by Shayla Black
“No. I’d really just like the story. I need to get back to Everly.” He didn’t like seeing Zack so tired, but Everly was his first concern now. He didn’t care if exposing FAA irregularities started a scandal that rocked Zack’s presidency. Not if it meant getting Everly out of danger.
“I know this probably won’t help, but he asked me to bring you in.” Roman took a seat. He had a glass of his own. “He was going to tell you everything over breakfast tomorrow. He didn’t even realize that the plot leading to Mad’s death may be about him until earlier today when I told him what we’d found. We still don’t understand what it means.”
Zack turned. “You have to know I wouldn’t want you to endure the hell I went through for anything.”
Losing his wife. Gabe and Mad had been the ones to sit with Zack in the hospital that first night. He hadn’t been injured but after the reporters had gone, Zack had lost it. The doctors had sedated him. He and Mad had watched over him while Roman made arrangements for Joy’s body.
Gabe softened slightly as he sat. “I know you wouldn’t.” These were his closest friends. He needed to have a little faith. “Tell me what you know.”
Zack shrugged out of his jacket and laid it over the chair he sank into. “I know the head of the FAA swears to me his people tell him it was pilot error. I had nothing to do with it, but I would like to have Connor check into everyone involved in the investigation. I know you’re not supposed to work on American soil, man.”
Connor shrugged. “I’ve done worse things. I’ll get on it.”
He would find the truth. Oh, Zack might not act on it if he thought he had good reasons, but Connor would find it. That was one worry gone. “Why was Mad coming to see you?”
“He wanted to ask me about a woman named Natalia Kuilikov.” Zack took another drink. “He told me he’d been contacted by someone who had found her diary. He wouldn’t tell us who had contacted him, but he said Capitol Scandals was actively trying to acquire it. Apparently there was a bidding war for the book on the Deep Web.”
Gabe shook his head. “The Deep Web?”
“It’s like the dark alley of the Internet,” Connor explained. “There are addresses that you can’t get to through the regular means. A lot of criminal activity takes place on the Deep Web. Who was she? An old girlfriend of yours? Is she dead?”
“I don’t know,” Zack admitted. “I thought she was still in Russia. And she certainly wasn’t my girlfriend. I’ve talked about her with you. Nata.”
“Your nanny?” Gabe thought back. Nata was the nickname Zack had used when he’d been too young to pronounce Natalia. Zack had spoken fondly of the young Russian woman who had taken care of him for the first seven years of his life in Moscow.
“Yes.” Zack groaned. “You can see where I’m a bit confused. I was seven the last time I saw her. He and Mother employed an American woman who watched me during the summers when I wasn’t at boarding school. By the time my mother was killed in a car accident, Dad decided I was too old to need a babysitter. What could Nata have said that was so vital or secret that people would kill to know?”
“Did your father have an affair with her?” Connor asked.
“I already went down that road.” Roman paced the floor. “Even if his father had an affair with his childhood nanny, that’s not scandalous enough to touch Zack. His approval ratings are ridiculously high. Everyone knows his father had problems with women and booze, but the man is way out of the public spotlight now. A discovery like that is a footnote in a biography.”
“Have you asked your father?” Gabe knew Zack wasn’t close to his dad, but if he could shed some light on what was happening, it was worth the attempt.
Zack sighed. “I can try, but he’s in early stage dementia, I’m afraid. And he didn’t like to talk about the past even when he could remember it.”
“Then there has to be something more. We have to find that damn diary ourselves,” Gabe said. “I want to put some investigators on the video feed from the parking garage. Maybe we can catch the man who was talking to Everly. He seems to know way more than he should. I also want to see the wreckage of Mad’s plane. My company built that plane. I taught Mad how to fly it. I want to do an independent study.”
Zack nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. Is Everly really Mad’s half sister?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. I wish I could have seen how that bastard would have handled having a sister. God knows he hit on all of yours. It made me happy I was an only child. Do you remember when he hit on Roman’s cousin when we were teenagers?”
Gabe was able to laugh. “She broke his nose. That was one of the best days ever.” He sobered a bit. “I wonder how he would have handled having a kid.”
“I hope Sara knows that we’re all behind her,” Zack explained. “Anything we can do.”
“You can get my cell phone out of jail,” Gabe requested.
“Already done,” Zack said. “It should be up here any minute. When we spotted you coming in, I tried to catch them before they took your phone, but I missed.”
“I want to call Everly and let her know I’m on my way back. I think we’re going to stay with Connor for a while. His place is better protected than mine. I have to very quietly watch over her.”
“Or he could be the one with the broken nose,” Connor added. “Everly is not the debutante type. She’s a cop’s daughter and she lets you know it.”
“You and Mad’s sister.” Roman’s head shook as though he couldn’t quite believe it.
“I’m going to marry her.” He was going to try anyway, but he had to work on their relationship, on building her trust.
“Never thought that would happen.” Zack smiled and stood, holding his hand out.
Gabe took it, but brought his old friend in for a hug. These were his brothers, his family-by-choice. He could count on them. “We’re going to figure this out. We’ll put a stop to it.”
“Damn straight we will.” Roman had a hand on Zack’s back.
“And we’ll take out anyone who threatens us,” Connor promised.
Their circle was incomplete, but Dax wasn’t the only absentee. They would be forever diminished because Maddox was gone.
Grief sprang up in Gabe like a bottle had been uncorked.
“I miss him, too,” Zack said. “I hate the fact that I wouldn’t meet with him. I thought he was trying to get me to smooth things over with you. He told me he had something important to talk about, and I blew him off. Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten in that plane if I hadn’t hung up on him.”
“You can’t think like that,” Roman said as they broke apart. “Mad was always reckless. I’m going to miss him forever, but we had a right to be pissed at him. All we can do now is try to figure out who killed him and why.”
The elevator door dinged again, and another agent entered carrying Gabe’s and Connor’s cell phones. Liz Matthews was right behind them. She was dressed in a fashionable black dress that gathered at her small waist and flared over womanly hips. He’d heard her say she was too heavy to be on camera, but television couldn’t capture her brilliance, the way her eyes sparkled with life. Gabe was grateful to her for saving Zack from the brink of despair. She was lovely inside and out.
And it was lucky no camera was around to catch how the president of the United States looked at her with hungry eyes.
“The crowd is getting restless, Zack. There are only so many Beltway jokes a girl can take.” Her smile widened as she took in the room. “Gabe and Connor. It’s nice to see you both. How is your sister doing?”
Liz never forgot to ask about family. She was a good Southern girl. “She’s good. She’s taking a little time off to relax.” He had his cell in hand and it looked like they’d gathered all the information they could here for now. It was time to get back to Everly. “Zack, thank you. We’ll contact you as soon as we know something.”
“I’ll get you the information you need. And I’ll make sure you get to examine the plane.�
�� Zack reached for his tuxedo jacket, pulling it on. Liz was right there, smoothing it down and straightening his tie.
“Thank you.” Gabe looked down at his cell. Dax had called. He checked his voice mail. Dax’s low voice came in loud and clear.
Gabe had to get his ass to Crawford now.
He intended to marry her—if he didn’t kill her first. Damn it. Dax knew he didn’t want her out there.
And he was going to take a deep breath and deal with it. She was walking into a well-guarded building. She could handle herself. Because if he wasn’t careful, he would push her away with his protective instincts.
“Connor, have them pull the limo around. We have to swing by Crawford and pick up Everly and Dax.” He dialed Dax’s line.
“Hey, don’t yell at me. She’s very persuasive,” Dax said.
At least they were all right. “Wait for me. I can be at Crawford in fifteen minutes.”
“We’re walking through the doors now. Everly figured out that she’s got Natalia Kuilikov’s journal on an SD card in her safe. She’s also decided that her friends here at Crawford are dirty and I think she likes you. Like-likes you.”
That was Dax, always joking. “Well, I like-like her, too. Keep her safe. I’m on my way.”
“I’ll call you when we’re leaving, and you can pick us up. We took the subway since you and Connor hijacked the limo, and he wasn’t kind enough to leave me the keys to his Porsche.”
He glanced at Connor. “You couldn’t leave him the keys?”
Connor snorted. “As if. He would strip the gears in a heartbeat.”
“Hurry up. We’ll meet you in front of the building.” Gabe hung up, a thrum of adrenaline starting. “Everly thinks she’s got the information.”
“Is there something I should know?” Liz asked.
Zack gave her what Gabe thought of as his politician smile. “Just some information on an old friend. Nothing for you to worry about. Let’s go downstairs. Election day is only, like, six hundred days away. Are you sure I can’t quit now?”
The elevator arrived, and they shuffled in, followed by the Secret Service agent, who pressed the button for the ballroom and the lobby.
Liz fussed over Zack. “Nope. Let’s go, Mr. President. If you quit, I’m out of a job and I need shoes. You can play with your friends later. Roman, I need you to run interference. If anyone lets Senator Baxter too near the gin, you know how that goes.”
The door opened, and Liz and Zack exited.
“I’m coming.” Roman stopped in front of Gabe. “I’ll be at your place as soon as I can. Be careful.”
The doors closed again.
“They need to do it in the Lincoln Bedroom,” Connor said with a shake of his head.
Gabe wished those two would do it anywhere. Sometimes he was fairly certain that Zack had the worst job in the world.
They finally made it to the lobby.
“I’ll have them bring the car around.” Connor stepped toward the valet, and Gabe wished they’d taken the Porsche. He couldn’t get to Everly fast enough.
One way or another, he was going to settle things with her tonight.
SEVENTEEN
Everly pocketed her keycard and wondered who was getting fired in the morning. No one was sitting at the security desk. The place was empty and eerily quiet.
It had been a hell of a night. As soon as they’d gotten off the subway, she’d received a text from a neighbor saying the door to her loft had been standing open and someone had trashed her whole place. She’d briefly called the elderly woman, who said it didn’t appear as if anything had been taken but someone had definitely been looking for something.
Deep Throat’s information, no doubt.
“Gabe is coming, but he’s got to make his way through traffic, so we have a few minutes. Are you sure we shouldn’t go over to your place first?” Dax asked.
She shook her head. “Nope. I had my neighbor lock up. We can deal with that later. We know what they were looking for.”
“This place is creepy at night.” Dax looked around, frowning.
She was getting used to being around him, and it felt right to tease him. “Aren’t you some sort of naval hero? Should you get the creeps?”
She pushed the button for the elevator.
Dax followed her on and touched the button to take them to the fortieth floor. “I am a captain in the U.S. Navy, thank you very much, and that means I’m used to having people around me twenty-four seven. This empty shit is creepy. Give me a big-ass boat with a few hundred men who all carry guns and answer to me, then I’m happy.”
“You’re spoiled, Captain Spencer.” She gave him a smile, but her chest felt tight. Once they had this piece of information, it was possible the rest would fall like dominoes and she wouldn’t have a reason to stay with Gabriel . . . except that she wanted to. Panic threatened when she considered not being in his life. Despite all their fights, she couldn’t imagine not seeing him.
She had to shove those thoughts aside and focus on the issue at hand. She needed to figure out why Scott was involved in this mess and exactly what Tavia was guilty of.
Everly suspected the foundation was at the heart of the mess somehow. Tavia was the foundation. Her family had founded the charity. Tavia’s life and career were all about running it. She had to be involved. It would have been fairly simple for her to manipulate documents to incriminate Valerie.
The question was why would Tavia need the money? Was the foundation in financial trouble? Or was something more sinister going on? And had Valerie been offed to keep her from talking?
“We’re going to get in and get out,” Dax said. “Grab that card thing and we’ll leave. We’ll look at it when we get back to Connor’s.”
Maybe she could still be vital to the case. Even after she turned over the information, they might still need her. “Agreed. I’ll let Connor deal with the document and I’ll start looking for Deep Throat. I’ll e-mail him back and hopefully get him to go to another Internet café to reply. I can figure out where he likely lives if he keeps going to the same spot or one close to it. I suspect the sucker uses cash because I haven’t been able to match up credit cards to the times he’s written me.”
“You’re kind of scaring me now, Parker. You can really do all that on a computer?” When she nodded, he whistled. “You’re a dangerous little thing and I’m sorry. Deep Throat needs a new name because Gabe was right. All I can think about is porn.” Dax stood at least a foot taller than her and had another hundred pounds of muscle, but he made her smile. He was a little like a big, gorgeous chocolate lab.
The elevator doors dinged open, and she led the way out and onto the familiar floor.
“Something’s up. I just lost all my bars.” He stared down at his phone.
“Maybe something is wrong with the cell tower.” She looked at hers. Nothing. “I’ll hurry.”
She hadn’t taken more than five steps when Dax put a hand on her. She turned. “What?”
Dax put a fist up. From years of being around ex-military men, she knew it was a signal to go silent.
She stopped and listened, hoping it was the guards doing a walkthrough or the janitors.
Dax pointed ahead of them.
Everly’s stomach turned as she realized what she was looking at. A pair of sneakered feet poked out from behind the bank of cubicles in front of her. A vacuum was lying on its side.
“Back to the elevators,” Dax whispered. “Someone’s here and they’ve got a cell jammer in place. I’m getting you out.”
“He could have had a heart attack.” Everly started to walk toward the downed man.
“No. Something’s wrong.” Dax pulled her back before they heard someone moving in the hallway to their right.
“It is unfortunate for you that the diary seems to be gone, myshka. You know I can’t return home without it.”
Her whole body went cold. Russian. Whoever was speaking had a thick Russian accent and she could hear his boots thud aga
inst the carpet.
“Uncle Yuri, this has all been a terrible mistake.” Tavia’s voice shook as it got closer.
