But it was his laugh—that deep, manly, reverberating laugh—that consumed the air around them. It was hands-down the most beautiful sound ever to have reached her ears. And as Shadow sat there, soaking up every last second of the incredible, stolen moment, she felt as though she’d been given a gift that had just changed her heart forever.
Oh, this could be bad. Really, really bad.
Or it could end up even better than she’d ever dreamed.
* * *
“I found her.”
Michael Stanton sat up a little straighter as Doug Easton’s voice sounded from the burner phone’s speaker. Giving his locked office door a second glance, he kept his voice low so anyone who happened to enter the hallway outside couldn’t possibly overhear.
“Where?”
“Charlotte.”
Ah, so she ran back home to Daddy.
He sat back in the expensive leather chair his constituents paid for with their hard-earned taxes and smiled. “How sure are you?”
“One hundred percent,” Doug’s unwavering tone oozed of confidence. “I’ve had a guy watching the Travel Assurance building since the night of the shooting.”
“I hope to hell this isn’t the same idiot who let her get away the first time.”
“No, that guy has already been taken care of.”
Michael didn’t ask for details because he didn’t want to know. The only thing he needed to be certain of was that the loose end had been tied.
Speaking of loose ends…
“This man you have in Charlotte,” he continued. “How do I know he can be trusted.”
“You don’t. But I do, and that’s all that matters.”
“Bullshit. You trusted the last asshole and look how that turned out.”
“This guy’s different.”
“How so?”
Doug momentarily paused before adding, “Because he is with the Agency, too.”
Not he was or used to be, but…
He is.
“Currently active?” Michael needed to be sure.
“Affirmative. And, he’s good. Better than good, actually. If you’d like, I can send you a copy of his file.”
“No.” He shook his head despite the fact that Doug couldn’t see him. “The fewer trails there are to follow, the better.”
“I agree.” The other man cleared his throat. “Anyway, as I was saying, my guy was outside Rafe Owens’ building earlier today when he spotted Alice Owens entering the building with one of her father’s employees.”
His cold heart thumped hard at the news. So itwasthe Owens girl he’d seen lurking outside three of his rallies and a fundraiser event, all held in Columbus over the course of the last two weeks.
At first, Michael had been flattered, believing he had a sexy, young new fan. But then he’d made the mistake of asking a member of his security team to sneak a few pictures without being noticed.
When he’d passed those along to Doug to run through the man’s high-tech facial recognition system, he’d nearly fallen on his ass with shock.
