Big Easy Temptation (The Perfect Gentlemen #3)(75)
“Was he the only one who knew about them?”
“Not at all. He wasn’t even the one who originally discovered the photos. Sue Carlyle brought them in. She was the one who figured out there was a camera on her daughter’s purse. She simply didn’t know how to get them off the drive. The pictures themselves were wirelessly pulled from the small camera that was really a microcomputer. Once Sue realized what it was, she thought the police would give her money for the camera. She was deeply disappointed, to say the least.”
He was still interested in her uncle. Someone had tipped off the Russians that she’d obtained the file and seen the images. “Where did you go after you visited your uncle that day?”
She frowned. “You think someone in my uncle’s office could have known? You’re looking for a mole.”
“Yes. Someone tipped off your dead Bratva lawyer.”
She was quiet for a moment, seeming to think. “He didn’t have to know I had the photos. All he had to do was plant them with the press or put the idea out there.”
“No, he actually gave a reporter the photos and they appeared to have come from you. We’ve tracked down this lead.” He briefly went over what Roman and Connor had discovered. “The reporter received information about the photos from an e-mail account set up in your name. It originated from a computer at a public library in New Orleans. As soon as the photos-for-cash deal was sealed, the account was shut down. Same with the book deal. The publishing house received a proposal for a tell-all book about the scandal and my family from that same e-mail account. They made sure all roads led back to you. But what I find interesting is that you actually had the photos they said you did.”
He didn’t believe in coincidences anymore. She’d had the photos, and someone had known it.
“All right. I’ll ask my uncle if he told anyone,” she conceded. “Obviously everyone saw me go in that day. After I went back to my office, I studied the file at my desk.”
“Did you leave it there for any reason?”
She nodded. “I got upset. I went to the bathroom for a few minutes to calm down because I saw those pictures. It was on my desk, but you can’t think one of my coworkers is a plant for the Russian mob.”
He didn’t like to think about what she’d gone through that day. “Not a plant, but the government pays crap. An unscrupulous someone could have made a little money on the side. I’ll have Connor scope that out.”
Her cheeks flushed, her shoulders straightening. Her mouth flattened into a stubborn line. She was ready to do battle. “Don’t mess with my coworkers.”
The time had come for Dax to explain just how the situation had changed, because apparently she hadn’t internalized it yet. “Special Agent, they are no longer your coworkers. For the rest of this assignment you work for the White House and the White House alone. This is no longer about someone coming after my family. Someone is coming after my president. I took an oath a long time ago to defend this country from all invaders foreign and domestic, and if that includes one of your former coworkers, then you better believe I will take them down with extreme prejudice. If your loyalty is deeper to the people you once shared an office with than to your country, then let me know because you’re not the woman I thought you were.”
Her jaw tightened and she held up her hands in obvious capitulation. “All right. Check into their backgrounds. Please do it quietly. I have to work there after you’re gone. Those people are the only friends I have left. And if you’re also going to look into the NOLA PD, dear god, don’t let anyone know. They get touchy.”
He would look into her uncle, but he was also interested in her boyfriend. Detective Chad Michaels was her uncle’s right-hand man, looking to move up in the ranks from what Dax had heard. It was shockingly easy to find information on the man, but something about his astringently clean record made Dax suspicious.
Everyone was a little dirty. Not criminally so, but there wasn’t a person he knew who didn’t have some breath of scandal in their past . . . except Detective Chad.
“I’ll be very discreet.”
“Sure you will.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t think because you’ve put me in a corner professionally that you can get anything personal out of this, Spencer.”
What he wouldn’t give to hear her call him Dax again. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Holland.”
“All right. In the morning, we need to come up with a plan of action. I think we should go back out to the prison, but this time we don’t call ahead. I don’t think we should give anyone time to plan for our visit. Do you have all the video we need? It should be easy enough to get. I can requisition the original if you like.”
He shook his head. “I’ve got everything we need.”
She was still for a moment. “You really think they’re after Zack.”
He nodded. “I can feel it in my gut. This is bigger than we ever dreamed and we’ve already lost so much. Zack’s mom. My dad. Joy. Mad. We can’t let them take anyone else in our family.”
“What does the Russian mob want from him?”
That was the billion-dollar question. “It could be anything, but I suspect this all revolves around money and power. Nefarious shit usually does. We’re wondering if Zack’s father made some deal with the Bratva when he was stationed in Moscow and they’re now coming to collect. Roman is making a list of all the major contracts coming up, but Zack doesn’t approve those.”