A shrill ringtone ricochets through the room.Air I hadn’t realized I’d been refusing fills my lungs and her gaze drops to the ground, then to the safe.
The ringtone continues, a harsh, cut-through-anything ringtone I selected to ensure I’d hear it no matter where I was or what I happened to be doing.
Reluctance and annoyance coil together as I answer, noting Alicia Morgan’s name.
“Alicia,” I answer.
“Adrien, can you talk?”She doesn’t mean do I have time, she means can I talk without being overheard.
“You’ve got me.Go.”
“I have confirmation Senator Crawford isn’t the only person who received a threat in the last two weeks.The threat over this second Congressman has nothing to do with The Sanctuary.Given the nature of this second threat, I believe what we’re looking at is an individual or group who have a list of senators they aim to influence, and they’ve hired someone to dig up what they can.”
This is marginally better news.The worst situation would have been an employee using security footage as extortion material over any member susceptible to a bribe.“So what you’re saying is you believe this person or group struck up a one-off deal with one of my employees, maybe someone caught at a weak moment, unexpected expenses?—”
“I didn’t go that far.”
“But it’s unlikely this is an ongoing thing,” I say, wanting her to confirm my positive interpretation of this development.
“Maybe.Maybe not.”
That’s a frustrating response.
Brie steps closer, full of questions.
“Anything else?”I presume Alicia isn’t going to share any details from her other client’s case, and she confirms my assumption when she responds with, “Nothing else.Have you made any headway on your end?”
“No.The KOAN team is here today to set up surveillance.If this is an ongoing endeavor, we’ll observe something.If it was a one-off…” I let the implication hang.If the employee sold out a member once and never does it again, I’m not sure how we’ll catch him.
“Keep me posted,” Alicia says, and the line goes dead.
I set the phone on my desk and turn back to Brie, who’s watching me with that focused intensity that reminds me she’s not just beautiful—she’s determined.
“Bad news?”she asks.
“Complicated news.There’s at least one other politician being targeted, but not through my club.”I retrieve the blueprints from the safe, spreading them across my desk.“Which means we likely have a rogue employee selling secrets, and someone out there is running a broader operation.”
She leans over the blueprints, her golden strands falling like a curtain as she studies the layout.I force myself to focus on the documents instead of the elegant line of her neck, or the way her slender fingers trace the club’s floor plan with practiced precision.
“Your security is more extensive than most hotels,” she observes.“Cameras here, here, and here.”She points to locations marked on the blueprint.“But there are blind spots.”
“Intentional ones.Members pay for privacy.”
“Yet someone exploited them.”She straightens, and I catch another hint of her scent—tempting, familiar.“I’ll need to see these areas in person.The service corridors, the private rooms, anywhere an employee might access member spaces without being observed.”
“I can give you a tour now, if you’d like.”
Something shifts in her expression—a flash of what might be anticipation, quickly masked by professional composure.“That would be helpful.”
When I look up, she’s closer than before, close enough that I can see the faint golden flecks in her blue eyes.
“Adrien,” she says, and my name on her lips sends fevered need straight through me.“Before we go downstairs...What happened before?—”
“Was the most real thing that’s happened to me in years,” I finish, unable to stop myself from stepping closer.“A day hasn’t gone by since that weekend that you didn’t cross my thoughts, that something didn’t make me think of you.A scent.A color.Lace.Silk.”
Her expression softens, and for a moment, I glimpse the woman from my memories, the one who laughed at my terrible Italian and traced lazy patterns and let loose freely.
“This complicates things,” she whispers.
