Page 25 of Locked Down

Vic’s stomach muscles clenched. She couldn’t take any more bombshells.“What surprise?”

“Sugar, I’m throwin’ you a big thirtieth birthday bash.”He smiled at her.“Marilee here will tell you all the details. It’s goin’ to be amazin’. I’ve got a meetin’ so I’m gonna slip out, but you girls do your plannin’ and we’ll chat at the house later.”He bent down and gave each of them a peck on the cheek and then disappeared out the door.

Marilee rubbed her palms together with a dry, raspy noise.“This is what we’ve been thinking.”

Vic had a hard time concentrating on what Marilee was saying. This was her worst nightmare come true. How the hell was she going to get out of this one?

An hour later, Tony drove her back to her place. Her head was spinning as she waited for him to scope out her home, making sure the place was empty. As he left her at the door, he gave her a sympathetic smile.“Call Ryker if you need anything.”

She nodded and locked the door behind him then promptly crashed down on the sofa. What the hell had she done to deserve a party? This was the stuff of her nightmares. She would be on full display as if she were a prize filly. Her uncle would use her as the excuse to hold the mother of all parties. It was summer in D.C. People would be gone, wouldn’t they? She’d said as much to Marilee, thinking that might be the way to discourage her uncle. They could wait until fall to have the party when everyone was back in town. By that time, she’d be long gone and the point would be moot.

“But darlin’, everyone is coming back for the party. There are a few meetings that have to be held mid-summer and your birthday is the weekend before, so the Senators and their staffs will be back in town. It’s perfect timing really.”

Ah, so this was just another political play.

Seriously. She dropped her head into her hands. It was going to be awful, but it would be the last awful she reminded herself. After her birthday, she was out of here. She would pay her uncle back some other way. Making the wind farm a success was top priority and then paying her uncle back for all the money he spent on her education and taking care of her over the years. The mileage he would get from this party should help lessen that burden.

Shit. Be nice.Yes, she could accuse him of throwing this party for his own purposes, but he was also doing it for her. He wanted her to do well in D.C. He saw it as his way of opening doors for her. Too bad she didn’t want to walk through any of them.

TWELVE

Davis had left the brunch and instructed Ryker to stay with‘his girls.’Ryker had Rush on stand-by to replace him. He left a few minutes later knowing Rush and Flynn were looking after Vic. He didn’t like leaving her out in the open like a freaking sitting duck, but he was confident his guys could handle the situation, and it was far more important to find out who the hell was pulling Davis’s strings.

Davis arrived at the Hay-Adams just as Ryker was pulling to the curb about half a block back. He waited until Davis was inside and Melvin had driven away to park the SUV, before he got out of his Porsche. The trick was going to be how to get in the hotel without anyone else on Davis’s security team tagging him.

He steered the Porsche down an alley that ran alongside the hotel and then turned left around the back of the hotel. The kitchen’s back entrance was standing open to help with the heat. Ryker entered the kitchen, walked past the prep counter and strolled towards the dining room. No one took notice of him. With a Lock and Key location here and the D.C. movers and shakers holding lunches and dinners there, everyone learned it was wise not to pay attention.

Just past the door to the dining room on the far wall, was a locked door with a keypad. He quickly typed in the code. The lock clicked, and Ryker entered, and quickly descended the cement steps. The landing at the bottom was also cement, as were the walls. There was a large steel door. Beside it was a retinal biometric reader just above a palm scanner.

Ryker put his hand on the screen and his eye up to the reader. The lock disengaged and he entered. The door closed behind him. He was in a tiny alcove with the same security measures in place. The door ahead of him was red. He scanned his eye and his hand once more, and the red door opened. He stepped into a marble-tiled hallway.

He quickly reviewed the lay out from memory. The bedrooms and spa facilities were to the left. The dining area and the bars were to the right as were the private meeting rooms. Of course, Davis could be in any one of the private suites that were down here, but Ryker was guessing he was probably in a private meeting room. Under normal circumstances he would just go to security and ask were Davis was but Archer’s words about Davis knowing things he shouldn’t rang in his ears. Did that mean the Society had a mole? And where was the mole? What location? Or was it in all locations? Could the mole be at security headquarters. That thought was enough to make him break out into a sweat.

Ryker turned to the right and made his way down to the dining room. He slid into a table in the back. It was a red leather booth. He could see out to the hall to monitor who passed but duck behind the other side of the booth to hide if necessary.

The waiter approached and asked what he’d like. He ordered a double espresso. If Davis was in one of the meeting rooms, he was going to have to walk by the dining room at some point. Ryker leaned back on the bench seat and pulled out his phone. He might as well do something useful as he waited. He typedBuffalo Ridgeinto the search engine.

Hundreds of search results populated his screen. Everything from restaurants to parks. A couple of towns in different states. A street name in one search, the name of a golf course in another. He found a couple of apartment buildings and even a ghost town.Well shoot. He should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. He started reading, sorting through some of the options. The waiter delivered his coffee and then another.

He scanned his email, opening one from Flynn. It was a picture of the motorcycle with a driver and the shooter riding bitch behind him. Both individuals were dressed in dark leather with helmets with feature-obscuring face masks. He couldn’t even swear they were men. No way to identify them. Even the bike was a popular one, sold all across the U.S. The email from Flynn reached basically the same conclusion. They lost the bike as it left D.C. and there was no telling where it went. Fan-flipping-tastic. Another dead end.

He glanced around but no one had come back down the hallway, so he opened Archer’s emails from last night. The first one dealt with Davis’s chief of staff. Floyd Armstrong was an only child who seemed to have an unremarkable childhood, leading to him becoming an unremarkable adult. He hadn’t done anything that made him stand out. An average student who went to law school at an average university.

It wasn’t until he graduated that his background started to get interesting. Apparently after clerking for a Supreme Court justice who had retired years ago, he moved into the political world. He worked on campaigns for a few Congressional reps, and then moved on to Davis. He was known for being an excellent spin doctor, which made sense. He’d have to be good if Davis wanted him. He and Davis had made quite a team. He’d gotten Davis re-elected by a landslide. The guy was slippery like an eel and good at manipulating people. He and Davis were a match made in heaven.

Ryker had finished his coffee and ordered another one. Davis didn’t appear to be leaving any time soon. He took a sip of his new coffee and opened the email about Vic. Ryker was shocked to find out she’d lived on a commune until she became a teenager. That was totally unexpected. Her parents were alive but, according to the report, relations were strained. Vic had done well at school and university and immediately gone to work for her uncle. No other big surprises.

Reading about her childhood though, the loneliness of it struck Ryker. All of it sounded like Vic had been left to her own devices both with her parents, and then once her uncle came for her, he immediately dumped her in boarding school. None of this helped Ryker in the slightest with what was going on, but it did clarify a few things for him. It also kicked his protective instincts regarding Vic into overdrive. She’d experienced enough shit in her life. She didn’t need more, and he was going to do his damnedest to make sure she didn’t get dragged any further into Davis’s nightmare world.

As he finished reading, he heard Davis’s voice. He was saying good-bye to someone and then he walked by the dining area alone. Davis was headed home. Ryker sat back and waited. Ten minutes later, his patience paid off. A man walked past the dining area. The coffee in Ryker’s stomach soured instantly. If this was the man Davis had met, what did it mean?

Ryker waited a few more minutes and then left. He made his way back to the SUV and drove straight to the senator’s house.

“Where have you been?”Davis demanded when he walked through the door.

“I was checking in with the FBI. They have video footage of the shooter and the driver on the motorcycle, but they were dressed head to toe in black leather with black helmets. The license plate came back stolen.”

Davis eyed him but seemed somewhat mollified.“So, the highest investigative agency in the nation has diddly squat.”

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