Scandal Never Sleeps (40 page)

“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.

E
verly 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 against the carpet.

“Uncle Yuri, this has all been a terrible mistake.” Tavia’s voice shook as it got closer.

Dax dropped to the ground, pulling Everly with him. They were coming from the opposite side and would block the elevators soon. They would have to cross the Russian’s path to reach the stairs. So she followed Dax as he crawled into the cubicle maze and ducked into one in the middle.

He pulled her close, his voice against her ear. “Don’t scream.”

When she turned, she understood what he meant. She shoved a hand over her mouth to stop the shriek that threatened. The body of one of the guards had been shoved against the side of the cubicle, his lifeless eyes open below a gaping hole in his forehead. He seemed to stare at nothing. Her stomach churned. The other guard was almost certainly dead as well. That was why the lobby had been empty of security.

“A mistake?” It sounded as if they’d stopped right in front of the elevators. “It wasn’t a mistake,
myshka
. You got greedy. It wasn’t enough for you to run girls. You wanted to blackmail the boss. Where did you find the diary? Natalia has been missing to us for many years.”

“Maddox Crawford found the diary. The best I can figure out, his father came into possession of it back when he was sleeping with my mother. Maybe she gave it to him for safekeeping, but somehow Mad got hold of it. He’s the one who wanted to force me to blackmail Ivan. I would never do such a thing. I’m loyal to my family. I only want to run my foundation. Didn’t I come through for you this summer? I managed to get the arms shipment through when no one else could.”

“But you couldn’t cover up your own human trafficking ring.”

“I’ve sold hundreds of girls. Only three have ever been publicized as missing. I think my record stands on its own.”

Everly’s stomach turned again. Tavia hadn’t been trying to educate girls in poor countries at all. She’d been plucking them from their families and ensuring they had short, miserable lives so she could
make a few bucks. She’d duped everyone. Had Mad figured out the truth before his death? Was that why he’d been killed?

“Your record could get us all . . . how do Americans say? Knee-deep in shit. I told you this would only continue until you got caught.”

“I haven’t been caught,” Tavia argued. “And I won’t be. We need to focus on your problems. We don’t have to kill the girl. My brother is wrong. If we kill her or kidnap her, the police will be all over us.”

“I was not sent here to stand by and hope nothing goes wrong,” Tavia’s uncle replied in a deep, rumbling voice.

Tavia seemed to ignore that. “All I’m saying is if we can find the diary before she does, there’s no need to kill her. The little idiot has no idea what’s going on around her. If she did, she would have gone straight to the press.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I know her. She’s a do-gooder. If she understood what that diary meant, she would go straight to the authorities. Trust me. When things cool down, she’ll forget about everything but her new boyfriend’s big wallet. Everything will go back to normal and all our plans can continue on.”

They were talking about her, Everly realized with a shiver.

“We have to find that diary,” Tavia continued. “Now, it’s obviously not in Crawford’s office. We’ve checked everywhere. There’s a chance it was destroyed in the house fire.”

“Jason and Lester searched Crawford’s house first.
Nichego.
”

“Nothing? Okay, m-maybe he took it on the plane and it went down with him. After all, he was on his way to see the president.”

“Which is why it was so necessary to kill the man. Everything could have fallen apart if he’d made it to DC with that diary, you dumb bitch. Do you know how many years this plan has been in place? How many people have died so we have this chance?”

“I know what’s at stake.”

“Yet you decided to make a quick buck off it.” Another voice joined them, this one familiar.
Scott?
“I found proof that she’s the one who
sent the blackmail e-mails. She’s also been skimming from the foundation to the tune of about a half a million a year. Tell me, did it all go up your nose, sis?”

Scott was Tavia’s brother? His smooth tones were gone, and he sounded far angrier and more ruthless than Everly had ever heard him.

“What is this?” the Russian asked.

Scott gave a sinister chuckle. “Tavia has a small cocaine problem. I believe you’ll find she skimmed from Crawford and set up poor Val to take the fall, but that wasn’t enough. When the diary fell into her lap, she saw another way of making money. Unfortunately, Crawford found the fucking thing when he was investigating the missing funds. Hence, the situation we find ourselves in.”

“How much did Crawford know before he died?” the Russian asked.

“He figured out enough to realize that Zachary Hayes is in real trouble,” Scott replied. “He’d started asking questions about Sergei.”

A crash echoed through the room, along with what sounded like a whole lot of Russian curses.

“Calm yourself,” Scott soothed. “We’re not done yet. Everly Parker is late for our meeting. I have to hope she’s running behind. I have a man in place in case she shows up, but we have to deal with the possibility that she’s thrown her lot in with Bond and his crew.”

“Uncle Yuri, you have to believe me.” Tavia sniffled.

“I don’t have to do anything, my niece, and you’ve forgotten who the boss is here. Let me show you.”

A cracking sound split the air, and it was all Everly could do not to scream as she heard a thud. Dax’s arms tightened around her.

They’d killed Tavia. That sound had been a gun discharging and Tavia’s body hitting the floor. How many bad guys with guns were there? How were they going to get out of here?

“You know I didn’t want to do that. She was family,” the Russian said, his voice low. “I can’t have her skimming money from corporations and
exposing us. Her habits made her ineffective, and she had to be put down.”

“I know,” Scott replied. “She was threatening our operations. I haven’t lived most of my life in this godforsaken, piece-of-shit country for my sister to blow everything over cocaine.”

There was a long pause. “Find me the diary.”

“I told you, I think the Parker girl has it,” Scott explained.

“Tavia said she was nothing but a stupid whore.”

Scott huffed, an arrogant sound. “Tavia has a bullet through her brain, so maybe we shouldn’t listen to her. I’ll search Parker’s office thoroughly. It wasn’t at her apartment, so it has to be here.”

“Why would Crawford trust her with it? It makes more sense that he would have taken it with him,” the Russian mused.

“I watched him and I’ve gotten close to her. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, but once I knew she was important to Crawford, I played gay. It earned her trust. I think Crawford would have sent his long-lost sister a copy. For all his quirks, he was careful. Even if the original had gone down with him on the plane, he would have had a backup. Now I can’t get into her system. I tried. She’s got it locked down. We’ll have to steal it and hire a hacker, but I would feel better going through her office again. We need to go through her desk and then start looking for a safe. And I’ll pull every piece of hardware I can. It’s got to be there.”

If they got the safe open, they would find the SD card. It might take them a while to figure out the information was embedded in the photos but they would do it. And the information would be lost to her, Gabriel, and all his friends.

Factions. Deep Throat had talked about factions being after the diary. If Scott got that card, the intelligence would be lost to her faction, because she was choosing sides and it damn straight wasn’t the Russians.

None of the obstacles between her and Gabriel mattered now. Not the press or the women who had come before her. Not even that stupid
report he’d had compiled on her. None of it mattered stacked up against the possibility of never seeing him again. She loved Gabriel Bond and if she survived, she would never let him go.

“How will you take care of everything?” the Russian asked.

“You forget I did a rotation through security. That’s how I knew where to place the cell phone jammers so the guards and the janitorial staff couldn’t call out. I’ll wipe the computers so it looks like only Tavia swiped in. No one will have any idea what really went on. I can have us out of here in twenty minutes.”