Luke gave her a smug smile. “Nothing much. Just proof of Monteith’s involvement.”
“How—”
“Sabrina came through.” Luke pulled his phone from his pocket. “When you sent her the name, she started digging. She said she isn’t done, but she found a video from social media that shows you sitting at the bar with Monteith.”
“What?” Tessa sagged against the porch rail. “It’s too far back—”
“People put so much up on their public profiles these days. Sabrina said it was a bachelor party. She was searching for anything from that date and that location and found it. Then she worked her magic to enhance it and says there’s no doubt that he was with you. And here’s the best part—he left the bar with you, and it’s clear on the video that you’re not yourself.”
“Drugged.” Zane bit the word out.
“There’s no evidence, yet, of him putting anything in your drink, although Sabrina says now that she has something to work with, she may find it. Regardless, it places him at the bar with you and shows you leaving the bar with him.”
“It’s still circumstantial.” Tessa clearly wasn’t satisfied.
“It is, and he’ll probably never go to court for what he did to you, but what do you think the odds are that you were the first?” Luke reached out and squeezed her hand. “Or the last?”
“It’s enough to launch an investigation, but that’s not all she found.” Gil pointed to the patrol car driving away. “Turns out Wendy Monteith isn’t just the daughter of Tyson Monteith.”
“Who is she?” Zane had a feeling Wendy was the key to everything.
Luke held Zane’s gaze. “Sabrina said she found a description of her that seemed fitting: ‘She’s a figment of your imagination right until she slices your throat with a very real blade.’”
“Bottom line,” Gil said, “Wendy Monteith is a fixer. She’s the one people go to when they’ve messed up. She makes their problems go away. She commands a high salary, chooses her clients with care, and while she doesn’t make a habit of it, she’s willing to use extreme measures when necessary.”
“Right now, she’s trying to fix this mess by blaming me for shooting Graham and harming Rodriguez.” Tessa glared into the dark. “And if she has those kinds of connections, she might manage to slither out of this.”
“I think she messed up this time. She lives in DC and rarely ever works in Raleigh. And Carmichael”—Luke pointed to the house, where Carmichael could be seen talking to Jacob and Ledbetter—“is furious. He won’t let this go. Whatever loyalty Monteith might have been able to call on disappeared when Wendy shot Graham. Carmichael won’t just let Monteith swing, he’ll tie the noose.”
FOUR ENDLESSHOURS LATER,Zane opened the door to Tessa’s apartment. Only after the door closed behind them did he tug her toward him. She rested her forehead against his neck and placed her hands at his waist while he ran a hand up and down her spine. “Do you think it’s really over?” she whispered into his shirt.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said against her hair. “Let’s get some sleep. We won’t figure anything out until we get some rest.”
33
TWO WEEKS LATER,Tessa walked into Luke and Faith’s home and found that she was the last one to arrive. The entire gang was in attendance. Everyone from the Raleigh office was there. Emily and Liam had driven down from DC, and the Carrington investigators had come from Carrington for the afternoon.
It didn’t always happen this way, but tonight it looked like the group had split along gender lines. The men were in the backyard sitting around a firepit or huddled near the grill.
The women had commandeered the back deck. Faith sat beside Hope. Emily sat squeezed in between Faith and Ivy. Benjamin’s wife, Sharon, was talking to Sabrina Fleming-Campbell while Leigh Weston Parker and Anissa Bell-Chavez chatted with Leslie Martin and Jacob’s wife.
One person was missing, and he was the one she missed the most. They hadn’t been able to spend any time together after the president’s visit. Zane had been called back to DC on Saturday morning while she was being interviewed by Detective Morris at the Raleigh sheriff’s office.
In the time since, they’d talked, texted, and FaceTimed, but it wasn’t the same. She’d missed him before, but it was so muchworse now. Tonight he was with the president at another dinner in another state, and he didn’t have a free weekend on his schedule for two more weeks. Thankfully, Emily had invited Tessa to stay with her in DC anytime. And now that things were wrapping up in Raleigh, Tessa fully intended to take her up on the offer.
Tessa gave hugs and cheek kisses to all the ladies, then pulled a sparkling water from the cooler before joining the men. Luke made a spot for her, and she sat beside him. He leaned toward her. “He misses you. You know that, right?”
“I know.” None of the others had gone through this. Benjamin and Sharon had been separated for a few months after they started dating again, but it was with the knowledge that Benjamin was moving back to North Carolina soon. Tessa was still several years from moving to DC, and the thought of a lengthy long-distance relationship made everything inside of her want to find a dark corner and pout.
The meal was fabulous as usual. Between Gil and Leigh, the food was guaranteed to be spectacular. Luke and Faith had put the tables together so they could talk, and it wasn’t until dessert was served that the conversation turned to work. This time, Ivy and Emily remained where they were. There was no need for them to excuse themselves. Everything was public record.
Luke raised a glass and said, “I’d like to propose a toast.” Cans of soft drinks, bottles of water, and cups filled with sweet tea were lifted into the air. “First, to our very own Tessa for understanding the minds of the whack jobs who wanted to douse people with bleach.”
“To Tessa!” Everyone said with a few hoots of laughter and snide remarks about whether Tessa should actually be proud of such an accomplishment.
“And to Sabrina,” Luke continued once everyone had taken asip. “For working your magic and placing Tyson Monteith in the bar with Tessa and all you’ve done in the past two weeks to hunt down all the perpetrators in the attacks on Tessa.”
“To Sabrina!” Tessa fought the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.
