Say I Do (Wilde Ways #10) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,72
the bastard, right now.”
***
Dex and his team went in with guns blazing. Because how else would they do anything? They followed the trail Antony had set up and when the agents surged into the back office on the first floor…
They found Charles Hatch hunched over his computer.
Lacey was there for the takedown. Dex had insisted she come with him. Part of his strategy to protect her? She figured it was. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight because he thought he was her bodyguard. Or something.
“Put your hands up,” Dex shouted at Charles.
Charles squeaked, and his hands immediately flew into the air.
“Did you think we wouldn’t find you?” Dex demanded. Two agents closed in on Charles. One of the agents was Larry—no last name. Just Larry. That was how he’d been introduced to Lacey moments before. An intimidating fellow, he immediately did a rough pat-down on Charles before he yanked Charles’s hands behind his back.
“What is happening here?” Charles asked. “What are you doing? I’m on your side.”
“No matter how hard you try, you can’t find good help these days.” Dex headed toward the computer. Flipped the screen around. “Hire any mercenaries lately, Charles?”
“This is not what it looks like! I swear it! I’m doing research for a book and a friend told me how to access—”
Larry slapped cuffs around his wrists.
Charles let out a high-pitched cry. “This isn’t what you think! I haven’t done anything. I am on your side.”
Dex didn’t appear to believe the other man. Lacey’s gaze darted around the office. Her stare lingered on the framed photos. Charles and his wife on their wedding day. Charles and a little boy with a wide grin and two missing teeth wading into dark water as they went fishing.
She picked up the fishing photo from where it rested on his desk.
“I swear, I was just on this site because I’m doing research! You know…you know I always wanted to write a spy book!” Charles was frantic.
Larry was leading him away.
“Dex, please!” Charles cried.
“You’ll have plenty of time to tell me your story while you’re in custody.” No emotion was in Dex’s voice.
No emotion.
But he’d shown her plenty of emotion only moments before.
This feels wrong. No, worse than wrong. It felt too easy. Taking the photo, she stepped into Charles’s path. “You told me that Dex saved you and your family.”
Charles looked as if he were about to cry.
“How did he do that?” Lacey pushed. She was missing something here. Dex was acting off. And I can tell it. I can tell when something is different with him now. And Charles—he’d seemed so sincere when they’d previously spoken.
“He…there was a bomb at my wife’s work. She’s a medical researcher. I was going there to have lunch with her. She—she was pregnant with my son. Dex found out about the attack. Got us out…right before…” He licked his lips. His head swiveled back toward Dex. “I don’t know what you think is happening here, but I swear, I didn’t do anything against you! I wouldn’t.”
She didn’t believe that he would. “Who was the friend who told you about the site you were just on?”
“Ah…it was Roman.” A quick nod. “Roman Valentino. He even gave me his username and code and everything to use. Said I should get on today around this time because that’s when the real players are on, and I could get the best intel—”
Roman. Why wasn’t she surprised to hear his name?
“Dex?” Charles shuddered. “I don’t know what’s happening here, but I haven’t made any move against you or anyone you care about. I would never do that.”
Dex sidled closer. Stared at Charles with expressionless eyes.
Lacey caught Dex’s hand. She pushed the framed photo against his palm. “I believe him.”
“We just caught him red-handed—”
“Look what you gave him, Dex. Look.” She forced him to hold the photo. “You think he’d turn on you? It’s not blackmail keeping him loyal. I don’t think it’s blackmail keeping any of your people in line, not really. You might believe that. You might think that you’re controlling people but maybe people are on your side because they’ve seen the real you.”
“You…you wouldn’t leave that building without me and my Sarah,” Charles whispered. “We were the last ones inside. I heard the others shouting for you to get out. You wouldn’t. You carried Sarah out of there.”
Because Dex wasn’t the bastard that he wanted the world to believe he was. Lacey was realizing that he was so much more.