Connor sighed. He needed to call Dax and find out what the hell was going on. They couldn’t stay in this motel for long. How was he going to convince the Bratva that Lara wasn’t involved anymore? She could choose to walk away, but until the Russians believed it, she was still a target. He couldn’t stand the thought.

  He slipped out of bed, away from her warmth. The minute he broke contact, he could feel the chill. He was certain it wasn’t real, knew it must be more of an emotional thing, but it was there all the same. When he was with her, he was warm in a way he’d never been before. He couldn’t stand the thought of losing her.

  He found the table and his cell phone. He grabbed his pants and shoved into them. He didn’t want to get dressed. He wanted to get back into bed with Lara and forget the rest of the world existed. He could be the man he’d told her he was and she could not be hunted by the Bratva and some insane duo of dueling informants who wanted god only knew what.

  He shoved his feet into his sneakers.

  “Connor?”

  He turned back. Lara was half up, propped on her left elbow. All that crazy hair was around her. Every part of him softened with the exception of his dick. “Go back to sleep, princess. I’m just going to make a few calls and see if we can head back into town. I’ll get us some coffee.”

  Her lips curled up as she lay back down. “And a little sugar. I like mine sweet.”

  She was the sweetest thing he’d ever seen. “Of course. I’ll be back in a little bit. Lara, do I need to say it?”

  “Don’t leave the room. Don’t open the door. Don’t let anyone shoot me. I got it.” She pulled the covers up. “Hey.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you, Spencer. You have to let me call you by your first name now. We’re engaged.”

  His heart twisted. “Call me whatever you like as long as you say yes. Be back soon, princess.”

  Fuck, she didn’t even know his name. She was going to be so upset when the truth came out. He had to make sure she didn’t hate him, and part of that was making sure she was safe. With one last glance at her, he grabbed his keycard and slipped outside.

  He was already punching Dax’s contact number as the door closed.

  “I hate you.” Despite being career Navy, Dax wasn’t a morning person.

  Connor couldn’t worry about that right now. “I asked her to marry me.”

  That wasn’t what he’d intended to lead with. He’d intended to go straight into a debrief about what had happened the night before. He needed to know what Dax had found in Freddy’s room and if anyone had shown up at Lara’s after the ambush at the Mall. But no. It was like he was fourteen fucking years old and he’d found his first girl.

  “You’re shitting me. That’s great, man. I can’t believe it.” It sounded like Dax had woken up.

  “Yep. I’m marrying her. I just have to figure out how to manage it without her finding out the whole truth.”

  “Connor, she has to know eventually.”

  He knew that, but it didn’t have to be now. Things were delicate between them. “I just don’t think this is the right time. I need a couple more days with her. She claims she wants out of the investigation. She’s going to hand all her information over to Everly and then she’ll be out of this mess.”

  “No, she won’t. Not if she’s marrying you. Unless you’re planning on leaving the rest of us high and dry. I kind of thought we were in this together, brother.” Dax’s tone held a hint of accusation. “I’m fairly certain I could die of some unknown biological agent after going into that freak’s apartment. I hope I didn’t do that just to have you get all happy and dump the rest of us.”

  “What?” He had to worry because Freddy really was kind of a freak.

  “I’m joking. Mostly. I opened a door and it dumped baby powder all over me. Or an unholy amount of anthrax. I’d probably be dead so I think we can go with baby powder.”

  “He’s trying to mark you so he can see where you went while you were in there.” Baby powder would go everywhere, but it would also get on shoes and trace wherever a person went.

  “I don’t give a fuck if he knows where I’ve been. I want to know if you’re leaving the investigation. We were counting on you.”

  He would never leave them alone in this. “I’m not out. I just want Lara out.”

  “I don’t see how that’s possible.” A long sigh came over the line. “I’m going to give you some advice. Tell her. Tell her now and bring her into this. We’ll set her up with Everly and let them work through the problem. She’ll be angry, but working with Everly will give her something to do other than hate your guts. It will also draw her in, make her a part of our group. Don’t isolate her. She seems like the type of woman who likes having a circle. Show her you can provide her with one. By the way, this dog is useless.”

  He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of Lara working with Everly. There were too many Thelma and Louise possibilities with that pair. “Lincoln? He’s not so bad.”

  “As guard dogs go, he’s a waste of canine flesh. Two barks and then he was following me around begging for treats, at least until he ate them all. I kind of wish I could beg someone for food, too. What the hell is a vegan meatball and why does it smell so bad? That thing shouldn’t exist.”

  “Sorry. I should have warned you. Lara’s a vegan. But she makes pretty mean black bean tacos. Did you find the evidence?”

  There was a pause and then Dax replied, his voice low. “Yes.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “I can’t describe it. You have to see it for yourself and then we have a decision to make.”

  What the hell was this evidence? “What’s that?”

  “Whether we take it to Zack or try to bury it.”

  He whistled. “It’s that bad? You don’t think this is something Freddy trumped up?”

  “No. This is evidence from three different sources. I didn’t sleep much after looking at it. I don’t know what to think. I just know we have to do something. We have to find Deep Throat.”

  In all the running of the night before, he’d almost forgotten a crucial point. “That’s going to be harder than you think since Lara’s informant isn’t Deep Throat.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  It was a problem that should have kept him up all night. Instead, he’d done nothing but think about Lara. She made him soft. “Not at all. I got a good look. He’s a different man. We’re dealing with at least two people. I don’t know how many more. We could be dealing with a group, and that scares the hell out of me. I didn’t get a photo of the new guy. Did we ID the one Everly met? I don’t know whether to hug that girl or threaten to kill her.”

  “I think she knows she’s in trouble. I heard Gabe shook the walls of the Lincoln Bedroom last night, and not in a good way.”

  If Gabe was anything like him, he’d eventually shaken those walls with more than his yelling. Connor was rapidly discovering that no matter how angry he was with Lara, he still wanted her. He’d meant to lecture her, but the minute they’d gotten alone, the need to mark her, to remind himself that she belonged to him, had overwhelmed him. “I’m just glad she backed Lara up. At least one of them had the sense to carry a gun.”

  “According to Roman, the woman was a known associate of the Krylov syndicate.”

  Connor snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Okay. She wasn’t from the New York branch. She’s from Saint Petersburg, and I’m not talking about the one in Florida.”

  She was from Krylov himself most likely. “So they’re sending in the big guns.”

  “I think it’s safe to say they’re sending in people they trust,” Dax explained. “The woman Everly killed is wanted by Interpol in association with at least ten hits across the globe. She was an assassin.”

  He was definitely giving Everly a hug. “So they’re sending professionals after Lara.”

  “It would seem so. Listen, there’s something else I need to talk to you about. I discussed it with Roman last night. He dealt with the police and they’re keeping this quiet for now.”

  “Good. The last thing we need is press.” They would hound Lara and if anyone got a hint this had something to do with Mad’s death, it would never end. Lara would be exposed and that might kill her.

  “I think Roman’s going to make a play soon. It’s another reason to tell her and to bring her into the family. As long as Roman considers her an outsider, she’s a threat to Zack. This evidence of hers isn’t going to make it better. You need to sit down and talk to him or I’m afraid he’s going to try to crush her.”

  He intended to explain to Roman that Lara was off-limits. He would make sure she didn’t do anything that could hurt Zack, but he wasn’t going to let anyone threaten her. “I told him I would handle her.”

  “And he thinks she’s handling you. He doesn’t know her and quite frankly, Roman’s a cynical bastard who believes everyone’s out for themselves with very few exceptions. He hasn’t spent days tailing her. I know I haven’t spoken a word to the woman, but I like her. She’s one of those people who sort of glows.”

  Like a fairy princess. “I won’t let him hurt her.”

  “Then talk to him and soon. And come back to town. We had zero activity here.”

  Getting her back home was his main objective. “I want to install a new security system and change her locks. I’m pretty sure she gives away keys to homeless people in case they want a place to stay.”

  “I’ll call and get that started and upgrade the dog. Stop humping my leg!”

  Dax was going to have to get used to Lincoln. Lara loved the ugly mutt and that meant he stayed. “That means he needs to go. His leash is on a hook in the front closet, and don’t forget the Baggies.”

  “Baggies?”

  “For the poop.”

  “Dude, you owe me so big-time.”

  “Somehow, I think you’ll find a way to make me pay you back.” He hung up and headed across the street to the coffeehouse there, his mind whirling with questions.

  * * *

  Lara tried to fall asleep again, but without Connor the bed seemed too big, the room too unfamiliar. She stretched and walked to the bathroom without bothering to put on her clothes. The truth was she didn’t mind walking around nude. It felt nice and Connor seemed to like her that way. When she was alone with him and they were naked together, she’d never felt more intimate with another human being. She loved being able to touch him, to lean against him and feel his strong arms surrounding her.

  She washed her face and was grateful she hadn’t worn makeup the night before. The little motel was sadly sparse on the complimentary grooming items. There was a little box with a tube of toothpaste and a teeny-tiny shampoo and conditioner set. She had to finger brush her teeth, but at least she felt less grimy as she walked back into the room.

  She found her phone and turned it on. A barrage of messages flared across the screen.

  She sighed. Most of them were from Tom, but one from her dad asking her to call him caught her attention. She touched the screen to dial him back. After a few rings, he picked up.

  “Lara? Sweetheart, are you all right? You didn’t answer your phone last night.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad. I was busy and I turned it off. I just turned it back on. Are you all right?”

  He paused. The line went silent for a long moment. “Sweetheart, something’s happened and I need to talk to you about it. I need you to know before the press gets hold of it.”

  Her heart sank and she clicked the screen to put him on speaker as she started to gather her clothes. If her dad was in trouble, she needed to be with him. “What’s going on?”

  “I told you I was going to meet with the president,” he began.

  “Yes. Was that this week? I’m sorry I missed it.” She wasn’t really. Until she figured out what had happened to Zack Hayes’s wife, she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet the man.

  “I’m not. It was a setup, sweetheart. I never met with Hayes. Roman Calder was waiting for me instead.” He sighed. “We had a long talk. I’m going to resign my seat.”

  She looked down at the phone because something must be wrong with it. She couldn’t have heard what she thought she’d heard. Lara turned off the speaker and whipped the device up to her ear. “What? You’ve held that seat for ten years. Your constituents adore you. You can’t quit.”

  “I’m afraid I have to. In a few days, a story will break about something that happened when I was in the state senate.”

  A cold chill crept across her skin. He couldn’t be talking about what had happened when she was four. No one knew. It was buried. In order to dig it up herself, Lara had worked hard, called in favors, and still had to do a bit of reading between the lines. When the event had occurred, she’d been so young, but sometimes her anxiousness and terror felt fresh. It still lingered under her skin. She couldn’t remember the precise details and that was almost worse. Her fear was vague, amorphous. It was precisely why she’d looked into the “incident” as her parents called it.

  “Is this about the road construction contracts?”

  “How do you know about that?” He sounded shocked.

  She’d never talked to him about it. He’d always pretended it hadn’t happened, and she knew why. But Lara had been desperate to understand why she’d been seeing a psychiatrist at eight and why she sometimes had panic attacks. So she’d investigated. She hadn’t had much to go on, but she did remember overhearing her mother and father talking about it one night. She’d put their exchange in the back of her mind, but she remembered one thing. Gravely Construction. When her father had said the name, there had been bile and vitriol in his voice. She’d never heard her gentle father get so angry.

  “I’m curious. I heard you mention a firm once. You and Mom were arguing. I remembered the name and a few years back I looked it up. They received a highly lucrative state contract the year I was four. They also have ties to the Mafia. At the time, there was a single holdout who didn’t want to award them the contracts. You.”

  “I had no idea you had looked into that.”

  She’d spent months researching. She’d gathered data and put the clues together. Lara had always known how much her parents loved her but her father had basically sold his soul that term to get her back. “They took me.”

  A sob caught his voice. “Yes. They took you from your mother’s arms. They knocked on the door and before she could do anything, they hit her over the head with a gun. I found her there with a note stating that if I contacted the police, they would kill you. The vote was the next day. I was promised if I granted the contract to Gravely, you would be returned to us within twenty-four hours.”

  How scared had her father been? He’d been placed in a horrible situation, but Lara was certain she would have made the same choice. She put a hand to her belly as though she could feel a child growing there. Hers and Connor’s. She would do anything for that baby. Anything.

  “Two days after the vote, a check was deposited into Mom’s account,” Lara continued the story. “That was the guarantee that you wouldn’t take action after the fact, wasn’t it?”

  “They made me look guilty so I couldn’t go to the police. I should have anyway. I should have been braver.” Her father sobbed. Her heart ached at the thought of her big, strong father weeping. “It doesn’t matter now. I’ll deal with the fallout. I love you, baby girl. You are everything to us. You know that, right?”

  Tears filled her eyes but a few things didn’t add up. “What does this have to do with Roman Calder meeting you instead of the president?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “And how did Calder even know about this? Gravely wouldn’t have told him. The patriarch died and his son sold off the company. Why does the president’s chief of staff care? You tend to vote with the party. You don’t outwardly criticize the president.” It hit her and her stomach dropped straight to the floor. “Oh, god. This isn’t about you. This is about me. This is about Capitol Scandals.”

  “Like I said, it doesn’t matter,” her father continued. “I won’t let you give in to his blackmail.”

  “Dad, how many people knew about what happened back then?”

  “It was mob business. They keep things quiet. I never told anyone. I’m surprised you figured it out.”

  She’d been determined to know why she had nightmares about being watched and held in close spaces. She’d figured that finally knowing what really happened might help her sleep at night. “I had a lot of circumstantial evidence. Sometimes that’s enough to get a good picture. Dad, they can’t indict you. It was over twenty years ago.”

  “The scandal alone will crush me. It’s best I step down as quietly as possible.”

  “What did he want?”

  “A total shutdown of Capitol Scandals. A promise that you’ll stay out of politics for good. Like I told him, he can bite my ass.”

  So she could give up doing what she loved, or Roman Calder and Zack Hayes would ruin her father’s legacy and reputation. There was no choice. “Daddy, I’m shutting down.”

  “Lara . . .” he began.

  “No. You can’t talk me out of it.” Especially since her ambition had landed them in this mess.

  It couldn’t be a coincidence that Calder had been in her building just days before and suddenly he had information that was locked away in her safe. How would he have gotten access to her building? Her unit?

  Suspicion crushed Lara. Yeah, sometimes circumstantial evidence could paint to an accurate picture when it was all laid out.

  “Dad, have you ever heard of a man named Connor Sparks?”

  “Um, the name sounds familiar. Why do you ask?”