After twenty minutes and multiple changes of rides, they pulled into an empty bay at an auto body shop. A new driver, a woman who looked six feet tall and had the face of a supermodel, waved them into a sleek black Lexus. “Where to?”

  Madison fumbled in her phone for the address. Then she powered the device down entirely.

  Minutes later, they pulled in front of the building she’d only seen once, under the cover of darkness when she’d come to demand a divorce from Todd. The place gave her chills on sight.

  “Pull over here.” Madison pointed to a curb near the underground parking entrance.

  The driver sent her a warning glare in the rearview mirror. “I don’t know what your business here is, but nothing good happens here. I won’t go unnoticed for long, and the repercussions for getting caught won’t be good. You’ve got ten minutes.”

  Madison scrambled out of the car. “I’ll try to do this in five.”

  Then she darted for the underground parking entrance she’d last used to enter the building, Ethan on her heels.

  “What is this place? What are we doing here?” he demanded.

  She didn’t answer right away, focused instead on getting past the guards blocking the door she’d entered through weeks earlier. Again, she put on her brave face and acted as if she had every right to be here. Again, they gave her a once over and let her pass.

  Madison sighed with relief the second they boarded the elevator and the doors closed. At the penthouse, she fitted her key in the lock, half-expecting that Todd would have had it rekeyed. But no. The door opened instantly. Thank god, he was either too lazy or too arrogant to think any woman could outwit him.

  With her stomach knotting, she entered the glittering apartment where her life had forever changed. Where Brent Westbrook had been murdered. She turned to Ethan. “This is the place my husband conducts orgies and drug deals. He also brings hookers, mistresses, and the underage girls he likes to violate here.”

  “Like the French attaché’s daughter?”

  “Yes.” Madison was grateful Ethan had practically read her mind. “I need proof he’s defiling her.”

  “In five minutes?” Ethan sent her a dubious stare. “Seriously?”

  He was right. The task was next to impossible on a good day, and she’d inadvertently made everything more difficult.

  “Got a better idea?”

  Ethan pressed his lips together grimly. “No. I don’t.”

  “Then I have to try! I don’t have a choice. I…” She swallowed back tears and tried to stay calm. This leverage was vital. She needed it before tonight—or she feared for the lives of Matt and her unborn baby.

  “Okay. Hey, don’t cry. We’ll do our best. Just”—he patted her shoulder with gentle reassurance—“calm down. This place have cameras? Or other surveillance?”

  “I don’t think so. The point of this penthouse for him is total privacy.”

  “All right.” Ethan began casing the place. “Let’s do this.”

  They split up, Madison starting in the living room, not quite ready to face the bedroom for fear she’d replay Brent’s gory murder in her head. Thankfully, Ethan headed straight there. While she searched—not even sure what to look for—she tried not to let terror overcome her. What happened if she failed? Would she be forced to flee and take her father into hiding while she ran from Todd, his family…and Matt?

  Mere moments seemed to pass when she heard Ethan call across the unit. “Bingo!”

  Madison went running and found him standing in a tiny closet she hadn’t noticed before tucked into the corner of the now-pristine bedroom. “You found something?”

  “Footage of Todd and a too-young girl.”

  Her heart surged, then she frowned. “Footage? But I thought…”

  “I didn’t see any surveillance in the rest of the unit. So I put on my pervert hat and started asking myself, would I bother to rig such a sweet setup, big bed and two-way mirrors”—he gestured to the reflective surfaces covering the walls and ceiling—“just to see the girls I fucked from every angle in the heat of the moment? No, I’d want to go back and look at the event like a voyeur, whenever I wanted, from any angle I wanted…”

  That sounded exactly like Todd.

  “I started poking around at the walls. Lo and behold, the door to this hidden room popped open. This is Todd’s trophy and spank-bank collection in one. As soon as I figured that out…I busted into his computer and searched the video files by date, starting with the night we arrived in this fucked-up city. Here you go.”

  Ethan pressed a button. The screen lit up with the image of a young girl with a waterfall of long, dark hair clenched in a man’s fist, big eyes looking up, and a bee-stung mouth encompassing a veined cock as she sucked. The man tossed his head back and hissed out a curse as he opened his eyes to the camera.

  Todd.

  She gasped. “I’m grabbing that computer.”

  He closed the lid and held it away from her “What are you going to do with it? The minute he realizes it’s gone, he’ll come after you. He’ll know you mean to destroy him, and he’ll try his damnedest to kill you.”

  She knew. “We have to keep him occupied until we leave for family dinner. After that, he won’t be able to touch me.”

  At least she prayed that was true.

  Reluctantly, Ethan handed her the PC. “If you say. Anything else we need here?”

  She tucked the computer in her overlarge purse. “No. Let’s go.”

  The place gave her the heebies, and they were running out of time.

  They raced out of the unit, and Madison tried not to look at the stairwell door, where she’d almost met her demise that fateful evening at Todd’s knife. Had that really been a mere month ago?

  On the way back to her gilded cage, she begged for a bathroom stop. Ethan instructed the driver, Ilya, to go in with her for protection. Madison needed a few minutes away from Ethan, and she was grateful he’d fallen for her ruse.

  She didn’t expect the driver to pull over at a gas station miles out of the way. With its peeling stucco building, faded canopy, and outdated pumps, this place had seen better decades. “Why are we stopping here?”

  “Low-tech security.” Ilya winked, then strode inside and picked up the key to the exterior restroom’s door.

  While Ethan grumbled about women always needing to go together, Madison motioned Ilya inside the one-holer and locked the door.

  The model-like beauty crossed her arms over her chest. “You didn’t bring me in here to watch you pee.”

  “No. How loyal are you to Ethan?”

  She shook her head. “First time I’ve ever met him.”

  “Can I trust you to help a girl out?” Madison was taking a risk, but damn it, she shouldn’t need this much subterfuge to get a damn bottle of prenatal vitamins.

  Maybe the worry after yesterday’s scare made her rash. Maybe the guilt that she hadn’t been eating well or taking care of her baby so far drove her to trust this stranger. And maybe it was fear and hormones and erratic sleep…and just plain old desperation, but Madison felt out of options.

  Ilya’s expression gave away nothing. “What do you need?”

  “You didn’t answer me,” Madison pointed out.

  The other woman smiled. “I’m a doer, not a judger. What are you looking for? Want to get high? Get laid? Get even?”

  Hoping like hell she wasn’t making the wrong decision, Madison dropped her hand to her stomach. “I just need some prenatal vitamins. Absolutely no one can know.”

  Ilya’s face softened. “I’ll take care of it. When and where?”

  “Tonight. Can you leave them beside the water feature just outside the door at this address?” She rattled off her location. “Come disguised. Pretend to be lost or—shit. You need a key fob to access the elevator. I guess I could give you mine⁠—”

  “No offense, but you’re not a professional. Leave the details and the subterfuge to me.”

  Madison felt a little foolish but relieved. “Thank you.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Am I missing something? I don’t know anything about being pregnant. I only found out yesterday. And no one knows.”

  “And if my former boss’s nephew is calling someone like me to help you, then you’re in some deep shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  Ilya sighed. “Don’t make me question my sanity. Memorize this number. Don’t write it down. If you ever need me, day or night, I’ll come.”

  At the woman’s kindness, tears sprang to Madison’s eyes. “Thank you. By November, I hope to be back in Louisiana. If you’re ever there and need some hospitality, want a mean gumbo, or could just use a friend, call me.”

  “You got it.”

  Minutes later, the gorgeous woman dropped them back at the auto body shop. Then the beard in the compact dropped them at the curb in front of their building.

  Ethan gave her arm a reassuring squeeze before they entered the unit. Thankfully, they’d made it back before noon, so Todd hadn’t awakened. He’d probably know she’d taken an unauthorized field trip as soon as he crawled out of his lair, of course, but she’d fend him off…somehow.

  What she hadn’t expected was Matt to be awake and prowling like he was about to lose his mind. He glared at Ethan like he intended to take his fellow operative’s head off, then scanned Madison with a wild-eyed concern. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course. We just…” Oh, god. She had to lie to him. If she was going to keep the baby under wraps until the danger passed, she had to feed him BS and excuses. “I had to get out of here for a little while. I couldn’t stand it anymore.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You were sleeping. And you haven’t had enough, so you should go back to bed.”

  “I got this, man,” Ethan assured.

  Matt shook his head, his jaw working angrily. “I’ll deal with you later.”

  He was being overbearing…and maybe it was for the best. “Leave him alone. I’m a grown woman who wanted some fresh air. So drop your male, chest-beating crap.”

  She snatched a bottle of water from the fridge and a protein bar from the pantry, then stomped to her room, slamming the door behind her. When she sank to the bed, she was shaking and trying not to think about the ramifications of everything she’d done today. The risks would all be for nothing if she didn’t succeed with Winston and Agatha.

  She choked down her breakfast, then drifted into a fitful sleep, clutching her purse—with Todd’s computer inside—to her chest. When she woke, she managed to contort into a position, PC lid facing the ceiling, so the cameras couldn’t see the screen. Then she backed up the files onto multiple flash drives, picked up her own computer, and drafted emails to five key recipients, attached the video of Todd and the underage girls, setting them in draft to autosend at midnight.

  Madison didn’t dare leave her room until Todd banged on her door at five o’clock. “Out. You’ve been in there for hours, so you should be ready. The grandparents want to talk.”

  Normally, that would inspire dread. Now, Madison breathed a sigh of relief as she smoothed down her dress, grabbed her purse, and opened her door.

  The limo ride to the estate was tense. Todd glared at her. Matt was still pissed off. Ethan cracked jokes no one heard.

  They’d barely made it inside the monstrosity of a house when Madison realized this wasn’t going to be like other family dinners. Roger was pacing. Cynthia wasn’t sauced. And the moment she stepped into the room, everyone whose last name was Pershing glared daggers at her so hard it gave new meaning to the phrase if looks could kill.

  “You’re finally here.” Agatha sniffed as if their tardy arrival seriously inconvenienced everyone.

  Except they were fifteen minutes early. Still, Madison didn’t point that out. The woman wouldn’t care.

  “You two would like to talk to me, I hear.” She gripped her purse tighter, fear and adrenaline searing her veins. She felt like she might throw up, but she pressed on. “Alone, I hope.”

  “Not without me,” Todd growled, grabbing for her arm.

  Matt was faster and pushed her behind him. “You don’t touch her.”

  Todd snarled. “And I know you do, you son of a bitch. Every chance you get.”

  Winston acted as if the two men weren’t about to throw down in his very posh living room. “Let’s talk now, Madison.” He glared at Matt. “Alone.”

  Palms sweating, she nodded and fell in behind the old man.

  Matt wrapped a hand around her arm. “I’m going with you.”

  She closed her eyes. He would see this as a betrayal, and god, it hurt her to hurt him. But she had no choice.

  “No. We’ll be having a simple conversation. They won’t hurt me.” Except with their sharp words. “Just keep Todd away, please.”

  Fury broke across Matt’s face. He ground his teeth together. “This isn’t smart.”

  “I’ll be fine.” She turned to Winston. “Your office?”

  He nodded sharply. “Follow me.”

  Agatha brought up the rear as the old man ambled toward the senator’s office, dominated by black furniture, leather, and intimidation. The door swung closed behind them, and Winston made a great show of settling in his giant leather office chair as if it were his throne. Agatha stood beside him, his coconspirator and verbal assassin. Madison settled into the guest chair, refusing to flinch when they glared.

  “What the hell happened yesterday?” the senator snapped. “You cost us thousands of dollars with that fainting stunt you pulled. What are you up to?”

  She wasn’t letting them railroad her or take control of the conversation. “I’m not here to talk about that. You won’t believe me, but Todd drugged me, so I won’t be defending myself against his bullshit. But we’re renegotiating this divorce deal.”

  “The hell we are!” he shouted.

  “I insist. If you’re not aware, Todd is seducing a French diplomat’s underage daughter. Ring any bells?”

  Winston and Agatha exchanged a silent glance that spoke volumes. Yeah, they had at least suspected. Now she had their attention.

  “I have film of her sucking his cock, if you’d like to see it.” She withdrew the computer from her purse. Neither replied. “And before you try to take this device from me, you should know that I’ve extracted the footage, made multiple copies, and set up emails with the video attached to send to my contacts at AP and Reuters, the French embassy, the girl’s father, and your opponent’s campaign manager. So, if you touch, detain, or threaten me, the emails will autosend. Are we clear?”

  “You bitch,” Agatha growled. “Biting the hand that feeds you…”

  “Yeah, arsenic,” she shot back. “I know that filing official divorce paperwork before the election is a nonstarter for you and that I can’t move out of Todd’s place without my absence being noticed, so this is how we’ll play what happened yesterday to our mutual advantage: You will tell everyone in the next few weeks that I fainted because I’m pregnant. That’s sooner than you wanted to announce, but you’ll get longer to milk my condition. In exchange, I’ll be much too ill to attend most campaign functions. Pick three—max. That’s all I’ll do. I also won’t be attending anymore family dinners, and I don’t think you’ll miss me. You will remove all the surveillance equipment from my bedroom and bathroom. I want some goddamn privacy and not to feel like I’m being watched during every shower and bodily function. It’s disgusting.”

  “You’re a Judas. Of course we’re watching you.”

  “Then I guess you want the world to know that the rumors about Todd’s predilections are true and that you’ve done nothing about his multiple instances of statutory rape. That will be good for your campaign.”

  Winston ground his jaw but said nothing else.

  “That’s what I thought. You will tell Todd that he is never to touch me again. Our divorce will be final the day after the midterms, because I know you have the power to make that happen. You’ll continue to pay for my father’s medical treatments until he’s in full remission. And you’ll leave me, Matt, and Ethan alone for the rest of our lives.”

  She so badly wanted to tell them that some of Matt’s colleagues still had video of Brent Westbrook’s murder, despite Todd’s effort to steal and destroy them, but she didn’t want to bring any trouble down on Jack Cole, Deke Trenton, the Edgington brothers, or anyone else. And she could keep that scandal as another ace in the hole in case this one fell through.

  “Do I make myself clear?” she prompted.

  “I don’t believe you. Let me see the footage.” Agatha hissed.

  Madison had planned for this. She opened her phone and sent the email in draft to Winston. A minute later, she heard a ding on the senator’s idling computer.

  The old man’s hand trembled as he launched the clip. She knew from handling and studying it that the footage ran just under a minute. But rustling clothing filled the air, then harsh breaths and moans. Winston cursed seconds later and ended the video, dimming his desktop.

  For once, they both looked shaken.

  “Do we have a deal?” she prodded.

  They exchanged a glance and hesitated. Then Winston nodded. “I’ll give you what you want, but you’ll be sorry you fucked with the Pershings.”

  Madison stood. “This whole family made me sorry years ago. I’ll be excusing myself from the rest of dinner.”

  Jerking open the door, knowing that she’d finally wrested some power from these dirty, corrupt people was so, so gratifying. Yes, it might be temporary. And there was every chance they would think of something even more underhanded and disgusting that she hadn’t considered, but she allowed herself to bask in this moment, in taking control of her life. For herself. For her unborn child. Hopefully, for Matt, too.

  “What’s going on?” Matt stormed to her side like he’d defend her from a charging army if he had to.

  She turned to him. Honestly, she hadn’t thought about what she’d say to him in this moment. “We’re leaving.”