Page 37 of The Deceived

I shake my head. Surely, she isn’t this ignorant. “I’m the Governor, Tori. Her face was just splashed all over every news outlet. I have a lot of enemies.”

There are a lot of people domestic and foreign, who would seize upon the opportunity to harm me or anyone they perceived that I cared for. Just another reason that being alone has made sense over the years.

“I’ll call the police.” Tori begins to dig her phone out but I stop her.

“No, no need. I’ve got it taken care of. We are going to keep this private.”

“Private? Is that even legal?”

“Gather the rest of the staff in your suite. Keep this information to yourself.” My phone chimes with an incoming message and it is Knox letting me know that he is sending help. Whatever that means. I tuck my phone away and usher Tori out as I pull the door shut behind us.

“Get someone in here to clean up the mess, please.”

I escort her to her room next door and go inside, my gun is drawn to make sure there’s no one lying in wait. Once her room is cleared, I lock her in and head down to the lobby. I hope that they will allow me access to the cameras but if not, I have enough contacts to work my way around that. I take the elevator down to the lobby and I peer out the front doors. Of course, the press are still lurking outside. Another reason to keep Winter’s kidnapping quiet. No reason to give them more fuel to add to the fire.

I make my way to the counter and an older man that sits behind it greets me. “Good evening, sir. How may we help you?”

“I need to see a manager, please.” No sense in wasting time explaining it to a person that doesn’t have the authority to give me what I want.

“Yes, Governor. Let me make a call.” I wait impatiently. Every fucking second counts right now. Luckily, a few moments later a gentleman comes around from behind the registration counter to meet me.

“Governor Dean, how may I help you.”

“I need to see the footage for the hall outside of my suite. There was an incident.”

The Manager doesn’t even hesitate. “Yes, sir. Please follow me.” I do as he instructs and follow him through the door behind the registration desk. We walk down a short hall to an area marked as security.

A large man sits in the chair behind a desk watching a multitude of monitors but he isn’t wearing a uniform. No, this man is in a suit. and if I’m guessing, he has never missed a workout. His arms are massive.

“Mr. Solis. Sorry to bother you but the Governor needs to look at the footage from,” The Manager looks at me and I realize I never gave them a time frame. “This morning,” I interject.

“Thank you, Mr. Solis. I’ll leave you in capable hands, Governor Dean.”

I nod to the manager as he leaves. Taking the opportunity to check out the beast in the dark suit and the large oppressive form of this huge security guard. Something seems off here but I just keep my mouth shut. It isn’t my problem if he gets me what I need.

“This?” Mr. Solis asks as he zooms in and I see Winter headed out of the suite and making her way to the stairs, an unknown man behind her.

“There, zoom in.” I can’t make out his face, the angle is all wrong and he is smart enough to know where the cameras are. The bill of his hat hides his identity perfectly.

“Fuck.” I can’t tell anything about who that is.” Did she leave willingly? The mess in the room indicates otherwise but he could be an angry boyfriend for all that I know. Maybe they are a team and they trashed the place looking for items to take. I’d be really pissed if that were the case. I might even have to fight that douche bag for Winter.

“Governor, look.”

Mr. Solis rewinds the footage and zooms in as they turn the corner to walk into the stairwell.

“There.” He says as he pauses. I lean in and sure the fuck enough, that sack a shit has abducted Winter at gunpoint.

“Can you follow them down the stairs and out?” I am going to kill whoever the hell this asshole is that has kidnapped her.

They will never find his fucking body.

I watch as this piece of shit marches Winter down multiple levels of stairs before entering an employee elevator where they exit the building and he takes her to an old nondescript black van where he covers her head in a black sack before loading her inside.Fucking prick!I can only see a partial tag as he drives off with Winter.

Fuck.

“Thank you, Mr. Solis.”

I don’t wait for his acknowledgment. I exit the security room and as I’m headed back out into the lobby, my phone chimes. I find a message from Knox.

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