Gabrielle dismisses us.
Most of the group has already made plans to meet up for dinner with us in two hours. So we head back to our room to contact Connor, and hopefully have a chance to talk to Landon. We need to fill him in on the conversation Isabelle and I had with Caroline, for when he talks to Senator Wiseberger.
“So what was on your homework card?” Isabelle’s voice has a teasing lilt to it, her face a shy smile.
We walk toward the elevators. The group has already dispersed like dandelion fluff in the wind—eager to get to work on their assignments.
“I can’t tell you. That’s like telling someone what you wish for when you blow out your birthday candles. The wish becomes null and void.” I smirk at her. She rolls her eyes.
“This isn’t quite the same thing. I doubt if you tell me your homework, it will make it null and void.”
I don’t know about that.
Especially in the case of what’s onmycard.
She tries a different tactic. “Don’t you want to hear what my card said?”
I grin at her. “Nope. I like surprises.”
My phone pings and I read the text. “Landon is waiting in our room,” I tell her, keeping my voice low. I don’t need to broadcast that one of the maintenance guys is meeting us there.
Never mind the real reason he’s waiting for us, thanks to the BDSM rooms here, some guests might put two-and-two together and figure we’ve got a kinky threesome planned with him.
Thanks, but no thanks.
I rest my hand on Isabelle’s lower back, a move that’s also becoming second nature, along with hand-holding. It feels nice, but not in the caveman “This is my woman, keep your eyes and hands to yourself” kind of way.
Every time I touch her, I feel more alive.
Which is odd—it’s not like I was dead inside before the mission. It’s more like the kind of nice you experience when you discover a six-pack of beer in the fridge on a hot day. The difference is, my fingers don’t usually tingle with need when I reach for a beer the way they do when I touch Isabelle.
We enter our room to find Landon at home on the love seat, studying his phone.
His attention shifts to us. “Sandra’s confirmed my flight reservation to Denver for tomorrow at ten a.m. Depending on what I learn from Wiseberger, I’ll decide what I do after that.”
Isabelle and I sit on the padded bench at the end of our bed.
“What did you find out from Caroline?” he asks, and we spend the next few minutes catching him up on everything she told us.
“They’re both democrats,” he says, “as are all the alleged victims except for one. But we don’t know if he’s the only republican who was targeted.”
“It would be more helpful if they at least came from the same political party,” Isabelle says. “It would give us more to go on.”
I shift on the bench, itching to remove the sling. “True. Maybe the link has something to do with a policy they all agree with. A policy the unknown suspect doesn’t want to succeed. Not every democrat agrees with the rest of their party on some issues. Same deal with the republicans.”
“You think that might be the missing link?”she asks. “That some members of both parties agree on a specific issue, and it’s why the individual targeted them? But if that’s the case, isn’t it a little strange they all ended up at this resort at one time or another? Why this resort? Is word of mouth about the place that big in Congress? It’s on their list of resorts to visit?”
“Yes, the coincidence does seem a little odd, especially if the link is due to an issue they all agree on,”Landon says. “Is the unknown suspect only targeting the individuals who stay here? Or is the person also traveling to other targets’ homes, and this whole thing is bigger than we realize?”
I nod. “There could be more than one person involved, too. There could be a network.”
“I’ll have a better idea of what’s going on after I talk to Wiseberger tomorrow.”
“Let’s hope he’s willing to talk to you,” Isabelle says.
“If he isn’t, then I’ll call in a favor with one of my government contacts. But I’d rather wait to see if he’ll talk to me first before we involve the government just yet. We still don’t know what we’re dealing with and what kind of connections the unknown individual has.”
“Do you suspect any of the staff is involved?” she asks him.
