“You knew the victim?”
She bit her bottom lip for a second, a sexy move that made something deep in Durango’s body come alive. It was a habit Sarah had had, too.
“I guess I should have led with that information.” She sighed, leaning forward. “His name was Kaden Woodriff. He was an aide to my father a few years ago.”
“An aide? As in a medical assistant?”
“No. As in a political aide. As in an intern who tells lies and bullies the press.”
It hit Durango in that moment that he’d recognized her last name the second she walked through the door, that he recognized her somehow, too. But he hadn’t been able to put his finger on it until just now.
“Naylor. You’re Roan Naylor’s daughter.”
Her eyes darkened at the sound of her father’s name, but she nodded her head just enough to give him a positive answer.
“Our former governor? One of the current senators that represent our fine state?”
“Yes. That’s my father.”
Durango tilted his head slightly, finding it amusing to meet someone else who was less than proud of their parental units. He wondered what had caused her dark feelings. He didn’t ask.
“What, exactly, do you want Mastiff Security to do for you?”
She sat up a little straighter and took a deep breath. “My lawyer moves on his own time. He hasn’t even hired a private detective yet to prove the traffic camera footage is incorrect. He thinks—my lawyer—that we’d have a better chance if we just let this thing play out. He says that by the time we go to court in a year or two, the DA will have lost interest and be willing to drop charges or allow me to plead to a lesser charge. A slap on the wrist.”
“You don’t believe that?”
Dr. Naylor looked at Durango like he had just admitted to being completely insane.
“My career relies as much on reputation as it does on skill. I’ve already lost several patients, and the hospital board is threatening to remove my privileges if I don’t resolve this quickly. I need this over.”
“You want us to investigate?”
“I do. I want you to prove I couldn’t have been behind that wheel.”
Durango’s eyes moved slowly over the green bruises on her face, the bandage wrapped around her wrist. She made an impatient gesture, waving his concern away.
“These injuries could have been made from anything.”
“You don’t remember getting them?”
“No. And I can tell you from experience that the bruises on my face are not consistent with an airbag deployment.”
Durango had to agree with that. He’d seen bruises and scrapes caused by an airbag that had deployed. Those were not them.
“What about your car? What condition is it in?”
“Just like you’d think a car involved in a hit and run would look. There are dents, a broken windshield, deployed airbags . . . there’s even blood on the hood and windshield.” She paled a little. “I can believe that my car was used in the accident. But I wasn’t driving.”
“Okay.” Durango got up and went to his desk, pulling open a drawer and pulling out their standard contract. “I have the perfect operative to put on this. He was a police detective in Decatur before coming to work for us.”
“Sounds good.”
“I need you to go over this contract and sign it if you wouldn’t mind. And he’ll want to meet with you, have you go over your story again.”
“No problem.”
“Great.” Durango handed her the contract and settled back in his chair, crossing his ankle over his knee as he looked her over. “Can I ask one thing?”
“Sure.”
“Did you have a beef with the victim? Is there probable motive?”
She hesitated, the pen he’d given her held just above the signature line on the contract. When she looked at him, her eyes were once again dark with emotion.
“We were engaged. He cheated on me.”
Chapter 2
Springfield, Illinois
McHale Irish Pub
“That’s some watch you have on there.”
“Thanks.”
“Did your boyfriend buy that for you? Or husband?”
“No, I bought it for myself. I like to treat myself from time to time. Don’t need a man for that.”
“Oh, you’re one of those, huh? The kind of woman who doesn’t need a man?”
“I need a man, just not to spoil me. I can take care of myself.”
“Then what you need a man for?”
The woman smiled, a blush burning her cheeks. “What do you think I need a man for?”
Calder smiled, brushing a hand over the top of his head to smooth down his long hair. He glanced at her quite aware of the interest in her eyes. It was exactly what he’d been going for. He leaned toward her and ran his fingers over the back of her hand. He liked that she didn’t pull away.
“While you know, I have a place just down the street.”
Calder’s eyebrows rose. “Just like that?”
She smiled brightly, her eyes moving slowly over the length of him. The interest in her eyes rose 50 percent. She seemed to like what she saw underneath his tight jeans and loose sports coat. Most women did.
“You live in this neighborhood? You must make good money.”
“The watch didn’t give it away?”
“I suppose it should have.” He turned toward her and again ran his fingers over the back of her arm, his finger brushing the diamonds on her watch. “You must have a heck of a job.”
Her eyes dipped a little, brushing over the top of the bar. Was that shame he was seeing in her eyes? Or was it just her attempt at being humble?
“I work hard for what I have.”
“Don’t we all?”
She turned to him then, resting her hand on his knee before letting it slide slowly up his thigh. She leaned in close enough that he could feel her lips just an inch from his jaw. He turned toward her, a smile on his lips. He could almost taste her kiss already. He wondered if she could taste his.
“I have to admit to some curiosity, however.”
She groaned. “Are you always this curious about the women you take home?”
“I’m just naturally curious, I suppose.”
She moved even closer to him, her lips brushing the edge of his jaw. Her lips were heavily glossed. He could almost feel the thickness of it against his skin.
There were certain perks to this job.
He turned his head toward her, enough to tease her into thinking he was about to kiss her. He could feel her breath against his lips; her hand sliding further up his thigh. There was a certain ache in his lower belly, one he hadn’t satisfied in a long time. But it wasn’t happening tonight either.
“Are you a lawyer or something?”
She groaned again, a definite amount of frustration in her voice. “Does it really matter?”
“I just want to know who I’m going home with.”
She giggled a little, another blush burning her cheeks. “To tell you the truth, I’m not much more than a glorified secretary. But there are certain ways to get what you want if you know what I mean.”
Now we were getting somewhere.
“Wish I knew that trick. I could sure use a little extra money in my paycheck, that’s for sure.”
She sighed against his lips, moving even closer to him, her hands so close to the goal that he grabbed her wrist and pushed it back slightly. Not roughly, of course. But enough to make her feel as though he was teasing.
“It really doesn’t take much. Especially when your bosses are idiots.” She giggled a little, tugging against his grip on her wrist, clearly determined to get her hand where she wanted it. “They never notice when there’s a little bit missing here, a little bit missing there. I’ve taken more than $100,000 from my employers, and they still have no clue.”
Got her.
“Are you sure about that?” Calder gestured with his head, indicating th
e cops walking toward them. “I think they might be on to you.”
The woman jerked back as though she just touched something very hot. Her eyes were so wide they might have popped out of her head if she were in some cartoon. But this was real life, and she was about to be forced to face the reality of that.
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
He slipped a business card out of his back pocket and handed it to her. “Calder Obre, from Mastiff Security, at your command.”
The woman screamed as if someone was trying to choke her. But no one was paying attention; they were more concerned with the cops marching toward her. And as they watched, the cops put on quite a show, grabbing her by the wrists and cuffing her as though she were a common criminal.
“Thanks a lot, Calder,” one of the cops said. “Maybe we should just give you a job at the Springfield PD.”
“Tried that once before, Tony. Not really my cup of tea.”
“Well, if you change your mind . . .”
Calder hung around just long enough to give a statement to the police and hand over the tape he made of their encounter. The client would be thrilled. Not that Calder cared much. It was just a paycheck.
He was about to climb into his car when his phone vibrated against his hip. Calder pulled the phone out and found a message from the operator at Mastiff. It seemed Durango wanted to see him. Calder found himself wondering what was going on at the office. He’d been out of the office for the last two weeks researching the embezzlements of his client’s company, trying to identify the woman who’d just been arrested. But he didn’t have his head in the sand. He was aware of what happened to Kyle.
Calder had known it would be complicated working for a private security firm. He had his concerns. He looked up Durango and knew about his past. A cop who’d been on trial for murder. That was worse than all his own. Kyle had convinced him that that was all in the past, and Durango was not the man the papers made him out to be. As a former cop, Calder understood how those things could be. He knew there was always someone out there trying to bring down a good cop. And sometimes good cops got caught up in their own press and their own successes.
It still made him nervous especially now that Kyle was gone. That left Durango completely in charge. That could be a good thing, but it could also be a bad thing. Calder had committed to this company now, and he couldn’t change that. He had too much invested in Mastiff, in his life here in Springfield. All he could do was hope that he hadn’t made a bad choice.
Calder drove to Mastiff’s offices. He parked in the parking garage and made his way up to the top floor where Durango’s office was. He’d heard rumors that Durango had offered the head of operations job to one of the other operatives. It wasn’t him, not that he expected it to be. But it would be weird having someone else in charge other than Kyle.
Durango’s assistant wasn’t at her desk. He knocked on the door, waited until Durango looked up and noticed him. Durango stood and waved him into the room. He looked thinner than he had the last time Calder had seen him. But I suppose that happens to people when someone close to them dies.
“You asked to see me?”
Durango nodded, holding out his hand for a shake. “I have a new case for you if you’re finished with the last.”
“Just wrapped it up.”
“Awesome.” Durango reached over his desk and picked up the file folder that was sitting on the edge. He handed it to Calder. “We have a new client. A doctor who’s been accused of vehicular manslaughter.”
“That seems pretty self-explanatory.”
“She claims she didn’t do it. She claims someone gave her a drink at a party, and she blacked out. She says she woke the next morning with bruises and her car damaged. But she has no memory of the actual accident.”
“Are we sure she wasn’t just blackout drunk?”
“She swears that she didn’t even drink that much of the drink. And then she had herself tested for drugs, but there were none in her system.”
“Seems like an open and shut case to me.”
“It could be. But we took her money and we’re going to check into it anyway.”
Calder opened the file and began to leaf through the pages. When he saw the picture of the woman with bruises on her face, his heart stopped in his chest.
“You know who this woman is, right?”
Durango nodded. “I know there are some hard feelings there. But you’re a professional. I thought you could probably put that behind you.”
“This woman’s father destroyed my father. How am I supposed to put that behind me?”
“Because you’re a professional. And because we pay you to put your personal feelings behind you.”
“You have dozens of operatives working here. Why me?”
“Because you’re the best investigator we have. And we always like to put our best forward.”
“Axel is a perfectly good investigator.”
“Axel has his own thing to do right now.”
Calder stared at the papers in the file folder, especially that picture. He’d memorized the faces of the people in the Naylor family, spending hours and hours staring at articles about them online, reading everything he could find about them. Revenge was a dark and terrible thing. He knew that he could no longer hold onto the grudge he had. He knew it had the potential to ruin his life, and he couldn’t afford that anymore. His life is too complicated now. That didn’t mean that he wanted to do anything to help that man’s daughter.
“Like you said, it’s pretty much an open and shut case. But she came to us asking for help, and we try to help all our clients the best we can. And like I said, you’re the best we have right now.”
“If Kyle was here—”
“But Kyle isn’t here.”
There was pain in Durango’s eyes that even Calder could see. Losing Kyle had not been easy on him. But he was sure it hadn’t been easy on anyone.
“I don’t think I can do this job.”
“Well, then, you should probably consider finding a new job.” Durango moved back around his desk and took a seat in his chair. He turned toward his laptop and studied the screen like it was the most fascinating thing in the room. It was like a parent ignoring a child who was acting out. Calder took a deep breath, his eyes falling to the picture one more time.
“I wouldn’t have to spend any time with her, would I?”
“You’d have to do an initial interview.” Durango sat back in his chair, resting his hands on his belly. “But after that, it should be routine. She says there’s a video that shows her driving the car. If that’s true, even you can’t get her out of this.”
“All right. I’ll check into it.”
Calder headed for the door. But Durango called him back.
“Axel has agreed to take on head of operations. I’d appreciate if you spread the word and encourage everyone to help him transition into the job as easy as possible.”
Calder turned around, not even trying to hide the surprise on his face. “Axel?”
“Axel’s been with the company since the very beginning. And I trust him.”
There was something of a threat in those words. Calder wasn’t sure what it was. But he heard it just the same.
Durango tilted his head, gesturing for Calder to go. He did, fuming as he went. This fucking job, these fucking people. He thought it would be so much easier working for a security firm. He hadn’t thought there would be as many restrictions as there were working for the Police Department. In some ways, there weren’t. But in some ways, there were so many more. He was just tired of everyone telling him what to do all the time. He was tired of the games everyone played. He was tired of being passed over for promotions. Again, he didn’t think that he’d be offered the job, but it would have been nice to be considered.
Calder had more experience than all of these people combined. He’d been a cop since he was twenty-one years old. Before that, he was in the military for three years. Some of these g
uys here, they’d never seen any action overseas. They’d never come face-to-face with a drugged-out perp. They’d never fought with a pervert who like to rape little girls. They didn’t know what the streets were really like.
Calder did.
But it wasn’t his company.
He walked out of the building feeling the whole world was on his shoulders. He kept telling himself that there was nothing he could have done then, and there was nothing he could do now. His father had made the choices he’d made. And, given the same options, Calder probably would’ve done the same thing. Maybe it was that realization that haunted him so much. Maybe it was knowing that he was capable of the dark things his father had done that kept him awake at night. He’d never judged his father, not even then. And he didn’t judge him now. His anger had always been focused on Roan Naylor. Naylor was the governor who released that son of a bitch, the governor who started the process that led his father to do what he did. If it was anyone’s fault, it was Naylor’s.
And now Calder was supposed to save that man’s daughter? Wasn’t that the ultimate irony.
Chapter 3
Springfield, Illinois
Lincoln Medical Center
Quinn could feel their eyes on her as she walked down the hall. She didn't like the feeling. It was part of the reason she and her father no longer got along. She didn’t like the fishbowl he’d put their family and she didn’t like growing up in a fishbowl. It was awkward enough being a normal, nerdy teen. But to have the whole world watching as she did it, was mortifying.
That’s how she felt right now.
“Dr. Naylor, they’re asking for you upstairs.”
Quinn turned. It wasn’t just her imagination. Everyone was staring at her. She could see it in their eyes. It made her feel sick to her stomach. She hadn’t done anything wrong, yet they were all judging her already.
All she could hope for was that Mastiff Security would prove her innocence.
“What do they want?” Quinn asked.
“I’m not sure. I suppose they’ll tell you when you get up there.”
The attitude on the nurse was ridiculous. She never would’ve spoken to Quinn that way before all of this happened. And it wasn’t even like Quinn was the first doctor to be arrested in the hospital. She didn’t understand the sudden new attitude.
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