Page 83 of Wicked Sin

He shakes his head. “You surprise me at every turn.”

He stops in the living room, and we curl up on the couch. He cups my face in his hands. “We all have stuff in the past. It’s how far we are from it now that is worth judging.”

“Let me guess. You were a Boy Scout, and now you get the stink-eye from your federal law enforcement counterparts for playing fast and loose with the rules, so you get it?”

He ignores my sarcasm. “Exactly. Look how far I’ve come with my understanding that it’s more about what feels right inside than what the letter of the law says.”

My bristle softens a bit further.Tell me more about what feels right inside, Detective Vasquez.

“Dinner?”

“Mmm. Yeah. But can we check the news first? It’s a fine balance between ignoring it because it doesn’t matter, and staying on top of the chatter because it’s even worse to be caught flat-footed.”

He hands me the TV remote, kisses the top of my head, and stands up. “I’m going to finish cooking. Knock yourself out, but turn it off if it gets upsetting. Deal?”

“Deal.”

I take a deep breath before turning the TV on. It’s the headline story on the first news channel I find.

“The video was sent to all the major news networks, using a digital encryption that protected the sender. It seems to depict President Best in the company of a young woman. Billionaire Gerome Lively, who has had many brushes with the law over the last few years, is visible on the boat, and it is believed that if this is authentic, that it is his yacht, pictured here in an undated photo…”

They drone on, repeating the same facts over and over again. They have a guest on to talk about video manipulation software, and if it is possible for someone to have fabricated this video to embarrass the first-term president, who is embattled against a Republican Congress who want nothing to do with his protectionist rhetoric.

How far we’ve come with video scandals. Nobody questioned whether or not mine was authentic.

As if I had conjured the subject change with my mind, the news anchor pivots. “The last time video was leaked of this nature from the executive branch, it was a salacious sex tape, recorded by the former Vice President’s mistress, the much younger Taylor Dashford Reid, a Washington socialite—”

I turn off the TV. “Cram it all in there, guys.”

But if that’s the extent of the ways they’ll cover me, then it’s fine.

I go into the kitchen. “My name hasn’t been released to the press, has it? About the bomb attack?”

Luke looks up from the salad he’s making. “No. Were you worried about that?”

“It’s weird timing that this video would leak. Why would the Secret Service—” I cut myself off, but he doesn’t miss it.

“How do you know it came from the Secret Service?”

“I assumed. Who else?”

“Anyone else on that boat? A hacker? Your brother-in-law or any of his cohorts, who are all obsessed with bringing down Lively?”

“Because he’s a bad person and has committed an insane number of crimes, none of whichyourcohorts have been able to nail him for.”

“Don’t change the subject. You knew the Secret Service leaked this. How?”

“How did you know?”

His jaw cracks to the side as he looks at me, once again livid. Great. Finally, he exhales. “Your brother-in-law is the one who sent it to me.”

“Cole?”

“He thought you should know the context in which it was being leaked.”

Damn it. The Horus Group needs to coordinate their messaging, so I don’t land flat-footed with the good detective. “Okay.”

He shoves the salad bowl aside and prowls toward me. “So how did you know about the Secret Service?”

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