Page 29 of The Perfect Kiss
“It doesn’t make sense, Reyna. When we did a background check on her ten years ago, there was nothing to indicate that she was anything more than innocent. Every known association she had was checked out.”
“Maybe she wasn’t always bad. Maybe she only recently began working with the McCalls.” It was probably a reach, but as much as I disliked her, I would do anything to make Davian feel better.
“Get dressed. We are going to The Regency.”
~24~
Davian
Reyna dressed in record time, wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a GSU t-shirt. Before getting in my Mercedes, Reyna and I walked hand in hand to the computer room to let Patton know of my plan.
The guys went silent as soon as we entered. Just like me, they were speechless. It was a shock when Patton informed me about Samantha, but now that I knew, I was aware of what needed to happen. The only thing going for us was that Samantha didn’t know we knew about her relationship with the Salkos and McCalls. It wouldn’t surprise me if she helped Delilah leave The Regency. As a matter of fact, she probably was the one who devised the plan.
When we got ready to leave, Patton called us over. “You two need to see this before you go.”
Turning on our heels, Reyna and I walked back to Patton, who was still sitting in front of his computer. He clapped his hands together. “Got you, you son-of-a-bitch.”
Stepping behind him to see what he was looking at, there in vivid color was McCall. He was in some sort of disguise. It wasn’t one of his finer moments, looking like a person that lived on the streets. But, on the other hand, the man walking with him looked to be a man not to mess with. Living on the streets was the last place I expected McCall to be.
As we watched the footage, I wasn’t sure where the hell they were and what possessed Patton to search for it. “I’ve got to ask, Patton. How the hell did you find McCall?”
“It wasn’t hard. The only street cam footage that I could bring up was in real-time. So, when I saw her on the camera footage at Salko’s, I gave her a call. I made up some bogus story about you wanting to have dinner with her. I kept her on the phone long enough to track her phone. After she left the warehouse, she made one stop, atBetty’s Pastries.It seemed pretty legit until something told me to watch the cams near the pastry shop. Low and behold, the van that left the shop minutes later led us right to McCall. I’m already working on the ID of the man who was with McCall. Should be coming up any minute.”
No way in hell was I going to miss this. Unfortunately, going to The Regency would have to wait. I rolled the chair next to Patton from the table and took a seat while pulling Reyna to my lap. The face recognition software was doing its thing by running through several profiles in search of a match.
When the profile of a man popped up, it didn’t surprise me that it was the man who rode with Elliott to the cabin. We now had a name to match the face. Spade Maverick, what a name. What the hell were his parents thinking? With a name like that, no wonder he had a rap sheet a mile long.
Everything was beginning to make sense. At first, I thought it was only a coincidence that Samantha went toBetty’s Pastries,and she was there for an entirely different reason. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed that she was any part of this. She was working with Elliott and Maverick.
“Keep an eye on the van. I think I need to have a visit with Samantha Cain.” I wanted to save my ace a bit longer, but learning what part she had in this, I was ready to play it.
“What are you going to say to her?” Patton moved his eyes from the screen and looked at me with a worried expression. “I thought we decided to keep what we knew about her a secret.”
“Initially, that was the plan. But after what I’ve seen, I think Samantha will give me what I want after I speak with her. Keep digging into her past. Maybe something will show up.”
∞
Axe insisted on going with Reyna and me to The Regency. I was pretty confident that I could handle Samantha on my own, but since he had insisted, what could it hurt? While Reyna and I headed to the SUV, Axe made a pit stop. Kenzi was coming down the stairs, and Axe was there to meet her. I couldn’t hear what was said between him, but by the way he kissed her, I had to assume that he told her he was leaving with us to go to The Regency. When Reyna told me that they were dating, I had a hard time believing that Axe was the dating type. I also had a hard time believing that Axe was Kenzi’s type. Opposites really do attract, and by watching them, I could tell they cared for one another.
Axe, Reyna, and I piled in the SUV, with Axe driving and us taking the back seat. Under normal circumstances, I would have driven, but I liked this arrangement much better. Sitting next to Reyna would make for a perfect ride.
As we waited for the garage door to fully open, Patton ran toward the SUV carrying some papers in his hand and waving them excitedly in the air. Axe and I saw him coming, so Axe stopped the vehicle as I rolled down the back seat window.
When he got close to the SUV, he said, “I thought you might enjoy some reading material during your ride to the hotel.”
I took the documents from his hand and looked at the top page. Samantha’s personal information was typed in bold print, starting with her full name, age, height, weight, and place of birth. It wasn’t information that I hadn’t already known. Patton wouldn’t have given me the stack of papers unless it was important. If he found the information on her that we were looking for, that was fast.
Thanks, Patton,” I said before rolling up the window.
Reyna and I reviewed the papers Patton had handed me while Axe drove to the hotel. Most of the information on Samantha I already knew from the background check I did on her when she was first hired as my general manager. I was beginning to think that Patton was overworked and forgot about what we already knew until I came to the last few pages. I had to read over the information several times. I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. My sweet general manager wasn’t so sweet. She used to work for McCall at his agency. She was only eighteen at the time and only worked for him for two years. This information never showed up on her background check. Working for McCall explained how they knew each other. The most unnerving information was that she had a brother. All this time, I thought she was an only child. Had it been anyone else but Spade Maverick, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. There was the connection, but why did it take her so long to show her true colors?
“I knew there was something about her I didn’t like,” Reyna grumbled, her thoughts coming from nowhere.
“Did something happen between you and Samantha?” I knew there was friction between them, but I thought it was a jealousy thing.
“It was what she said. She was very rude the day I came to see you in the basement. She said that because we hadn’t chosen a wedding date, it was a sign that the wedding wouldn’t take place.”
I pulled Reyna to my side, planting a kiss on the top of her head. Samantha had no right to say what she did. Had I known then what she had said, I would have reprimanded her. “October 16th,” I blurted, for no other reason than remembering my mom’s birthday.
