Page 71 of Saved By the Marines (Soldiers Of Misfortune)

He handed his hat over to the butler, who then disappeared. “What’s that?”

“Did you finish the investigation into Bailey’s kidnapping?” I asked.

“Yes, and they arrested Peter Coleman. What is this? I don’t have time for stupid games.”

“Did you bother to look at anyone other than Peter?”

“Why would I? He was the only one who had any kind of motive.”

Except we don’t know what that motive is. He is telling lies.“There was at least one other person.” Why hadn’t I seen it before? He looked nervous. I guess I just hadn’t considered that her father would take things that far. What father would?

“The Secret Service disagrees.”

The Secret Service were a bunch of lap dogs. They wouldn’t know what they were looking for if the person responsible was standing in front of them. Like now. Convenient that they weren't even there when it happened.

“Did you pay off the embassy guards and Salazar? Did you pay someone to frame Peter Coleman, then sick the cops on him?”

Senator Michaels froze in the process of brushing lint off his jacket. His angry eyes met mine. “I beg your pardon?”

“You heard him,” Jas snarled, butting in. “Did you set it up so your daughter would be kidnapped?”

It was all right there in his eyes. Oh, some people would read the emotion there as anger that we’d be so bold to accuse him. No. He was pissed that he’d been caught.

“I paid them off to get her back,” he insisted. “Never got the money back either after you killed them. Coleman was responsible for all of this. Frame him for it,” he muttered as if the idea was preposterous. His acting skills needed work.

He hadn’t paid Salazar. Zinnia had triple checked. He’d never sent the money that Salazar had requested.

“Kip,” I murmured.

He nodded and moved out of the room. He was going back to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson. They would be the only two of Senator Michaels’ staff on tonight. We knew his routines better than he did himself.

“Where’s your Secret Service detail?” I asked.

“Late. The idiots are always late,” he grumbled. Then his eyes narrowed as he realized that Jas and I were spreading apart, making it hard for him to get past us. “What are you going to do? Kill me?” There was genuine fear in his eyes, probably the first time the bastard felt like this in a long time.

“No. We won’t kill you. But we’ll do just about anything else to get you to admit the truth,” I replied.

He lifted the phone in his hand and hit a number before we could do anything. “Do it.”

Jas hit him a second later. If that had been 911 he wouldn’t have had a chance to get off a call for help. Only, it hadn’t been.

I walked over and stared down at the senator, who was struggling beneath Jasper’s body weight.

“Get off me! You’ll rot in prison for this!”

“Not when we tell the cops that you were responsible for your daughter’s kidnapping.” I knelt down until we were almost eye level. “Did you know Salazar had no intention of letting Bailey go?”

His face paled. “What?” He shook his head. “I was paying the ransom.”

“Then why didn’t you?” I rubbed my chin. “I’ll tell you why. It’s because you set the whole thing up. Salazar and his men were to take her, hold her for a few days, then bring her back, unharmed. Right? Only Bailey told us about that call that he made to you requesting more money. He was blackmailing you and if we hadn’t found her, they would have killed her. You banked on us finding her before that happened so you wouldn’t have to send the money.” It was all falling into place. Why hadn’t we seen it before? It was right there in front of us the entire time. “What you didn’t know was that they were already threatening to kill Bailey once they got the money. She was as good as dead either way.”

“You cheap fuck.” Jas said, with a punch to the ribs to emphasize. “You orchestrate your own daughter's kidnapping, just to boost your numbers in the polls, and then you use us to rescue her so that you don’t even have to pay the kidnappers. Big surprise that they were going to betray you.”

Fire sparked in his eyes and his face went red with fury. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! You can’t just go around accusing people-”

“We have proof,” I said, cutting him off. We didn’t yet, but by the time Z was finished we would. That took the wind from his sails and he deflated right there underneath Jas. “What I don’t know is why? Why would you trust some scumbag criminals with your daughter? Why set this up at all?”

He swallowed hard and I thought for a minute he wouldn’t say anything, but they couldn’t ever help themselves. They always needed people to know what assholes they were and he was no different. They would always tell you the details, tell you how smart they were, then they would give you a sob story to justify it. “I was losing in the polls.”

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