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?”
Because her lover was keeping secrets even while he demanded truth from her. “Something someone mentioned to me.”
“Lara, we’ll talk about that later. But Capitol Scandals . . . You can’t give up your passion.”
But he’d been willing to sacrifice everything for her. “I can. I can find another passion.”
She bit back a sob because she had a feeling her passion wouldn’t be a man with dark eyes and a low, rumbling voice.
Would he even come back? Certainly he would since the site wasn’t down yet. She could do it remotely. She had the capability on her phone as long as she had an Internet signal. After she did that, he would likely walk out of her life and she would never see him again.
“Lara, don’t,” he insisted.
She needed to do it now or it would be too hard to. She needed to save her father and deal with the fact that her lover wasn’t what he seemed.
“Connor Sparks,” her father repeated, sounding as if he snapped his fingers. “He was one of the six.”
“The six?” Freddy had said something about that. Now his words were coming back. Freddy had used the name Sparks. He’d said he thought Connor was Sparks. How could she have forgotten that? Oh, yeah. Her vagina had a bad short-term memory.
“The Perfect Gentlemen. There were six of them who went to prep school together. Connor Sparks is one of Zack Hayes’s closest friends. They grew up together. They’re considered unbreakable. A lot of people on the Hill credit more than just Roman for Zack’s career. He’s had backing financially from Gabe Bond and Maddox Crawford. Dax Spencer was the military man. Sparks was the sneaky one if I remember correctly.”
Connor Sparks. Her lover. The man who had betrayed her utterly. This Dax person must be the reason he’d called himself Spencer. A little inside joke. “Thanks, Dad. I’ll take care of this. Don’t do anything without talking to me.”
She hung up and was immediately assaulted with texts from Tom. She groaned but opened one to write him back that she was busy and would get in touch with him later. She couldn’t deal with Tom when her whole world was collapsing.
Please, Lara. You have to listen to me. After talking to your father, I was suspicious. It’s too coincidental that Roman Calder was in the building and then blackmailed your dad. So I checked with the doorman. Calder needed a code to get in. You can only get a code if you live in the building. He used your code, Lara. He had to have gotten it from that bastard you’re sleeping with.
Calder had used her code to do his dirty work. Tom was right. There was only one person who could have given it to him. If Calder had gained access from the building manager, the man would have given the chief of staff a guest code. She’d given hers to Connor without a second thought since he was living with her, protecting her.
And he’d used his cover to lull her into a false sense of trust and stolen her secrets for his real boss.
She stared at the phone, looking through the texts. Her father had called Tom, it seemed. He’d been trying to find a way out of the trap Calder had put him in. Tom had always answered her dad’s legal questions. It wasn’t so surprising that he’d called Tom. Despite their breakup, her dad had always liked him.
Tom had gone to the mat for her dad. He’d called in every favor he had and he’d discovered Roman Calder had entered her building at just before two a.m. The elevator had been used shortly after that and had gone straight to her floor. A few hours later, it descended directly to th
e lobby again. Kiki had entered the building and she’d passed Calder on his way out the door.
So Hayes’s right hand man hadn’t visited her building in the middle of the night for a clandestine meeting with a congressman or a lover. He’d come to break into her apartment and steal her secrets, and there was only one man on earth who could have let him in.
Connor had made love to her for the first time that night. He’d kept her in bed for hours. She’d woken in the middle of the night and he hadn’t been in bed with her. She’d gone to find him and he’d hustled her back to the bedroom and seduced her again.
Had Roman been in her house all the while? Had he been right there in her living room?
Apparently, he’d found the code to her safe in her day planner. She never remembered numbers so she’d written it down.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
She sucked in a deep breath and pulled up the app for the software that powered her website. She’d started Capitol Scandals with the idea of doing something good.
She ended it with the same thought, only this time she would save her father.
Tears rolled down her cheeks, making the world blurry and opaque as she hit the button that took her site offline and hid it from search engines.
The door opened as she set the phone aside and Connor walked in carrying a tray. “Hey. I have coffee. I had them make it supersweet for you and I got you a fruit cup and a raw granola bar. I was promised both are vegan. Let’s eat up and then get out of here.” He set the tray down and stared at her. “What’s wrong, princess?”
She would ignore the way he called her princess. He couldn’t really mean anything by it. He probably called all the women he fucked princess. She stood up, so glad she’d already gotten dressed. “I would appreciate it if you would tell Calder it’s done. He can leave my father alone now. I’ll abide by his rules.”
Connor went still, his body tense. “What are you talking about? You’ve been crying. What happened?”
Like he didn’t know. He’d probably walked out to give his old friend a call. Likely he was expecting a fight and needed advice on how to handle a hysterical woman. She was going to make things easy on him. She just wanted it done so she never had to lay eyes on the man again.
“My father called. He explained what’s been going on. I don’t have Calder’s number, so you’ll need to tell him that I’ve met his demands and I expect my father to be safe from here on out. Tell him if he hurts my father, I’ll dedicate my life to ruining his. Every good deed I’ve ever done, I’ll turn around and work against him. Do you understand, Mr. Sparks?”
She needed to stay calm. Her whole soul wanted to scream at him. If she gave in to her rage, she would also give in to the bleak sorrow that threatened to overtake her. She couldn’t let him see her cry or show him any chink in her armor. Connor had used her. He’d made her feel completely hollow on the inside, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her weep for him.
“Who told you?”
“My father explained who you are, but I put it together. And Tom figured out that you were the one who let Calder into the building and my apartment. How did he find the code to my safe?”
“What did Roman do?”
“I’m sure he did what you agreed to. He found a way to make me shut down Capitol Scandals.”
“No. That was not our agreement. I’m here to find out what you know about Natalia Kuilikov.”
So they intended to take everything from her. It made sense, she supposed. Men that ruthless left nothing behind. She reached into her pocket and drew out the paper the CI had given her. The information no longer mattered to her. She wasn’t strong enough to play with the big boys. In a matter of days, she’d gone from political crusader to a stupid girl who wanted a baby with the man she loved.
Lara slapped the note on the table. “Here. That’s all I’ve got. Anything else you need? I suspect you’ve taken already all the data from my computer.”
He stared at her outstretched hand. “Lara, we need to talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” She stared at the paper on the table. He could take it or leave it. She no longer cared. She wondered how long it would be before she cared about anything again. “I’m going to call a cab. Our business is done.”
She started toward the door, but his hand shot out, gripping her wrist and whirling her around to face him.
“There is nothing businesslike about this and you’re not leaving. If you think for one second I’ll let you set foot outside without me, then you haven’t been paying attention the whole time we’ve known each other.”
The whole time. She’d known him less than a week and yet she had the feeling he would haunt her for the rest of her life. How had he gotten so close to her in such a short time?
Well, of course. That had been a setup, too. “There was no Niall.”
His face lost a bit of color. “No.”
Somehow that was the cruelest cut of all. Losing Niall had hurt. Not in the way losing Connor cut to the bone, but they’d bonded that night when he’d held her while she cried.
Over him.
“You’re a bastard.”
“Yes.”
“Let go of me.” She struggled in his grip.
“No.” He drew her close. “I can’t. If I let go, you’ll disappear and I can’t let that happen. I forgave you for lying to me last night. Don’t I deserve the same?”
The utter hypocrisy hit her like a slap upside the head. “Everything you’ve ever said to me is a lie.”
“Not everything.”
“Let me go. I’m not doing this with you, Sparks.” She wasn’t going to call him Connor again. Too intimate. He’d pretended to care about her, to love her. It had been nothing but a cleverly crafted ploy designed to make her open her doors and let him inside. “You’ve got what you want and now I’m leaving. And you know what? I don’t forgive you, not for any of it. I hope you rot in hell.”
“That’s not like you. You’re angry, but you don’t mean a word you’re saying. When you calm down, we can talk. But don’t think for a second that I’ve gotten what I want out of this. If I had what I wanted, you would be back in bed and neither one of us would be thinking about a thing except pleasing each other.”
“You must be really hard up to need sex from your mark. Next time, find a prostitute. At least she’ll get paid.”
“I won’t need a prostitute, princess. I’ll have a wife. I believe I did mention we’re getting married. Just because you’re not happy about how we met doesn’t change a damn thing.”
“Not happy about how we met? Are you crazy? You lied to me and used me and made me look like a fool.”
“I lied to you, yes. But I made love to you and I saved your life twice. You’re only a fool if you think you can brush me off now. I don’t know what Roman did, but I’ll fix it. I will handle it. You will go back and pick up that piece of paper. Then we’re going to your place to pick up Lincoln and some of your things and we’ll stay at my house until everything is sorted out. You and Everly can work on the Natalia situation.”
Of course. He knew Everly Parker because she was engaged to his very good friend Gabe Bond. “She lied to me, too. I’m not working with her because I’m done with this investigation. And I’m done with you. Go to hell.”
“I’m already there.” He backed her up against the wall, looming over her like a really gorgeous grim reaper. “Did your dad tell you all about me? Did he tell you about growing up in a single-wide with a village bicycle for a mother? Did he tell you I attended one of the world’s best prep schools on a scholarship and I showed up in jeans that were two inches too short for me because dear old Mom spent her money on drugs instead of little things like clothes and food for her kid? Did he tell you I kill for a living? Am I not good enough for you now that you know who I really am?”
She pushed at his chest. “Are you actually trying to play on my sympathy? Screw you. I don’t care that you gr
ew up poor. I care that you grew up to be such a massive asshole.”
He stopped, staring down at her, and then the bastard threw back his head and laughed.
She shoved at him again, but he wouldn’t move. “Stop laughing at me. Is that what you’ve been doing the whole time? Did you laugh at the idiot who thought she was fighting the good fight? Did you and your friends get together and marvel over how stupid one girl could be?”
He was a hunk of unmoving granite. His arms wound around her and he pulled her in. “You are not an idiot and you do fight the good fight. And if any of my friends laugh at you, it’s because you’re charming and funny and they’ll be better for knowing you, princess. I really did contact you because you had a link to Natalia. But I stayed for you.”
That didn’t even deserve a reply. She simply scoffed and