Page 58 of His Reluctant Savior

There were two wealthy businessmen—billionaires. Devon Mercer, the CEO of Oilvo, a huge oil and gas corporation, and the other was Justin Patel, a social media tech giant at CloutFox. The two men funneled money through several channels to keep everything hushed and have me silenced. It was Veil who found the trail.

“You know it’s bad when they still haven’t outed you or put out an APB for you. That will raise too many questions and more investigations,” Sid said.

I pulled off my glasses, giving my eyes a break from wearing contacts, and rubbed the bridge of my nose, feeling the frustration and impatience coming on. “And that matters how?”

Sid raised a brow at my sarcasm. “Moody, are we?”

“It’s just… frustrating.”

“I know it’s been slow, but we’re getting there. The problem is the hunt isn’t off, but despite how careful we’ve been, I’m surprised we haven’t had anyone find us yet. But at least we don’t have any heat from law enforcement.”

Sid’s buzzing phone silenced us. He lifted it and answered. “Any news?” he asked.

He listened to the other end before putting the phone on speaker.

“I’ve dug as deep as I can get. I’ve got one more name. This was harder to come by because he wasn’t directly involved in the murder party, but he’s been covering up evidence,” Veil said, typing away.

My gut twisted, knowing that once again, my government betrayed me… betrayed the American people.

“Who, beyond Wesley Mardsen?” I asked, not really wanting to know, but I had to.

“Derrick Meckes.”

I needed to sit, suddenly feeling ill. “It can’t be.”

“Who is he?” Sid asked.

Instead of letting Veil answer, I did. “He works in my department. Fuck me. I thought… I thought…”

“He was an ally? A friend?”

I nodded and ran my hands through my hair.

“Well, he’s suddenly come under a windfall of cash. I traced the money back to the two CEOs. The money is hidden well, and you can’t find it unless you’re specifically looking for a trail, which I was. Derrick doesn’t make it obvious. He’s careful,” Veil explained.

Sid looked at me. “Does he know you well? If he does, it explains why he was hired. He can make evidence disappear, but they probably grilled him on how to find you.”

“I’ve known him for years. He knows enough about me. Hell, he was at my husband’s funeral. We’ve fucking had backyard barbecues with our families. But he doesn’t know me so well that he can find me or knows all my other friends. But… shit… Savannah was also at the funeral. Fuck, I hope he doesn’t put two and two together.”

I stood and paced again as Sid just watched me have a meltdown. “Goddammit! Is there no end to this fucking nightmare? If I hadn’t felt the knife between my shoulder blades before, it’s fucking excruciating now. Fuck these people! Everything’s always about money, greed, and power. Screw everyone else over, right?”

I stopped and sighed before grabbing a V-neck sweater and tossing it on over my head. “I… need some air.”

“Dalton…”

“Just… I’m going to the bar around the corner. I’ll be careful.”

He nodded as he wrapped up the conversation with Veil.

I walked out the door, shoved my hands into my jeans pockets, and walked to the dive bar down the street.

The cool evening was crisp, and the scent of autumn was in the air. I loved the fall, but I hated the winter, which always seemed to last too long.

God, Owen had missed so much school. Savannah had been doing her best to keep him up to speed with his letters, numbers, and reading, so he didn’t fall too far behind, but she had a life, other kids, and a job.

This shit needed to end soon.

I glanced at my surroundings to make sure I had no one watching or following me before I stepped through the door to the bar.

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