Page 112 of A Secret to Die For

“I don’t think so either.”

“And if you release that tape, her picture’s going to end up all over the news. If she’s been working through the trauma as Gracie has, seeing herself like that will set her recovery back years. Maybe even forever. We want revenge, but I don’t want another woman to get hurt in the process. People will never look at her the same way again.”

“So we blur out her face. This is how we get payback, Dorsey. Graham Mandell had three people killed to prevent this tape from seeing the light of day, and if it’s out there in the public domain, he’ll have no reason to come after Sara anymore. Plus everyone will know what kind of man he is.”

“If you blur out her face, nobody will see the tears. And without a witness coming forward, he’ll say it was consensual or some sort of role play. He’ll twist it and play the victim. Someone recorded a private moment, he’s the innocent party, yada yada yada.”

“What about the voters?”

“Maybe they’ll care, and maybe they won’t. Politics has changed in the past sixteen years.”

“Enough for rape not to matter?”

“Capitol Hill has more drama than a soap opera, and Congress, the Senate, and the White House are a three-ring circus. President Harrison’s ass has its own TikTok account. A dead guy got elected to the state senate in Wisconsin. Folks in Texas chose an ex-gym teacher who got fired for spying on teenage girls in the shower as their mayor, and the polls barely moved when a congressman from Georgia took his mistress on a luxury vacation in Bermuda while his wife was having chemo. There are conspiracy theories about conspiracy theories, and if Mandell put out a statement saying the Deep State had faked the video, too many people would believe him.”

I recalled the Bermuda scandal. The papers had been full of pictures of the congressman’s pasty white pot belly as he frolicked in the ocean with a girl barely out of high school, and he’d still kept his seat. Unless the Mandell video was released a day before voters headed to the polls, I had a horrible fear that Garrett might be right. There was a scarily large cross-section of the population who would pat Congressman Mandell on the back for acting like a Real Man and vote for him anyway.

“And Seth Harless would get off scot-free,” Aaron pointed out. “There’s no evidence against him here.”

“What’s the penalty for homicide in Oregon?” Garrett asked Aaron. “Ballpark?”

Blue snorted. “Asking for a friend?”

“A premeditated double murder in the first degree? Even with your father’s connections, you’d be lucky to see freedom again. Ditto if you’re thinking of hiring someone.”

I tensed because Garrett sounded alarmingly serious. “No, no, no. Don’t even consider it. I just got you back, and I don’t want to lose you again. And what about Gracie?”

Garrett sighed. “I’m frustrated, that’s all.”

“We all are.”

“Someone hired the man at the pool house. Is there any news on his identity?”

“Not yet,” Colt told him.

“We’ll get Harless on something,” Luca said. “He’s committed two serious crimes that we’re aware of, and with the way Mandell acts, there are bound to be more. If we’re not trying to maintain the same degree of secrecy now, we can speak with the police in Roseburg and see what shakes loose.”

“I can take a look too,” Blue offered. “Speak with my guy in DC again.”

Garrett’s arm tightened around me. “I can hire any additional help you need. I don’t care how much it costs or how long it takes—we need to make Mandell and Harless pay.”

And I’d be nicer to the security team. Jack Morrow and his men were only doing their jobs, and I’d been rude because I was annoyed at Garrett. Tomorrow, I’d be the one to take them coffee and cookies.

“What if there was another way?” Aaron asked quietly.

Aaron, Luca, Colt, and Blue all looked at each other, and a silent communication passed between them. What did they know that we didn’t?

“I’m in,” Blue said.

Luca nodded. “Me too.”

Colt was more hesitant. “I’d need to review every scrap of evidence we have. It isn’t a decision to take lightly.”

I couldn’t stand it any longer. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you trust that guy?” Luca asked me, meaning Garrett.

We’d both learned from our mistakes. I thought of everything we’d been through together, from the crazy first dates to the magic in the bedroom to the way he’d risked his own life at the pool house, and I nodded. Our path had been rocky, but he was still here. Still fighting for me.

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