I compared those samples you provided. They seem to be the same. But there are some abnormalities. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
Dozens of messages back and forth that I couldn’t quite figure out. And then, on the day of the accident, one final email. I’ve found something else. I need to speak with you.
We checked the GPS on my father’s car and saw the address he’d been headed to that same day. With Xander’s help, it wasn’t hard to figure out the location.
A second home with Dark on the title.
My father had gone to meet Declan Dark.
And he’d never made it home.
If my father had been involved in something serious, he would have told me. Unless someone had told him not to.
Or he was worried it would endanger me.
That meant what I was doing here—and at Dark Enterprises—was dangerous. My father would be angry at me for getting involved. But what was I supposed to do?
I’d already spoken with the police, who’d informed me the accident was just that—an accident. They’d even told me they talked to Declan and he’d said he’d never seen my father that day. That he barely even knew the man.
The emails they’d sent each other were conveniently erased after that.
Xander said he could probably find them with some work, but that still didn’t prove anything. I’d need more if I was going to show the police that Declan was involved.
They weren’t the only ones who needed more. Even Xander wasn’t convinced about Declan’s involvement in the accident.
I boldly told him I was certain Declan had something to do with all this, but secretly, I had no clue.
I needed more information.
“Anyway, I might go by your house and raid the basement to see if I can find any of mom’s old snazzy work clothes,” I told my dad to lighten the mood. “She had good style, right?”
I watched the lights on his monitor for several long minutes, minutes where my vision blurred with tears. I’d already lost one parent—I couldn’t lose another.
“I’ll be right back,” I told my father, squeezing his hand.
I took my purse with me to the bathroom, where I washed my hands and composed myself. I splashed water on my face and stared at the woman I was forcing to become Samantha Thompson, a far cry from Royal Patterson, the curious biology student who was not cut out for an office.
I dabbed a paper towel on my face and then opened the bathroom door.
My shoes skidded to a stop on the tile when I heard a familiar deep voice.
Declan!
“Any change?” he asked a nurse at the station I’d just walked by only minutes ago.
I whipped around and pushed back through the bathroom door, my heart banging hard in my chest. Oh, God, he hadn’t seen me, had he?
And what the hell was Declan Dark doing here? In the hospital my father was at?
On the same floor?
There was no way he was here to see my dad, no way. I mean, he’d told the police he barely even knew the man. And it wasn’t like they worked together—well, at least not directly together.
I put my ear to the door to see if I could hear anything. Just beeps from monitors and the low murmur of voices.
Shit.
I pressed my shaking hands flat on the door and pushed it open slightly. Just an inch to see what was going on.
Declan was still at the nurse’s station, decked out in his I’m-too-sexy-for-this-shirt business attire that fit him like a glove.
He nodded at something the nurse said and then turned.
I gasped and pulled back. After a moment, I opened the door again and got a brief glimpse of his back as he entered my father’s room.
My father’s room!
Dammit, he was here for my dad. Another intense flash of panic hit me. What if he was here to hurt my dad?
Then I breathed through the likelihood of that and decided against it. My dad had already been here eight weeks. If Declan wanted to do something, he would have already.
Or sent someone else. Didn’t guys like that have half the city in their pockets? He could probably do anything he wanted and figure out how to get away with it.
And then it dawned on me. I might be the only one who could stop him.
Stop him from what? Xander would be asking right now.
“I don’t need a fucking voice of reason in my head,” I mumbled to myself, realizing I had to look pretty crazy right now.
Probably better get out of here before I got caught.
I inched open the door and then booked it down the hallway when I saw it was clear. The hallway was still empty when I got in the elevator. I took it straight to the main floor.
Outside, the rain attacked me. I cursed when I realized it had only been forty minutes. My driver wouldn’t be back yet. But through the mist, I spotted a familiar car at the place I was supposed to meet him.
I waved and rushed to the car, already planning on an extra-large tip. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a black car on the other side of the parking lot.
And a familiar man getting in the back.
Declan.
My mouth dropped open. How had he gotten out there so fast? His car was twice as far as mine was from any entrance or exit to the hospital and I’d pretty much run the whole way.
Had he seen me and run after me?
The Uber driver rolled down the window. “Hey.”
I blinked and looked at him. “Hey,” I said weakly.
“You
