Lara stalked through the living room where Connor’s rich and superpowerful friends were talking quietly. She heard them murmuring about how worried they were before they caught sight of her and went silent.

  She was confused and all she really wanted was to get out of here so she could think, but it didn’t seem likely Connor was going to give her meditation time. No. He seemed determined to hound her until he got everything he wanted from her, even if that meant body and soul.

  “Do you have the flash drive?” She looked up at Dax Spencer. He was a massive mountain of pure muscle with an all-American smile that likely got every female heart in a mile radius fluttering. Strangely, she preferred Connor’s dark, brooding beauty to Dax’s sunniness. When had that happened? She’d always gone for the optimistic type before. It was how she’d ended up with Tom.

  “Sure. It’s with my laptop.” He dialed down the smile, his eyes turning serious. “You’re going to show him?”

  She nodded. “He wants to see it. I can throw it up on the big screen so we all have a good view. Maybe I should pop some corn and turn this into a party.”

  Dax scowled. “Hey, this is serious to him. This was his wife. I would appreciate it if you had some concern for what you’re about to do. I know Connor hurt you. We all hurt you, but this is not the Lara Armstrong I’ve been following for days. She would be horrified at your callousness.”

  Tears threatened to well. He was right. She wasn’t acting like herself, but she didn’t do disillusion well. “The Lara you’ve been following was a dumb girl. I’ll be smarter now that I’ve learned from the best.”

  She shot a look back at Connor, who clenched his jaw. Immediately, she felt bad, then forced the feeling aside. Had he felt guilty when he’d been charming her and kissing her and lying to her? Probably not. Besides, she needed to put distance between them. Otherwise, all he would have to do was kiss her and get her into bed and she would give him everything.

  Lara took the thumb drive without another word and retrieved her laptop. Dax’s was probably filled with top-secret stuff. Dax had likely never had to deal with someone stealing all his secrets. Surely Roman had downloaded her computer. He knew how many times she searched the web for puppy-cuddling-baby videos and how many romances she bought for her e-reader. As she set up for her demonstration, she tried not to think about how grim Zachary Hayes seemed or the way Connor had shuttered his dark eyes behind a blank mask.

  What kind of man was Zack Hayes? He obviously had the loyalty of the others. He was charismatic and smart. Was he ruthless enough to have his own wife killed so he could win an election?

  The screen was supersized on the TV monitor. They all gathered around. Dax apparently had already seen the file they’d put together. He stood in the back beside Connor, arms crossed over his big chest. She saw him reach out and put a hand on Connor’s shoulder as if to offer him comfort.

  Had she really hurt him? After hearing the enormity of his betrayal, Lara would have sworn that Connor Sparks didn’t have feelings. But his friends clearly seemed to think he did.

  Roman had taken a place next to Zack. Everly and Gabe sat on the love seat, hands entwined. Everly sent a worried look her way, but Lara wasn’t sure what she could say or do except get this heinously awkward meeting out of the way.

  “My friend Freddy practically lives in online chat rooms. He specializes in conspiracy theories. He heard one earlier this year that he latched on to. It was about the president’s wife and . . . um, the election.”

  “Just say it, Lara. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it,” the president said, his mouth a flat line.

  “It was about the fact that you probably won the election because of the sympathy vote.” There it was. She tried to be unemotional, intellectual. That was how she’d get through this. It was one thing to discuss the situation intellectually with her friends and quite another when the man in question was sitting in front of her, his eyes on the screen, his shoulders back as though he was bracing to see something truly terrible.

  “Of course. The conjecture began roughly five minutes after Joy died.” His voice was utterly devoid of emotion, but she was fairly certain that was an affectation on his part, a wall he’d had plenty of practice erecting.

  Somewhere under all that calm, she sensed the president was actually a ball of emotion. The only question was which one? Fear of being caught? Or genuine pain because he’d lost his wife horribly?

  “One of the people on the board said they’d caught something on some news footage that proved the assassin wasn’t after you. Freddy did some digging and this was what he found.”

  “But why would anyone want to kill Joy?” Roman asked. “She wasn’t even terribly interested in politics. She was interested in being first lady, but she never tried to influence Zack. She was the perfect political wife.”

  “What my best friend is trying to say is that Joy was sweet and everyone loved her. She didn’t have any enemies,” Zack explained.

  “But she did have someone stalking her.” Lara pressed a couple of keys, and the footage from the Des Moines rally came up. “This is from three days before Joy Hayes was murdered.”

  The screen filled with the image of Zack Hayes walking to the podium. He leaned over and kissed his pretty, dark-haired wife. Joy Hayes beamed up at her husband. She wore a light yellow business suit, the skirt modest and heels conservative. As Zack reached the podium and began his speech, Joy sat beside Roman Calder.

  “Since these political rallies are orchestrated down to the second and they’re the same everywhere, I know exactly where in the speech to look.” It wasn’t lost on Lara that both Zack and Roman looked years younger in this tape. There was an openness to Zack’s expression that didn’t exist now. How much of that was the heavy mantle of responsibility and how much was the incident that happened only days later?

  “Well, it’s called a stump speech for a reason,” Roman said impatiently. “We can’t possibly write a different speech for every town. Zack visited literally hundreds of places on the road. Of course we treat them all the same.”

  “I’m pointing it out because the anomaly happens at the same time every time. He knew when he wanted to take her out. This is the part of the speech where Zack talks about valuing American families.” She glanced back and noticed that Connor was watching the screen intently, gripping the back of her sofa.

  She wondered if he’d been there. Roman had been. She didn’t remember Gabe or Maddox from any of the tapes, but she had to wonder if Connor had been lurking in the shadows, providing security. How had it felt to know he failed?

  “I don’t see what we’re looking for.” Everly leaned forward, her eyes glued to the screen.

  “Watch her suit. It’s coming up.” She always got a chill when she watched this video. All of them, actually. They were a road map that led to this woman’s death.

  “What the fuck is that?” Gabe asked, pointing to the screen.

  There it was. A little red dot in the middle of Joy Hayes’s chest. Lara paused the file.

  “That’s from a scope.” Connor’s voice shook.

  Yes, from a long-range rifle. The glowing red mark on Joy Hayes’s chest was faint, but there was no way to mistake it.

  “Yes, had she been wearing a darker color, I don’t think the mark would have shown up on film.”

  “Joy liked pastels and bright colors,” Zack commented, his voice a forced monotone.

  Lara stopped that file and moved on. The real proof was in the sequence. One incident could be brushed off. Three formed an undeniable pattern. “This is from the following day in Wichita, Kansas. I’ll fast-forward to the same part of the stump speech.”

  She moved the video forward. This time Joy Hayes was wearing a lovely white suit, and the red dot was very clear. It was only for a few seconds and the eye could easily miss it if one weren’t really looking for it. Lara paused and pointed to the screen. “You’ll see this is at the same time in the speech.”

  Zack Hayes had gone a pasty white, but his face was perfectly still. “How many times?”

  “We’ve found three videos. The three days leading up to the actual act. The assassin set it up carefully and he timed it. He followed your campaign.” She moved on to the final file. Kansas City, Missouri. Joy wore pale blue but the red dot showed up right on time. It hovered over her heart before disappearing. “The next day you went to Memphis and that was the day your wife was killed. She was always the target of the assassin. Not once did he take aim at you. He never meant to kill you. His one and only goal was ensuring that Joy Hayes died and America watched you mourn. Days after, they swept you into office.”

  Zack Hayes stood suddenly. “Where’s your bathroom, please?”

  She pointed to the small guest bathroom. “Right there. Are you all right?”

  He turned and walked away, slamming the door behind him and then came a sound she would never forget.

  The president of the United States retching in her bathroom.

  “Oh, god. He wasn’t behind it.” That fact hit her like a ton of bricks. She stood and glanced around the room at all the shocked faces. What the hell had she done to that man?

  “This doesn’t mean we didn’t get the right guy.” Connor was staring at the screen. “I chased him down. I tracked him. I shot him. He had the rifle in his hand.”

  “I thought the Secret Service took him out.”

  “No.” Connor shook his head.

  The supposed assassin had been a young man with schizophrenia who had tried to kill then-candidate Hayes because he’d thought Hayes was sent from Satan and had been using television to send him messages. The news had devoted hours to going over his crazy journals and talking to all his so-called friends who claimed they should have seen it coming.

  Lara knew better.

  “But Troy Hill has an airtight alibi for two of the three rallies. He was being held in jail for drunk and disorderly. His mother didn’t have the money to bail him out so they held him for seventy-two hours. I’m sorry. He wasn’t responsible. He was a patsy. Think about it, Connor. What type of rifle was used? A hunting rifle? Something he could have easily gotten his hands on?”

  “It was a Dragunov.” Connor’s hands became fists at his sides. “It was a fucking Dragunov. How stupid am I?”

  “That sounds Russian,” Gabe said, his gaze moving between the bathroom and Connor as though he couldn’t decide who needed his help more.

  “It is,” Lara pointed out. “According to Freddy, it’s the preferred weapon of the Russian mob for long-range assassinations. It’s why I think Natalia Kuilikov is tied somehow to Joy Hayes’s death. The Russians are all over this thing. At first I thought the president might have hired a Russian assassin and Natalia had proof.” She winced at the outcry that brought. “I’m sorry. I don’t know him the way you do. I don’t think that now. I do think someone wanted Zack Hayes in office and they were willing to kill to get him there.”

  Roman shook his head, his stare fused to the screen like he couldn’t believe what he’d seen. “I was right beside her during every one of those speeches. I was sitting right there and I didn’t notice someone was aiming a sniper rifle at her.”

  “You were watching Zack, like you were supposed to,” Lara pointed out. Of all of the group left in the room, Roman seemed the most shaken. She was a little worried he would need the bathroom, too. He was a pasty white and she could see the way his hands shook. He couldn’t fake that. Roman Calder was known for being unflappable, utterly ruthless, and cold as ice. He didn’t look like any of those things now. He looked like a man who’d had his world upended.

  “I didn’t even question it,” Connor said. “I killed that kid because I just knew he’d meant to kill Zack and had missed. I never thought to look back over any of the previous speeches for anything unusual. Why would I when they’d seemed to go off without a hitch?” He swallowed, shaking his head slowly. “I didn’t question whether or not that kid had pulled the trigger or whether Zack was the target. It seemed obvious.”

  Gabe stood and turned to Connor. “That guy was running from the scene. Two witnesses saw him coming down the stairs and he was carrying a weapon. He raised that rifle your way, Connor. He seemed like the natural suspect. You had no choice.”

  “I was behind you,” Dax said. “If you hadn’t shot him, I would have. I would have made the exact same call. Why would the Russian mob want Zack in office?”

  “We don’t know it was the mob who wanted him there.” Everly took her fiancé’s hand. “We only know whoever did it very likely hired a Russian assassin. It’s more important than ever to find Natalia and figure out what’s happening here. It’s connected somehow. Perhaps Lara is right and Natalia knows who hired the assassin, or she can lead us to the man who pulled the trigger and he can tell us who hired him. We just don’t have enough pieces to see the whole puzzle yet. Lara, I would really like to see whatever your informant gave you.”

  Zack stepped out, his face pale, but it was obvious he’d cleaned up and calmed down. He looked to Lara. “I did not kill my wife. My wife and I were friends, very close friends. I loved her. I won’t lie and say I was in love with her. Ours was a marriage of political convenience, but I cared for her deeply. The last thing I would have done was have her killed. I needed Joy. I didn’t want to do any of this without her. I tried to pull out of the race after she died.”

  Roman stood, looking toward Zack. “I wouldn’t let him. It wasn’t what Joy would have wanted. I’m the one with every reason to have done this. I’m the most obvious suspect so you need to eliminate me. I’ll open all my records. Every file I have is yours. I’ll answer all your questions. Hell, hook me up to a lie detector or something else. Connor, surely the Agency has something.”

  Zack shook his head. “I know you would never have done this.”

  “Why not? I’m a ruthless bastard. I’m the asshole who wants to win at all costs.”

  “You loved Joy. You would never have hurt her,” Zack said quietly.

  Roman took a step back. “I . . . How did you know?”

  “I always knew.”

  “Zack, I never touched her. I never would have.”

  There was an infinite amount of sympathy in Zack Hayes’s eyes, and Lara realized she would never question him again. This was the man with all his defenses down. This was the private man and all he seemed to want to do was comfort his friend. “But you loved her all the same and you’ve mourned her all these years. I believe she loved you, too. I’m not questioning you, Roman. I would never do that. If there’s one thing I know in this world, it’s that you have my back, no matter what. I know what you’ve sacrificed for me, so no one will investigate you. But there will be an investigation. Lara, I’m going to ask something of you I shouldn’t.”

  “No.” Connor took a step toward her. “Zack, no. I want her out of this.”

  The president wanted her to investigate. This mystery had caused her nothing but trouble and heartache. It was the most important investigation of her life and it dangled right in front of her. She probably should say no . . . but she couldn’t. “I’ll do it.”

  “With my help.” Everly stood beside her, a united front. “Don’t even think of forbidding it now that it’s gotten a little dangerous, Gabriel.”

  Gabe simply sighed and shook his head. “It’s only getting dangerous now? I seem to remember plenty of danger. But I won’t stop you. I’ll help you, love. We’re in this together.”

  Together. She wasn’t together with Connor, but she could stay in his circle for a little while.

  That shouldn’t have been appealing. She shouldn’t want to stay anywhere close to him. But she was ass deep in this investigation now and she had to see it through. “Mr. President, I want to find out what happened. I want to solve this. I’ll do it.”

  “Thank you. Connor, I’m sure you understand this means I’ll need you to protect her.” Zack Hayes neatly sprung his trap.

  Son of a bitch. He was a sneaky bastard.

  Connor nodded and she couldn’t miss the relief she saw in his eyes. “I wasn’t planning on going back to work anytime soon. I’ll watch over the women. We’ll be in D.C. for a few days, but then we’ll head up to the city, and Everly and Lara can work on it from there.”

  He would isolate her. One glance told Lara he intended to keep her close and try to work his charm on her.

  Would he really go to all this trouble for a disposable woman?

  “I would love to spend some time in New York. I think Everly and I will work well together.” She would figure out what to do about Connor later. She hated to admit that being forced to spend more time with him was almost a relief. “But Lincoln has to come with me.”

  Connor shrugged. “I would expect no less. My place is on the Upper West Side. He can crap in Central Park.”

  So he wasn’t going to fight her on bringing the dog. “I’ll need to find a good vegan grocery store.”

  “You can find anything in Manhattan, Lara. And my place is a three-bedroom. You can have your own room. For however long that lasts.” His voice was a silky promise.

  “Good,” Zack said, taking a long breath. “That’s settled. I need some air. Don’t tell the Secret Service agents.”

  He walked out to her balcony, the door closing firmly behind him.

  “Is he okay?” She knew it was a stupid question the moment it left her mouth.

  They were all looking outside.

  “No. He’s not all right.” Roman sank down to the couch. “None of us are all right.”

  Gabe sat down beside Roman. He looked up to Lara. “Do you have anything with a high alcohol content?”