Big Easy Temptation (The Perfect Gentlemen #3)(109)

“I didn’t understand right away that Boris was with the Russian mob. I thought he wanted to make some money, like I did. They called me for help setting up the blackmail scheme and I agreed. But I didn’t send that tape to the Navy, Dax.” Morgan leaned forward. “I know I’m a bitter old fuck, but I wouldn’t have done that. I didn’t want Hal publicly humiliated or dead. He was my friend.”

The man sitting in front of him didn’t know a thing about friendship. “So you agreed to do what?”

“I agreed to work with the girl they had hired. I snatched your father’s uniform, set myself up as him, and allowed the cameras at a motel to film what appeared to be your father walking in with the teen prostitute. Once they’d successfully blackmailed him, I was just supposed to get a cut of the money. But I knew your father. He would have paid the money the first time, then turned down the Joint Chiefs position so he couldn’t be blackmailed again. That’s it. I celebrated that he wouldn’t have been able to achieve his damn dream and he would finally know how it felt to be like the rest of us.”

Again, Holland squeezed Dax’s hand as though she knew he needed it, reminding him that now wasn’t the time or place to lose it. He would deal with Morgan later, after they had the truth.

“When did you realize they meant to kill him?” Dax demanded.

Morgan fell quiet for a moment. “They called the night before the story broke. They told me I had sent a letter to the secretary of the Navy, exposing my boss as a pedophile. They told me if I denied that I’d written the letter, they would kill my mother. I believed them. That was my first inkling of just how ruthless they were and their true intentions.”

“That man in the prison parking lot told me they had no intention of killing the admiral,” Holland said. “He told me Morgan here screwed it up. Why would that man have lied? Why did they want me to break up with you so badly?”

“To refocus Dax and derail the investigation. They wanted to avoid killing a second member of the admiral’s family,” Connor explained. “One could be ruled a suicide. Dax’s death would have been more difficult to explain away. He was close to the president. His death would have incurred even more media attention than his father’s. They wanted to stay in the shadows. I would have done the same thing in their shoes.”

So they believed Morgan’s version. After all, a dying man had nothing to lose and no reason to lie. “Why would Boris Kuilikov kill Natalia, one of his own relatives? It’s not like the guy found out forty years later that she’d been screwing the ambassador. He must have known.”

“That’s conjecture,” Lara reminded.

“But it makes sense. Hell, he probably set her up to have a fling with Frank Hayes. Maybe she was a spy,” Holland mused.

“The Russians seem to avoid killing anyone they don’t have to, so why wait decades to kill Natalia?” Lara asked, her voice tight. “Connor? Did I hear a car coming up the road?”

Connor looked out the window. “I can’t tell. If someone’s driving out there, they’ve killed the lights, because it’s too dark to see anything.”

A minute later, a banging on the door resounded through the room. Everyone stopped, turning toward the intrusion. No one made a sound.

Connor put up his left hand, pulling his gun out with his right. “Don’t move. Kirk, get my six.”

Dax stared at his friend. “Are you serious?”

Connor shrugged. “She’s logged way more time on the gun range than you and she wasn’t recently shot.”

Holland stood, moving in behind Connor. She winked Dax’s way. “I got this, babe.”

Okay, the “babe” part made him feel a tiny bit less emasculated. “I’m going to remember this the next time I’m called on to play limo driver or to be the dipshit who has to invade Freddy’s home.”

Lara patted his knee. “It’ll all work out.”

He wished he were as optimistic as Lara.

Connor opened the door and immediately shoved his SIG in the newcomer’s face. Gemma White was ready, with a stony expression and her gun pointed right at Connor.





NINETEEN




Holland felt her eyes widen as her partner stood in the doorway, gripping her SIG Sauer and aiming it at Connor Sparks.

“Stand down, Special Agent,” Connor growled.

Her warrior-queen partner didn’t look like she wanted to comply. Her arms never wavered as she stared at him. “You stand down, whoever you are. Holland, I need to talk to you.”

“When you put the fucking gun down, maybe we can chat,” Connor spat back.

“Maybe after we chat, I’ll put the fucking gun down,” Gemma replied.

Holland knew Gemma could argue all day. “What are you doing here?”

Her partner’s intent stare never wavered from Connor. “I’ve been following you and I’m not the only one. You have incoming. NOLA PD is about to surround the place. I think you can use an extra gun.”

“Why would you follow me?” Holland moved behind Connor.

“I took this assignment because Augustine Spencer asked me to. I’m Secret Service, but she wanted someone to watch over you. She told me if we were ever in this position to tell you something that would prove who I work for.”