sprang up in his chest. Was it another man? He’d explained how he felt about that.

If she felt the chill, she didn’t show it. Her leg rubbed against his. “Her name is Everly Parker. I don’t know if you follow the tabloids, but she’s kind of a celebrity right now. She’s Maddox Crawford’s secret half sister.”

“The guy who died in the plane crash?” Mad. He still couldn’t believe Mad was gone. He still expected to open the door and find Mad standing there with a ridiculously expensive bottle of Scotch in hand, telling him that the death gig had been one big joke.

“Yes, that Maddox Crawford. He ran Crawford Industries, which was caught in this big scam with the Russian mob. As far as I can tell, Crawford didn’t know his business was being used as a front for human trafficking.”

Wow. She’d twisted that around more than a little. “I remember reading about that. I don’t think the Russian mob was embedded in the business, just using a charity Crawford Industries supported as a front.”

“Right.” She nodded. “I forgot. I don’t have my notes in front of me. Anyway, Everly Parker is coming here at noon and I think she’s bringing her fiancé with her.”

“Why is she coming to see you?” Roman had worked fast. Connor hadn’t expected to see Ev for another day or two. And he hadn’t been sure Gabe would come. What the hell could he say to the man who’d once thought of him like a brother? God knew he’d been silent since Connor had unleashed the massacre at the Crawford building, since Gabe had looked at him like he was a monster.

“Okay, here’s the other part you’re going to be mad about, but I want you to put yourself in my shoes. I didn’t really know you so it didn’t make sense to tell you everything.”

“So it makes sense to put your life in my hands, but not to tell me about everything that could harm you?”

She sighed at his sarcasm. “Fine. I should have told you, but this could be the biggest story I’ve ever broken and it ties in to the work I’m doing with Freddy. I was in Manhattan a few months ago. I was
visiting a friend and working on a story about businesses paying EPA inspectors to look the other way. That story got picked up by the
Times
. Oh, they won’t ever admit it, but they used my source and everything.”